The 60mm lens was at its extreme focus, there was a wind moving the birch, the tripod seemed stable and I was using a cable release on the camera. In other words John, step back a bit. :D Regards Gruditch I dooooon't think a longer cable release would work, suppose I could get a wireless one :lol: I...

I can't seem to get the hang of depth of field. I tried this shot with a 180mm macro and couldn't get the whole of the beast in focus even though I went to f32, I switched to a 60mm macro lens and eventually got this at f8 1/15th and even then it's not all in focus. I had to set the lens in the same...

In my recording patch in SW Surrey I have seen more Brimstones this month than I saw in the whole of last year. I haven't a clue what this signifies; I just hope that all other species will be up by a similar margin.

Painted Lady. My old cousin says that he saw two Painted Ladies last Saturday in his garden in Cawsand. Since his garden is the first at about sea level on the estuary and he is 95 and an amateur naturalist he should know one when he sees it! Bit early if you ask me but then the grockle season gets ...

A handy insect repellent when you have forgotten the real thing, is crushed elderberry leaves rubbed on exposed parts. It certainly works for midges at dusk.

I shall be off the visit an old cousin who lives in Cawsand next week, anyone know of a potentially good butterfly spot in the area?

Rogerdodge wrote:these SN sites have helped to bring regime change

I have visions of rubber and thongs and things that Berlusconi is alleged to indulge in, but it doesn't bring about regime change.

David M wrote: After all, what harm can it do?

Think of the man hours wasted (and woman hours) when they could be out working on a reserve, learning to respect wildlife, or simply lernin ow to spell.

I have never been in the least interested in Twitter and Facebook and don't really know what they do. I'm sure there are advantages but they have passed me by up to now. Jack That makes two of us. If I want to natter over the garden fence I will, but the idea of asking to be friends with anyone rem...

Rushed out with my new Christmas camera when I saw a f. Brimstone fluttering around the Pulmonaria, couldn't find it but spotted this Comma having a feed. So christened the camera and out of about 80 shots found one half usable picture.

I have had a buddleia x weyeriana 'honeycomb' for twelve years or so and I find it a deadly dull bush - and so do the butterflies. Maybe it's because there are good old-fashioned Michaelmas daisies near it, so they are spoilt for choice. When pruning buddleia it's always worth a try to stick some cu...

the first shot looks like white ballance is too warm, common with indoor shooting with flash in auto wb mode in cameras menu if your printer is in auto mode it will be correcting the white ballance automatically . try manually setting wb to a cooler "k" setting 4500 maybe phil I think tha...

1. I didn't know about calibration, I'll look up how to do that. 2. Yes I am saying that photos taken in artificial light have a colour cast when printed (of varying degrees) but look fine on the screen. Daylight pictures print OK and look just the same on the screen. The pictures I posted above are...

Has anyone found a solution to the problem of digital photographs taken entirely under artificial light being incorrectly rendered by the printer, though they look correct on the PC screen? The printer renders correctly daylight pictures. Here it is as I see it on the screen IMG_0331edited2.jpg and ...

Nature article http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110302/ ... 1.130.html

This would appear to be an opportunity to exercise your right under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (1)Any person making a request for information to a public authority is entitled— (a)to be informed in writing by the public authority whether it holds information of the description specified in ...

I am always puzzled by immature females who look so much flashier than their parents, I find the same with homo sapiens

Thanks for the confirmation.

Is this a form of Pyrrhosoma nymphula otherwise I haven't a clue what it might be. The photo data shows I took it in June 2010 on a stream in Surrey

Felix wrote:First oil beetle of the year in the garden today. Unusually early by anyone's standards.
Felix.

Would that be a Muammar al-Gaddafi ?

We obviously know nothing about butterflies. The following is from the RHS website. Cold winter boosts butterfly numbers 11 February 2011 Some of Britain's rarest butterflies are increasing in numbers and may have a better long-term chance of survival following this winter's prolonged cold snap. In ...