A Common Darter from last year posing for my camera, I did a whole series of focus stacks of this guy, this was an 18 image focus stack, ISO 500, F/8 aperture and a 1/160 shutter speed using a diffused flash. I was shooting into the sun which provided a light background which might have been reflected off the water.

This was another from the observation decking at Wilford Claypit, these guys love to congregate on the rails around the decking.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend :o)

VIEW LARGE ;o)

I just cannot get enough of these Darters, I find every aspect of the Dragonfly fascinating, yes they have happy faces, but when you start looking at the colours and venation of those wings, glorious. I love the colours on this one, a blend of oranges, reds and yellows, I especially love the slight yellow tinting at the base of the wings, oh how I will miss these, still got a couple of months left and they will be back next year. How I wish I lived in a country where these fly all year round.

Not been out with the camera today, had family commitments, had a wonderful meal out and did see some Dragons in the pub garden.

I wish everyone a great week :o)

A MUST TO VIEW ON BLACK

One thing I look forward to every year is the return of the Damselflies, I just love them. They have such character, great colours and are one insect that have that anthropomorphic quality. You can really get eye contact with these guys and a variety of expressions. I really must try to find some different species this year as well. Only 3.5 Months or so to wait LOL ;o)

This was an Ischnura elegans from July last Summer, I took this using my MP-E at about x2-x3 mag using a diffused flash. It was a 15 image focus stack using an F/7.1 aperture, ISO 320 and a 1/160 shutter speed.

Hope everyone has had a great weekend :o)

A larger than life Banded Demoiselle, I managed to take this at a lower angle, I took this on one of the cooler evenings last week, I'm having to get my photography fix after work these days, so I often take a short evening macro trip out by the River Trent.

I had a great day out today, but it was one of those days where I came home with very little on my memory card, still no Big Dragons at Wilford Claypit, but I did see my first Brown Hawker of the year by the Grantham Canal, but it was too active to get a shot.

This one was a 27 image handheld focus stack using F/7.1 aperture, ISO 400 and a 1/160 shutter speed. Again interesting to note that this males eyes are black, I photographed one recently and his eyes were brown, so I'm starting to think that the eyes must darken with maturity.

Spent a couple of hours chasing after Common Darters again, I liked some of the details here, Dragonfly wings are so beautiful and definitely one of natures wonders.

In a bit of an abstract mood today if you haven't have guessed already :)

A lovely Large Red Damselfly, I'm hoping to get a few more shots of these before it's too late, I'm hoping the weather will be OK this weekend, it was lovely today and I wish I'd brought the camera with me for my after work walk home. I found a new pond near the Jubilee Campus and there were Emperor Dragonflies patrolling the water, really was great to watch.

Anyway, this was a 12 image handheld stack using an F/8 aperture, ISO 400 and a 1/160 shutter speed, the background was a large green leaf. I need to get a new diffuser as my Lumiquest is falling apart, so I'm thinking a big Lastolite diffuser or the micro Apollo, any ideas appreciated.

This was one from last Sunday, there were a few of these Narrow-Bordered Five-Spot Burnets having a romantic moment. At Wilford Claypit we also get Six-Spot Burnets.

I used my 180mm Tamron on a monopod and managed a 17 image natural light focus stack using an F/6.3 aperture, ISO 640 and a 1/500 shutter speed. I used the machine gun method for this, finger on the shutter and moved forward gradually :0)

Here's a bit of Wiki info :-

Zygaena lonicerae have a wingspan of 30–46 millimetres (1.2–1.8 in). The forewings reach a length of 16–19 millimetres (0.63–0.75 in) in the females, while they are slightly smaller in males. The forewings usually show five crimson to vermilion spots and a black basic color, with a strong bluish or blue-green reflection. The third spot is smaller than the fourth one. Head, thorax and abdomen are black and moderately to strongly hairy. The antennae are long and slender and slightly clavate and tapered. The females are similar to males, but the top of the front wing is slightly rounded and the abdomen and the thorax are less hairy. However this species is very variable. Usually the moth populations in Alpine areas are much larger, while those from southern Europe are darker.

Well today was a half day, so after work I hightailed it to Wollaton Park with my camera, dodging the torrential downpours as I went. When I got there this was my first find. A stunning Curculio sp. Nut Weevil, not sure which species this one is, but they are fabulous looking Weevils and this one was a most obliging subject :o)

I managed a 40 image handheld focus stack on this beauty, I had placed a leaf behind it using a handy clamp I had in my bag and set to work, this guy was on a metal fence post, so using the fence as support made things easier. I used ISO 500, shutter speed 1/160 and an aperture of F/6.3. Really chuffed to finally get a focus stack of one of these.

Anyway, hope everyone has a great weekend, I have to work tomorrow, but Sunday and Monday are all mine LOL :o)

ID a male Curculio nucum, thanks to Rockwolf for ID

I got up at 3:45am this morning and made my way to Melton Country Park, what a beautiful morning, there was hardly a breeze and it was very calm and very pleasant. I didn't find as many Damsels as I thought I would, but saying that the ones I did find were hardly noticeable in the early morning light.

I liked this one covered in morning dew, I think this is a fairly young Common Blue Damselfly. I used a blue card held behind as a background and to prevent flash fall off, I think I'm going to experiment with adding shading to the card, just to try and break up the uniform colour effect.. Saying that, the blue card does replicate a blue sky quite nicely :o)

A very pleasant start to the day, I saw a Kingfisher fly past and watched a family of Swans, they were doing very well and had at least 6 Cygnets, I sat on a park bench and watched them for ages, I just love the sounds they make, I even saw one riding on it's parents back. Also as the sun started shining the sky was suddenly filled with the sound of Swifts, they were everywhere, I think they like feeding on the flies over the water.

I wish you all a most tranquil Sunday :o)

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My first LRD of 2014 was a most pleasing subject, I think he enjoyed posing on a nearby Daisy, all I can think off now is getting out and about with my camera again. I think I may have to take a late afternoon trip to my local nature reserve after work at some point this week. I've got loads of shots of this guy, this was another handheld focus stack, this time of 16 images at F/8.

Hope everyone has a fabulous week :o)

Turning over a plank of wood that was on the grass on a walk revealed two Chrysolina sp beetles, I reckon they had hidden under there for the Winter, anyway, this one slowly moved towards me and I quite liked the look of this shot, be assured that the plank of wood was carefully placed back in the same spot,

I'm not sure of the exact species could either be C.herbacea, C.menthastri or C.hyperici, I'm afraid this isn't an easy shot to get an ID from, the beetle was mainly metallic green and had no other colouration's or patterns on it :)

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A bit of abstracted Darter fun, just thought it was a bit different, I do so love their curious faces, I will miss these very much when they go, so I guess I should make the most of their company whilst I can, still got a month or two left. I still wonder what their visual perception of the world is like and how other senses come into play, I reckon it would be an interesting experience. I'm sure someone will suggest the 2 bottles of whisky Dragonfly simulator LOL :o)

Hope everyone has a great week :o)

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Today I successfully trialed my mobile Damselfly studio and I'm pleased to say it worked a treat, it enabled me to keep my hands free and concentrate more on my subject, this guy was certainly excited by the whole affair LOL :)

Two image stack

Well what a weird day, started off really nice this morning and by the afternoon cold, grey and windy, but that doesn't matter,because I found Pseudoscorpions. guaranteed to brighten the day of any macro photographer, the best thing was this guy was very well behaved and I was able to observe the stealthy hunting tactics that these employ. They actually move very slowly whilst hunting and use those claws to explore their environment, I think this one had discovered a potential meal.

What's amazing is that I have waited 30+ years to find these and now I have found 3 in a matter of weeks, just like waiting for a bus LOL :o)

I would like to bid a fond farewell to an old friend called "Picnik", it was a great bit of free software, I used mainly for signing my images and framing, they have replaced it with "Aviary", I had a go with "Aviary" and my opinion it is PANTS LOL :o)

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Sorry for the terrible photo, BUT I was thrilled to find some really colourful, but TINY, globular springtails on my compost bin this morning. Looking at Eddie the Bugman's fantastic stream (www.flickr.com/photos/odonataman/), I'm thinking this might be a male Katiannidae, an exotic import---is it? Would it be unusual to find these in my very cold garden here in Scotland.

I took a few images with my 100mm macro plus raynox, with flash, and also managed to light some with a small torch, but it was very difficult as they wouldn't stay still, and these springtails were about 1mm in length. I'd love to get better magnification on these, and to know what I'm doing a bit better with flash! Still waiting for my lottery win to get the mp-e 65mm lens :D

I have more, not very good, images to follow :D, including an image of what I think must be a spermatophore. What a fascinating world :D

That Grey Heron making another appearance, just a break before I upload more Springtails. I went to Wollaton Park after work today, what a murky afternoon it was, I hope there is going to be better weather over the next two days.

Hope everyone has a great weekend :o)

This is not The Greatest Song in the World, No

This is just a tribute.

Couldn't remember The Greatest Song in the World, No.

No!

This is a tribute, oh,

To The Greatest Song in the World :o)

A tribute to Large Red Damselflies, I can't wait to see them again next year, easily my favourite UK species, just love those colours :o)

This was one from late Spring/early Summer, a focus stack of 15 images. I hope everyone has a great weekend, I have to work a half day tomorrow, so it's not too bad, might take my camera with me and head out at 1pm to Wollaton Park

Another group of images from last Mondays visit to the Sheffield Botanical Gardens. This is Katianna nr schotti, this is also thought to be an imported species. They can be found in the same habitat as the Katianna 3 species, at the gardens they are very common on fallen leaves around the Ericaceae beds that surround the Rock and Water Garden. They are about the same size as Katianna 3 at up to 1mm long. They are generally orange and yellow in colour, but as they mature you do sometimes see other colours. There is also a very similar species called Katianna australis that has reddish pigmentation, but I have yet to find this.

Katianna nr schotti for some reason seem a more active species and they always seem to be on the go. Whereas, the Katianna 3 species does seem to be more cooperative and will stay still for a while :o)

Lots of these about at the moment, this is Bourletiella hortensis which is also known commonly as the Garden Springtail and it can be found in large numbers, they are considered a pest by many gardeners as they like to munch on emerging seedlings. This one was meandering its way across a bed of dry moss, thought it made an interesting setting.

Please bare with me over the next few days, I'm trying hard to get used to this new mess of a website, some bits are nice, but on the whole I'm not too enthused.

CAN'T SAY VIEW ON BLACK ANYMORE AS YOU ALREADY ARE!!!!!!!!!

Finally got round to tracking down a few Zebra Spiders, great to see them out and about, although still not in great numbers. This was one of 3 I spotted on the pink walls by the Nottingham Canal the other day.

This was a 10 image focus stack using an F/6.3 aperture, ISO 320 and a 1/160 shutter speed. A diffused flash was used for this stack, there was some slight movement of the pedipalps, but I managed to edit around the problem areas.

This was a new find from the other week, this is a female Euophrys frontalis I found at my new Salticidae hunting ground.

"Euophrys frontalis is a small Salticidae, The species is sexually dimorphic. The females are brown with darker rather zig-zag lines running along the length of the abdomen. These stripes are not as pronounced in the male which has red rimmed eyes and enlarged front legs used in courtship which have a blaze of white on them." Taken from NatureSpot

So far in the UK I have seen 5 different species of Salticidae and have actually photographed 4. This was a focus stack of 9 images using an F/7.1 aperture, ISO 320 and a 1/160 shutter speed. She does seem to be missing a leg, but it might be hidden behind another.

VIEW LARGE OR ZOOOOMMMMM

The Cream-spot Ladybird, I found this little beauty on a leaf of a sapling, a rather attractive little Ladybird and quite a small one :)

I tried a bit of an experimental background the other day, I had purchased some coloured holofoil cards recently and had wondered what sort of bokeh I could get from them. This was taken using a gold holofoil and I found the effect could vary depending on the angle of the foil in the background, I really liked the dreamy effect in this shot, works really well with the pinks and the blues. I hope you like it too.

I think this guy had been in the wars, possibly why he was so amiable :o)

Apparently on the weather forecast they are saying the jet stream is moving back north to where it should be and vague promises of nice weather next week, fingers crossed LOL :o) Seems the weather has gone mad worldwide this year.

A MUST TO VIEW ON BLACK

A previously unused focus stack of a Curculio sp. Weevil, this was another example I found at Wollaton Park, they seem to like hanging around on the metal fences that surround a conservation area. I think this might be a female with the long rostrum, they use this to bore into nuts and they then lay an egg inside. Also seems to have picked up some spider webs :o)

I'm really looking forward to finding these agai this year, there is so much cool stuff waiting to be found, just need things to start warming up again :o)

I used the camera in aperture priority with diffused flash, a focus stack of 13 images, aperture F/7.1, 1/60 shutter speed and ISO 500.

Xanthogramma species (thanks to Eddie the Bugman for ID)

A portrait of a teneral Ischnura elegans, teneral refers to a Damselfly that has not yet reached its mature coloration, an immature individual, I had forgotten how small these guys are.

Anyway, a 10 image handheld focus stack from yesterdays evening trip to a local reserve, I used an f/7.1 aperture, shutter speed 1/125, ISO 200, this was at about x2 magnification, the image is cropped. I hope I can get a portrait of a more mature individual as they do have some lovely colours.

Trying to work out what to do this weekend, the weather looks to be a mixed bag, hopefully I will get some macro work done :o)

Hope you all have a great weekend :o)

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I found a Common Froghopper and just out of interest I wondered if it would let me photograph it with my MP-E and 112mm of extension tubes, so it did lead me a merry old dance at first, but it eventually gave up and stayed put, I used live view to get focus on the eye, this was the best use of the tiny DOF that I could get on this guy, this is why focus stacking was invented. So anyway, thought I'd share the results of my little experiment with you all. I also did the same experiment with a Harlequin Ladybird, will post that later. I had my aperture set at F/6.3 for this single exposure shot, as this is the aperture I use for my Collembola at this magnification.

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I found this beauty on an after work walk on Friday at Wollaton Park, I noticed it on the railings that border the woodland by the lake. I had to take some shots as it was a species I have not as yet found at Wollaton, I'm fairly sure it's a Heliophanus species, but not sure which one.

I used one of my plastic clamps to secure some greenery behind this guy. I needed some colour as flash fall off with such a dark Spider would not work too well. I would have loved to have managed a focus stack, but this guy was too fidgety, basically moved after each shot oOOo

ID possibly Heliophanus flavipes thanks to Serkiz Oleg oOOo

Finally got near to an Andrena sp Mining Bee with my MP-E, this little one was really checking out my camera and was having a real nosey, I found an area of fences where these kept landing frequently, after a lot of failed attempts at creeping up on these with my camera, this one decided to stay put, they are very attractive little Bee's these, I think this might be a male Andrena fulva, as the females were also landing on the fence as well. However, I may be proven wrong as I am hopeless putting an ID to these Andrena species Bee's.

Hope everyone is having a great week, hoping for good weather this weekend and a possible early wake up :o)

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Well after the glorious day that was yesterday the rain has set in again, so here's one from the archives. A Common Blue Damselfly covered in dew from one of my early morning macro shoots in June (Seems so far away now), I'm hoping that next year I will go full throttle at these dudes. I have been getting back into shape and have lost a load of weight, mainly down to diet and exercise, but feel so much better, also nice to get into some of my old clothes again LOL :o)

This was a 2 image stack in Zerene, I think I will try to perfect this next year and try using a smaller aperture for sharper results, but still I like this cheeky little lady, the diffusion issues don't seem to be as much of an issue early morning.

Hoping everyone has an excellent week :o)

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This is that scary 10-Spot I found the other day, he is now definitely getting aggressive, I think it's all going to kick off in a minute :)

A female Sitticus pubescens I found on my fave Spider wall, she stayed beautifully still for a 6 image focus stack using the Canon 1000D using an aperture of F/6.3, ISO 200 and a 1/160 shutter speed. So far I have found 5 different species on this stretch of wall which is not bad going for Nottingham, only got another 31 species to find in the UK LOL.

I find this species more approachable than any others I have found to date. Other species rarely stay put for more than a second, I think this species adopts a sit and wait hunting strategy.

VIEW LARGE OR ZoooOOoooM

This was another pleasant surprise from the Sheffield Botanical Gardens on Monday, This is Katiannidae Genus nov.1 sp. nov. another exotic import, these are especially colourful Collembola. This species also shows sexual dimorphism, the males shown in the images above are black and orange, the females are mainly black and white. These are about 1mm long and I found these on fallen leaves around the Rock and Water Gardens, they really are one of the prettiest species. I have also found these at the Sensory Garden at Wollaton Hall.

It turns out that my previous upload is possibly an American import Sminthurinus minutus and it is the first record of this species in Europe. See link below

www.flickr.com/photos/odonataman/15683089438/

I am hoping to return to Sheffield in the next few weeks, it really does hold a few macro surprises and I wonder what will be found next time :o)

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A rather curious male Common Darter on the decking at Wilford Claypit last year, I always find this species very approachable with regards to macro photography, you can get surprisingly close to them. This was taken at about 2.5x mag with the MP-E 65mm. They will often strike a curious pose, almost as if they are seeing what you are up to.

This was a focus stack of 9 images at F/10, ISO 400 and a 1/160 shutter speed, a diffused flash was used :o)

Well I know of at least one group of animals that will be loving this dire weather, I think it has pretty much rained 90% of the day.

This is Sminthurides aquaticus and is another of the aquatic Springtails, these are quite strange ghostly looking Collembola, but interesting nonetheless. I have yet to witness the premating ritual, the male is considerably smaller than the female(Pictured here) and has specially adapted antennae, they lock onto the females antennae and the males are actually raised into the air, really hoping I can get a shot of this someday soon. The female grows to about 1mm in length and the male about 0.5mm.

Hopefully, this bad weather will clear by the weekend and I can get out, hopefully I can start photographing some bigger bugs, but at the moment Springtails are fair game :o)

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Well I've not uploaded one of these in ages. This was a most obliging female Common Darter from last year that adopted my finger as a perch. I managed an 18 image focus stack of this one using one hand, bearing in mind I was also resting on a fence which made things a bit easier. This was a Natural Light image, so I didn't have the extra weight of brackets and flashes. You might remember the other shot I got of this one (See first of comments).

I'm really looking forward to the new Odonata season now :o)

I think the great appeal of macro photography is seeing details that the human eye cannot normally see. For example the structure of a compound eyes, the ocelli arrangement on the head or just the fact that many insects are a lot hairier than you'd imagine.

Well I got to the Memorial Gardens for just after nine this morning and there were already a good half dozen Common Darters in the final stages of emergence, but I did find this pretty little lady that was mid emergence, so I got a load of shots of her hanging out of her exuviae, I even got a couple of shots of her pulling herself out of her exuviae. It was quite tricky as she was on the wrong side of the wall of the fountain and just above the water line, I must have looked a right nutter leaning over the wall of the fountain, camera in hand and arm in water LOL :o)

Then I thought, hey lets try a handheld focus stack, so here it is a 34 image natural light focus stack using F/9 and ISO 500 in bright natural light, I was averaging a shutter speed of !/800. This took ages to edit though, the main reason was she was starting to pulsate, if you watch a Dragonfly pumping up its wings and abdomen you can see it pulsating or if you will pumping to inflate those wings. So this caused quite a few movement problems, she was also nodding that head quite a bit as well :o)

The white strands you can see were used to connect the developing Dragonflies spiracles to the gills in the tail end of the exuviae/nymph, Dragonfly nymphs breath through these tail end gills under water and when they emerge the tubes that connect the gills to the spiracles stretch and eventually break off allowing the Dragonfly to be able to start breathing directly through its spiracles. (I think that's right)

Anyway, quite pleased with the results, this is a female by the way starting her new life :o)

My last video is here :o)

www.flickr.com/photos/odonataman/9472398924/in/photostream/

actual emergence video here :-

www.flickr.com/photos/odonataman/9509318393/in/photostream/

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A rather far out looking Large Red Damselfly, I think I managed to get my camera at a lower angle. I also managed to turn this into a 3 image focus stack taken at f/8. It shows some nice details of lower head structure of a Damselfly.

Another lovely day today and I got loads of Large Red Damselfly shots, but they were all full body shots, again these were far too active for portrait work, I will post a full body shot in the next day or two. It did start getting too windy today and I gave up in the mid afternoon, still had a good old walk and topped the tan up :o)

Still not seeing many Damsels, admittedly there were lots of these LRD's about at Wilford Claypit today, but no other species about, I have seen one or two Blue Tailed Damselflies, but still have not seen any Azures or Common Blues?

Another image in first of comments :o)

Also got an image on the BBC Nature website :o)

www.bbc.co.uk/nature/22115362

A fine Common Darter resting on the pontoon at Wilford Claypit today. Really nice to see these back again, they have such friendly faces :o)

Anyway, decided to attempt some natural light focus stacking with these. The biggest problem is they have a habit of moving their heads every so often. I managed 26 images on this one before he moved his head, just enough to do one side of his head. I used an F/5.6 aperture, ISO 500 and a 1/100 shutter speed.

Another gusty, windy and breezy day, so decided to take refuge in local woodland, found loads more of these Allacma fusca, they have amazing textural features on their faces and make interesting subjects. I decided to experiment with extension tubes and this was taken again at x5 magnification and a full 68mm of extension tubes, focusing becomes a very fine line at this magnification and this is a single image shot at 1/200 shutter speed, ISO 100 and F/8 aperture.

Hoping to do an early rise tomorrow, will see how it goes. Also, who told Mosquitoes they could bite through jeans, I got bit on my left knee, I had repellant on my arms, hands and head, but the little gits decided to play dirty, no fair :o(

VIEW ON BLACK ;O)

A very chilled out Dicyrtomina saundersi, I went out to see if I could find any after last nights heavy frost, well it proved very difficult, but after an hour of searching I found this little lady on the underside of a very frosty bit of wood, also she was not frozen and she was moving about slowly, this was almost the shot I wanted, really was hoping to find a frozen individual :o)

Have a great weekend all and wrap up warm :o)

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Really chuffed to bits to find another of these fascinating Pseudoscorpions, this could be the last one of these I find this year. This one was very sedate and hardly moved and this allowed me to do an 8 image handheld focus stack, really pleased that it worked reasonably well, I was lucky that it didn't move at all for this one.

These guys are predatory and feed on Collembola, Mites, Psocoptera and anything else they can tackle. I'm not sure which species this is, so if anyone has any idea I will be most appreciative. This one was about 3mm long at a guess, I liked this POV as you can see its chelicerae, apparently they have venom glands in their pincers and use these to paralyse their prey as well as grip the prey. Some species hitch a lift with other larger insects by gripping on to the insects leg, this is known as phoresy :o)

ID could be Chthonius ischnocheles, this makes 3 different species found to date :o)

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This was another from Friday afternoon, this is a male Calopteryx splendens, this guy was a bit more fidgety and promptly flew off after a short while. The males are a beautiful metallic blue/green with deep dark eyes, the depth of the colour seems to be dependant on lighting sometimes they appear to be a deeper blue and on other occasions there is more of a blue/green colour.

This was just a 5 image stack at F/11, I used the smaller aperture mainly because he kept moving and only having 5 images made the editing a lot easier :o)

Anyway, lets hope tomorrow is better weather wise than today was LOL :o)

Now this is something you don't see everyday, I was honoured to witness this fabulous egg laying behaviour in Sminthurides aquaticus. I have numbered each image in order of events as follows :-

Numbers 1-4:- This is the excavation phase, the female starts eating into a Duckweed leaf, she will bore in deep enough and wide enough to fit her egg.

Number 5:- She then aligns her abdomen with the hole she has created, lowering her posterior into the hole.

Number 6:- She then produces a single egg.

Number 7:- She then lowers the egg into the hole, she will then cover the egg with secretions, detritus and faeces, this is then stamped down to form a cover over the egg.

Number 8:- She has now changed orientation and her newly laid egg is by her side.

Number 9 :- Each of the raised pale lumps in the Duckweed is an egg, these will eventually hatch out and new Sminthurides aquaticus are born.

I will make all the images viewable, but I have to say this was a real thrill to record, I don't think many have seen this behaviour before :o)

For these I used my MP-E on a 36mm extension tube and a 1.4x teleconverter, these Collembola are about 1mm or so long :o)

All images in first of comments :o)

I dedicate this shot to Eddie The Bugman (a.k.a. Edward Nurcombe), a master of this type of portrait, whose photographs are an inspiration to me. Eddie hasn't posted since 2015, and appears to have fallen off the Internet. I hope he's OK - any news would be welcomed.

Pentax D-FA 100mm F/2.8 WR Macro, with HD DA 1.4X tele-converter, Raynox DCR-250, and off-camera diffused Godox AD180 flash. Five-frame handheld focus stack. 17MP crop to 4:3 aspect ratio.

IMPORTANT:

If you would like to use this photo in a way that is appropriate under its Creative Commons license, you are welcome to do so, but please make sure to credit me by my real name and Flickr handle, and please also include a link to the Flickr page of the photo, as well as a link to the relevant Creative Commons license text. I have put examples of proper attribution on my profile page. Optionally, you may also send me a little note about your use... :)

For any other type of use, please contact me to properly license this image.

Thank you!

(IMGP9976-80_ZSDMap80R_Cr4b3_EtcShrp5)

I found these Spangle Galls on an Oak today and thought that they would look nice with some back lighting from the sun.

Oak spangle galls caused by larvae of the Neuroterus quercusbaccarum gall wasp, on underside of an oak (Quercus sp.) leaf. The wasp larvae overwinter in the galls, and emerge in the Spring.

Out of stock, shock horror, no more Spangles left :(

www.aquarterof.co.uk/spangles-p-151263.html

OK this is rather an unusual post, this is a Protaphorura armata I found in local woodland that had struck this pose and was hardly moving, I kind of thought it might be getting ready to shed its skin, it was definitely alive as in some stacking sequences its legs moved. Anyway, I decided to attempt a focus stack, I had my MP-E on 72mm of tubes and then whacked on my 1.4x teleconverter, I had my aperture set at F/4 and took 12 images in this handheld focus stack. Still need to work out what magnification this was at :o)

Protaphorura armata are a blind Collembola and feed on fungi, they can often be found in large colonies under fallen branches in woodland, they are usually about 2mm in length. They are also very easy to keep in culture and have been used in scientific studies on invertebrate/fungi feeding interactions.

What we see here is a rather unique view of the underside of a Protaphorura armata with mouthparts visible. Something just a little bit unusual I thought you might enjoy seeing :o)

VIEW ON BLACK AND REALLY WORTH VIEWING ORIGINAL SIZE :o)

One from a few weekends ago, this fine Red Deer Stag was having a siesta in the Autumn sun, I think he was recovering after a fight.

I just loved the light and Autumnal colours in this one, the image was taken at ground level with my 400mm F/5.6 on my mini tripod. I just hope we get some sunshine soon, I've not been out with the camera at all for the past two days and back at work tomorrow :o)

500px.com/edwardnurcombe

So I thought I'd go back and try some unused stacks in Zerene, this was a 12 image focus stack from back in May and now I really really want it to be next year and Spring, far too wet and cold here LOL.

Next time I try one of these I will definitely use a larger aperture, I think this was at x2 on my MP-E with an F/9 aperture, I think it would have been much better at f/5.6 or something. I used both PMax and DMap for this and edited between the two, still so much to learn with stacking :o)

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