Tag: photography blog

Magnificent Swan {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hello my friends!

I hope life has treated you well this week.

Last year I that I realised that I had taken quite a lot of of photographs of wild birds – particularly mute swans (I even did a long post on them) but I’ve recently been through all the images on my camera in an attempt to clear some space on my memory card and found this one. 

Mute swans are actually very friendly and the wild ones I’ve photographed always seem so chilled out about the camera. I always assumed this was because I normally fed them, but I liked the idea of being a swan whisperer!

There’s something truly magical about swans and this one is almost looking directly into the camera. I love the way its sort of quizzically leaning, as if its sizing me up! Unfortunately the pristine whiteness of the swan shows just how dirty the river water is, but somehow that makes the swan all the more beautiful.

It’s a shame that as a country we’ve let our waterways become so polluted.

Well that’s it for this week, one lovely swan photographed for this post. I hope you like it. Do you have a favourite wild bird? They are wonderful creatures and I love watching them – and always try to keep the bird feeders full at home…I might even do a few posts on them this year. As always thanks for reading and have a wonderful week!

ps. Next week I’m thinking of trying something a little bit different!!

150 Subscribers Celebration!!! (& a Winter Sunset)

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography

Hello Friends!

Who-hoo! We’re at 150 followers, everyone!!!

Can you believe it?!

*cue bang-free fireworks and hand cut eco confetti*

Okay, actually, its 153 to be exact! I hit 150 just before the festive week, but decided to wait until afterward to share the exciting news!

Anyway, A SUPERSIZED THANK YOU to everyone who’s subscribed and liked my posts! I wouldn’t be where I’m at without you and I truly appreciate it more than you can possibly imagine!

Also, I’ve got a new landscape shot to share this week as I’ve had some major things happen in life.

Continue reading “150 Subscribers Celebration!!! (& a Winter Sunset)” →

Photography Recap 2022

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography

Hello my friends, 

I hope you had a good Christmas!

This week as it’s the last Friday of the year I thought that I’d create a little recap post with some of my favourite photographs taken in 2022.

So enjoy some black and white photography including ladybirds, butterflies and bumble bees.

In June I actually got some decent shots of a Holly Blue butterfly – I’d never seen one of these before – it had such stripy antennae! 

Letting the garden re-wild in the summer for #nomowmay was fun and it didn’t take long for insects to move in, there were so many ladybird beetles, I especially loved photographing them in the early morning.

I even grew my own wildflower ‘mini-meadow’ to encourage bees and really enjoyed watching them in the summer.

Continue reading “Photography Recap 2022” →

Old Forest Bench {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography

Hello friends!

Seeing as its the last Friday before the festive month I thought I’d post a little autumn forest one frame this week, I love this old wooden bench and how its slowly being reclaimed by the nature and I wanted to share it with you. 

When I took this photo it was wet, it was muddy and this old bench still sat there, beautiful as ever waiting for passers by to sit on it, surrounded by a sea of fallen leaves. Really rather poetic when you think about it.

So, that’s it for this week! I always think part of the fun of these one frame posts is really focusing on narrowing it down to a single image. As always thanks for reading and have a wonderful week!

Gatekeeper Butterfly

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hello my friends!

Nature is magical isn’t it?!

This weeks post is a new butterfly centred photography collection. Its all about the Pyronia tithonus butterfly or Gatekeeper and over a couple of (very) early mornings it was most courteous and posed for a few pictures. I love insects and I wanted to take you with me into the early morning world of butterflies!

I loved watching the different flowers appear during #nomowmay (I even got up one morning to a huge patch of Ox Eye daisies) that I thought ‘that was fun, let’s let the unwanted plants do their own thing*.’

Continue reading “Gatekeeper Butterfly” →

Ladybird beetle {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography

Hello my friends!

I hope life has treated you well this week.

I thought I’d share a new one frame this week as I’ve been going through my recent Ladybird beetle snaps, and can’t quite believe I have taken so many photos of them!

This one is a two spot ladybird up close and personal on a leaf. I love how the colours are so vibrant and I can’t believe how shiny the little bug is! Even the veins and patterns on the leaf look good. I really love how the left hand side of the leaf is slightly less defined with all focus on the ladybird and the leaf in front of it.

There are about 5,000 different species of ladybirds in the world. These much little beauties are also known as lady beetles or ladybugs because as suggested they’re beetles not bugs.

The natural light was so good that this image taken with my Nikon in macro mode, needed no post production.

Well that’s it, one ladybird photo for this post. I hope you like it. Do you have a favourite bug? They are wonderful little creatures that run our world and make no fuss whatsoever. As always thanks for reading and have a wonderful week!

Ladybird beetle

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hello friends!

This week I wanted to share some recent snaps of my new obsession -Ladybird beetles!! I’ve spent a few days outside watching these bugs and I wanted to take you with me.

Ladybird beetles, one of those little creatures that just gets on with life and never makes any fuss. I noticed a lot more them this year, which is always nice. Obviously they are a great aphid eater which helps the garden no end but they’re also incredibly beautiful.

Enjoy some warm and happy summer colours and plenty of ladybirds…

I let the garden re-wild a little bit for #nomowmay – it didn’t take long for nettles to overtake and the ladybirds were so abundant I ended up buying a feeder to make sure the little guys had enough to eat.

Continue reading “Ladybird beetle” →

Bumblebee Photography 2022

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography4 Comments

Hello wonderful friends!

I’ve spent a few days outside watching these bugs and generally being at one with nature and I wanted to take you with me, so for this weeks post I’ve put together a little collection of bumble bee related photographs that I’ve taken this summer.

Bees have always been super special to me  – I try my hardest to take care of them and grow as many flowers as possible. They are so very clever and do so much good for our planet, that we really should be doing more to create spaces for them.

In a bid to do more for nature I decided to try and grow my own wildflower ‘meadow’ along the garden fence. I mixed all different seeds together and liberally sprinkled them into the trench – there were a lot of cornflowers (which are my favourite) that were multicoloured as well as nasturtiums, marigolds, californian poppies and various herbs like lavender, sage and rosemary.

As a lot of these plants are annuals I think I might try to strategically plant them next year as the corn flowers are so abundant that they’re cutting off the light to some of the smaller plants at the bottom.

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Large White Butterfly {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography

Hello my friends!

I hope life has treated you well this week.

Well, its been four or five weeks since my last one frame post, and I thought I’d share this image – I was sitting in a grassy field recently when this little beauty landed near me! I’m pretty sure its a Large White (Pieris brassicae), it landed on a fox tail for maybe a minute before flying away!

When it comes to photography, I don’t use any special lenses or have a particularly high tech camera – I use a Nikon Coolpix L340 its a good little point and click camera (which I’ve had for ages) and although I’ve been threatening to upgrade to a DSLR for sometime, I like my L340 and know how to work it!

I was really glad to capture this image with quite a soft background and how the colours compliment the butterfly.

Well that’s it for this week, one butterfly photo. I hope you like it. Do you have a favourite bug? As ever I want to thank you for reading and wish you a wonderful week!

Holly Blue Butterfly

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography

Hello friends!

This weeks post is a butterfly centred photography collection.

I recently got the chance to photograph a new butterfly, I’ve never seen one of these before and I wanted to share it with you. Its been flying around for a couple of weeks but has never landed long enough for me to photograph. Its a Celastrina argiolus butterfly or Holly Blue, and it was so tiny!

Isn’t he gorgeous – it is male the females have more black on the upper wings.

The undersides of the wings are just as beautiful, originally when I saw it I thought the little guy was probably a Common Blue but the small black spots on the wing undersides distinguish the two types of butterfly.

Continue reading “Holly Blue Butterfly” →