Pomegranates

With all of the dull weather in recent weeks, I have been playing around with some tabletop still life photography.  This involves a lot of gathering props, setting up shots and being disappointed by the results.  I was sort of happy with these simple shots, until this week's CCC excellent talk from Polina Plotnikova, which showed me what really good still life should look like.  The key points seemed to be pre-visualise better and think bigger.  Oh well, more to do. 

Primroses

 More minimal depth of field close-ups.  This time primroses. All taken hand-held on a sunny and slightly breezy day.

Blackthorn blossom

 Playing with minimal depth of field on some blackthorn blossom.

Fungi at Gamlingay Woods

More fungi.  This time  from Gamlingay wood.  Again the fungi were abundant in both numbers and variety.  There were lots of large specimens.  Plenty of pale milk caps, and I even managed to find a pristine Fly Agaric.  But it was the tiny ones that mainly took my interest.

 

 

 

Sharpenhoe Clappers

A trio of butterfly images from a quick visit to Sharpenhoe Clappers.  It was my first time there, despite the fact it's only a 30 minute drive away.  I'll have to go back soon for a proper explore.

Burnet Moths

My first couple of days in Dorset were spent in the company of other CCC members, with the main purpose of our outings being macro photography.  We found a number of insect species, although less butterflies than expected.  There were, however, plenty of Burnet Moths (both the 5 and 6 spot varieties) at pretty much every location we visited.  We found a number of mating pairs, as well as caterpillars and a newly spun cocoon, with the caterpillar still just visible.

 

In The Meadows At Lyveden

On Bank Holiday Monday, I went to Lyveden, a National Trust property near Oundle.  As well as the ruined house, the grounds include several hay meadows.  I visited last year toward the end of June, when the meadow flowers had largely gone over.  So this year, I was keen to visit earlier.  I was little too early to catch it at its best, but there was still plenty to occupy my time.

Whilst doing some flower portrait shots, I spotted a spider on an Ox-eye Daisy.  It turned out it was a female and there was a male was trying to mate with her.  I watched as the small male made several  attempts to get close to the bigger female without ending up as lunch.  Eventually he succeeded, before making a hasty exit.  It was fascinating to watch, but tricky to photograph, with the narrow depth of field available.

There was also a Red Kite wheeling above the ruined house.  Apparently one of a local breeding pair.  An increasingly common site in this area.

Dragonflies

There are plenty of common darters still on the wing.  I recently had a very obliging one pitch in my garden for a feed.  I found another helpful specimen at Paxton Pits, along with a couple of common hawkers and a damselfly (no clue which kind, they all look the same to me).