Saturday 1 October 2016

Black-Tailed Skimmers

I haven't done a huge amount of photography this summer but I did manage a few sessions at a local nature reserve photographing the Black-Tailed Skimmer dragonflies. I was fortunate to find one as it was emerging from its larval stage, something that I never tire of watching.

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This first one was taken with my Tokina 35mm macro lens to show the newly emerged dragonfly in its natural environment:



I also photographed the same scene with my Laowa 15mm wideangle macro lens. This obviously provides a much wider field of view:



and here's a recently emerged individual, photographed with the Tokina 35mm:



and finally two more conventional portraits of a female Black-Tailed Skimmer, this time photographed with my Olympus E-M1 and Olympus 60mm macro lens:






Saturday 9 July 2016

Practical Photography magazine

I'm afraid things have been a little hectic in recent months hence the lack of posts on this blog. But just to prove I'm still alive here's an article in the latest (August) issue of Practical Photography magazine featuring my images and some of my text.


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This issue of Practical Photography has a large section on wildlife photography containing images and tips from Mark Hamblin, Laurie Campbell, Ben Hall, Stefano Unterthiner (and, rather flatteringly, yours truly).

I should perhaps add that I wasn't responsible for the use of the word 'minibeasts' in the title (!) or the recommendation to fire a fast burst of images when taking macro. That is not a technique I would ever personally use when shooting static insects and would only consider it for photographing a moving target such as a dragonfly in flight.


Monday 15 February 2016

Miscellaneous Images

A few miscellaneous images from last summer that didn't make it into any previous blog posts.


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A pair of Red and Black Froghoppers



A Soldier Fly



A Blue-Tailed Damselfly



A Small Skipper Butterfly



A newly emerged Six-Spot Burnet Moth



and finally, a Damselfly freshly emerged from its exuvia




Thursday 4 February 2016

Top 10 Images of 2015

A house move and significant new responsibilities in my day job have meant it's taken me 5 weeks to get around to posting my favourite images of 2015. Better late than never I hope!

Looking back at my reviews of previous years they strike me as rather self indulgent (!) so I won't bother with a review of 2015 other than to make a couple of brief comments. I took fewer photos than in previous years largely due to house renovation and the job responsibilities referred to above but, for some reason, I published far more articles and images in magazines than in previous years (previous blog posts will refer to some of these). I also had an image Highly Commended in the British Wildlife Photography Awards which was nice. In terms of my actual photography in 2015 I particularly enjoyed playing with my new Laowa 15mm wideangle macro lens and several of the images below were taken with that lens.

Despite not taking a huge number of images in 2015 there were a few that I liked. So what follows are my favourites based on my entirely subjective preferences.


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I always enjoy seeing Tawny Mining Bees in spring and was particularly pleased to capture this female against a blue sky




 The first of my images taken with the Laowa 15mm macro. This is a Blue-Tailed Damselfly photographed early in the morning



Another bee in sunshine, this time an Andrena Haemorrhoa mining bee



A Brown Lipped Snail in its aquatic habitat, taken with the Laowa 15mm



A backlit Drinker Moth caterpillar



A wideangle Blue-Tailed Damselfly



and a wideangle Common Darter



The smaller fly on the left had caught and was devouring the larger fly (more info here)



This image is perhaps nothing special as a standalone image but this was the first time I'd seen a Roesel's Bush Cricket at my small local reserve



and finally another wideangle Common Darter




So perhaps not the most varied selection of images but they're all images that I enjoyed taking for various reasons.