Otmoor, Oxon - 12th August 2016
I took advantage of a bright sunny afternoon yesterday (
12th August) to re-visit the Roman Road at
Otmoor, in the hope of finding Brown Hairstreaks.
On arrival, the most conspicuous flying insects were huge numbers of dragonflies, mostly Common Darters, just beginning to develop their red colouration, with larger Southern and Brown Hawkers cruising at a higher-level, overhead.
Butterflies were not particularly abundant but, soon, several smallish brown butterflies started to appear. Many were unusually small Gatekeepers, doing quite a good 'hairstreak impression', as well as some brightly coloured
Meadow Browns - the one shown here has a barely visible second 'pupil' in the eye-spot, which was more obvious on the underside:
![OtmoorMBrown_2016.jpg (143.19 KiB) Viewed 632 times Otmoor, Oxon - 12th August 2016<br />Olympus E-M1 with Leica 100-400mm lens - 1/1250@f/8 ISO800](./files/thumb_11310_ec9e03a58925319de4ae38fd39150927)
- Otmoor, Oxon - 12th August 2016
Olympus E-M1 with Leica 100-400mm lens - 1/1250@f/8 ISO800
The sunlight was rather harsh, which created some difficulty for photography, especially when a few
Green-veined Whites appeared. This one shows the subtle difference in tint between the wings - slightly bluish for the fore-wing and green for the hind-wing:
![Otmoor_GvW_2016.jpg (155.66 KiB) Viewed 632 times Otmoor, Oxon - 12th August 2016<br />Olympus E-M1 with Leica 100-400mm lens - 1/2000@f/11 ISO500](./files/thumb_11310_b9d23d1035b57dafa0fa432aaf54939e)
- Otmoor, Oxon - 12th August 2016
Olympus E-M1 with Leica 100-400mm lens - 1/2000@f/11 ISO500
It was good to see
Brimstones back on the wing again, after a long summer lull. Strong back-lighting make this female a good subject for photos:
![Otmoor_Bstone_2016.jpg (167.15 KiB) Viewed 632 times Otmoor, Oxon - 12th August 2016<br />Olympus E-M1 with Leica 100-400mm lens - 1/1000@f/11 ISO800](./files/thumb_11310_579299c35ad7ab315770dc098227808d)
- Otmoor, Oxon - 12th August 2016
Olympus E-M1 with Leica 100-400mm lens - 1/1000@f/11 ISO800
While I was watching this butterfly, someone told me that others had found a
Brown Hairstreak further along the ride, so I hurried for a look. I was in time to catch a few shots, as it nectared on a small group of thistles before disappearing high into one of the Ash trees. Again, I found the contrasty lighting was quite difficult to manage, for photography.
![Otmoor_BH1_2016.jpg (162.29 KiB) Viewed 632 times Otmoor, Oxon - 12th August 2016<br />Olympus E-M1 with Leica 100-400mm lens - 1/800@f/9 ISO800](./files/thumb_11310_57b9dc9b4e2a584fdf687d5f3dcf5003)
- Otmoor, Oxon - 12th August 2016
Olympus E-M1 with Leica 100-400mm lens - 1/800@f/9 ISO800
Following this successful sighting, I continued onto the open moor, where there was plenty of bird interest, including Marsh Harrier, a pair of Cranes, and a
Purple Heron that has been present for a few days. All were too distant for decent photos but added to the pleasure of the day.
I returned to the Roman Road, hoping for more Brown Hairstreak (BH) sightings and, not far from the car-park end, came across a very splendid example that had chosen to nectar on various white flowers. This really created photographic problems and I didn't handle the situation too well. If I had thought more (but it was hot), I could, perhaps, have used some fill-in flash, to even-up the strong contrasts. Alternatively, I could have used my camera's HDR mode for similar purposes. In fact, I did neither, and ended up with some very over-contrasty JPEGs.
Fortunately, I always have my camera set to take simultaneous JPEG and RAW files, so all was not lost, although it took some post-processing effort! Usually, I have found JPEGs from my Olympus are so good that I simply file the RAW images, as a reserve of 'digital negatives', but not this time.
The most extreme example was when the BH decided to visit a white Convolvulus flower and, since this was one of the few occasions when she showed her upper wing surfaces, I was keen to keep the shot. The flower was completely 'bleached' in the JPEG but I was able to recover some highlight detail by processing the RAW file, which I think has improved the shot. I use Corel AfterShot 2 as my RAW converter and find this a good program to use - fast, with a clutter-free, simple screen layout, and plenty of controls for image-adjustment. I chose this software after trialling various alternatives, including Lightroom, which I found rather over-complex.
It's not a great photo but I show the two (JPEG and RAW) results below, to demonstrate the additional detail that can be recovered. To be fair, the flower looked pretty blindingly white in the field!
![RAWcomparison.jpg (193.35 KiB) Viewed 632 times Otmoor, Oxon - 12th August 2016<br />Olympus E-M1 with Leica 100-400mm lens - 1/500@f/6.3 ISO500](./files/thumb_11310_8a6fdfd9b7d166dd21706fa7cf64ec3f)
- Otmoor, Oxon - 12th August 2016
Olympus E-M1 with Leica 100-400mm lens - 1/500@f/6.3 ISO500
Several other shots benefitted from RAW processing, to keep some detail in the flowers, while showing the brilliant colour of this freshly-emerged insect. I have never seen such vivid red markings, which looked almost as though she has LEDs concealed in the 'tails'!
![Otmoor_BH2_2016.jpg (201.36 KiB) Viewed 632 times Otmoor, Oxon - 12th August 2016<br />Olympus E-M1 with Leica 100-400mm lens - 1/400@f/10 ISO500](./files/thumb_11310_42e1cafd433fd48db0edb5c8686b63e0)
- Otmoor, Oxon - 12th August 2016
Olympus E-M1 with Leica 100-400mm lens - 1/400@f/10 ISO500
![Otmoor_BH3_2016.jpg (190.74 KiB) Viewed 632 times Otmoor, Oxon - 12th August 2016<br />Olympus E-M1 with Leica 100-400mm lens - 1/500@f/10 ISO500](./files/thumb_11310_57835c8be9b4a70da5648991e467a244)
- Otmoor, Oxon - 12th August 2016
Olympus E-M1 with Leica 100-400mm lens - 1/500@f/10 ISO500
Mike