Amongst the Fly Orchids

 This week is Orchid week in my area of Eastern England with many species  just about at their peak. Tuesday was the first time I had photographed Fly Orchids - a very delicate species. I wanted to give the feel of it in among the vegetation as well as show the flowers themselves. Not totally successful but a great experience!!

Madingley Hall in Infrared

Morning Coffee and a wander round the grounds of Madingley Hall in Cambridge - what better way to start the week on Monday. Images taken with an old Canon 1Dii converted for infrared - the batteries only hold charge for a short while now but it does produce great images.

 

CCC Outing to Grantchester

Eighteen members of our camera club met up for a walk along the river in Grantchester. I travelled light with just my X100V compact and a closeup filter. I wanted to capture the abundant Banded Demoiselles and Mayflies in their habitat as with images 3-5 but I also took some at wide aperture that needed focus stacking to complete. 

As the Fuji does complicated multiexposure, I also played around with that using different blending modes and some intentional camera movement.

 

Paxton Pits Dragons and Damsels

Paxton Pits now has a well-established colony of Norfolk Hawkers- a very attractive green-eyed dragonfly. The exuvia is probably a Norfolk Hawker though there are also Hairy Dragonfles (4) around at the moment. another speciality is the Scarce Hawker (5, exuvia - 6). As usual I had to revise the differences between the three common 'blue' damselflies. So in order they are Azure, Variable and common Blue plus Blue-tailed Damselfly.

 

Damselfly Bonanza

The warmer weather for last week has resulted in a mass emergence of Damselflies in our area. They are now busy mating and laying eggs in our pond - so far identified  Large Red and Azure Damselflies. At one time, I counted more than a dozen pairs jostling for position on the lily pads and weed. 

Starling Disputes

We still have at least two families of starlings disputing best position on our bird feeders. They can get very aggressive though so far no damage done to each other. Now trying to think how to disguise the back fence in the photos when zoomed out far enough to get all the action