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.