Daneway Banks - 1st July 2016
My Leica 100-400 mm zoom lens, which I have been waiting for since March, finally arrived last Tuesday. Within an hour of its arrival, the rain set in, so I had little opportunity to test it 'in the field' on my Olympus E-M1
Of course, a long telephoto zoom, like this, is primarily aimed at long-distance photography and my main intended purpose for it is bird photography. This particular lens, however, also has a remarkably close minimum focus distance - only 1.3 m - so it has potential to be used for 'macro' subjects, such as butterflies and dragonflies. There are difficulties in using such a long focal length at short range: the main one being that depth of field is minute! Using the calculator on the
Cambridge in Colour website, indicates that, on my camera, a 400mm lens at f/8 has a depth of field of only about 2 mm when focused at 1.3 m! Care is clearly needed, if using the lens in this mode, but the potential for photographing shy butterflies from a fair distance seems very attractive, if intervening grasses can be kept out of the way!
With these thoughts in mind and a slightly more promising weather-forecast (
in my first draft, I actually typed 'water-forecast', which has certainly been the recent experience), I decided to make for
Daneway Banks, yesterday (
1st July), to give the lens a trial. The outward journey from Oxon was not too promising, with scattered showers along the way, and, on arrival, it was cool and damp but, at least, not actually raining!
Daneway Banks is a wonderful place and looking better than ever, on this latest visit, thanks to management work already undertaken since Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust acquired the site. I took the following panorama from the main entrance gate, half-way up the hill, showing the banks carpeted with Rock Rose, Vetch, Marjoram, and Thyme, as well as plentiful Orchids.
![DanewayBanks2016.jpg (169.21 KiB) Viewed 467 times Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016<br />Olympus E-M1 with 12-50 mm lens - 1/640s@f/10 ISO800](./files/thumb_11310_42514e5bad46da5e5e759e273e81a2c5)
- Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016
Olympus E-M1 with 12-50 mm lens - 1/640s@f/10 ISO800
Not far from the gate, and visible in the right of the above photo, a new seat depicts the life-cycle of the Large Blue butterfly, so one can top-up on the basics, before exploring further.
![DanewayBanksSeat.jpg (203.1 KiB) Viewed 504 times Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016<br />Olympus E-M1 with 12-50 mm lens - 1/400s@f/11 ISO800](./files/thumb_11310_af823199391970919a8453d63314c93a)
- Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016
Olympus E-M1 with 12-50 mm lens - 1/400s@f/11 ISO800
Once inside the gate, my first butterfly sighting was of a
Painted Lady, sheltering from the wind on the damp path. The sky was brightening and, after a few moments, it shook its head a few times and then took off, to disappear rapidly into the distance. I was pleased to manage a single photo:
![DanewayPaintedLady.jpg (201.45 KiB) Viewed 504 times Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016<br />Olympus E-M1 with 40-150 mm lens - 1/800s@f/8 ISO800](./files/thumb_11310_456fea4cad8ccfc1b4d5f110266a44bb)
- Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016
Olympus E-M1 with 40-150 mm lens - 1/800s@f/8 ISO800
As I walked along the valley between the banks of flowers, I saw lots of
Meadow Browns, Ringlets, and
Marbled Whites and then, after a couple of hundred metres, my first
Large Blue, in flight and actively pursued by a Meadow Brown. I find that these dusky blue butterflies are difficult to follow by eye, when they are skimming over flowers and grasses. They were staying low down, in the face of a stiff breeze, and it was hard to mark where they settled. A big 'plus', however, was that they were tending to rest with their wings spread - behaviour that I have rarely seen on warmer, sunnier days in previous years. I soon caught up with one, low in the grasses :
![DanewayLgeBlue-1.jpg (188.56 KiB) Viewed 504 times Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016<br />Olympus E-M1 with 40-150 mm lens - 1/800s@f/9 ISO800](./files/thumb_11310_608f94033be23c94758a8f77aa4d6d1b)
- Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016
Olympus E-M1 with 40-150 mm lens - 1/800s@f/9 ISO800
Others were nectaring on the Thyme flowers, giving an opportunity to photograph the undersides, which are much 'plainer' than Common Blues. with no red markings.
![DanewayLgeBlueUns.jpg (157.66 KiB) Viewed 504 times Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016<br />Olympus E-M1 with 40-150 mm lens - 1/800s@f/9 ISO800](./files/thumb_11310_fc3645fb8ce9535cd2e32c87f5559cfb)
- Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016
Olympus E-M1 with 40-150 mm lens - 1/800s@f/9 ISO800
I decided to try the focus-bracketing capability of my Olympus E-M1 on one example that was hunkered-down deep amongst the grasses. This method did enable me to keep both the head and wings in focus, which would have been extremely difficult to achieve without this ability
![DanewayLBlueStack.jpg (153.38 KiB) Viewed 504 times Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016<br />Olympus E-M1 with 100-400 mm lens - 1/400s@f/11 ISO800 (stacked)](./files/thumb_11310_c153e69c1101aad9ace77e4161e44cc3)
- Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016
Olympus E-M1 with 100-400 mm lens - 1/400s@f/11 ISO800 (stacked)
Moving up the valley, through this botanical paradise, I spent some time photographing a
Bee Orchid, using my macro lens. with its automatic focus-stacking capability:
![DanewayBeeO-stack.jpg (122.82 KiB) Viewed 504 times Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016<br />Olympus E-M1 with 60 mm macro lens - 1/400s@f/8 ISO800 (stacked)](./files/thumb_11310_289e989b0f5135f7aa70ee9ab24046e7)
- Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016
Olympus E-M1 with 60 mm macro lens - 1/400s@f/8 ISO800 (stacked)
When I started to photograph a
Large Skipper, a Grasshopper moved into the frame, just as I took the picture:
![DanewayLgeSkipper.jpg (168.34 KiB) Viewed 504 times Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016<br />Olympus E-M1 with 100-400 mm lens - 1/500s@f/10 ISO800](./files/thumb_11310_f08d0225db4c7ffff0b7e0943aafe7bc)
- Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016
Olympus E-M1 with 100-400 mm lens - 1/500s@f/10 ISO800
At the top of the reserve, there is a flatter area around a dew pond, well-sprinkled with Thyme, Marjoram and other flowers, including Fragrant Orchids, which were attracting several more Large Blues, as well as huge numbers of
Marbled Whites and a few
Small Tortoiseshells (
as usual, click on the image to enlarge):
![DanewayBanks2016-2.jpg (172.36 KiB) Viewed 504 times Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016<br />Marbled White, Fragrant Orchid, Small Tortoiseshell](./files/thumb_11310_5a3781039885b12479382b5eb27645e6)
- Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016
Marbled White, Fragrant Orchid, Small Tortoiseshell
It was here that my wife found a very co-operative Large Blue, posing with spread wings. It seemed fairly bomb-proof but decided to move on, just as I was changing to my macro lens. Fortunately, however, I had already been able to take several shots from further away, with my long lens.
![DanewayLgeBlueUps.jpg (149.84 KiB) Viewed 504 times Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016<br />Olympus E-M1 with 100-400 mm lens - 1/800s@f/7.1 ISO800](./files/thumb_11310_d9ba60b4425c29db6865d2e1f55d92a5)
- Daneway Banks, Glos. - 1st July 2016
Olympus E-M1 with 100-400 mm lens - 1/800s@f/7.1 ISO800
So, after too long a period of feeling house-bound by very poor weather, I was pleased to enjoy an excellent day 'in the field'. I still have a lot to learn about using my new lens but it does seem to be a very versatile piece of equipment
Mike
(
edited to reduce excess contrast in first image)