Peppered Moth

Very pleased to catch a Peppered Moth in my light trap last night as it was very much part of my biology teaching through the years. When first studied 200 years ago, all moths were like this one, pale and speckled and so hidden from predators on lichen-covered branches. With Industrialisation, lichens died out and trunks were generally soot covered. This led to the selection of the naturally occurring dark forms and predation of the light forms. The melanistic form predominated up to the second half of the 20th Century.

With the advent of smoke-free zones and the loss of heavy polluting industry, the light form is now reestablished.

Newly emerged dragonfly

This dragonfly emerged from its larval case yesterday morning in a neighbour's pond. The full colouring develops gradually during the day. Any ideas on identification from your book, Sue.

Few more from Ely Eventing Day

A few images taken at 1/1000th second rather than the slower shutterspeed of yesterday's posting.

Ely Eventing

I tried various techniques at this event and found that panned shots at 1/200th second gave the best spray. I will post some faster shutterspeed images later.

We had been at this event for 7 hours when Bryan rightly suggested we should go back and start downloading the numerous images. I said 5 more horses or 5 minutes more at the water splash. The this happened. Fortunately neither rider nor horse were injured though the rapid inflation of the safety jacket caused some discomfort.

Figure Eighty Moth

I have put the moth trap out a couple of evenings and have trapped some of the larger species - hawk moths in particular (see separate moth page) but this is my favourite so far - its name Figure of Eighty is totally appropriate. It has amazing green eyes and striped legs

Fenland Railway

Some images of the Level crossing at Pymore - not sure how I will finally process and print the images but quite like this old feel to the photos - they remind me of the sort of prints that you see in some self-catering cottages that have been on the wall in the sun for a long time and faded

The Fens

Wonderful skies today after yesterday's heavy rain.

A few images here from my trip to Pymoor - thanks to Martyn and Tatt for their hospitality and I hope Photoshop is doing what you want!!

Trying Longer Macro Lens

Bryan kindly lent me his Sigma 180 mm Macro lens so I took it Damselfly photographing at Paxton Pits. I like the distance that you have between subject and lens but find that to handhold the long lens requires a fairly fast shutterspeed and so depth of field is fairly limited on the resulting aperture. The two images above were taken with the 180 macro and are Blue-tailed Damselfly and immature male Common Damselfly

The paired Common Damselflies and the Female Azure were taken with the 50mm plus life-size converter, a combination that is easier to handhold and has a greater inherent depth of field. The latter is an advantage in getting all the damselfly in focus but gives a less neutral background.

Confusion on Warblers - Solved!!

A Bank Holiday walk around Paxton Pits this afternoon was rewarded with these great images of a warbler feeding its nestlings with a great variety of flying insects. I was sure that it was a Willow Warbler but everyone who looked said eye-stripe therefore Sedge Warbler. However, I am not convinced as there is no streaking on back or breast. I will post it on the bird ID Forum that I subscribe to so more to follow.

It is a Willow Warbler - identified on the Bird ID site.

Man Orchid

The Man Orchids are at their best locally though they are very short.

Archive Images

Two images from Ecuador trip and one from London. As it was too wet to garden, decided to sort through a few back images, delete those I will never work on and share the one I particularly like. I wonder where the owner of the icecream went!

Broad-bodied Chaser

Further tests with the 25mm extension tube. The first is taken at f18 and the tips of wing and abdomen are not quite in focus.
The second has the maximum aperture setting f40 and is now just about all in focus - the shutterspeed at ISO 640 is now 1/20 sec so only one out of six pictures didn't have some movement.

Photographing damselflies

There were several pairs of red damselflies laying their eggs in the pond this morning. I tried a method that I used last year to get closer to the insects - a 25mm extension tube with the 400m end of the 100-400mm. The first picture is just about full frame. The main problem is depth of field. With the bright sunlight, I could use f40 to give maximum depth.

A Year Ago

During the recent hot spell, I looked back at some images taken at the end of May last year at Hunstanton. It was a beautifully clear and warm evening.

I love the orange sandstone cliffs reflected on the wet sands.

These two dogs were having a lot of fun racing around on the beach below the cliffs

Damselfies emerge

Along with recording the early wildflower species in my garden, I am trying to keep a record of the damselflies and dragonflies this year. The first two species appeared a couple of days ago and are the Large Red Damselfly and the Azure Damselfly (has black marking on the 9th segment whereas Common Blue has plain blue 9th segment). I didn't realise until I cropped into the coupled pair that there is also a larval exuvia on the leaf.

Garden Flowers by Infrared

The flowers varied very much as to how they recorded in Infrared. These were the best of half a dozen attempts. The Centaurea (middle picture) is all the same blue but some central parts obviously emit very little infrared

Kings College

A few infrared photos of King's College Chapel taken with the 'plastic' 1.8 50mm lens - seems to be the best one for the digital infrared as doesn't give a 'hot spot'

Moth to be identified please

I have put the moth trap out during a few nights over the last month and have caught virtually no moths probably because it has been very cold with frosts on several nights. Last night I tried again and found lots of moths in the morning. I photographed quite a few before they took off and identified most (see my separate Moth blog) but haven't yet found this one - any ideas