Bumblebee Photography 2022

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}

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

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.

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Summer Beach {One frame}

Hello friends!

A new beach landscape one frame  this week, it’s amazing how the light and weather can affect photographs. This was taken standing atop the dunes on a superbly bright day.

With the wave breaking and the super fluffy clouds against the incredibly blue sky that fades out into the horizon. I feel particularly happy with the way I captured the beach.

Being at an angle there’s just a little bit of dune sneaking into the frame gives the image depth somehow, there’s no post processing on this image – everything is more or less in focus and the horizon is straight. I kinda feel its one of the best landscape photographs I’ve ever taken.

So, that’s it for this week post! Part of the fun of a one frame posts is really focusing on narrowing it down to a single image – I really hope you enjoyed this little slice of paradise. As always thanks for reading and have a wonderful week!

A Day by the Ocean

Hello friends,

There is something timeless and soothing about the sea isn’t there? This week I wanted to share some snaps from a summer days spent at Perranporth Beach in Cornwall and I wanted to take you with me! 

You may or may not have know but Wednesday 8th June was World Ocean Day so with that in mind I hope you enjoy this seaside themed post.

It’s hard to believe that this picturesque photo of the sea lapping against the sand was taken in the UK, but it was (in fact it’s a beach in Cornwall). The Cornish light is something I truly love when it comes to creating art or taking photographs!

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Queen Elizabeth II sketch

In the UK and commonwealth this weekend we are celebrating the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her 70 years on the throne! The bunting is up, the flags are out and we the British are going to have picnics and street parties outdoors…even if its pouring with rain!

So I thought that on this the Platinum Jubilee weekend I would actually post the sketch I’ve completed of Queen Elizabeth II, its been lovely being drawing in the garden the breeze has been lovely. I had a few stamps and thought it would be fun to draw the side portrait that adorns British coins and stamps.

Although I love sitting with a set of pencils and trying to capture a persons image on paper, I’ve never actually posted any of them online because I’m A.) not very good at realistically drawing humans and B.) I have a phobia that people who view my sketches won’t be able to immediately guess who the portrait is of (which is mortifying!).

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A Beautiful view {One frame}

Hello friends!

A new sea view landscape one frame this week as the weather has been amazing and I’ve been able to explore a little bit I thought I’d take you to my favourite place in the world. You really could be any where in the world, when I’m at this particular spot I like to think that I’m on a magical tropical island in the middle of nowhere! 

Isn’t this an absolutely stellar view?

This was taken in my favourite spot on the cliffs above Perranporth beach in Cornwall, but really it could be in the caribbean (esp when the weather is this amazing!!)

With the sea fading into the distance and the clouds revealing just a little patch of bright blue sky. there’s a tiny patch of sand but the main focus of the image is the little palms and the grasses of the dunes. I feel particularly happy with the way I captured this view – I even managed to keep the horizon level – which is something I always struggle with when taking landscape shots.

So, that’s it for this week post! Next week is the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II so I’m going to post something along the line of celebrating our Longest reigning Queen…I really hope you enjoyed this little slice of paradise, do you have a favourite place in the world? being close to nature is one of the most calming things in the universe and can really settle your sprit when stressed or down. As always I want to thank you for reading and I wish you a wonderful week!

An Afternoon on the Beach

Hello friends,

There is something ultimately relaxing about being on the beach isn’t there? This week I wanted to share some snaps from a few spring days spent at Perranporth Beach in Cornwall and I wanted to take you with me, so this weeks post is all about the beach and the happiness of being outdoors!

I hope these photos bring as much sunshine to your day as much as they did mine. Did you know that beaches are made from their surround and can be identified by the materials they are made of – like a finger print, how cool is that!

I love how the rock formations are really dark in the foreground, with a little light cutting through between the rocks and shining on the sand and water. Even my dog wanted to be in this one…

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Advice from a Caterpillar

Hello friends,

I hope you’ve had a good week so far! This weeks post a few pieces of art about about one of my all time favourite book characters – the Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland! And I thought maybe it might be fun to post some pages from my sketchbook.

And while the original Sir John Tenniel illustrations are in black and white in the book the Caterpillar is described as being blue (and precisely 3 inches tall) so I thought that tall my caterpillar related art should use blue tones. Theres a couple of cute drawings, some hand lettering art of “How Doth the Little Crocodile” and a brilliant Terry Pratchett quote!

So, enjoy some blue toned caterpillar/mushroom related art…I hope you like it.

This caterpillar is based more from the 2010 film directed by Tim Burton, I think the movie Absalom (although in the books he doesn’t have a name and is just referred to as the Caterpillar) is much more chilled out than the 1951 Disney version – who in my opinion was far too much of a diva and he yells at Alice far too often ! It’s drawn with crayons which are far harder to control than I remember them being as a kid!

“How Doth the Little Crocodile” is a poem by Lewis Carroll which appears in his 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alice recites it while attempting to recall “Against Idleness and Mischief” by Isaac Watts. It’s such a brilliant little poem and has always been one that stuck in my head.

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Earth Day 2022

Hello friends!

I’ve been on a bit of a tech detox from everything but my camera, which has been amazing – it helped that the weather was been good and that I didn’t want to be inside! But now I’m back in the real world and since today is Earth Day 2022 I thought I’d share some rather nice beach photography with you.

It’s amazing how a little bright sunlight effects the way we see the world. Gone are the dark bleak days of December here is the lush sunlight of April (until it starts raining of course!)

Anyway, enjoy some beach/earth related photography and a couple of ocean related pages from my sketchbook…

A few foot prints left in the sand as the saying goes “Take only photos, Leave only footprints” But just to prove that plastic will be with us forever…here’s some Lego that I found on the beach apparently it fell off a ship in the 90’s! I like to think that the mermaids were very happy when sea themed lego fell in the sea!

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