the weather was quite sunny again, a small amount of cloud but quite warm compared to the last few days.
Arriving in the empty car park at Gaitbarrows, i made my way over to the slipper orchid area, hoping that a few more had opened in the previous week , since only one plant was open last week! arriving at the orchids, i always smile reading this sign :)
i found a few in flowers straight away,all 3 Orchid images are multi frame focus stacks. 8 frames ,each one focused slightly further into the subject so when combined increases the depth of field,and an oof background frame shows off the subject nicely!
Here is the limestone pavement where they are found.
What stunning flowers they are , and so rarely found in the wild now.
Now time for the Dukes , suns out so they should be flying hopefully :)
Here is one of the main areas for them, with the taped off areas preventing people trampling and damaging the larvae food plants.primrose/cowslip.
After about 10 minutes i found a Duke , the sun was quite strong and was shining from in front of me so it made shooting very difficult, the pale dead grass on the ground made exposure a nightmare too!
so i just had to do the best i could , these are not the best images i have shot by a long way . but the back lighting through the wings looks quite nice :)
Presume these were all males , this one actually landed on the path right in front of me, managed to get a couple shots before he flew:)) but still had sun in wrong place! arghhhh
slightly better light on this one, a small amount of cloud passed over :)
One final shot before i head of into the lakes to climb a mountain this afternoon :))))
Managed a nice background in this one , but light has been just to harsh today :( trouble is , if it wasnt sunny i would never see the butterflies!!
Thats it for the morning, off to climb Helm Crag now near Grassmere :)
Simply breathtaking shots!
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