What an amazing site this is! I browsed a thread about Tics and soon found myself learning new words (widdershins), following a discussion on Middle High German, then philology, then Latin binomials..... A good job the thread was labelled 'General', so none of this was 'off topic'. What a change fro...

As an 'Oxon' local, my favourite sites are Whitecross Green Wood, Asham Meads, and Otmoor. Details for finding Whitecross and Asham Meads (very near to each other) are on the BBOWT website. From the carpark at Whitecross, head straight down the main ride to the far (South) end and look at the bushes...

Not a lot to go on here! Possibly the flava form of a Burnet Moth. Try looking at the UK moths site; in particular see http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=5436
If you can provide more details, we could possibly do better!
Mike

Thanks for the info., Pete. I headed to Silchester this afternoon and found them in abundance! I was lucky to get plenty of photos in good sunshine before the rain clouds moved in! I'm obviously behind the times as I still think of these as July butterflies - clearly a lot of flight-time graphs are ...

Any emergence at Silchester Common yet? I missed them last year by being too late, so don't want to repeat that mistake!
Mike

If the last one was described as 'superb', where do we start with this one! Excellent lighting, focus, composition and the water drops on the petal add a finishing touch. I think this is a brilliant photo - well done!!!
Mike

Thank you, Charles. It certainly works for me! The slide holder is simply a diffuser screen, which I point at the window for natural light. It also works with a halogen desklamp, and I'm sure flash would also be ok, though I haven't tried it. I set an aperture of f/8 in Aperture Priority mode, turn ...

Thanks for your comment, Piers. It sent me back into my archives and I found that I took 12 photos of this butterfly, including some topsides, which I had completely forgotten. I must have been impressed, as clicks cost money in those film days! You have prompted me to scan the originals at higher q...

Many thanks, Piers. It is just one individual - when I wrote 'they', I meant photos not butterflies - wasn't very clear!
I'm glad to know that it hasn't been wrongly labelled on my website!
Mike

If you want to go beyond IrfanView then the 'open source' GIMP (image manipulation program) can do most of what Photoshop does, for free. It's not as polished as Photoshop but is developing all the time and there is also a RAW converter called UFRaw. For more info and to download (free), visit http:...

If you have a macro lens, you can use that to re-photograph the slides with your digital camera - much quicker than scanning and good results! I show my own setup on my website at http://home.btconnect.com/mike.flemming/technic2.htm
Mike

I've been looking at all these aberrants and am now wondering about some old photos of my own. I've had these labelled as Common Blues but perhaps they're Adonis? They were photographed at Lough Down in September 1998 and there were Adonis flying at the time. Anyone like to offer any thoughts? Cmn B...

Many thanks for the welcome! I'm now retired so it's nice to feel useful - also it's been a wet afternoon, so good for a bit of web browsing!! I've been in this game for a long time and have a photo collection plus technical tips on my website (see Profile)

by padfield (that particular picture was two cameras ago, with a 3 megapixel Canon compact) Actually, compacts are great for this type of photo, as the short focal-length lens has a physically tiny aperture, which gives the depth of field needed. It's quite difficult to achieve this effect on a DSL...

Suggest you download IrfanView from http://www.irfanview.com/ (freeware). It will do image flip and loads of other useful things!
Mike

If your camera is a Canon 10D, you need to press the AF point button and the Assist button together, at the same time. See http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos10d/page8.asp for more info.
Mike

I use a Nikon 70- 300VR and find it very good for longer-range butterfly shots. Remember that on a D60 you will get 1.5x magnification compared to a full-frame 35mm camera. I often use the zoom lens first and then, if the butterfly is obliging, move in with the macro. The f/5.6 aperture is usually s...