Your Favourite Photo of 2011

[ChrisC]

i just thought it would be nice to start a thread where members can post their own favourite pictures for the season. they don't have to be gallery perfect pieces or anything close, or even a butterfly just a picture of your own that makes you say " yeah, I like that"

i'll start off with this large skipper, it might not come across on the reduced version but this is my season favourite. the reason being it is the first time i ever got close to catching the warm almost velvet texture of the butterfly. shame about the background but i still like it.

Chris

[Lee Hurrell]

Great idea, Chris and I agree about your velvety Skipper, very nice.

I'll be putting mine up in due course.

Cheers

Lee

[Susie]

Likewise. Great idea. I'll have a rummage.

[Wurzel]

Brill idea Chris, and defo a very velvety shot - smooth!
I read the post and immediately the image below jumped into my mind! I took it during a family walk at the start of the season and it just felt perfect; a warm spring day with sun glinting through the glades, garlic scent hanging in the air, the muted shouts of joy from my girls and migrant birds in the background and the whole season before me with many more of these magic moments...

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[dilettante]

Great idea for a topic. I'm looking forward to seeing what people come up with.

I'll go with this Chakhill Blue. The focus isn't perfect, and there's that grass cutting the wing, but it was taken on a lovely sunny evening after work early in the CHB season, and I had the hillside to myself. A moment of great tranquility.

[Mark Colvin]

Hi Chris,

Great idea.

This was an easy choice for me. Having only purchased my camera at the end of June this year and having never done any sort of wildlife photography before, the first picture that stands out in my mind as being my first really good shot was this pair of Ringlets in copulation. I found them early one afternoon whilst looking for Purple Emperor in the Southwater Woods complex. I was really pleased in that they just sat there letting me click away shot after shot.

Copulating Ringlets, Southwater (1 July 2011)

I think it was this picture that made me realise I had definitely made the right choice with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ45.

Good hunting.

Kind regards. Mark

[Susie]

I love the golden light in your CHB pic, Dilettante

I've got a few favourites but I'd like to share this one. It's blurry and technically wrong (and I don't know how I got the washed out effect - it was the only one on the day which came out like it) but there's something about it which I like.

[GOLDENORFE]

This is my fav of the year, the first ever marbled white and small skipper i have ever seen, both in the same shot!
taken at oversley wood purple emperor event
phil

[Neil Hulme]

Hi all,
It's a tricky one, like trying to decide your favourite species, but I was pleased with this Marsh Fritillary as all my shots of the species until then were rubbish.
Neil

[The Annoying Czech]

I have no clue about the *best photo*. But it's a close encounter with Erebia aethiops I value the most. Because they've a very hard life here in south. Because they're locally dying on a few connected upland meadows, both because of hot summers and anti-Erebia management. I clearly remember I got tired that afternoon much more than I'm used to. Then I met three or four males...

[RobS]

This was taken on my very first butterflying trip 2 months ago and i had absolutely no idea what it was.It was one of the first pictures i took when i arrived at the site,which was otherwise swarming with meadow browns and ringlets.People who i saw later in the day were very excited and made me explain in great detail where i had seen it.So as this is the butterfly which ignited my interest,its my favourite photo to date.

cheers
rob

[dilettante]

RobS, you certainly had beginner's luck on that one!

I love the golden light in your CHB pic, Dilettante

Thanks, but I have to confess to a little Photoshop enhancement in the colouring of the sky.

[David M]

I'm glad there are no criteria for technical expertise, because the photo that gave me most pleasure is blurred and happened completely by accident. I was trying to edge closer to an Ilex Hairstreak in France a couple of months ago, but just as I pressed the shutter the bloody thing took off Thankfully, it hadn't quite escaped the range of the lens and provided a very rare view of the upperside of a species which, like many Hairstreaks, always settles with wings firmly shut.



My overall favourite of the year though is from a member of this site (he's welcome to come forward and identify himself because it'd take me far too long to track the original post within which this magnificent shot was contained) and is a truly lovely and quite ephemeral shot of a male and female Brimstone engaged in airborne courtship. It has pride of place as my screensaver.

[Susie]

RobS, you certainly had beginner's luck on that one!

I love the golden light in your CHB pic, Dilettante

Thanks, but I have to confess to a little Photoshop enhancement in the colouring of the sky.

Well I like it!

I thought, after your confession, that I'd have a play around with photoshop and skies. This was a rather extreme result of the sunset at Chanctonbury Ring on Saturday.

That's one hell of a photo, RobS!

[ChrisC]

i'm enjoying everyones pictures and descriptions. thanks for contributing.

Chris

[millerd]

My favourite is this Duke of Burgundy. I love the way he has positioned himself on the plant, perfectly balanced and poised to launch himself at the first thing that passes.

Dave

[John W]

That's a great photo Dave. I got a few pics this year of the Duke of Kithurst Hill but none of the underside.

BTW Did anyone see more than one Duke at Kithurst this tear? I don't think a population of one is viable

Cheers
John

[Reverdin]

Great idea for a thread, and some great and interesting images showing.... did not immediately reply as I've been lucky enough to have lots to think about.... but this one is my fave... an Osiris Blue male in it's pristine perfection...

Osiris Blue in the South of France - April 2011

[Trev Sawyer]

Mine is one of the first shots I took this season...
It's my favourite little spring butterfly sitting on the leaves of this plant which allowed me to gradually go out of focus with the stem until it reached the corner of the frame. Good old Little Griz
I know it breaks the rules about the insect having to look into the photo rather than out of it, but I prefer this.

Trev

[Mark Colvin]

Hi Trev,

Great photo. Super composition.

Kind regards. Mark