There are lots of rather similar threads and it can be difficult to check before posting. I recently started a new thread on Collard Hill before seeing an old one, buried quite deep down. Is there any way of providing an alphabetical list of sub-forums under 'Species' for the mainstream British spec...

It was blisteringly hot on the slope at Collard on Sunday (26th June). Although there were lots of visitors, the area absorbed them with ease. Most headed for the main slope, where the Large Blues were extremely active, offering little scope for photography. The quarry, close to the entrance gate, o...

Looking at my photos, they have far less obvious silver studs than the ones shown here. Exactly what I found when looking at my older photos from Silchester Common. So, this year, I concentrated on finding good studs (!) and found the strongly marked individual shown earlier in this thread. It does...

Should have known the answer would be on this site somewhere - it usually is!

Nice video

Mike

John W wrote: Has anyone else seen Wood Whites interacting in this way?

I took this rather similar photo in Whitecross Green Wood. I had assumed it was courtship behaviour but don't really know.
Mike

I notice that Richard Lewington shows the different antenna colours in "The Butterflies of Britain and Ireland" 2nd ed, 2010. The difference isn't mentioned, however, in Vol 7 part 1 of "The Moths and Butterflies of GB and Ireland", 1989. The artist has to study every detail of h...

It's worth watching the Durlston Coutry Park daily diary at http://www.durlston.co.uk/index.php I've not seen Lulworths mentioned yet but it's usually a good place for them.

Mike

I saw my very first CS near Spean Bridge. We had driven directly from Oxfordshire and took the side road near Spean Bridge station to pause for a cup of tea. There was a small lay-by by a bridge at NN247811 and, in a clearing by the roadside, there were our first CS! It was the last British mainland...

I made the trip in 2007 and, if you are going all that way, it is worth visiting other sites in the area. I found that Ariundle (Airigh Fhionndail) NNR was my favourite site, with the Butterfly Conservation Allt Mhuic site on Loch Arkaig a close runner-up. Glasdrum is smaller and more enclosed, with...

Bob_Sheruncle wrote:my first year of trying to get out and find butterflies.

I see from your photostream that you also do birds. In UK there are only around 58 regular butterfly species, so why not set yourself the challenge of getting them all! You can go back to birds in the winter!

Mike

I'd go for female Black-tailed Skimmer

Mike

Adobe TV, you can watch video tutorials for free all about using Photoshop That's a useful resource to know about, thanks! For those who never use Photoshop, the beauty of digital cameras is that they can produce really good pictures with little effort! This p****s off some photographers who learne...

Hi... the most important thing to do to your card is "Format it" Good advice, and welcome to the forums! I'm sure your experience with customer problems will be very useful. As an additional tip: sooner or later everyone deletes an important photo from a card and it is worth knowing about...

I use photoshop CS4 and use the Smart Sharpen tool which gives a much more natural looking effect Thank you for so much detailed information. I tend to stick with software that works, even when it gets rather ancient, so I'm still using v2 of Photoshop Elements! However, a little research showed th...

This page is pretty thorough..... Thanks for the reference. I've had a first look and it seems very comprehensive. I'm only using the last stage of the process it describes, so will read more thoroughly and try out the suggestions. On the related topic of 'image noise', birding friends introduced m...

Zonda wrote:Dunno what you're all on about.

Clearly, looking at your photos, you have your own 'magic'!

Mike

Some images posted here look spactacularly sharp That's exactly why I started this thread! Let's hope our fellow members are prepared to reveal their secrets! Thank you also for your comment on down-sizing - extra sharpening seems to be a key step in preparing photos for the web. I discovered your ...

I'm interested to know how much sharpening people apply to their pics in Photoshop? I tend to err on the side of caution but sometimes I feel my pics look a bit bland compared to ones I see on the web. In Photoshop Elements, I generally use Unsharp Mask settings of 1.2 pixels radius, 125% amount, an...

Memory cards aren't chemical devices, like batteries, so they don't gradually degrade. They can fail suddenly but, generally, if they are working, they are ok, and picture quality will certainly not change with age. The only thing to check, in the way of routine maintenance, is that the contact stri...

or even polyphagous..... but perhaps I'm sounding like a spiny lobster (Panulirus polyphagus).
Mike