Copper, Brimstone and Munching Darter.
A visit on Sunday 29th August to the excellent Alners Gorse butterfly conservation reserve in Dorset proved again to be worthwhile in sightings alone. Amongst the butterflies that I spotted were a Silver Washed Fritillary, Coma, Red Admiral, Small Coppers, Brimstones, Small Whites, and various browns. In addition there were several darters and a Southern Hawker flying around.
The following were the pick of the macro photographs that I got from the afternoon. Which includes a three shot animation of a Common Hawker munching on a bug.
Cricket
A cricket was the first subject I found, posing nicely on a flower, I shot at a wide aperture of F5 to blur the background flowers in the background whilst keeping the cricket nicely in focus. Taken on Canon 50D with 100mm F2.8mm Macro Lens. F5 1/250 ISO400 Flash fill from Canon MT-24ex Flashgun.
As mentioned earlier this female common darter, posed on a gate post whilst it ate. It allowed me to get close and fire a sequence of 3 macro shots (about 1:1) and then merge together to form the above animation in Adobe Photoshop CS5 using the load image as layers. A single shot from the series is shown below. All taken on Canon 50D with 100mm F2.8mm Macro Lens. F10 1/160 ISO400 Natural Light.
Common Darter Female – Sympetrum striolatum
Small Copper – Lycaena phlaeas
One of the prettiest in my view of the small butterflies in Britain is the Small Copper. This one I found on some small flowers was difficult to get due to the bright sunlight at the time and it’s shiny wings. This one being the best of the macro shots I took. (Small Copper – Lycaena phlaeas taken at Alners Gorse on Canon 50D with 100mm F2.8mm Macro Lens. F8 1/400 ISO400 Natural Light).
Brimstone – Gonepteryx rhamni
The last two images are of a Brimstone – Gonepteryx rhamni again taken 100mm F2.8mm Macro Lens. This first shot is taken close up at F13 1/250 ISO400 Flash fill from Canon MT-24ex Flashgun.
Whereas the next shot I shot from slightly further away to show it in its environment more.
Brimstone – Gonepteryx rhamni on flower
F8 1/320 ISO400 Natural Light.
Map of Location
Butterfly Conservation Site.
