Category Archives: Nature

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #103 – Surprise

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I took this photo because I liked the look of the water, chain and blue of the boat. But I was surprised to find when I downloaded it onto my computer that the chain and boat had a number of damselflies sitting on them – some looking to be recently emerged.

Boat and chain

A cropped image shows them slightly more clearly.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge#99: Old and New

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An old hacked tree with a beautiful new dragonfly. Dragonflies as a species though have been around for about 300 million years! They spend much of their life cycle in water as nymphs (often 2-3 years). As adults, they may only live a couple of months.

Black-tailed skimmer

The newly opened flower of a Burnet rose, and behind ancient limestone (hundred’s of millions of years old).

  • Burnet rose

Inspired by this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge#99: Old and New

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #96: Cropping the Shot

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This week’s Lens-artist photo challenge is to look at cropping photographs. I do crop images pretty regularly.

Here are some examples – mostly I just like cropping some of the “noise” from the image, so I can focus on the subject a little more.

  • Red campion
  • Red campion

Here the cropped images just makes the subjects a little larger, and easier to see.

  • White tailed bumblebee
  • White tailed bumblebee
  • Speckled wood butterfly
  • Speckled wood butterfly

Wildflowers at home

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All around our garden wildlflowers make their home and they are welcome with open arms.

Here tufted vetch. One of the earliest vetches to flower and loved by bees especially Common carder bees.

Secondly globe marigold. I transferred a bit of a plant to our pond many years ago where it grows. Though it is in the nearby drains where it flourishes. It’s bright yellow petals are just like mini suns.

Thirdly lesser celendine with violets; for me the colour combination is just perfect. Violets along with primroses are my favourite spring flowers.

Fourthly the humble buttercup. While the creeping buttercup is a bit of a nuisance as a “weed” in the vegetable patch you cannot but enjoy the bright yellow flowers.

Next bluebells. Yes they are already in flower. I collected seed from a woodland not too far away and have waited five patient years for these seeds to grow enough to produce flowers. It was worth the wait.

And finally dandelions – many of which are now seed heads. But these are loved by bullfinches, goldfinches and chaffinches.