www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Week 8.

Here is the opportunity to post your favourite photo(s) of a particular species taken in 2013 (or the last time you saw one!).

This is part of a series of topics which will grow over 20 weeks throughout the winter, eventually covering all 59 species which are regularly found in the British Isles. The intention is to showcase three species per week (in alphabetical order), so please wait until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos. Our overseas members are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants.

Details of locations, dates, times and circumstances would be welcome and please feel free to contribute observations of behaviour, stories of personal encounters, anecdotes or other interesting points.

Vince

Photographed near Geneva in August:



Guy

Not a lot of choice this time as I only saw the one this year: up at Arnside on a lovely day (7th August) that included a welcome sighting of Neil (nfreem) into the bargain. Dave

padfield wrote:Photographed near Geneva in August:



Guy

How do you obtain this clarity of foreground image, Guy?

Whenever I attempt to do this it always results in the butterfly not standing out from its background.

You need to get a cheaper camera, David!

Seriously, the trick is to be close to the butterfly. The closer you are, the greater the degree of arc subtended by the butterfly against the background - which means, effectively, a blurred background is shrunk to an identifiable scene while the butterfly is set clear in front of it.

Guy

padfield wrote:You need to get a cheaper camera, David!

Seriously, the trick is to be close to the butterfly. The closer you are, the greater the degree of arc subtended by the butterfly against the background - which means, effectively, a blurred background is shrunk to an identifiable scene while the butterfly is set clear in front of it.

Guy

What distance do you mean by 'close'?

David M wrote:

padfield wrote:What distance do you mean by 'close'?

For that picture, about 5cm. Sometimes I go closer, especially with small butterflies.

Guy

I didn't see any High Brown Fritillaries this year , so I am posting a female that I really like, from a couple of years ago. As usual, this was in the Maritime-Alpes.
--
Colin

I had a fantastic time with High Brown Fritillaries this year during a three day stay in the Heddon Valley in early July. The timing was just right and during my stay I saw and photographed loads, in fact at one spot the High Browns easily outnumbered the Dark Green Fritillaries that were also around. Again, many thanks to Rogerdodge for giving me some excellent information on the best spots.
As usual I cannot pick a single favourite from the many photos that I took so here is a selection of shots that I particularly like....although I think I may have already posted some of these in my personal diary more than once...oh, well.

millerd wrote:.... up at Arnside on a lovely day (7th August) that included a welcome sighting of Neil (nfreem) into the bargain.

Cheers Dave, it was great to meet up with your good self and your boys

I had another fantastic three day break up at Arnside which meant that I had the time to have a few good looks around and saw a number of high Browns here although they were mostly in fairly worn condition. I did manage a few shots that I liked including the couple below of the same individual.
Cheers,

Neil.

This species is very close to my heart, given its precarious tenure in these isles and the fact that the ONLY site where it can be found in Wales is a mere 25 minute drive from my house.

I know of no other UK butterfly that is restricted to just one site in any of the component nations that comprise the United Kingdom, so for this reason alone the High Brown Fritillary here in Wales is extremely precious.

I'm delighted to report that in 2013 the transect reports showed that numbers of recorded adults of this species significantly eclipsed every other year since the Alun Valley conservation effort began back in the mid-nineties:
Now, I accept that this summer was a good one, but there have been better summers in the past WITHIN the sample period of the attached yet numbers have never been so high. This is excellent news and my only caveat is to warn that the area of land which maintains the presence of this species in Wales is mainly privately owned, meaning that there can be no guarantee that conservation will continue here.

At the moment there's no need to be particularly concerned, but the future of this tranche of land is very much at the whim of a small number of human beings (maybe even just one). By Christ, if I won the lottery I'd purchase it ON BEHALF of Butterfly Conservation.

Anyway, before I become affixed to my soapbox, here are my favourite images of HBF this year:

This male was the first HBF I saw this year, and I'm almost certain he had only just emerged such was his lustre. It was 25th June and I was on my way back from Collard Hill which had stressed me out due to the sheer numbers of visitors. Here, in the most inaccessible part of the Alun Valley site, it was just me and a very docile male High Brown:
I probably saw 100+ individual HBFs at this site in 2013, and the one that caught my eye more than any other was this female, photographed on 28th July:

I can't match the quality of all these magnificent photos above; I can see I've got my work cut out for next season. We don't get HBF around Marseilles, but I got a photo of this one further north in the Massif Central. Chris.

padfield wrote:You need to get a cheaper camera, David! Guy

I agree with that statement, for this sort of photo. The small-sensor compact has an advantage here, as the depth of field with a 5mm focal length lens at f/5.6 is the same as that on a full-frame (35mm) camera with a 28mm lens at f/32, which would be impracticable in most conditions. (for calculations, see http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutori ... r-size.htm ) The result is a nice sharp butterfly with a lightly blurred non-intrusive background, which seems to recede into the distance.

Mind you, you need good field-craft to get within 5cm

Mike
(edited to correct the link)