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No idea what kind of dragonfly this is, sorry.
Ian
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No idea what kind of dragonfly this is, sorry.
IanFounder and editor of:
Olympus UK E-System User Group (https://www.e-group.uk.net) -
Four-spotted Chaser
This species was flying on 14 June at a local pond. Sunlight has burnt out some of the highlights.
The stereo is crosseye.
Olympus EM-1 (aperture priority), Panasonic 100 - 400mm Leica DG Vario-Elmar at 400mm 1/640 at f11 ISO 800, hand held.
Harold
The body is willing but the mind is weak.Comment
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Essex Skipper feeding on flowering clover. Quite a few "small" Skippers around our marshes at the moment but this was the only one that sat still long enough to have its' picture taken! I've got other front-on views clearly showing the black tips to the underside of the antennae distinguishing Essex from Small Skipper. Wasn't expecting to photograph insects today so the 300 +1.4 TC not the ideal weapons (probably should have stopped down a little if I'd thought about it a bit).
Although having written that looking at this photo again you can argue that the black doesn't seem to extend right round .... Mmmm - "Small" Skipper sp.
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Azure Damselflies Coenagrion puella
Some are laying eggs on underwater parts of plants.
Olympus EM-1 (aperture priority), Panasonic 100 - 400mm Leica DG Vario-Elmar at 400mm at f11 ISO 800, hand held.
Harold
The body is willing but the mind is weak.Comment
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Testing out a pre-loved 30mm macro today along with an equally pre- loved 5 mk 2 for the first time. To be honest, I was too lazy to buckle down and learn the 60mm macro so this little lens seems to fit my brain! `Macro lite`. Landed on my partners flowery top.
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Green Bottle FlyComment
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A huntsman spider
The same spider showing some interest in a small blob of honey left on a knife
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Maybe it hadn't fed for a long time and anything was welcome.
As soon as I saw "Huntsman" I knew it was Australian.
Harold -
Ian,
I don't think the behaviour is normal. I was wondering if the honey had attracted some other insects that had got the spiders attention. He stayed around the house for a few days - fortunately my wife quite likes spiders.
Cheers
Ed
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Ringlet Butterfly at Hendy todayComment
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My Cat is a Dragon-Slayer
But I intervened.
My cat is 14 years old and, most days, she spends some time out in the garden but I had never seen her catch anything, not even a butterfly. She seems content to watch them.
I had just walked out of the house when I saw something moving between her front paw. I immediately recognised what it was and took it from her.
It was a female Emperor dragonfly. It must have been dazed because I was able to move it to, first one, then another, bush, out of the wind. The dented eye may not have been caused by its rough treatment, as I have seen this deformity in other dragons.
It was perched on the second bush for quite a long time but, later, it had gone.
Olympus EM-1, (aperture priority), Olympus 4/3 50mm f2 macro, 1/500 at f11 ISO 800, hand-held.
The stereo is crosseye.
Harold
The body is willing but the mind is weak.Comment
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Got a bit of a "Wow" surprise yesterday when my wife found this Purple Emperor sat on top of our compost heap!! Grabbed the camera and just got 3 or 4 shots off before it flew up and off strongly and could not be re-found (and therefore not my best photos). Although I watch butterflies when they are around I've rarely been to specific sites looking for specific species so this turned out to be a new one for me. It's not a common species in Suffolk or Norfolk and the nearest regular site is 20+ miles away so not something I ever expected in the garden. However, when I put this out on our local (mainly) birds WhatsApp group it sounds like 2 or 3 others have been reported in the area recently so unless there has been a bit of illicit releasing of captive bred individuals (which does happen) this could be part of a more widespread dispersal.
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We see the odd Hummingbird Hawkmoth in our garden pretty much every year. Sometimes just for a few seconds - occasionally for a few days. This summer is turning out to be one of the best and we have had probably half a dozen or more passing through. Typically hyperactive and very mobile I've never had much joy trying to photograph them but yesterday evening we found one that spent more than 10 minutes on the same buddleia so I had enough time to try to photograph it. The nearest camera to hand was my OM-1 still with the 300mm and 2x TC mounted from the previous days birding trip so not the obvious choice. However it worked out in the end although I found that I needed at least 1/10000 to freeze the wings which meant going up to 12800 ISO. Fortunately DxO PL5 rendered the photos nicely!
Bird detection (mid-size target) seems to work pretty well on insects and at least 90% out of 130 odd frames were in focus although the "choice" of lens meant that DOF was rather limited. Also, although the early evening light was pretty good, the shadows thrown by the buddleia meant a lot of sharp images were discarded as the insect was rarely in either full sun or full shade: when in a mix of sun and shade the amount of contrast becomes distracting. In constant flight this moth looked pristine: only when frozen can you see that this is a very worn example.
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Went to College Lakes Nature Reserve in Buckinghamshire with the intent of taking shots of birds, but there was just an abundance of butterflies and dragonflies everywhere, so thought I'd try something different for a change, so here's a few shots of the many taken in my first proper attempt at capturing butterflies, turned out to be a great day. All taken with EM1X and 75-300 lens.
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/193000670@N07/Comment
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Without photographs I'd have just assumed this was the same Hummingbird Hawkmoth as yesterday (it was even on the same buddleia)! Frozen in time it's obviously a different and much fresher individual than yesterday.
OM-1 with 300mm f4 PRO + MC1.4 between 1/12800 & 1/25600, f5.6, ISO 12800, -0.7 EV, PP using DxO PL5
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