Bournemouth Air No-Show

Thursday should have been the first day of the Bournemouth Air Show commencing with the Red Arrows but it was fairly obvious from early on that it was not going to happen with low cloud and fairly frequent and persistent showers. The Memorial is to the Red Arrow's pilot who lost his life in August 2011. Though some looked somewhat fed up, generally folk were making the best of the situation, I was disappointed that Boscombe Pier is closed during the show so could only photograph through the gates. Anyway hoping for better weather today.

Christchurch Priory, Hampshire

Yesterday was a very wet day (we must be on holiday!) so spent quite a time in the Priory in Christchurch taking double (first six) and single exposure shots of the wonderful architecture. The penultimate shot looks like a composite but is a single shot.

Where Have All the Butterflies Gone?

We are on our way down to Bournemouth for 5 days at the Bournemouth Airshow and stopped en route for the night at Fordingbridge so we could visit the nearby National Nature Reserve at Martin Down, renowned for its butterfly population. The weather was not ideal with light cloud and a bit of a breeze early on. All the butterflies that we found were low down in the vegetation and very few in number. We did find Dark-freen Fritillary adn Chalkhill Blue but no sign of the Adonis Blue or Grizzled and Dingy skippers. A large number of the butterflies had mite infestations as with the Common Blue and Meadow Brown shown below. Great to see a few Clouded Yellows even if deep in the vegetation. Even when the sun appeared there were very few butterflies in the air - strange when the flowers were so inviting

Fordingbridge in the evening sunshine.

Monochrome Details from the Garden

Saturday was a day of sunny intervals.  I loved the shapes of the poppy seedhead and the Green Shieldbug but, with the sun out, there was a lot of contrast making straight nature photography difficult as the shadows were difficult to fill even with fill-in flash. I decided to try a monochrome version and liked it so much a few others followed! These are done in the Raw converter only - I will redo in Silver Efex. When the sun was behind a cloud,  the softer light on the poppy and bug gave lovely subtle colours.

Wedding at Paddock House, Newmarket

On Friday, Phil and I photographed Sarah and Steve's wedding at Paddock House Newmarket, a very historic venue. It was originally the home of Augusta Leigh, Byron's half-sister and with whom he is thought to have had an incestuous affair leading to the birth of her third daughter,  Elizabeth Medora Leigh (Medora was one of Byron's heroines).
Unfortunately, the weather was not kind to us and persistent rain meant we couldn't use the extensive grounds for the photographs. The interior, although very grand, is a photographer's nightmare - limited windows, lots of dark wood, often too high ceilings for bounce flash, and yellow lampshades etc. It is an attractive venue and the bride (and groom!) looked stunning.

Wicken Fen - Arrivals at the Ugly Bug Ball

As with many outings recently, the promised sunshine for Wednesday's CCC trip to Wicken Fen did not arrive till 4pm when we had all started for home. However, after a morning playing with filters and landscape photography, we migrated into the Fen and started the ugly bug hunt. Among the prize winners were this fly, a Picture Wing fly (Dasymetopa species), Speckled Bush Cricket, Meadow Grasshopper, a rather shy Short-Winged Conehead, a Green Capsid, a very small beetle (Oulema melanopus), a snail with the fly whose larvae eat snails (Ilione albiseta) and various Hoverflies on Fleabane flowers.