Painted Lady Butterfly [Edited]

Painted Lady Butterfly, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

I used Photoshop to desaturate the background to emphasis the butterfly and thistle. Ideally I would've liked to get lower down to take the shot, but as you know butterflies I easily spooked.

I have really enjoying the British summer at the moment, there seems to be an abundant supply of insects and flowers to take pictures of.

Although the forecast for the next couple of weeks seem to be rain showers, but then again I think we should take that with a pinch of salt, as the met office said that we should paint our houses white to deflect the intense heat.

Hmmm.................;-)

Butterfly

Butterfly, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

Another shot from our walk at Chest Woods. Still amazed of the amount of butterflies there that day.

I thought that scientists said that there was a big decline in butterflies this year, well I think they need to visit some other area's rather than their labs. OK, I might be being flippant and they are probably suggesting other species of butterfly.

Smoke Mark II

Smoke, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

This is another shot of the smoke session, expect to see some more. I think I will upload some with the black BG.

Would just like to mention that I was inspired by this:

http://gavtrain.blogspot.com/2009/07/smoke-photography-made-simple-week-62_23.html

Smoke

Smoke, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

I have been trying my hand at some Smoke Photography. Equipment used:
1 x Incense Stick
1 x Black Background
1 x Canon 40D with Sigma 28-70mm Lens
1 x Canon Speedlite 430II flash with an Elastic band and 2 pieces of Cardboard.
1 x Table light - to light the smoke for the auto focus on the camera

Ok I will describe the cardboard first. With the flash you do not want any spill over of the flash, so you strap to pieces of cardboard on the side of the flash head, so that you direct the flash towards the smoke.

Setting for the camera, F/9.0 Speed 1/160th. Flash was set to 1/2 power.

After shots were taken, I processed in PS CS4, inverting image and then adding another layer and blending in some colour.

This is the results.

Damselfly

Damselfly, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

Not sure what kind of Damselfly this is, but it was a remarkable blue colour. I am sure it was playing with me too, as I got close it would fly away.

Butterflies

While we were at Chest Wood we saw hundreds of butterflies all over the place, it was quiet an extrondanary site to see. Well here are a couple of shots.

Wildflowers

Well after a hiatus of taking photographs, I went mad at the weekend with a few projects.

We had a lovely walk to Chest Woods at Layer-de-la-Haye. And found an abundance of fauna and flora.

These wildflowers were very eye catching (well just about, as they are tiny). I have no idea on the ID of the flowers either, sorry!!

These other flower I am guessing it a Thistle of some kind. If you can help with the ID of either these 2 please let me know.

Cactus Flower

This is a shot of my Cactus flower, it only last between 24 and 36 hours. I read on the internet how to get it to flower and thought I would try.

Basically you have to NOT water your cactus between November and end of March, none at all. It's now July and I have had success with this beautiful display.

Once the bud starts growing, it is so rapid, probably only took a week to get to this stage.

Apparently the flowers in the wild are pollinated by Bats. Hope you like the shot.

Colour Impact

When do you stop messing about with the colour in a photograph?

I pushed the colour saturation up on this one. To be honest, I think it really does portray the colours that I saw that day.

Very pleased with the details I have captured. The sky is pretty much perfect too.

Once again, thanks for looking.

Sinkhole

This is a shot of the Ladybower Reservoir in the Peak District. It shows the sinkhole for when the water levels are high. I think this is the lowest level I have seen the water at.

Last time, the water was flowing over the top of the sinkhole.

Enjoy!

No Excuses for not posting.

I haven't updated the website for a while. I think I was just going through a lazy phase.

Anyway, The 3 shots here are from a recent trip to the Peak District. They are taken at Padley Gorge and they are of the same waterfall, but in three different placed. I was really pleased with the outcome of the shots, and this is probably the most success I have had with capturing water like this.

I may have overdone the saturation slightly on a couple of the shots.

Any way I hope you like.

Thanks