A day out with the camera - again

Had a day off today so decided to go and play with the camera, a local area nature reserve – Aberthaw, I managed to get a poor picture of a Green Tiger beetle there a while ago so my view was to try again, 

 

a bit better this time but still lots of room for improvement, a good number of Dragons and Damsels were about, including a Emperor that would not land but was hunting all the time as well as defending territory, one shot I really want to perfect is the in-flight shot so time to practice panning and focusing while panning ! 

not brilliant but not bad for a start. Then there was the shiny new Common Darter 

and a slightly worn Black-tailed Skimmer. If you look closely you can see he was using this piece of polystyrene as a dinner table

Aberthaw has a good number of orchids each year but this year seems to be an absolute stormer – I especially like the Marsh Helleborines 

and the Pyramidal Orchids amongst the 

Common Spotted and Marsh orchids

There was alos this splendid chap - Mullain moth, the actual moth is rather boring in comparison

Then off to Parc Slip and another go at the Emperor in-flight. Being as these guys can do a seriously fast turn of speed, they are after all apex predators I was not too unhappy with my attempts but lots of work to perfect this technique is needed

In all of this a few beetles and other pretties, most people think the leaves turn red and yellow in autumn, the colours are always there all year but you normally only see the green – here is a new leaf with the autumn colours before the green covers it

A few beetles and other nice spots

Well we managed to get to Lincoln to see our parents, Yokes mum, my dad and Christine and my eldest brother and his lady. When I say ‘we’ I include Eleanor in that although the trip was hard for her with her balance disorder and lots of stops along the way were required.

I managed to get out for the day to a local reserve Whisby, - http://www.lincstrust.org.uk/whisby-nature-park

It really is a great area to take a day out at, not only great wildlife but a nice centre to take a break in. It did rain and I took shelter in a hide, so after 40 minutess or so great views of Common Tern, Black-headed gulls with chicks and a Kingfisher I went for a longer walk to get some insect shots, after rain and with a bit of sun they all come out.

 I had a bit of time in the hide to try panning shots - but as my lens was only a 150mm it is a bit 'distant' so I cropped the picture a bit

common tern flying in the rain

 

Bugs were all around with a couple of new ticks for me, and an awesome view of a Red Deer albeit fleeting and no chance of capturing it on film.

Chimney Sweeper moth

Rare beetle and a new tick - Agapanthea villosoviridescens

new Moth for me - Latticed Heath

This moth has no common name but the male has the longest antenna of any UK moth

Nemophora degeerella

did not spot the moth till i saw the shot on the computer monitor

called a Snout - obvious really

having lunch 

 

After that on the Sunday we went over to my brothers home  – he has a decent sized garden and we dug a pond in it earlier in the year – a few insects have found it to make it home to our pleasure as have a few ducks to his annoyance as they muddy it up and eat all the leaves of the aquatic plants trying to grow !

Overall a really nice weekend, it was really nice to see everyone and for me to have a bit of decent insect photography done outside my home location.

Nice dragonfly Libellula depressa , female and male, femal on Lupin.

 A rather handsome hover fly

Helophilus pendulus

 
Backswimmer or Water Boatman, if you look closely you will see small creatures at the back - its the young of the water boatman I think - thats also them - the small brown spots top rh side

water boatman

 A very young bush cricket if you realise thats a petal of a dog daisy it is sitting on you will see how small it is

 I really must sort out the presentation of this to get the photos side by side a bit more - ah well something for the next time.

So Plan B then

Been thinking and decided that as I don’t like my work but I have bills to pay, daughter to get through University etc. there is not much I can do about it at the moment, but that’s the key – at the moment. So Plan B, I have just over 2 years to get it together and develop a business I do like and can see myself doing sufficiently well to pay the bills.

I ‘like’ photography, I always have done since I was about 16, it dropped of my radar for a while, came back in about 27 years ago and dropped off again about 20 yrs ago and was picked back up about 4 years ago – a bit chequered but covered pretty much all sides of it Portrait, Wildlife, Landscape, Architectural, had a Hasselblad for a while, done Colour neg, Black & White, Slide, Cibachrome – for anyone who remembers that, developing, printing, competition, had a slide in the Welsh National Salon, even did a Wedding, never again, way too stressful.

Anyway, after the thought came the action, much research and thought and consideration, a new camera and a couple of very specific lenses later I start ‘Plan B’ Given that my youngest is doing a degree in Natural History photography and has a Nikon, and given that the Bank of Dad is limited, the decision for the camera body was simple, a Nikon D5200, the lenses were another matter, its mainly macro and natural history that we both do so Sigma 150 EX macro to fit a Nikon was a clear winner in the macro lens category, its the Mutts dooda’s in macro lenses and a prime Nikon 50mm as a start to the prime lens set. My aim is to avoid zoom lenses, necessity (and the bank) will ensure there will be one or two, but where possible I will use prime lenses.

I could not publish this previously as I wanted to surprise said youngest with the new kit when we went down last week to pick up a load of her stuff prior to term end so while I have had the kit for two weeks its only now I am admitting it and showing photos from it. Could not let here see anything on my blog to give the game away!

The Sigma is awesome, it is however going to take some getting used to and I expect a low hit rate on photos initially but it will be worth it once I get used to it, the Nikon is very different from my Pentax. That is a good backup camera for now and is finding some use with my eldest who is also interested in doing more photography.

A few photos below, an up and coming competition is macro and close up of insects and small creatures so kinda fits what I like doing, these are .jpg files so while they are good they are not the top draw  – the entry photos for the comp will be from the .raw files to maximise the final picture. In effect if you think the .jpg is a ‘print’ of the picture as you would get from the chemist in the old days – the .raw file is the negative, you can do a lot more with it to create the final picture than you can the .jpg. Now all I have to do is spend the next two years getting good enough to get shots I can sell and make a living from along with selling cards/prints/ hosting workshops, training sessions etc and any commission work etc. 

Easy really! (oh, and that was sarcasm in case you did not notice) 

So anyway - heres a few photos from the new kit

Ragged Robin

Brimstone on Red Campion

  Soldier Beetle - Cantharis rustica

Large Red Damselfly - Pyrrhosoma nymphula

Crane Fly -Tipula oleracea

Darter - Libellula depressa emerged

Fly - Phaonia viarum

Common Lizards - Lacerta vivipara

Finally - this lady was on the ground and wet, trying hard to climb up but all the grass stalks she climbed up bent over as she is not exactly small for a bee, so I put my finger down in front of her, she climbed on and I put her on a Flag Iris to feed and dry off, hopefully she lived. I will always help bees if I can and as a bonus it gave me an opportunity to get a photo of her feeding 

Bumblebee - Bombus lapidarius

Most of these were hand held or on a monopod, it was a cloudy day so the light was not brilliant and limited the depth of field but at least it was not too contrasty so good colours and not a lot blown out or clipped so not much touching up on the computer - I do prefer to do it all in camera if at all possible but must admit to some work done in Elements, especially the Crane Fly

Spider alert - leave now if you dont like them

It was a funny weekend, we went to Malvern for the Spring show on Sunday, it was nice, a bit overcast and windy and it did rain in the end. We got a few plants we wanted and had a nice day though; it is really well worth the visit a huge range of stalls for everything gardening, and then some.

I took Monday off and it was a better day – decided to go and do a bit of macro photography – a splendid magazine I get 

Outdoor Photography, https://www.facebook.com/outdoorphotographymag, 

My thanks to my lady for the subscription as a birthday present. It has a monthly competition and this month is macro insect photography. My kind of photography, so off I went to  a local nature reserve called Aberthaw, initial view was to get pictures of damselflies and dragonflies, given the competition and time of year my expectation is that lots of people will go for the ‘pretty’ ones butterflies, dragons etc. 

So I decided to go for some of them to see what was about, to see what I could get and to record them for the British Dragonfly Society,

 http://www.british-dragonflies.org.uk/, 

But also I wanted a few other insect groups not so favoured – so Spiders and Beetles!

They really are fantastic and the few I found to photograph were really interesting

In all a nice day and the weather was sunny if a bit breezy – that made close up shots ‘interesting’! but it was a great day out and a really nice day off

Hairy Dragonfly Brachytron pratense

This one is quite variable in the Thorax colour

Blue-tailed Damselfly Ischnura elegans

as you can see here - the top one is the 'normal' thorax colour the lower is a pink variation

Blue-tailed Damselfly Ischnura elegans

Common Blue female Polyommatus icarus

This lady was so busy feeding she ignored me totally - she is on Hawthorn

Holly Blue female 1st brood Celastrina argiolus

spider on the web - not identified

Look at the legs on this one - but dont worry the spider is only 7 - 11 mm

Orb web spider Tetragnatha extensa

This one is from below the web - I think it is a really lovely spider

Tetragnatha extensa

This is sweet - its a buttercup so you can see how small it is dont think it has a common name

Theridion sisyphium

And finally a Green tiger beetle - this is a fast predator, awsome colours on it

Green Tiger Beetle Cicindela campestris

overall a great day with some good photos to put into a folder to review and then finally at the end of the month select a few to enter into the competition