Tag: photography blog

Magnificent Forest Dweller {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography6 Comments

Hello my Friends!

Can you believe it, we’ve already six days into September?! Before too long the Christmas decorations will be up and we’ll be singing carols!

Anyway, I thought I’d share one of my favourite trees with you this week in a new One Frame. I genuinely think trees are one of the best things about our planet, they do so much for our eco systems and are so easily overlooked or destroyed. This particular one is on one of my favourite hikes in a little out of the way place called Saint Breward. 

Its old and gnarly with so many stout branches snaking off in all directions. I love that at some point someone decided to try and make a swing…although I think its was quite a while ago.

One of the things I love about tree-watching is trying to find faces in them and I’ve stared long enough at this one to convince myself that it does have a face (at least eyes and a nose anyway). I also think it would be perfect for a treehouse.

It won’t be long before all of its lovely green leaves turn brown and litter the ground for the long dark of winter.

But it will still be a beautiful tree.

I hope you like this little slice of tree-ish heaven as much as I do, can you see the face in the tree? Thank you so much for reading this post, and have a lovely, nature filled week!

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!

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!

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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Raising Large White Butterflies

On By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography4 Comments

Hey friends,

How are ya!?

I’ve got a new butterfly tale for you! This post has been a while in the making and actually began in May…when I planted cabbages in my Wildspace so that the cabbage butterflies had a place to lay their eggs – I really dislike that vegetable growers sometimes treat them as pests and decided that the little patch of nature I’ve been blessed with would welcome these butterflies.

Anyway, on the 2nd of June I sat and watched a Large white (Pieris brassicas) flutter around the garden and she took a fancy to one of the cabbage leaves…they’re actually really picky about what leaves they lay eggs on and watching her, was like she was trying all the leaves for size.

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Raising Painted lady Butterflies

On By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography6 Comments

Creepy crawly caterpillars, creep crawl creep. Creepy crawly caterpillars hear them creep. Crawly crawly creep. Creepy creepy crawl. I’ve got caterpillars to share with you all!!

Hello friends!

Firstly, d’ya like my song?

Secondly, ever bought a plant at a garden centre and ended up bringing aphids/bugs home?

Seeing as today kicks off Butterfly Conservations Butterfly Count I thought I’d share a look at the new peeps I’ve been caring for! (Warning its kinda a long post!)

Well, as intoned in the above verse I’ve had caterpillars!!! I’ve actually set up and built my own butterfly house so that I can raise and release butterflies I find in the garden. Although I didn’t actually find these chaps in the garden (I found them in the kitchen), I decided I wanted to add a couple more thistles to my growing collection of plants because I love them, especially the pink ones! (there’s something punky about them) and while I was trying to find a moment to plant them I realised something was eating them…well it turned out to be caterpillars – Painted ladies to be precise! One of my favourites!!

Setting up and creating my own butterfly house to give them their best chance in life has been awesome – we have a lot of bird life here and apparently a blue tit chick can eat 100 caterpillars each day, butterflies are already quickly declining – if by doing my bit for conservation and getting nine out of ten pupae to emerge can help bolster the species numbers then I’ll do it. Plus, everyone needs a hobby and watching them complete their life cycle brings me such an extreme amount of joy I can’t really put it into words.

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