Corfu pt4 Longhorn and Castle

I am on my way back from the far side of the peninsula in the rain , walking around the road behind the pond where the butterflies are and  have just found a large Longhorn beetle .  Since i have the macro gear back in the hotel i will take it back for a photo shoot .

Back in the apartment and have set up the mpe-65 macro lens on my 5dsr to take a series of focus stacked images,  each frame will be focused slightly further into the subject then combined in software when i get home to produce the final high magnification images.


I have put the beetle on a low stone wall outside our room and found a large pale leaf to place behind for background .   5 frames used in this final image.

Now a closer shot,  16 frames used in this one to increase the depth of field.   all shot hand held with a diffused flashgun.

Now for high magnification portrait.   11 frames in this one.   combined in Zerene stacker software.

After lunch we are going down to Kassiopi harbour to go up to the castle ruins for a look around.
                                                         This is a Huge entrance!!!!

                                Up on the top of the castle,, super view across the harbour.

                         Close up view of the beautiful harbour , pity the sun isn't out.

 Walking around the castle , great views all around . the weather looks bad over on the Albanian coast and mountains.

 The olive trees are huge , the netting rolled up under them will be used to catch the olives i presume.

                                                              Back down to the harbour now

                A short walk around before heading back to the apartment .  looks like rain soon!

Dragons and a Surprise 22nd Aug 2012

I thought a quick trip was on the cards today, after all the long ones i have recently been on.  so up the motorway to visit 2 nature reserves, the first is Risley Moss near warrington, the second will be Rixton clay pits which is only about 10 minutes away. i have not visited them for many months but at this time of year Dragonflies will be the main target at Risley, the first stop .

                                  here is a picture of a giant wooden newt near the visitor centre :)

 

a quick 5 minute walk to a small oval meadowey area that sits next to the path , it is full of wild flowers, thistles ect and being full of insect life  the Dragonflies make it their home :D

This is Black Darter country , there are probably about 30-40 of them in this 60 ft x 40 ft area!  all different shades of black and orange.as they get older they darken in colour.

                                                             and as usual, on my finger :)

among the darters i have seen a few emerald damselflies , here are both male and female as a comparison.    Male first.

                                                                                Female

Most of the flowers have faded now , but in the sunshine a freshly emerged Peacock has been fluttering around , and i have just managed to get a few images :)  they really are a stunning species:)

                                                         another male black darter

                                                  and one last female black darter :)

Time to move on to Rixton clay pits now, i can only spend about an hour shooting these dragons before getting fed up  lol     but as i get near the visitor centre, by the small pool on a long curved wooden seat i find a few darters sitting in the sun.  time to get the mpe -65 macro lens out and try some portraits :)

                                                    here is a Black Darter portrait :)

a 10 min drive over to Rixton now,  i wont spend too long here , just a quick look around to see what i can find :)     walking down the steps i almost tread on a toadlet ,  mpe time again  lol    

near to the lake i have just found this flower beetle feeding on a dandelion flower,  tiny little things about 5 mm in length , shooting against a bright flower i dial in +2/3  flash exposure compensation to compensate for the bright background.

                                                                  and a fly:)   lol

                                                                and a resting Horsefly !

walking down to the lake along a wooden boardwalk , i suddenly spot a large butterfly flitting over the mound and settling on a thistle flower, it appeared to be a Painted Lady. i cant believe it!   haven't seen one this year, and only one last year , so i have got to get a shot of this i thought !

after about half an hour chasing this Lady up and down the path and the mound as it fed on thistle flowers i eventually manage to get a few decent images :)   Yay!

Beautiful species that are migrants from abroad, some years they are very common, but not this year so i am very lucky so shoot this one:)   This is the mound on the right , i must have climbed up and down it about 20 times chasing this one butterfly, think its as tired as i am, as it rests on the wooden boardwalk :)

                                                        and off it goes again, Arghhhhh

That was the end of another good trip with numerous species shot , and on way back to car i finish with another Peacock :)

My next trip will be climbing in the lake district, so it will be a nice change from shooting bugs :)

South Stack Beetle Hunt July 5 2012

After leaving the mountain lake above Betws-y- coed i drove across to the isle of Anglesey and towards Hollyhead to the rspb South Stack reserve.   i didn't think it was warm or sunny enough to be able to shoot the huge number of wasp species that are usually present  on the cliff tops , but i should find something to photograph :)

this is South stack lighthouse which i visited in a previous blog  Here

Walking down the path towards the cliff edge , i almost immediately spotted a Rose Chafer beetle feeding on what appeared to be angelica florets. i shot this with natural light.

they really are a stunning colour, shooting anything on a pale or white flower is extremely difficult to get a good exposure , using flash makes it even harder which i found out later in the afternoon.
walking along the main path along the cliff top a huge beetle flew past me, very close! the sound they make is quite loud and i managed to follow it until it landed, it was a Cockchafer about 1.1/4 inch in length , which are often called May bugs :)     late this year with it being such a cold summer presumably.   it landed on a rock that was covered in pale lichen which made it easy to shoot as it was about 2 ft above the path.  these are the images i shot at different magnifications.

            it soon flew off into  heather but i managed one more head on shot .

along the cliff top there is virtually nothing to be seen , very unusual but a few of these tiny green flower beetles, approx 5 mm in length.

and a Digger wasp that didn't want its face photographed   lol

On way back to the car park i found another Rose Chafer , so tried shooting with mpe-65 and flash!  found it very difficult to get good exposure on both beetle and flower. in fact this is the only half decent image i got, you can see the difference in colour to a natural light shot of the beetle

                                                                       mpe-65 full flash

                                                   natural light 100mm macro , much more natural

Then just below the car park i heard a loud buzzing , after a few minutes looking i spotted a Hummingbird Hawkmoth egg laying , i watched in amazement for ages trying to shoot a very fast moving moth lol     here is the best image

i found an egg she had layed and took it home, here is the Caterpillar that hatched and is now in a pupae almost ready to emerge into a beautiful moth.

        That was the end of a long day , not the best for photography but enjoyable all the same :)

                                  tomorrow i will be in the lake district butterfly hunting :)