Marbled White Butterflies

Earlier this summer I paid a visit to Ryton Woods in Warwickshire specifically to photograph the Marbled White butterflies. It was forecast to be a very warm day and hence an early start was necessary if I was to be able to photograph them before they became too active. I arrived on site around 6:00 AM and, although it was already quite warm, I did manage to find a few Marbled Whites that had yet to warm up.

The vivid blue sky meant that I was keen to take some wideangle images showing the butterflies in their grassy environment. The following image is probably my favourite from the session, taken with my Tokina 35mm macro lens.

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I was also keen to take some backlit images and took the following against a dark backdrop of trees (taken with my Sigma 150mm lens).

and here's a more traditional portrait for good measure;

Black Ants and Aphids

A previous post from a couple of years ago explained my interest in photographing the relationship between ants and aphids and described my technique for photographing them. Last year I had no opportunities to photograph this relationship but this year I was pleased to find some clusters of aphids on several foxgloves in my garden. As ever, the Black Ants (Lasius niger) were in attendance and feeding from the sugary honeydew secreted from the aphids.

It's worth pointing out that Black Ants are tiny, typically 3-5mm in length, and hence much smaller than the larger Wood Ant and many other types of ants found outside the UK. As a result of their size, Black Ants are very difficult to photograph, not helped by their reluctance to keep still. After a fair amount of perseverance I managed a few images, of which the following 2 are those I'm most happy with:

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As I mentioned in the previous post, an image I've been trying to get for years is of an ant actually drinking a globule of honeydew. This has always proved very difficult as the globule is typically consumed by the ants the second it appears. The image below, which is far from perfect, is the best I managed this year.

'New' Jumping Spider

Jumping spiders are one of my favourites subjects for 'high magnification' macro. The most common jumping spiders in the UK are the Zebra Spider and a similar looking spider called Sitticus pubescens. These are both tiny spiders commonly seen on rocks, walls etc, particularly if the they are warmed by the sun. Like all jumping spiders, they have an impressive set of eyes which gives them real character when viewed through a macro lens.

Over the years I have photographed the 2 species above on many occasions. However, this summer I was lucky enough to stumble across another species of jumping spider that I had never seen before. I've since found out that it's likely to be Heliophanus flavipes, or possibly Heliophanus cupreus.

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For comparison, here's a Zebra Jumping Spider:

and here's Sitticus pubescens:

Staged 'Wildlife' Images in the National Press

The national and international press are always on the look-out for eye-catching and unusual images and in recent months they have printed a large number of images of 'wildlife' in 'humorous' poses. The image below of the frog sheltering from the rain under a leaf is a good example. It seems to have been reproduced everywhere from the Guardian to the Daily Mail to the Huffington Post.

Photographer: Penkdix Palme

Anyone with any experience of wildlife and photography would know this is a highly staged image, despite the photographer's claim that he observed the frog sheltering from the rain in this manner for 30 minutes. This frog does not want to be there and it is not in good condition. The leaf doesn't match the aloe vera stem that it's sat on, the rain is too even and is either coming from a hosepipe/watering can or may even have been added in post processing and, to top it all, the photographer even has other images of frogs sheltering under different leaves. So it is very sad to see so many picture editors paying this photographer for this horribly fraudulent image. 

There have been many other recent examples and, for some reason, many are the work of Indonesian photographers. I was very pleased to see the blog post below exposing some of these images:

http://heejennwei.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/pseudo-nature-photographers-of-indonesia.html 

Increasingly the reality behind these images is being exposed and so I can only hope that picture editors and news agencies will start to ask a few more questions and to remember the maxim that if a photo seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Edit: A few more examples to illustrate my point. All showing totally unnatural, staged behaviour.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2262675/Cheeky-frog-hops-shell-snail-hitches-ride.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2517924/The-odd-couple-Extraordinary-picture-tiny-frog-riding-beetles-leads-entries-amateur-photography-contest.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2471789/Playing-mantis-Insect-shows-softer-tickling-toads-belly.html

the common themes in these 3 images are the Daily Mail, Indonesian photographers and animals balanced on top of other animals. However, a final example breaks that first common theme but not the other two. It's featured in the Daily Telegraph's news pictures of the year 2013. Yes, really.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/pictures-of-the-year/10538287/World-news-pictures-of-the-year-2013-part-3.html?frame=2611491

note the mention of the 'rare moment' captured by the photographer. 

The only question I have is whether picture editors are themselves very naive and gullible and genuinely believe these images are natural, or whether they know damn well that these images are staged but are working on the assumption that most readers are naive and gullible. 

Mating Green Hairstreak Butterflies

When it comes to my nature photography I prefer to stay local. In fact, the vast majority of my photographs are taken within a 3 mile radius of my home. This is a deliberate strategy, in part because I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of travelling 200 miles to photograph a butterfly. But in truth it's also due to the fact that it's easier to be on site early in the morning if the site is closer to my home. Also, I think macro photography lends itself to staying local perhaps more so than mammal or bird photography. However, I do make the odd exception to my rule and will occasionally travel a little further afield.

One trip that I usually make at least once each year is to Ryton Woods in Warwickshire (approx 35 miles from my home). The woods and the nearby meadow are generally good for a variety of butterflies. This year I paid a visit at the end of May mainly to photograph the Green Hairstreaks (I also visited again in July to see the Marbled Whites but that will be a topic for a future blog post as I haven't processed those images yet).

On this particular day in late May there were a number of Green Hairstreaks about but because it was quite a warm day they were very active and I wondered whether I would actually get any decent images. Luckily I spotted a mating pair, a first for me, and since they were preoccupied they let me move in reasonably close (not too close since I was using the Sigma 150mm macro lens which has a good working distance). Fortunately, they didn't seem at all bothered by my presence and continued mating for a good 20-30 minutes!

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The image above is my favourite and it alone made the trip worthwhile for me. That was just as well because I actually photographed little else and gave up due to the heat a couple of hours later! The following are the only other vaguely respectable images that I managed.

Mayflies

For some reason I never see Mayflies at any of my regular local haunts so I was surprised to find this one at a nearby site in early June. It was on its own sitting in the grass with no sign of any other individuals in the vicinity.

Mayflies have an unusual life cycle and typically spend 2 years living in rivers, streams or lakes as a nymph. They then emerge in their adult form and often create mating swarms above the water. However, this adult stage is short-lived and typically only lasts for a day or two. As a result of this short life span, the adult Mayfly doesn't actually eat. Its sole purpose is reproduction!

I believe this individual is Ephemera danica, one of the UK's most common species of Mayfly.

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Red Deer Stag Painting

From time to time I receive emails from artists asking if they can base a painting on one of my images. I recently received such a request from a Dubai based artist by the name of Matt Ryder. He was keen to use one of my Red Deer Stag images (see below) as the basis for a painting he had in mind.

The result is below. It's entitled Wandering Storm and is acrylic on canvas measuring 72 inches x 60 inches. Clearly he's shown some artistic license but the stag itself is very similar to the original image and is very impressive in my opinion.

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As well as being a wildlife artist, Matt Ryder is also a very talented caricaturist. His website is well worth a visit. I thought the caricatures of Kim Jong Un and Ian Brown, not 2 names that tend to appear in the same sentence, were particularly good.