Cornwall Polly Joke and Crantock

 

I have got up early and walked down to Polly Joke beach to get a few drone images. The light is really nice and very little wind.  it is however due to cloud over , and i can see out over the sea in the distance it is already clouding over quickly.

The sea is a Fabulous colour .  Gull rock is just visible over off Holywell Bay in the background.

Here is a full panorama image , originally shot with 21 frames , but i have removed a few for composition 

                                                                     6 Frame Vertorama 

I have walked around the headland to view Crantock bay , a quick vertorama image before the cloud came over.   I will walk back to the van now as its going to be cloudy for the rest of today , but tomorrow i will take Ozzy for a photo shoot on Crantock beach.

The next morning it is blue sky , time for the long walk to Crantock with Ozzy.

                                                   All shot with 5dsr  100-400mmL 

A very happy pup :)

That was a great morning , the tide has come in a long way so i need to climb up the sand dunes now as the short cut up the steps is now under water .

                                           The way down to the beach Steps under water now!

The end of another great day in Cornwall.

Cornwall Holiday pt5 Epic Holywell Sunset

                     

                            This morning another walk along the beach and up onto the headland.

                                       Still breezy and some good waves coming to shore .

Now for sunset ,   we have walked down in plenty of time to give the dogs a run first , and scout out a few possible compositions for later .

As the sun sets low near the horizon ,the light is looking good and with some very nice clouds it is looking like a good sunset is possible ,  But  the clouds are moving very quickly so they will be long gone I fear before sunset time. 

While I am on the beach looking for compositions the dogs are watching me , or trying too as Jan is standing in the way forcing Chester to try to look around her. 

Almost sunset and the cloud has built up really fast , its looking great now.

        Two frame focus stack ,  one focused on the immediate foreground sand and the second on Gull Rock  , merged in Zerene Stacker.   5dsr  17-40 L 

Trying to get the sand ripples as a leading line to the sun.

     This is the peak of the colour ,I did not expect this tonight . Nice patterns created in the sand by the stream running into the sea work well in this composition , better than the previous image.

                                  5dsr  17-40 L   0.3 sec   f13  iso 100    0.9 soft nd grad

The colour faded quickly after this , so this is the last image of the night on the camera.

                             A phone picture taken as the colour faded.

Preying Mantis June

Starting in early June the Wide Armed mantis is growing and is quite white in coloration now .

5dsr  mpe 65 at x4 magnification.

The two flower mantids are now sub adult, meaning they will become adult at the next skin moult and get their wings.  I still cant work out if they are both male or not.


You can see the wing buds now, quite thick and colour showing through. So it will not be long before getting wings .

                           both 5dsr  mpe 65 at x1 life size , they are a very small species.

             The Dead leaf if still growing very slowly , he is sub adult now.  and has fabulous eyes !

                                                   Multi frame focus stack  5dsr  mpe 65

                The Giant Rainforest mantis is now sub adult , beautiful colours on this one now .

                                            Locust   2 frame focus stack 5dsr  mpe 65

Stagmatoptera females are now almost adult, the final yellow colouration is staring to show through the skin now, and they are very hungry!

                                                     single frame f13 at 1.1 with mpe 65

             and finally the Cat eye mantis ,  pre sub adult and darker in the face than before

Silver Studded Blues at Prees Heath 10 th /17 th June

It is now 10 th  June, the Cornonavirus lockdown restrictions have been partially lifted so i can now drive any distance for leisure/exercise  purposes.  Except Wales and Scotland.  so still cant go into Snowdonia .  But the Silver Studded Blue butterflies  should be emerging now at Prees Heath in Shroposhire . So with very light winds and a cloudy forecast i have driven down to see if i can photograph a few.
These butterflies quite often emerge in huge numbers, and unlike most species don't actually move very far so they are always to be seen flying low around the Bell Heather

It didnt take long to find them ,  they are roosting in the heather,   all males which are blue underwing, whereas the females are brown.  They always emerge first.

It is an old airfield , the Bell Heather has been seeded on the old runways over recent years to increase the habitat for these fairly rare butterfly.

 I have found a nice fresh male , probably emerged in the last 24 hours ,  placed it on a nice colorful dead  heather stem .  held in a small clamp.  i can now lie down low to shoot with a nice clean background .

                                            Shot with Canon 5dmk2  100mmL macro lens
                                                                f7.1  iso400  1/125 th

                                               Beautiful colours of the dead heather stems.

All the butterflies seen so far have been males ,  but after half hour of searching i have found a newly emerged female still on the heather but low down out of sight , it is cloudy and fairly cool so the males are not flying around looking for the females yet.

                                                            Female Silver Studded Blue
                                                                 f8  iso 400  1/125 th

                    Male sitting on a grass stem ,  5dsr  100mm L macro on a tripod for this one.
                                                                  f7.1    iso 500  /1/80th

It is now just gone 10 am , and the sun is breaking through the clouds and the butterflies are becoming more active.   opening there wings to the sun .

                                                               One last image of a male .

A week later on the 17 th i have come back to see if a bigger emergence has taken place , we have had quite a few thunderstorms over the last couple of days so that may have had an impact on them.  It is a bit breezy today, but much warmer than last week when i arrive and immediately i notice how much more active they are, the numbers have increased dramatically also with plenty of females spotted already , considering i only found about 6 last week.   Unfortunately most of the males are roosting but take flight as soon as i get close !

A Small Heath , there are plenty of these flying around and this one stayed motionless to allow a 4 frame focus stack.   

                           A picture clearly showing the difference between male and female.

                                                      Female on an old heather flower
                                             5dsr   f14  1/5 th sec  iso 100   tripod used

         One of dozens of females that i have found , all the males seem to be very worn already with scales missing all over the wings.

                                                        5d mk2   100mm L macro
                                                           f7.1  iso 400  1/60 th

It is just too warm now , they are all too flighty but i have just shot this beautiful female on a heather flower to finish with.   I have not found a single butterfly emerging with the ants which is disappointing.