Jan 8th Alian Blob and springtails at whixall moss

I travelled to whixall moss in Shropshire this morning just to get out shooting, the forecast looked ok!

The plan was to look for more springtails , hopefully a few different species , as i have only been shooting globulars recently.

It was quite overcast when i arrived, but still warmish and still.  almost straight away i found some springys on the wooden fence posts :)
they are very small, about 2  mm in length , shot at x5 mag with canon mpe-65 and cropped!

                                               And another one, not sure if different species.

  I then found a Ant-mimic spider,  not a good shot ,but i have only ever seen one before !    this one did not want to be shot so this is the only shot i got!!!!!

i then found "THE BLOB"   it is in fact a Hoverfly larvae , not seen one before but they have very interesting skin textures!   it was about 10mm in length.

                                                           amazing translucent skin!!!!

A  few more springtail shots :)

Then another spider, a male with big boxing gloves !   Haha

Then the rain came!!!!   i got soaked!! and that was the end of the shoot:(

all images canon 5d2, mpe-65

New year Springtails

My first macro shots of 2012!

went into the garden to find a few globular springtails, tiny little bugs approx 1-2 mm in size.
all were shot at the mpe-65 maximum magnification of x5 .using 5d2   full frame camera does have its disadvantages, losing quite a bit of magnification compared to crop sensor body's!

The first springtails i found were a globular species Dicyrtomina minuta , i had not noticed this species in the garden before.   they are Soooo  Cute :)  probably just under 1mm in length!

shot at f7  , i had inadvertently left camera in av mode, and shot at 1/60th shutterspeed full flash!   but came out superbly well!

Most of these shots are 2 frame focus stacks, where multiple frames each with a slightly different focal point are merged to increase depth of field!  which at this magnification is a lot less than 1mm!

I found these tiny springtails under a piece of fallen tree bark that was in  the garden,  another species of globular springtail, Dicyrtomina saundersi was also present, i think this is one of the commonest species!  they do vary in colour quite a lot, but always have nice pattering on the body.  

this one was a bit bigger at approx 1.5 mm :)

shot in manual mode, full flash, f6.3,  1/200th

A couple days later , after heavy rain , shot  another one , a paler individual!  i have been shooting them on the back steps, the stone is nice natural setting!

This is probably my best ever globular image!  ever!

and another shot of it  running along the edge of the step!  Lol

and then i found a casualty,  a problem with being so tiny, i trod on one!   OOPS !

Im Sorry!

another one shot on wet bark, very difficult to get good exposure, had to combine 2 exposures of the same frame altered in RAW to get this shot looking ok!

all images shot with canon 5d2 and mpe-65 at maximum magnification.

Afon Lloer ,Tryfan and Llyn Ogwen Jan 2nd 2012

My first trip of the year !

  Back into the Ogwen valley in Snowdonia, North wales.  this time i was going to climb the Afon Lloer waterfalls up to the lake Ffynnon Lloer , at a height of 2,225 feet (678 m)   not a very good lake to shoot photos but a good climb with excellent views!

It was fairly dark and gloomy when i left the main road that runs along Llyn Ogwen, here is the first shot of the Ogwen valley with the Devils kitchen in the distance!

and a view of the direction i will be climbing, you can see the waterfalls in the centre top  :)   lol

After a good climb across saturated ground i eventually came to the first set of falls.  Its not normal to shoot "Down" a waterfall ,but i think it works well leading into the scene!

a little bit higher !

Tryfan on the left, with Llyn Ogwen  and the Devils Kitchen on the right!

a portrait view from same spot!

                             Another short climb, getting quite cold now and wind picking up!  

                                                                a view up the waterfall!  
  the uppermost falls in this shot are where the next image was taken, a steep hard climb over extremely wet boggy ground!    who says there hasn't been much rain this winter!!!!    They lied!

A wide angle view of the stunning valley!  over to the right , a third way across you can see Cwm Idwal, the lake beneath the Devils kitchen which was shown in the last Snowdonia Blog from last week!  you can already see i have climbed a lot higher today!  and a long way to go yet!   lol

             Another steep climb up to "the wall "where the falls start to change direction up to the lake!
                                                        about 3/4 the way up now! 
        a heavy hail shower crossing over the Glyders towards Tryfan, it kept going left fortunately :)

      looking up the falls , another very steep climb up to the plateau where the ground levels out a bit

                                                                      almost there now!

From near the top of this section of falls, here is a wide view showing the glorious mountain scenery,  the ground now has quite a few hail stones lying!   Yes its cold up here!!!!!!  you can see "the Wall" in the bottom left corner where i shot the previous but one image!

       The falls level out now leading up to the small lake!  Yes there is a small amount of snow still around from the previous week high up on the high ridge!

And this is where the falls come out of the small non discript lake that was not ever worth taking an image of !   lol

Turning around i moved over to get a high view of the valley , and with hail stones on the ground and  light shafts coming from Tryfan shot this image :)   My favorite of the day with the only decent light!

just to the right of Tryfan you can just about make out the second mountain lake Llyn Bochlywd which is over to the left of Cwn idwal but much higher up!

                                               It really is a stunning view from up here!!!!!!!

I then descended down to the right towards "the Wall " again, where there is a fine view down the valley towards Cwm Idwal in the distance!

                     And a slightly wider view showing the "Ladder" to help climb Tryfan!    Haha :)

                  On the way down just one more shot looking back up the lower part of the falls:)    

The end of a great first adventure of 2012.

all images taken with canon 5d2 and 17-40L

A Review of Butterfly adventures 2011 June 20 - 3rd July

The end of June & July was the start of an amazing period of butterfly sightings, travelling hundreds of miles from Cheshire up to the lake district and down to warwickshire and Worcestershire in search of species i had never seen.
Starting off with my first ever trip to Arnside knott in cumbria on 20/6/11  my first ever sighting of a dark green fritillary :)

                a magnificent species!     i then shot my first Northern brown Argus ,a tiny butterfly!   lol

Next on the species list to be found on this incredible day was the Grayling , i have seen them plenty of times but never managed a shot.  they where all over the steep shale slopes basking in the sun!   lol

 

Another new species - the Small pearl bordered fritillary was next on this eventful day :)

 

I then travelled up to the lakes and into Borrowdale searching for dragonflies, and shot this beautiful Dark green fritillary!

The following weekend i was back at Arnside to hopefully see the High brown fritillary.

here is a newly emerged specimen!

and as a comparison a Dark green fritillary

and a Small pearl bordered fritillary

What a wonderful place to visit on a summers day!!! 

The next weekend trip was July 3rd , the Warwickshire butterfly conservation Trip to Oversley wood to hopefully see the elusive Purple Emperors !

I got there early after a 2 hour drive!    and after just 10 minutes i saw my first ever White admiral, then my first Marbled white and small skipper !   Amazing!

They are stunning!

and a small skipper/marbled shot :)

I then met up with the group on the hunt for the Emperors, very soon afterwards we found Silver washed fritillarys

    This is when Gill arrived, late as usual !   just in time to shoot

  a newly emerged Purple hairstreak ! a very rare sight

The Purple Emperors did not show themselves, so all the group split up and went separate ways around the forest!

almost immediately i found one on the path in front of me! Wow!   it flew around a bit then landed so i could get the shots i wanted!

 

After this amazing morning, i spent the whole afternoon with Gill watching Purple Emperors flying around the tree tops in the congregation area pines ! which may seem strange, but was actually one of my best memories of 2011! 

 and watching newly emerged Red Admirals in the woods!

 what an super end to a simply fantastic day!

all images taken with canon 5d2, 100mm L macro lens.