During the summer of 2020, common wasps took up residence in a nest box on the side of a log cabin in our garden. In the building phase of the nest, they started by papering over the majority of the box before beginning to build a dome from the underneath of the bird box. The nest was incredibly active during this phase of its development and several wasps would come and go each second; I wanted to capture the intense collective activity as the building phase took place.

I chose a long exposure in an attempt to show the movement of the flying wasps whilst those on the nest box went about the job of building the nest structure. I used a portable flashgun to fire pulses of flash during the exposure and with the aid of the bright sunshine in front of the nest and dark shadows beyond it, the movement of the wasps showed up as light trails.

Finalist - Wildlife in the Garden