Tag: Nature photography

Raising Peacock Butterflies

On By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography3 Comments

Hey friends! I’ve been a day behind all week and woke up convinced today was Friday only to discover that not only is it Saturday but also August 3rd (when did that happen!!)

So today I’m (belatedly) posting my first Butterfly tale of 2024!

As over the last couple of months I’ve been raising a little group of one of the prettiest common garden butterflies we get in the UK.

Peacock (Aglais io) are a beautiful red butterfly with giant eye spots (apparently these confuse predators) that seems to be around at all times of the year and is one of our bigger butterflies. The females lay their eggs on common ol’ stinging nettle in May and we have these lovelies to look at about two months later. Something I find amazing is that the females will lay all of their eggs at once which can be up to 500 eggs!!

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Fleeting thought #5 {new tech & random photos}

On By ArtyMissKIn Fleeting thoughts, Photography2 Comments

Hello my friends, 

Welcome back…How ya doing? I actually meant to post this a couple of weeks ago but life got in the way.

So, this is the fifth Fleeting Thought its been like a couple of months since the last one and I kinda feel I need a drum roll to start this post off…ready…I’ve finally taken the plunge and upgraded my camera!! Which is super exciting!!! Sadly my trusty L340 gave up on me, so this post is a little bit of my feelings and a tiny (sort of) review mixed with some random photography experiments.

Lets do this…

I haven’t felt the need to upgrade my camera before and have used my faithful Nikon Coolpix L340 since it was released – I’ve always liked how easy it is to use and the photo quality is pretty good (unless you try to zoom too far) but it never really let me down…I must’ve taken over 100,000 photographs with it!

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Old Forest Tunnel {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography4 Comments

Hey Friends!

I’ve got a new One Frame to share with you this week, I recently came across this old tunnel, which runs under a no longer used railway…isn’t it the coolest thing!

Something I’ve always wanted to do was take a photograph from one end of a tunnel looking towards the other end (don’t know why its just one of those random moments on my photography wish-list) and this tunnel was perfect! It had stalagmites and ivy and smelled strongly of bat, but was so pretty…weirdly it was sunny at the far end but raining where I was standing.

It felt pretty magical, and I couldn’t help but imagine Middle Earth was waiting at the other end!!

So yeah, that’s it for this week, remember the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t always a fire. Hopefully next weeks post is either gonna be a new embroidered butterfly or possibly a Fleeting Thought. 

Thank you so much for reading this post, and I wish you a prosperous week ahead!

Little things that run the world! {Insect week 2024}

On By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography6 Comments

Hey friends! How are ya? 

This week has been insect week one of my favourite weeks in the whole year! Insect week – which is run by the Royal entomology society is a fantastic opportunity to learn more about bugs and creepy crawlies! This year I thought I’d share seven photos of seven different types of bugs I’ve recently seen.

I don’t claim to have anywhere near the skillset of a professional photographer and am generally really pleased if my subject hasn’t flown/crawled away before I’ve had a chance to take a few photographs! Some of these are better than others but the thing about photography (in my opinion) is that it doesn’t always need to be perfect, just having fun is key!

Kicking off Insect week 2024 are these cute little green leaf bugs, something I find amazing with bug photography is that they always look so much bigger than in real life, these little guys are actually on the head of an ox eye daisy.

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Traversing the Sandy Grassland {Exploring Cubert Common}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hey friends! How are ya? 

This week I had the opportunity to go exploring on the gently undulating sandy grasslands of a wonderful little National Trust site called Cubert Common – which happens to be one of the few enclosed Commons we have in the country. I had so much fun during that sunny (albeit windy) day and I wanted to take you guys along with me so you can enjoy the relaxing atmosphere and pretty plants too! I hope these photos bring as much joy to your day as much as they did mine.

Cubert Common is a rather tranquil trail though open grassland – its also a Site of Special Scientific Interest as its home to some rare plants and bugs! It’s a beautiful place to walk and is filled with some lovely wildflowers like primrose and cowslips, with yellow flag iris growing in the damp marsh-y bits.

Gotta say for my first trip the beauty of the place was kinda magical.

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Pearl-bordered Fritillary {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography

Hello my friends! 

This week I’ve got a new butterfly one frame and I’m super excited to share it with you, I recently went on a flight survey day with Butterfly Conservation with the aim of recording how many Pearl-bordered fritillaries we could find!

In reality we were eight grown-ups wondering around a place called Pendirft bottom on Bodmin moor, either up to our knees in dead bracken or ankle deep in boggy mud…it was awesome!! The views were spectacular, there were deer in the distance, I even found a slow-worm!

All in all we spotted about 25 of these endangered little guys over the five hours we were there (which apparently made it a pretty good year!) and I was totally thrilled to get a few really good shots of one of the butterflies that was a) in focus b) a decent composition and c) in focus. It was fairly close to the end of the day and I think he (or she) must’ve thought this weirdo with the camera has been following us all day, best give her a break and sit still. 

I love how it has blue/grey eyes in contrast to the rest of its being.

A pearl-bordered fritillary was a first for me and the patterns on its underwing were beautiful!! I really like how bright it seems in relation to the dead, dry bracken, plus the light was perfect.

I really hope you like this photo and that my butterfly filled posts spread a little bit of happiness. I’m definitely feeling like making an embroidered one of these! As always thanks for reading and have a wonderful nature filled week!

A day among the flowers

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography5 Comments

Hey friends!

We’re beginning to get increasingly closer to all the beautiful flowers being in bloom and I thought I’d share some recent clicks of pretty flowers I’ve taken. Some from my garden and some from the wild and I wanted to take you guys along with me so you can enjoy the relaxing atmosphere and pretty plants too! 

It wasn’t until I sat to look over my photos that I realised I’d been focusing on pink flowers! I hope these photos bring as much joy to your day as much as they did mine.

Its funny I hadn’t realised just how many plants are pink!

Starting off my wildflower quest is a little light pink Scabious, I love these and am actually growing about a dozen of these plants in my Wildspace, as long as you cut the faded heads off they flower all summer long and the butterflies love them.

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Speckled Wood butterfly {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hey friends! 

I’ve got a little one frame to share with you this week, lets be honest it wasn’t going to be long before butterflies took over the theme of my posts again was it! I was actually planning to post some new bug illustrations I’ve been working on but this little guy (or girl) fluttered into the garden a couple of days ago.

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