Tiny Beauty
These delicate little butterflies were only about half an inch tall, I caught them sitting on buds of Lavender late one afternoon. As usual, I used the 550D, macro lens and tripod.
Thank you to all who have visited and commented in the last few days – I have now reached the heady height of having 64 followers, and many lovely folk leaving kind comments. It’s just great to know my images are being enjoyed around the world! 14 different countries and 125 138 146 views today alone! I’m amazed.
Macro Insects and Spiders..
Some recent shots of little critters found in my garden. Gotta love that macro lens!
Butterfly
I found this butterfly this morning when walking my dogs at the local football field. It was on the ground, cold, damp and a bit slow…..I picked it up, placed it on my woolly sleeve where it could hang on, and brought it home, where I placed it on this Aquilegia flower. I hope it is able to warm up and fly away…..
Taken with my Canon 550D and EF 100 mm 1:2.8 macro lens using a tripod.
Garden shots……end of Summer
Some photographs from the garden, taken over the last few days…..mostly macro as usual, with my beloved Canon 550D and 100mm macro lens.
Down by the lake early in the morning
Cyclamen hederifolium
Cyclamen hederifolium - white
Seed heads of Dierama pendulum
Imperial Jezabel - Delias harpalyce
Seed head of Nigella
Honey Bee on Sedum flower
Blowing Bubbles on a rose petal - this fly was minute maybe 3mm in length.
Another Fly, another bubble....
Posted today for the Creative Exchange.
Skippers
According to Wikipedia, Skippers are small butterflies, named for their darting and rapid flight, usually fairly close to the ground. They are of the family Hesperiidae and while they might look more like Moths due to their small size and dull colouring, they are not. Skippers are distinguished by their club like antennae, where moths have feathered ends to theirs. The gorgeous little butterflies have stocky bodies, and large compound eyes while their wings, which are small in proportion to their bodies, are usually angled upward or spread out while at rest. They are only 10 -15 mm in size, but my experience is that they stay on a flower for longer that other butterflies, and so are easier to photograph. I love their furry coats and faces – they are very cute.
These were all shot in my garden using the 550D on a tripod, and the macro lens.
If you think my watermark is getting larger, you are correct and for this I apologise. I came across this article today, where a Toronto photographer has had his work stolen by someone in the UK, and published on the UK photographer’s site as his own. The UK photographer had done it before, and had been thrown out of the British Press Photographers Association as a result, but it does not seem to have stopped him. The internet makes it too easy to copy or save published images without consent, but this breaches copyright, and I don’t like Pintrest, where I have found images of mine, for the same reasons. So please just try to ignore the watermarking, and enjoy the photos.
Beautiful Bugs and a Bird…
Have been busy with Beyond Layers assignments, which I hope to show soon…..Click here for the Flickr site if interested to see some great work….In the meantime, some recent shots of insects from the garden……the first three are of a very beautiful katydid that I rescued from the dog’s drinking bowl.
And finally, a juvenile Crimson Rosella – there were eight of these in the back garden this morning, all looking very green. When they mature, they will get their gorgeous scarlet plumage.
Enjoy!
Blue Bee
Today I spotted a couple of insects that I had not seen before, and certainly not photographed. The first was a Blue Banded Bee or Amegillia cingulata, an Australian Native Bee with a distinctive appearance – it is a bit plumper and instead of yellow stripes, it has beautiful turquoise ones, and the number of stripes indicates the gender. This one had four, so that makes it a female. They seem to fly very fast, and do not settle for more than a micro-second, so these shots are not as well focused as they might be. I hope there are more around as they are really very beautiful.
The next one is a Bee Fly or Bombyliid. I had not seen one of these before either, it was about the size of a stout bee and was feeding on nectar from a Buddlia flower.
I also saw some Skippers, small butterflies, and I think these are both Lyell’s Swifts or Pelopidas lyelli.
Then there were the usual Honey Bees and Cabbage Butterflies on the lavender too……
Hollyhock, Butterflies and an Open Gate
Today’s early morning photos…….another sunny still beginning, though winds and higher temperatures forecast for later.
The next is for Texture Tuesday, our prompt was “Open” – ever literal, this is a shot of the back gate from outside the fence. Bella the escape hound is actually tethered, or else she would be away and chasing kangaroos! Kim’s texture “Evolve” was used to provide some texture……..I think in Multiply blending mode.
A little bit of housekeeping…..you might note the web address is a little different. It is now has its own domain name – don’t worry though, if you use the old https://smcbphoto.wordpress.com one, WordPress will cleverly direct you here.
Butterflies, Bee…and a happy Spider
Took these today….a sunny day for a change so insects were busy going about their work.
All with the 550D, Macro 100mm 2.8 lens and tripod.
Sharing these with the Creative Exchange.
