General Photography thread

[1066familyman]

Spent a while trying to get a decent Humming-bird Hawk Moth. This was the best of a reasonable bunch.
Full size image here;
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128321708@N03/52180279688/in/album-72177720299584193/lightbox/

Cracking shot!

Saw the first one this year at work the other day. Not seen again yet though.

I thought of you at the weekend. Saw quite a large butterfly in the woods land on a tree trunk fairly high up. Dark brown wings with white edges. Didn't get a close up view to see any other markings.

Ringlet perhaps? I couldn't see any of the orange spots like a Brown Argos, but then again I may not have been close enough?

Any thoughts?, as I'm just guessing from t'internet searches.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Spent a while trying to get a decent Humming-bird Hawk Moth. This was the best of a reasonable bunch.
Full size image here;
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128321708@N03/52180279688/in/album-72177720299584193/lightbox/

Simply beautiful!

 

[Jack Straw]

Cracking shot!

Saw the first one this year at work the other day. Not seen again yet though.

I thought of you at the weekend. Saw quite a large butterfly in the woods land on a tree trunk fairly high up. Dark brown wings with white edges. Didn't get a close up view to see any other markings.

Ringlet perhaps? I couldn't see any of the orange spots like a Brown Argos, but then again I may not have been close enough?

Any thoughts?, as I'm just guessing from t'internet searches.

Thanks FM.
My money is on White Admiral for your largish brown butterfly with white bits.
https://butterfly-conservation.org/butterflies/white-admiral
The location you describe is where they like it.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

I think this is a crab spider. It was tiny, only at most 1cm in length.

 

[Wardy's twin]

Knepp's a very interesting place. The last time I went, we booked a table at the Countryman pub, parked in their car park, walked around the estate for three hours, and got back for a beautiful meal and a couple of pints of Harveys.
I've posted this photo before, but here are the storks again. I only had my macro lens, so they're a long way off at the top-left of the tree.

II had an interesting experience at knepp when about 40 fallow deer decided they would run around me in a big circle that was getting smaller luckily they then just ran off.....

 

[Wardy's twin]

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a couple from my visit to the butterfly place at Ditchling....

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

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a couple from my visit to the butterfly place at Ditchling....

Stunning!

 

[Wardy's twin]

Stunning!

thanks - i would recommend the place to anyone who wants to help with there macro skills.

I will say that jackstraws hummingbird hawkmoth images took a lot more skill than these, my objects were stationary (though alive and will move) the HBHM just move all the time....

 

[Bodian]

Spent a while trying to get a decent Humming-bird Hawk Moth. This was the best of a reasonable bunch.
Full size image here;
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128321708@N03/52180279688/in/album-72177720299584193/lightbox/

That's quite something. I have a few photos of these - but they're just one big blur, even at 1/2,500 second. The other butterflies on your flickr site are equally stunning.

We were in the Cotswolds last week and saw a number of marbeld whites - which just isn't something we get up here. They don't stop for long either!

 

[Weststander]

Holidaying in the Rockies atm and took this on my camera from my hotel window
View attachment 149051

The Rimrock Hotel?

 

[Jack Straw]

That's quite something. I have a few photos of these - but they're just one big blur, even at 1/2,500 second. The other butterflies on your flickr site are equally stunning.

We were in the Cotswolds last week and saw a number of marbeld whites - which just isn't something we get up here. They don't stop for long either!

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Thank you for your lovely comments.
If you go to fields where Marbled Whites are early in the morning, you will see them asleep a few inches from the top of grass flowers. You can set up a tripod and get wonderful shots of their undersides. You can do this with Common and Chalkhill Blues and Skippers quite easily too. You can then watch them slowly unfold their wings, and get another shot of their top side before they fly off.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

This little fella has a red blood cell count of 7 on Thursday (as opposed to 40, the normal level) and the vet couldn't work out how he was still alive. Glad to report he's bounced back to 90% of his former self.

Not a great photo, but it means a lot to me and chez Tackle.

 

[Bodian]

Thank you for your lovely comments.
If you go to fields where Marbled Whites are early in the morning, you will see them asleep a few inches from the top of grass flowers. You can set up a tripod and get wonderful shots of their undersides. You can do this with Common and Chalkhill Blues and Skippers quite easily too. You can then watch them slowly unfold their wings, and get another shot of their top side before they fly off.

Great tips - thanks. I did wake up at 5am one morning on holiday and this thought came to mind, but I couldn't drag myself to the fields - even though they were only a few hundred yards away. My main failing in photography is that I am simply not a morning person! Next year...

We just don't have many butterflies up here now - I saw more on one walk through the Slad Valley hay meadows than I have seen up here over the last 2-3 years.

 

[Jack Straw]

Great tips - thanks. I did wake up at 5am one morning on holiday and this thought came to mind, but I couldn't drag myself to the fields - even though they were only a few hundred yards away. My main failing in photography is that I am simply not a morning person! Next year...

We just don't have many butterflies up here now - I saw more on one walk through the Slad Valley hay meadows than I have seen up here over the last 2-3 years.

I'm with you on the early morning malarkey, but just occasionally, I think, right. I'll get up early tomorrow.
One of my tricks for butterflies when I go at the crack of dawn is to find one roosting on grass, cut a few inches of the grass stalk off with the butterfly attached to it, and peg it to a bamboo cane which is pushed in to the ground. Rig up your tripod and get you focus spot-on, and there you go.
The reason behind the pegging is to shorten the grass stem to stop any slight wind movement, and to raise the subject above all the grass interference so there's a long distance to the background in order to get that lovely clean smokey effect.
I often peg several at a time to the cane and go hand-held as they unfurl their wings so I can get any pegged butterfly at short notice without having to move a clumpy tripod which takes a time.
The photos are the original showing the pegging system, and the editted photo.

 

[Taybha]

No bites yet but the birds like my bait.

 

[Bodian]

I'm with you on the early morning malarkey, but just occasionally, I think, right. I'll get up early tomorrow.
One of my tricks for butterflies when I go at the crack of dawn is to find one roosting on grass, cut a few inches of the grass stalk off with the butterfly attached to it, and peg it to a bamboo cane which is pushed in to the ground. Rig up your tripod and get you focus spot-on, and there you go.
The reason behind the pegging is to shorten the grass stem to stop any slight wind movement, and to raise the subject above all the grass interference so there's a long distance to the background in order to get that lovely clean smokey effect.
I often peg several at a time to the cane and go hand-held as they unfurl their wings so I can get any pegged butterfly at short notice without having to move a clumpy tripod which takes a time.
The photos are the original showing the pegging system, and the editted photo.

Brilliant to see work in action like this! Many thanks.

 

[Jack Straw]

This little fella has a red blood cell count of 7 on Thursday (as opposed to 40, the normal level) and the vet couldn't work out how he was still alive. Glad to report he's bounced back to 90% of his former self.

Not a great photo, but it means a lot to me and chez Tackle.

View attachment 149341

He's lovely. I'm team Cat all the way. Lots of cats roaming the villages in France when I go on holiday there. I get told off for spending more time befriending them than looking at the attractions in the villages!

 

[Wardy's twin]

He's lovely. I'm team Cat all the way. Lots of cats roaming the villages in France when I go on holiday there. I get told off for spending more time befriending them than looking at the attractions in the villages!

Not for me , always had cats but then 20+ years ago decided they were too destructive of our wildlife so won't have one which is difficult because cats like me , they seem to actively seek me out.

A cat from 2 doors away has killed 2 slow worms in my garden in last 2 days...

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

I'm with you on the early morning malarkey, but just occasionally, I think, right. I'll get up early tomorrow.
One of my tricks for butterflies when I go at the crack of dawn is to find one roosting on grass, cut a few inches of the grass stalk off with the butterfly attached to it, and peg it to a bamboo cane which is pushed in to the ground. Rig up your tripod and get you focus spot-on, and there you go.
The reason behind the pegging is to shorten the grass stem to stop any slight wind movement, and to raise the subject above all the grass interference so there's a long distance to the background in order to get that lovely clean smokey effect.
I often peg several at a time to the cane and go hand-held as they unfurl their wings so I can get any pegged butterfly at short notice without having to move a clumpy tripod which takes a time.
The photos are the original showing the pegging system, and the editted photo.

Brilliant tip, thanks!

 

[darkwolf666]

Took a trip to Leeds Castle yesterday, lovely walk and nice and quiet as it was a week day. Didn't take my camera with me as it’s just more to carry when you've got a buggy to push!

Anyway, took this on my mobile. One of my favourite plants - Gunnera - my wife thinks I'm mad and says it's ugly, obviously her eyesight has deteriorated since we met.

50 shades of green...