Summer Leys Rescue and Flight Challenges

We spent a very enjoyable day at Summer Leys Nature Reserve, Northampton, mainly doing macro photography of the insects etc but we also visited the bird feeding station and the round pond where were delighted to be able to rescue this Red-eyed Damselfly from a spider's web. There were lots of juvenile birds while the adults were looking very tatty and many were in moult. They were  lit by the sunlight against the dark woodland as they visited the feeders and made challenging flight subjects.

Spring Flowers Closeup - Sexuality in the Primrose

All the years I have been photographing flowers, I was under the impression that Primroses were examples of  "unisexual" monoecious flowers where either the stamens or the carpels are missing in all the flowers in a clump.  Researching how the primrose ensures an even distribution of 'male' (pin-eyed plants) and 'female' (thrum-eyed plants), I discovered they are in fact bisexual but have different arrangements of the male and female parts - see diagram.

 Most of these are taken with a Fuji compact X100 V fitted with a X4 plus a X2.5 diopter close up lens in combination giving very close focus.  

Bar Hill's New Footbridge

We spent a very hot hour yesterday morning photographing the new footbridge at Bar Hill. Thanks Paul for arranging the access around the site. I played around with double and multiple exposures as well as a full panorama. I will return on a cooler day and cross the bridge for more views and certainly visit when the area has grown vegetation.  

 

Multiexposure Blends

To help previsualize the effect of the different blending modes on my compact camera, I did two series of images in the order  Dark, Bright, Average and Additive. Hopefully this will assist when 'out in the field' to work out which mode might give the image that  I have in mind. One of the good features of the camera is it stores all the component images as RAWs.

Multiple Exposures at Madingley

We visited Madingley American War Cemetery this morning and I spent some time trying different blends on my camera using the different modes and changing the White Balance and Film Simulations during a set of exposures. I think I will have to experiment using known light, dark and different coloured objects to get some idea what the finished image might look like. It is very hit and miss at the moment though I have found some here that I like!

 

Test Shots with the Fuji 80mm Macro Lens

It is still too cold for many insects to be on the move but I managed to capture a very sleepy Bee Fly, three different Hoverfly species, Bumblebees and flies in Marwell and Weston Super Mare. On our way to the Southwest, we had called at MPB in Brighton to sell some items and buy a secondhand longer macro for my Fuji. Very pleased with the service they give and delighted with the new lens.