Strange Insect Behaviour Revealed Among the Orchids

I visited two of our local meadows with friends from CCC as there are particularly good displays of Common Spotted, Bee, Man and Twayblade Orchids at the moment, including an albino Spotted  Orchid. I was fortunate to spot a Soldier Beetle visiting Twayblade flowers for the nectar and at the same time picking up the pollen sacs on its head. These club-shaped pollinia attach to the head of the insect with sticky pads and will pollinate other flowers the beetle visits. Deeper in the foliage, a crab spider female holds onto her lunch while the smaller male attaches itself around her abdomen. Similar scenario with a couple of Dance flies, the female clasping her Crane fly prey.

Changes in London's Skyline

One of the great things about keeping a blog with regular entries is to be able to look back at previous entries. The images are taken from different positions but show how the Gherkin and adjacent buildings are now dwarfed by the new tower blocks.

August 2007

December 2008

June 2015

London Salon Opening in Croydon.

Passed through King's Cross on the way to Croydon for the Opening of the London Salon. Looked positively continental in the summer sunshine and there were certainly some interesting installations to photograph. We stopped off at London Bridge on the way back and spent a bit of time in Borough Market - very crowded and vibrant but one lady found a peaceful corner to catch up on phone calls.

Ely Eventing - Part Three - BE90 Group on Sunday

Sarah couldn't join us on Friday due to the boring requirement to work so we met her at Little Downham on Sunday.  We spent a few hours photographing the young and not-so-young less-experienced eventers. Here a few shots - again lots of different shutterspeeds - the penultimate shot was taken at 1/60th and is just about acceptably sharp. Using a slow shutterspeed relies on the horse keeping its head pretty still. My favourite horse was the first one here - beautiful patterning and character. 

Ely Eventing - Part Two

As promised here are some images taken at faster shutterspeeds 1/500th to 1/2000th, depending on whether water spray is involved - the slower shutter speed gives a better effect in the water but is a bit hiot and miss on sharpness of the subject. Skies were a bit light so will have another go on a better day.

Little Downham Horse Trials, Ely, Cambridgeshire

We braved the horse trials yesterday despite thundery downpours and were rewarded with some great action. It is a very fine eventing course now with lots of challenges for photographers - mainly trying to find backgrounds without cars, loos or spectators. I tried various shutterspeeds - here a set taken between 1/100 and 1/250th sec to give a feeling of movement. More to come!

Wicken Fen

A short walk around Wicken Fen in what was almost summer weather yesterday. Good to see lots of damsel and dragonflies about (azure and four-spot) and many other insects. House sparrows have become a lot less common so godo to see them flourishing at Wicken and they have a partial albino Pheasant which added interest