Pearls at Bently Wood

A visit on a Saturday afternoon on the 19th May to Bentley Wood was well worth while.  Upon arriving in the car park I spoke to a guy who was just leaving, who told me the Pearl-bordered Fritillarys were out in number, with the odd Duke of Burgundy about too.  Armed with this enthusiasm I made my way through the still muddy entrance to the clearing.  The first thing that came to my attention was not a butterfly but this beetle, that was feeding on nectar in what I think was a hawthorn tree.

Beetle on flowers. Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens.  ISO 400 F5.6 1/125. Natural Light.

After walking around a bit, watching several other photographers taking shots of some pearls, I was pleased to spot a Duke of Burgundy at rest on some leaves.  Carefully approaching it I cleared away some distracting leaves to take this shot of it resting on the leaf – the temperature was starting to cool ( not that it was that great to start with anyway ).  I then followed up with the second shot ( which is in fact two shots stacked together in CS5), and I then did an adjusted “Spicify” on Topaz Adjust to give it a sort of Macro HD appearance!

Duke of Burgundy – Hamearis lucina.  Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens.  F6.3 ISO 200 1/50 Natural Light on Tripod.

Punked up Duke.  A shot stakc of a Duke of Burgundy, with processing in Topaz Adjust.  Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens.  F5.6 ISO 200 1/50 Natural Light on Tripod.

I then sort of “swapped” butterflies with another photographer – who had just finished taking a newly emerged Pearl-bordered Fritillary on some bluebells.  This one I took side on, and then when it warmed up a wing open shot ( some topaz adjust processing was done on this too).

Pearl-bordered Fritillary on Bluebells.  Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens.  ISO 160 F8 1/30.  Natural Light on Tripod.

Pearl Bordered Fritillary on Bluebells.  Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens.  F8 ISO 200 1/60 Natural Light on Tripod.  Processing in Topaz Adjust.

My day further improved when I found a couple of mating Pearl-borders.  Here I’ve used a blue card in the background to give a sky tone to the shot.

Mating Pearl-bordered Fritillarys.  Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens.  ISO 200 F7.1 1/160.  Natural Light and Tripod.  Card for background colouring.

This card ( and a pink one were in use shortly again on another pearl-bordered butterfly) but I fitted a nice crab spider in between the mating pair and the last butterfly of the day.

Crab Spider (1x Mag).  Taken on Canon 50D with Canon MPE-65mm Macro Lens.  ISO 200 F11 1/250. Flash from MT-24ex Macro Flash.

Pearl-bordered Fritillary.  Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens.  ISO 200 F8 1/250. Flash on Tripod.  Card for background colouring.

Pearl-bordered Fritillary (about 1.5x Mag).  Taken on Canon 50D with Canon MPE-65mm Macro Lens.  ISO 200 F11 1/250. Flash on Tripod.  Card for background colouring.

Pearl-bordered Fritillary (about 2x Mag).  Taken on Canon 50D with Canon MPE-65mm Macro Lens.  ISO 200 F11 1/250. Flash on Tripod.  Card for background colouring.

And finally a rare for me natural light MPE-65mm shot of the same Pearl-bordered Butterfly.

Pearl-bordered Fritillary (about 1x Mag).  Taken on Canon 50D with Canon MPE-65mm Macro Lens.  ISO 400 F5.6 1/50. Natural Light Tripod.  Card for background colouring.

Map of Location

Small Car Parking area at Bentley Wood.