Ryton Wood again Oct 15th

Another trip to ryton wood,  weather again not looking too promising but its better to be out shooting!
There had been a heavy dew overnight so a few dewy spider web shots would be possible.

I started off on the same narrow path where i shot the tree bumble bee on the previous trip,  the devils bit scabious were still flowering and as there were plenty of dew drops on the grass stems, i decided to shoot my first dewdrop refraction of the season.   this image consists of 6 frames focus stacked ,, each one with a slightly different focal point so when combined all parts of the tiny drop are in focus . the best dewdrops are approx 1- 1.5 mm that are perfectly spherical !

Also there were plenty of dew laden webs, with and without spiders in residence!  lol

Walking on into the centre of the wood i found numerous ladybirds, mostly covered in dew !     here i one shot i managed.

I now found myself near the centre of the wood where all the paths meet , and decided as there were plenty of oak trees i would see if i could find some purple hairstreak eggs which are laid next to the leaf buds where the caterpillars bury into to feed when the hatch next spring!    here is the area as pictured in the last trips blog.

On the second branch i inspected i was amazed to have actually found two eggs!   how amazing was that!!!

I continued walking around the wood , looking to find subjects to shoot but there was absolutely nothing bug like to be found!        until i came across an interesting fungi colony on a dead tree stump.  so i set up my tripod which i very rarely do for macro and set about shooting natural light focus stacks at different magnifications.   here are the resulting three images at different magnifications.

I had a quick look around the country park but found nothing more to shoot, so just one image of padgets pool to finish with.

All images shot with canon 5d2, 100mm L and mpe-65

Ryton Wood and Country Park sept 25th

A return visit to Ryton wood the following sunday,  i wanted to have a good look around the wood and the country park which i didn't manage to do on the last "fun" trip!  lol
I started off walking into the wood area along a narrow path with loads of devils bit scabious flowers, so should find something to shoot.   the weather was not great , overcast with drizzle so didn't expect to find many insects on the flowers early on , but to my surprise i found a large bumble bee feeding.  i did not recognise this species and had not seen one similar before.  the light was not very good so had to shoot at iso 640 and f5.6 to get a decent 1/160th shutter speed. 
This bee has been identified as a Tree Bumble Bee   bombus hypnorum , a species that was only found in this country i believe in 2001 in the south and has been spreading northwards.

As i walked further into the wood  pictured below,   not knowing where i was going   lol

  I managed to find a few ladybirds to shoot,  here is one i found on a dead tree stump and had to bury the mpe lens into the moss to get a nice low angle to get a nice composition!
This is a single frame at f13   full flash  mpe-65 at about x2 magnification full frame 5d2

It was while i was shooting this image i received a text from Gill , she had arrived at the car park and obviously having seen my car and wanted to know if i was here and where i was!!!
 Stupid question i thought at the time, especially because i was by now completely LOST!    yes she thought that was hilarious!     she still hadnt given me a map! lol    i would meet her later on in the country park where she was continuing the brown hairstreak egg survey.

Here is another shot taken from in the wood., this particular area is where i will find my first ever purple hairstreak eggs a couple weeks time.  another blog to be written!

This is where i found a my second acorn weevil,   after finding one on the last trip to ryton meadows.

here is the cute tiny weevil on my finger !

and on a leaf!

I eventually found my way out of the wood after about an hour!    and walked into the country park to find Gill,  just moments after she had found a triple brown hairstreak egg cluster on the blackthorn.

Here i am shooting the egg cluster [ photos shot by Gill  ]

As you can see, i am holding the stem in my left hand while resting the mpe lens on same hand, if my hand moves both camera and stem move together so stay aligned when shooting the individual frames for the focus stack.

Here is the resulting finished focus stacked egg image, each egg is approx 0.7 mm diameter!

After shooting this we spent all afternoon having fun searching the country park and surrounding area for more eggs,while getting slashed by brambles and spiked from blackthorns  lol   it is actually great fun, believe me!!!!!!!

later in the early evening i shot the trees that had just started to change colour ,and then...

Gillian kindly let me shoot her portrait in the beautiful warm evening light !

She thinks the colour is too strong, but i think this represents the light perfectly , when compared to a shot taken a few minutes earlier which looked very cold !

a perfect end to a great day :)

all shots taken with canon 5d2, 100mmL macro and mpe-65

Fun at Ryton Wood Meadows

On 04/09/11   i travelled south again down to ryton wood meadows near Coventry, for the Warwickshire Butterfly Conservations brown hairstreak blitz ,  the weather was not looking good to see any of the adults ,it was pouring down all the way , but started to clear up as i reached the car park.
  Gillian Thompson had been searching for the brown hairstreak eggs on the blackthorn over the previous three weeks with exceptional success ,  the count was up to about 325 eggs !  so i would easily be able to photograph them at high magnification.

I met Gill and while she started egg hunting i decided to shoot a few of the local inhabitants !   here is one of the longhorn cattle that are grazing the meadow!  lol 

And  a few local spiders to shoot first -

Then managed a shot of a scorpionfly and a wet tachinid fly.

With a few shots done it was time to meet the group from butterfly conservation to be shown around the reserve , it was led by Mike Slater and he showed us where the different butterfly species are to be found in the meadows and the nearby woods.  hopefully next season i will be able to find them quite easily :)

Now it was time to join Gill back along the boundary between the wood and the meadows to photograph the brown hairstreak eggs,  this is when the fun started !!!!!!!
Because the eggs are so small, approx 0.7 mm  i had to shoot with canon mpe-65 macro lens at its maximum x5 magnification, which is quite difficult, and today for some reason i really struggled to get a decent series of shots to focus stack!    here is a double egg shot with a second image with a finger tip for scale!

The fun soon started while looking for eggs, with Gill being attacked by a wild bramble stem!  fortunately she Won!  and the bramble got a good kicking afterwards   lol .   The same cannot be said about my experience!

After this episode, i was shooting some "location" shots with her camera for the blog when I got attacked!   the bramble was wrapped around both my feet, so had to call for HELP!  over came Gill, but instead of helping me, she just grabbed her camera and started shooting my predicament!   (you know who your friends are when you need help !   thanks Gill ! )  lol

I ended up on the ground, and heard the camera clicking away and lots of laughter!     fortunately, she was laughing so much most of the shots were out of focus and blured!    :) 

It was a good time i thought to teach her how to shoot with the mpe, and considering it is an extremely hard lens to use the resulting image is "exceptional"   well worth all the swearing,moaning and complaining i had to endure!!!      i did receive an apology later that night :) 
At first, using it on a tripod it is very difficult to get close enough to the hairstreak eggs, at x5 mag ,the focal distance is about 1.5 inch! especially with the flash diffuser next to the lens,  eventually she agreed to shoot handheld, and with MY help to hold the quite heavy, unbalanced camera and lens a few good shot where eventually taken!
 Gill was really unhappy at this point ,but i assured her that she had done really well for a first attempt with this lens , especially at its maximum magnification and the images were going to be quite good!    at this point we both didn't realise how good the finished 2 frame focus stack was going to be!!!!!
The resulting image was better than any i had taken this day , and is now on the west midlands butterfly conservation website, in the annual magazine and it is hopefully going to be printed on a reserve information board!!!!!!!!!
I TAUGHT HER WELL!!!!!!!!!!  she is so happy now! 

here is the brown hairstreak egg taken by Gillian Thompson  i am really proud of her accomplishment!

After all this , she agreed for me to take her portrait, this is the one i like best

"looking for eggs in the blackthorn! "

We both had a really great day, one to remember for a long time, and having been shown how to use the mpe, her next attempt at using it was accomplished with ease ,  but that is for a later blog!

All shots taken with canon 5d2, 500d,mpe-65,100mm L macro.

Grafton Wood Brown Hairstreaks PT2

After the previous weeks trip to Grafton wood , i just had to go back to see the beautiful Brown Hairstreaks again,  the weather forecast was for a very warm sunny day , perfect!
I  knew where to look this time,  so made my way down towards the orchard area, the blackthorn hedgerows on the main path before the old orchard are where i saw them last time.
It was a bit early and still quite cloudy as i walked the main path and there was no sign of any butterflies,so  i continued around and into the orchard to see if there were any migrant hawker dragonflies perched up, i saw quite a few in this area the previous week but could not get any shots.  this time there was no sign of any, after walking around all the apple trees i suddenly spotted a brown hairstreak flying across the open ground!  i quickly followed and she settled under one of the apple trees,  i just managed to shoot 4 frames quickly before she took flight,  i managed to keep her in sight untill she landed in the hedge surrounding the area  before she flew over the hedge!     Wonderful!

 The sun was now breaking through the cloud,  a Brimstone gonepteryx rhamni  few past me and landed to feed on a thistle flower, as i got close i noticed there was carder bee also feeding!

As it was now getting very sunny , i made my way back to the main hedge hoping the hairstreaks would make an appearance,   as soon as i got there i spotted 2 females working along the hedge and soon noticed that they where both laying eggs,  here is a shot of one high up in the hedge.

You can see a small piece missing from the wing where she has been crawling into the blackthorn to lay her eggs on the main stems, usually near a fork in the branch on one or two year old stems.

I followed her over to the hedge, just to the right of the water trough and actually watched her lay an egg on a blackthorn stem only about eight inches off the ground!

Here is the egg, shot at x5 magnification with canon mpe-65 macro lens, it is focus stacked to increase depth of field.  the eggs are approx  0.7 mm diameter!

and a cropped shot of above , isn't the structure amazing?

I then spotted a third female in the same area a few minutes later ,  that was the fourth sighting of the day!

Having shot the brown hairstreaks i decided to make my way into the wood to see if any thing else to shoot,  i soon found a beautiful Red Admiral,  vanessa atalanta

And a few dark bush crickets

I  walked around to the southern edge of the wood and found along the bridleway a few common darter dragonflies perching on the barbed wire fence, shooting from a low angle managed to keep a nice blue sky in the framing!

Then i saw another brown hairstreak and managed a few shots before she flew off, light was very bright but it does show a lot of textures on the wings!

Walking back towards the woods and back down the main path through the woods , i then found a very old looking male brown hairstreak feeding on angelica,  at appeared to have very few scales left on the wings!

and finally a large white pieris brassicae

in total, i saw nine brown hairstreaks this day, which is exceptional!    and i was extremely lucky, the following day i had intended to go back and meet Gill , but there was a bad holdup on the motorway and could not get there,  as it turned out not a single hairstreak was seen that day even though conditions were perfect!     someone did say i must have seen everyone else's share on my trip !  lol

ALL SHOTS TAKEN WITH CANON 5DMK2, 100MM L MACRO & MPE -65

phil