Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

[bredman]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Quite excited to find a bushcricket in the garden! Woohoo!

A male nymph Conehead, probably a Long-Winged Conehead but could possibly be a Short-Winged. Hoping to find more. Very small, about 10cm head to tail.

Conehead In My Garden II

[Harold Gough]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

A Hungry Holly Blue.

The Holly Blue butterfly Celastrina argiolus is seen in or garden every summer. It rarely settles, making a photograph difficult. These shots are a day or two after a pair were seen mating. This was clearly a female feeding up to supply her bulging load of eggs.

This session, on Goldenrod lasted some 20 minutes. As she rarely opened her wings, the DOF was undemanding so I tried daylight exposure, at f11 (some at f16?). My recent doubts about the IS seemed unjustified from the results. I got a large number of images, with various angles of view and sizes in the frame. I think these have enough merit to post.

EM-1, Kiron 105, aperture priority, ISO 800, 1/160 to 1/400 sec.

Harold

[David M]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Nice, you got one and a half with the wings open.

[Harold Gough]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Nice, you got one and a half with the wings open.

Thanks, David.

An unexpected bonus, based on previous observations.

Harold

[bredman]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

More fun with bumbles. I quite like this one

Original Bumble Shot

[Harold Gough]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

More fun with bumbles. I quite like this one.

So do I.

Harold

[David M]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

As do I.

Silly 10 character rule

[Harold Gough]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Dancefly Empis tesselata.

These are quite easy to find in my garden in late spring/early summer. I mostly find them on the leaves of Goldenrod before it reaches the flowering stage and mostly in the mornings. Being is easy to find is one thing but offering a good view through the vegetation is another.

These flies are about 1cm long and have highly-modified mouthparts. I have been accumulating images of these flies and, too late in the season, realised that I didn't have quite the side view of the quality I wanted. The time has come to got with what I have.

EM-1 (manual mode), Kiron 105, twin RC TTL flash, f16, hand-held.

The stereo is crosseye.

Harold

[art frames]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

More fun with bumbles. I quite like this one

Pete,

I liked this one too. And the various long-winged coneheads on flickr. I have some interesting shots from France but no time at the moment...so keep them coming.

Peter

[art frames]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

A Hungry Holly Blue.


Harold

These two are very nice Harold.

Very surprised you haven't heard from our Holly Blue aficionado, imageryone.

But very nice to see.

[art frames]

careful sex


Making love - carefully..! by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

From today. These Common Darters bring a whole new meaning to safe sex.

[bredman]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Pete,

I liked this one too. And the various long-winged coneheads on flickr. I have some interesting shots from France but no time at the moment...so keep them coming.

Peter

Thanks Peter, unfortunately only online for short periods so cant keep up. Here's a few.

Conehead In My Garden IV

Both these are a very small male nymph found in the garden but not seen since sadly.

Conehead In My Garden VI

And a male red ant on his big day.
Red Ant About To Take Off

[art frames]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Pete

I am very impressed by the light you get into your pictures. You have a really good eye for subjects that just seem to be in a natural spotlight.

The subjects appeal too.

I'll keep looking on Flickr, but thanks for posting here too with the pressures you have.

Peter

[art frames]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

I will try to add some pictures now from the last couple of trips and also the regular outings I continue to make in the UK.

The two common darters above started out on less prickly bedding.


Dart-istic mates by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

I don't know which you prefer? This one is a manual focus stack/blend from two frames.

[art frames]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread


Green-veined whites on fresh horse poo by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

Posted it large so you can see the detail in the horse poo!

I took huge numbers of pictures of about a dozen green-veined white butterflies dung puddling in this pile of steaming poo. I was trying to get just the right image...and even shot some video...but it must have looked odd to other walkers in Salcey Forest.

'Mummy why is that man photographing the poo?'...

But then again lots of them look odd to me.