A montage to show you courtship behaviour with Sminthurides nr. penicillifer, as with all Sminthurides species the male and female Springtail perform a courtship ritual. The male which is quite a bit smaller than the female will approach a female and attempt to link its antennae with the female (If the female lets him). The male has specially adapted antennae with long setae on it, it uses these setae to lock its antennae around the females antennae. The female will often carry the male around like this for some time, I'm not sure if this is to exhaust her or if there is some pheromone at play here. The male will then unlock itself and deposit spermatophores that the female will walk over.

In these images the male is the smaller of the linked pair, the females being a lot larger with the distinctive white abdominal and facial band :o)

The females are about 1mm in length and the males 0.6mm long, taken with the MP-E on a 1.4x teleconverter and some with an extra 36mm extension tube added between the lens and teleconverter.

I have included some extra images in the comments :o)

Well I made a trip to Sheffield Botanical Gardens and I found plenty of exotic Collembola, but this was my favourite. This is a mature individual and is also known as Katianna sp. 3. This one is thought to have been brought in with imported plants and can often be found at Botanical Gardens. This species is very common at Sheffield Botanical Gardens, especially around the Water and Rock Gardens, it seems to favour the Ericaceae that grow there. I found these on virtually every fallen leaf in that area of the gardens. It is also interesting to note that these can also be found in the Hot House, often found on the pools of water in the Bromeliads. It is thought these originate from Australasia. These are about 0.8mm in length.

I have to say that these are one of the most colourful Collembola that I find there, they are walking modern art :o)

All images in the montage are viewable, see first comment

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One of many full Large Red Damselfly shots I have taken over the past few weeks, I chose this one to upload as I feel it does the species justice and has a nice natural light feel to it, I managed to get this one with no specular highlights and the wings look so fresh and crisp. Also a classic Damselfly pose and nice clean bokeh, lovely :o)

I hope everyone has a great week, looks like we are back to grey wet weather again, no fair.

Please feel free to view large or original, worth it :0)

Thought I'd share my current extreme Collembola macro set up with you. Yes it is heavy and is a bit awkward to handle, but I would only really use this kit close to the ground or on a stable working surface. With this I can achieve about x10 with a full frame camera or x16 on an APS-C camera. I have the flash mounted with a Manfrotto 233B Camera Flash Bracket, I decided to have this attached to the main body of the camera, the reason being to spread the weight around a bit, I could use my smaller bracket and flash mounted to my MP-E foot, but I was concerned about putting too much weight on the lens. The whole purpose of the above is to try and photograph the smaller Collembola in better detail :0)

Anyway, I have yet to try this 3x extension tube set in the field, the set up feels fairly stable and should be OK for handling, as for finding my subject in the view finder, that could prove tricky. I hope to be trialing the above set up over the next few weeks, I also chop and change with extension tubes, for example the 1.4x teleconverter and 36mm works well and x2 36mm extension tubes works well, as does x2 full extension tube sets, you just have to remember to adjust the aperture accordingly. I have included some component images in the comments :o)

Any improvement ideas to my set ups appreciated, I hope to get the MT-24EX Flash at some point, also the 1.4x Teleconverter MKIII is supposed to be excellent and yes I still have my Nikon D7000 :o)

Finally managed to get an MP-E shot of a Migrant Hawker, I know an area at Attenborough where they like to settle, it was cool enough for me to get close enough to this resting Dragon, I used the fill in flash technique for this and it was not easy as shooting at 1/60th of a second means camera shake can be an issue, fortunately this one was close to the ground and I could kneel and get quite a stable position, only issue were the Brambles ripping my legs to shreds,OUCH!!!!!! Covered in scratches this morning, but all part of the fun. I've rotated this image as it was hanging down in its usual position, it didn't look quite right like that :o)

I may be offline tonight as my internet has gone down, I'm currently in a Neros at the moment using free WIFI, I've not seen my Landlord yet as he has the router in his room and it is locked :o(

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On another cold and bleak day I lucked out by finding this beauty, I was surprised when it climbed onto my monopod, I think the cold weather had made this little one a bit more cooperative and it posed quite happily for me, in this shot it is on the rubber end of a Manfrotto monopod, this is also the first time I have been able to photograph one of these and I like these a lot now, makes a change from the Springy Thingies.

Here is what Wiki say's :-

Rhingia campestris is a species of hoverfly, 7–11 millimetres (0.3–0.4 in) long, with a wingspan of 12–18 mm (0.5–0.7 in). It is common in many parts of Europe from March until November. It has a broad orange abdomen with a black line along the sides (the black line is absent along the sides of Rhingia rostrata), and has the distinctive long snout of all Rhingia species. Larvae are associated with cow dung. Adults males feed on nectar, while adult females feed on protein rich pollen, reflecting the cost of developing eggs.

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This was a seriously tiny Weevil, probably about the same size as a Globular Springtail (2-3mm), I quite liked the white hairs on the dark elytra, not really sure what the species is yet, I'm thinking Apion sp, I will have to go back to the books later.

This one was on a fence post covered in algae, I had to tone down the greens as they were very overpowering, I'm starting to really love Lightroom, really love the dust spot removal tool, I think I'm going to have to clean the old sensor soon :o)

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A Blue-tailed Damselfly from the Summer, I still have a few more to go. This one struck this pose and allowed a fairly deep stack of 25 images, I used an F/7.1 Aperture, ISO 320 and a 1/160 shutter speed. I think this one has some strange malformed mouth parts, could possibly be damage.

Had some great finds yesterday, got "Britain's Orchids" by WILDGuides yesterday for £2.49 at the Oxfam Bookshop, a really cool book. I then got a Kew Gardens 50p in my change from Costa, they sell for £25 on eBay :o)

I've not been out with the camera in ages, I really must make an effort tomorrow. Hope everyone has a great week.

I spent the afternoon in woodland seeing what I could find, as well as many Collembola I found a few of these sleeping Weevils, these were quite small and were about 3-4mm at a guess, thought it was rather cute in a hairy way LOL :o) If anyone has any idea of an ID for this then I shall be most grateful :o)

Anyway, a 19 image handheld focus stack using an f/6.3 aperture, ISO320, and a 1/160 shutter speed, I had upped the ISO a bit to enable a faster refresh rate with the flash. The MP-E was used at x5 magnification. I really must kick myself out of bed tomorrow for some Damsel portraits.

A bit annoyed with the weather, especially after watching the morning news and being promised glorious sunshine, oh well wasn't too bad I guess :o)

Thanks to joe with a camera, ID is Barypeithes pellucidus, a Hairy Spider Weevil :o)

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Not much around at the moment, I think the wind has blown everything away, but I did find this Brachystomella parvula sheltering in a clump of Moss. It didn't really move away from the Moss and spent most of its time under it, I did get a few shots of it climbing the Moss and in one shot I managed to get the underside of the Brachystomella, see comments.

I took these using my MP-E at x5 on a 1.4x teleconverter and 36mm of extension tubes using an F/5.6 aperture. I hope these high winds calm down soon, it's no good for Collembola photography as stuff really does get blown away LOL :o)

Having a few connectivity problems, so please excuse any slowness on my behalf :o)

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A second species given the extreme close up treatment, this is Oniscus asellus or the Common Shiny Woodlouse. This is one of the 35 native UK species and is one of the "UK Big 5", the big 5 is made up of the following :-

Oniscus asellus (the common shiny woodlouse)

Porcellio scaber (the common rough woodlouse)

Philoscia muscorum (the common striped woodlouse)

Trichoniscus pusillus (the common pygmy woodlouse)

Armadillidium vulgare (the common pill bug)

So anyway, this is a 25 image handheld focus stack using my MP-E at full magnification on a 1,4x teleconverter and 72mm of extension tubes, using an F/5.6 aperture, 1/125 shutter speed and ISO 320.

Well I had just finished writing this up for a first time and was thwarted by a bad, bad Panda, not impressed, so here I go again LOL ;o)

A full list of UK species can be found here :-

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_woodlice_of_the_British_Isles

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Found another courting pair of Common Darters and was able to get a shot with the MP-E 65mm, this was at x1 magnification, would have liked to have tried a higher magnification, but they decided to fly off :)

A very juvenile Dicyrtomina ornata on a bit of old wood, I had placed the wood on a ledge on a brick wall to provide a stable surface to photograph this one and the brick also gave a very pleasing backdrop.

I will hopefully find some larger macro subjects soon, but I still want to find Collembola, so I think this Summer may provide a very mixed bag of subjects. Of out early to try and find Bee Flies again, Nottinghamshire always appears to be the last place to find anything LOL :o)

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They are on the rise, literally covering the fences at Wollaton Park. this one decided to start marching straight at my lens and I was quite pleased with the look of this, I used a leaf for some background colour.

I did see some Orange Ladybirds, Ten-spot Ladybirds and Cream-spot Ladybirds, but they were most definitely out numbered by these guys :)

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Another stack from the weekend, this is an Orchesella villosa, they are fairly large as Collembola go and this one was about 5mm in length, they can be quite variable in colour, but most I see tend to be a tan brown with dark stripes. These guys can often be found under fallen branches and bark. They do make quite easy subjects for stacking as they tend to stay still when found, I managed about 6 sets of stacks of this one before it got fed up with me.

This is another handheld focus stack of 17 images, I used my MP-E at x4 magnification and an F/5.6 aperture. This is the first time I've actually seen the collophore and furca of one of these guys.

Also just ordered "Biology Of Springtails" by S.Hopkin, not a cheap book, but looking forward to reading it :o)

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A Polyommatus icarus showing off his colours on a dried grass seed head, I think it's a male, they seemed to find a good perch and then would open up those gorgeous wings, I guess this is to let other males know that the territory is taken, that's my guess anyway. They do patrol their territory searching out females.

Anyway, I just liked this shot, seemed to work with the soft colours :o)

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This was my new Pseudoscorpion find yesterday, I found this under a small wooden log, a very well camouflaged species as well. I'm not yet sure of a species ID for this one yet, so if anyone recognises the species then I would be grateful. Quite a large species at 3-4mm in length, covered in odd hairs and seems to cover itself in debris for camouflage purposes :o)

I think it may possibly be Chernes cimicoides.

This one was very stealthy in its movements and fortunately was very slow moving. The other species I find can be very flighty indeed. The only thing I wish I had done was transfer it on to a cleaner background, the background surface in this photo shows how well this species can blend in with its environment.

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A real incy wincy Spider at Wollaton Park, this is a full frame uncropped Araniella sp. spider at Wollaton Park. This one was taken using the 1.4x Extender and the MP-E at x5 magnification, these are pretty small spiders at about 5-6mm, thought it was a bit different and also kind of cute :)

A luvved up pair of Common Blue Butterflies from Friday afternoon, it was a grey and chilly day and this pair were quite motionless. The main issue was trying to get a shot full stop, the wind kept blowing these about and the poor light meant I was only getting 1/100, so I had to up the ISO to 800 and I was able to get 1/160, I was using a monopod as well. I was also using my flash on ETTL and set at the -3 bias setting. The other issue was lining this pair up to get the best of the DOF.

Well I'm hoping to get out with the camera tomorrow, just need to work out where to go????

Hope everyone has a great weekend :o)

The above shows 3 images featuring Sminthurides nr penicillifer a species first found by andybadger (A. Murray)

www.flickr.com/photos/89396233@N00/sets/72157629957560853/

Each image was shot in a different location, over the past few days I have been looking at likely habitats for this species and have found 2 new locations.

The first image on the left was at the Colwick Park site, the middle image was at Iremongers Pond (Wilford) and on the right was at Holme Pit Pond (Clifton). So it's looking like this species may actually be quite common, it's just not many people go out looking for them. Also interesting to mention that this species has now been found in Germany by Jan van Duinen :-

www.flickr.com/photos/fotos-janvanduinen/15003531560/

And K. Beck :-

www.flickr.com/photos/99452971@N07/15218555402/

It seems this species favours still/slow moving, well vegetated and clean water. Also all of the 3 locations are linked to the River Trent, so it is likely this species is present in most similar habitats along the length of the river and its tributaries.

I liked the image on the right, I got a Sminthurides nr penicillifer and a Sminthurides aquaticus in the same shot for comparison :o)

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A very small and very young Zebra Spider I found this morning on a white uPVC window ledge, almost gave me studio conditions, I must admit shooting against a white background is an absolute nightmare and I hope I have done my subject some justice.

This little one was very slow and sluggish, I think it had been caught out by the rain and coldish conditions. I was really pleased to find this, especially as after half an hour in the garden was resulting in not very much.

Hope everyone has a great weekend :o)

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Not the best macro day today, lots of frost about under rocks and wood, but I did find this Dicyrtoma fusca under a frozen bit of wood, it was surrounded by ice, yet within minutes of taking this shot it was moving about. This species seems to be quite hardy and I have found it in frozen environments before.

I was also trying my old Nikon SB900 flash with my Canon in manual settings, not sure if I will use this again, I kept getting some shots with a black bar at the bottom, I kind of think this is a sync problem (I hope LOL), I will swiftly move back to using my 580EXII :0)

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Well I went out at about 9am this morning as it was my best chance of some calmer weather, still a bit breezy, but I found a sheltered spot. My intention was to try some Collembola focus stacks with my old 1000D (The 5D MKII is in for cleaning). It was nice just to use the MP-E on Collembola without any teleconverters or extension tubes, these Dicyrtomina saundersi were almost frame fillers at x5 magnification.

So this is a female Dicyrtomina saundersi and it is a 5 frame handheld focus stack, I was quite happy with the results on this one and there are some nice details to be seen here. This individual was about 1.5-2mm in length and was a well behaved subject :o)

Hope everyone had a great weekend :o)

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I finally got round to a spot of macro work yesterday, I found this great Platybunus triangularis in woodland at Colwick Park. These are great looking Harvestman Spiders. As I understand it these used to be called Rilaena triangularis, but have now been taxonomically superceded by Platybunus triangularis.

This one was a 29 image focus stack using an F/5 aperture, ISO 400 and a 1/160 shutterspeed, I used my MP-E and 1.4x teleconverter, so it was about x7 magnification. I liked this angle as it is the first time I have seen a Harvestman's Chelicerae, these are the 4 dark structures right between the pedipalps on the underside of the head. These are basically the jaws which chew up the food. There are some nice textural qualities to this individual, this one was a juvenile that was about 2-3mm long, they overwinter as juveniles and become active in the Spring.

A quick journey into the ultra macro world, I have put together a selection of recent Sminthurides schoetti captures, for the main image I was using my MP-E on my 1.4x teleconverter(x7 mag) and found that an aperture of F/5 was sufficient for this species to capture pretty nice sharp details. With photographing Collembola you are constantly having to try different angles and DOF to get the best of your subject, Collembola vary greatly in size (0.2-6mm) and shape, so for smaller Springtails (0.2-0.5mm) I can use more extension tubes etc and a wider aperture, for the bigger stuff (0.5-6mm) I can use lower magnification and smaller apertures or wider apertures and focus stacking techniques. These females are typically up to 0.5mm in length according to the Roehampton website and the males 0.3mm.

There is a selection of images in the comments (would be nice if they could be seen after 20 comments), they are a variety of aspects of Sminthurides schoetti at varying magnifications, there is also a unique shot of an individual going through the final stages of a moult, I wish I had used lower mag for this as the DOF was quite limiting with this shot, but you can see the antennae still flat against the face as it is drawing them out of its exuviae. Looks like the antennae are the last part of the moult, I guess the Collembola holds onto the moulted skin and pulls the antennae out.

There are some shots of some juveniles, these were taken using 160mm of extension tubes, I reckon the juveniles are between 0.2-0.4mm long, but can't say for certain what species they are, in an extra shot you can see a Sphaeridia pumilis close to a juvenile, Sphaeridia pumilis are very small Sminthurididae Collembola and don't get any bigger than 0.5mm and are possibly one of the smallest Globular Springtails.

There is also a nice shot of a male Sminthurides schoetti using a grooming drop on its front leg to clean its antennae, the males have specially adapted antennae used in courtship, they have curved seta on them which they use to lock onto the females antennae.

Finally a large purple Stenacidia violacea female, these seem to occur in the same area as these other Sminthurididae Collembola, many of the Sminthurididae are very similar in colour and this can result in misidentification, these were all found in the Springtail arena LOL :0)

I would like to also thank everyone as I have hit 1,000,000 views, today ;0)

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A lovely Blue Tit from a week or so back, I absolutely love these guys and they are so much fun to watch, full of life and energy, always on the go and such stunning colours. I always take bird food with me when I go to Wollaton, usual scenario is I put food out and the Squiggles hog it all, not this time I had peanuts in their shells to distract the Squiggles LOL :o)

Taken with the 400mm F/5.6 on a 36mm extension tube :o)

I'm hoping to take the camera out at the weekend, really looking forward to the weekend now, forgotten how important weekends really are, absolutely shattered today, the new job is definitely a physically active job LOL :o)

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Well I managed a trip out this afternoon, not much about as it was still quite chilly, but I did spot a few of these guys sitting on Dandelions, this is one of the Tenthredo sp. Sawflies and I'm not sure which, although it is a species I see commonly, but I know there are many similar species in this Genus.

Anyway as it was cold this one allowed me to take an 18 image handheld focus stack of its noggin, I used ISO 320, Aperture F/5.6 and a 1/160 shutter speed. Soon after this the Sawfly started to stir and promptly flew off.

Possible ID :- Tenthredo arcuata or Tenthredo notha

Hope everyone has a grand week :o)

I found this poor guy all on his own in the world yesterday, I was quite surprised to find a Hoverfly (Possibly Syrphus sp) still around in November, not another Hoverfly to be seen anywhere.

The only other Hoverflies I have seen lately are Drone Flies, but that was a week ago and Drone Flies seem to be the last to vanish, so finding this guy was perhaps a tad unusual :)

VIEW LARGE, some nice eye details here :)

They have risen from beyond the grave and are coming to get you, MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, really struggled thinking of stuff, so thought I'd go with a Damselfly from this year, used a number of editing programs, including GIMP, Picnik, Picasa, Lightroom and Corel Paintshop, none of them had everything I wanted so a lot of messing about involved. See if anyone can get the geotag reference :o)

Answer to the geotag placement, is George A Romero, after attending university in Pittsburgh he went onto a film making career with films like "Night Of The Living Dead", "Dawn Of The Dead" and "Day Of The Dead", he filmed much of his early work in and around Pittsburgh, hence the geotag :o)

I might have a go at something else tonight, if I can get even more inspired :o)

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A tiny Curculio sp Weevil, this one was sitting on the spike of a metal fence, I impaled a dead leaf on the next spike along for a background, I only wish it would have turned it's head just a little, but I still like the shot, the spike of the fence looks like a boulder here and I liked the very casual pose :)

I was so thrilled to find one of these wonderfully coloured male Katiannidae genus nov.1 sp. nov, they are one of the most striking Collembola that I find, I just love those firey reds and oranges mixed in with those black spots, very beautiful indeed.

This guy was really getting stuck into the algae on this wooden fence on the path around Harrison's Plantation in Wollaton. Funny thing is I only ever see the male Katiannidae on this fence, have yet to find any of the female Katiannidae here, also I still can't locate any shrubs that they may have colonised, saying that there are lots of gardens that back onto this fine nature reserve, I have included a few extra shots in the comments, showing this beautiful Collembola :o)

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A male Genus nov.2 sp. nov. from Sheffield, this is one of the exotic Collembola that can be found at the Sheffield Botanical Gardens. This I thought was an interesting sequence as it shows the Springtail grooming with reflections.

In two of the images (top row 3rd and 4th) you can see the eversible vesicles being used for cleaning. Some Collembola have the ability of producing tube-like vesicles from the collophore, these vesicles can be used for absorbing fluids, cleaning, self righting and even as jump stabilisers. Interesting to note that the Springtail uses the legs to help guide the vesicle to the area it wants to clean.

Info from Fran's :-not all Collembola have tube-like collophore vesicles. In fact in most Collembola it are just short balloon like vesicles, even half balloons. Only in Symplypleona the vesicles are tube-like. Except in Sminthuridoidea, where the vesicles are short as in Entomobryomorpha. IMHO, this is an indication that Sminthuridoidea are the basis of Symphypleona.

You can also see the production of a cleaning droplet from the mouth, this is then transferred to the feet, the Springtail can then move the droplet foot to foot and use the droplet for grooming.

This was taken with my MP-E on the 1.4x teleconverter, the springtail here was less than 1mm in size :o)

This is also the first time I can say I've photographed the male of this species :o)

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This was another find on Friday's walk, I found lots of these very small Globular Springtails, all of them had dark bodies with orange legs and antennae, these were about 0.7mm at a guess, very small and mostly very active, they would ping away at the slightest disturbance, so when this one which was preoccupied with a meal stayed put, I was well chuffed. I used live view to focus on this, best thing about live view is you can zoom in at x10 mag and get good focus, very useful on something so very small. This was taken at x5 and has been heavily cropped :o)

The closest match i can find for this one is Sminthurinus igniceps, but if anyone can confirm this I shall be grateful, I have included other views in the comments :o)

Thanks to Frans for ID help Sminthurinus aureus forma ochropus, a dark colour form of Sminthurinus aureus, apparently the second photographic record of this colour form, so not too bad going LOL :0)

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE :o)

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A female Common Blue Damselfly early doors on Sunday morning, I found this little one sitting on a blade of grass with her wings in X-wing bokeh formation. This was the closest I came to finding a Damselfly with dew on it, there are a few drops on her head. It seems that a single dark band across the eyes is a distinguishing feature with Common Blue Damselflies.

This was a handheld focus stack, but how many images?

Answer was 17 :o)

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Some nice habitus shots of a lovely Sminthurides malmgreni, this is a very common Sminthurides species and can commonly be found on the surface and near bodies of standing water, often found with Sminthurides aquaticus and Podura aquaticus. They can also be found in boggy areas, I also find them on the surface of large puddles in fields. With recent weather conditions I have noticed an explosion in Sminthurides species in general.

This one is a female and was about 0.8mm long, the males are a lot smaller at about 0.4mm and the males also have specially modified antennae for grasping the females antennae in their courtship ritual.

I used my MP-E at x5 magnification on 112mm of extension tubes and an F/6.3 aperture :o)

I hope everyone has a great weekend :o)

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An as yet unidentified Leafhopper Nymph found on the underside of a leaf on a Tree (Not sure what the tree was), this one was about 2-3mm in length and was a most cooperative subject and stayed put for a number of stacks. There were lots of shed skins under other leaves, but this was the only Leafhopper I could find. The adults would probably have flown away as soon as I disturbed the leaves.

This was a 12 image handheld focus stack at an aperture of F/6.3 at x5 magnification on my MP-E. If anyone can ID this one I would be grateful, I did look on the British Bugs website, but could not find a match :o)

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend, thought Flickr was going to be down all day, glad it's up and running again :o)

I'm wondering if this could be Edwardsiana species? Possibly Edwardsiana rosae

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A rather lovely Monobella grassei which I photographed a few days back, I chose this image as a main as I managed to get a groovy green Mite in focus as well. This Monobella grassei was about 1.5mm long, you can also see its adapted mouthparts between the antennae, these guys have pretty much a liquid diet and the mouthparts are a cone like protrusion. I have included a variety of aspect shots to illustrate the wonderful textures on these beautiful Collembola. Tricky to get everything in focus as I was using my 1,4x teleconverter and 36mm of extension tubes with an F/5.6 aperture, if I use a smaller aperture the results get too soft to use :o)

There are also 3 images at the end of the comments of a Folsomia species, anyway, it's a new one for the list, but I didn't really think the images were quite good enough for a stand alone upload. ID possibly F. manolachei, thanks to Frans for ID help :0)

I wish everyone a wonderful weekend :o)

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Sorry another Dicyrtomina saundersi, there really is not much about and everywhere is so very waterlogged, many of my usual macro haunts are out of the question at present, I was at the Highfields Park yesterday and there were pools of water everywhere. I walked past the Trent this morning and it looks close to bursting its banks, one more night of rain could do it.

Anyway, this is a 4 image focus stack of a Dicyrtomina saundersi on some very damp wood and it is also covered in condensation, I quite liked the angle as well :o)

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Thought I'd mix it up tonight with my first natural light focus stack of a Hoverfly. As I had left a crucial bit of kit at home today I decided to try some natural light work. I could not believe it when this handsome Hoverfly stayed completely still for me, I think it was warming up in the morning sun.

Anyway, this is a handheld natural light focus stack of 37 images, I used my MP-E at just over 1x mag and was on aperture priority, I had an aperture of F/5, ISO 500 and the shutter speed was averaging at 1/160.

A beautiful Dasysyrphus albostriatus, quite a handsome looking Hoverfly this one :o)

ID correction :- Dasysyrphus albostriatus

thanks to Mark Horton and Bob at Blashford :o)

Thought I'd experiment with something different, I took a small mirror with me today, the idea was if the Deer weren't showing then I'd try some experimental macro, I think this effect is related to flash fall off but with a mirror, I quite liked the whole idea, so I guess Reflective Flash Fall Off Ultra Macro is the technique, it reallly illuminates the subject, I'm going to try a better reflective surface next time, the mirror I was using was a plastic signalling mirror. This is a Sminthurinus species Collembola, about 0.5mm long, taken with the MP-E and 112mm of extension tubes. Could be a juvenile Sminthurinus reticulatus with orange banding. Please note this is something I was inspired to try by EvilEyeGoshawk :0)

No Deer today, they were all on the other side of the golf course, Still it was a fine day and spent a while photographing a few different subjects, oh and I nearly got hit by a golf ball that literally landed 6 inches from where I had my camera set up :o)

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A Dicyrtomina saundersi in its Fortress Of Solitude, I should have coloured one of the crystals green in hindsight.

This is an 8 image focus stack in Zerene, the sequence was taken in February this year, I hope I get an opportunity to do a similar set of shots this Winter, well the Daily Express was saying the other day that we are going to have the coldest Winter for 100 years, but then that's the Daily Express LOL :o) As I remember this was taken after a very frosty morning, I went out turning over bits of wood and found this one on these ice crystals, these Collembola are Winter active and I believe they have some form of antifreeze in their bodies.

I stacked this in PMax and DMap and edited the DMap using the PMax image and other frames. This was shot at x5 on my MP-E and shot at f/10. I tried to stack this in CombineZP originally, but this one was moving its antennae and I couldn't edit it in CombineZP.

Saw a new novelty bit of kit today, it's an adapter for lenses that can turn them into spotting scopes, just wondering if it would work as a macro spotting scope LOL :o)

www.wexphotographic.com/buy-kenko-lens2scope-angled-spott...

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Really pleased to finally see one of these guys in the process of moulting and even more chuffed that I managed a focus stack as well. In the main shot the Dicyrtomina saundersi is pulling the antennae and collophore out from the old cuticle, it seemed quite a task :o)

Like many other Arthropods, Collembola moult to enable further growth and also to reach maturity, they will also continue to moult on attaining maturity, in some species they moult 40x or more. The time between each moult varies with species, it can be a few days for juvenile instars and longer for older instars. Also did you know that the maximum authenticated longevity for a Springtail in a laboratory is 5 years and 7 months in Pseudosinella impediens, which I find absolutely amazing :o)

The main image is a 7 image focus stack at x7 magnification, I used an F/6.3 aperture, would have preferred using F/5.6, but I was trying to get a quick stack as this guy was always moving, there was some movement in the stack, but only slight and I was able to edit around the problem areas. This was a relatively juvenile individual at about 1mm, I have some stacks of it post emergence which I may post later :o)

Hope everyone has a great weekend :o)

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These guys are virtually everywhere I look, they were on almost every leaf I picked up whilst walking around the Sensory Garden at Wollaton Park yesterday. Each leaf has it's own colour properties and I really liked the reds that this particular leaf produced. The other good thing about leaf finds is that you can get some nice angles on your subjects. This is Dicyrtomina saundersi and they are grazing on the mould and algae that grow on the decaying leaves.

Infectious song, I keep hearing everywhere :0)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQmEd_UeeIk&ob=av2e

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Two completely different Common Darter expressions, also taken with two different cameras, the Canon 5D MKII and the Canon 1000D, both using the MP-E 65mm, but can you tell which was taken by which, is there a noticeable difference or not :)

I will divulge the answer later today :)

Well what a miserable and gloomy day it was today, so here is a bit of late afternoon HDR on the embankment, this is a view of Trent Bridge and the Rushcliffe Borough Council Civic Centre. The light was fading fast and I liked the starbursts from the lights, almost seemed to make the grey of the day a bit more bearable, I also liked the leaves and moss on the steps of the embankment, I would have uploaded earlier, but Flickr was playing games again and the uploader was disabled for a while.

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I spent the afternoon looking for invertebrates in local woodland today, so I couldn't resist a few Allacma fusca portraits whilst they are still plentiful. This one is a 12 image handheld focus stack using my MP-E at full magnification on 72mm of extension tubes and my 1.4x teleconverter using an F/5.0 aperture. I had placed the stick this guy was on onto a fallen tree and I used a blue fake flower as a background. This Springtail was about 2mm in length :o)

I find these guys will happily stay put for a focus stack, especially if you get the flash power down, which at this magnification is no easy task, I had to use an ISO of 400, it didn't help being in woodland as well, with all the leaves still on not much light gets through :o)

Well it seems that Flickr is playing up still, having problems uploading, so I hope this works :o)

Hope everyone has a great Sunday, sounds like it will be a wet one though :o)

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Just to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, hope you all have a wonderful time.

Just a collage of some of my favourite finds and images of 2013, 2013 was a good year for new finds and I really enjoyed focus stacking anything I could find, especially focus stacking Odonata and Collembola. Thanks to all my contacts and let's hope 2014 is an even better year :o)

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A Hylaeus species Bee (Female), I keep seeing these landing on the stonework of Wilford Bridge and after a while I managed to get a few shots of one. I've no idea of the exact species, looking at the BWARS site the Hylaeus species all look pretty similar, so if anyone can give an exact ID then I would be grateful.

Info from Wiki

Hylaeus is a large (>500 species) and diverse cosmopolitan genus within the bee family Colletidae.

The genus of bees consists of generally small, black and yellow/white wasp-like species. The resemblance to wasps is enhanced by the absence of a scopa, which is atypical among bees.

Hylaeus carry pollen in the crop, rather than externally, and regurgitate it into the cell where it will be used as larval food. Like most colletids, the liquid provisions are sealed inside a membranous cellophane-like cell lining.

Nests are typically in dead twigs or plant stems, or other similarly small natural cavities, rather than constructing or excavating their own nests as in many other bees.

This was a partial stack of 3 images, these guys do not stay put for very long and have a habit of moving during a stack.

It''s Friday folks and the weekend starts right here, so let there be fences LOL :o)

I thought the bokeh couple in this shot looked a bit threatening and alien, I'm sure they were really nice people.

I hope everybody has an awesome weekend and I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Fence Friday :o) HFF :o)

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I visited a small ornamental pond near Nottingham University to photograph Sminthurides aquaticus the other day, there were plenty of Sminthurides antics going off, I thought this was some interesting behaviour to capture.

Usually the males link up antennae with females of equal or larger size as part of their courtship, but here the male has linked its antennae with a much smaller female and it looks like it was struggling to unlock its antennae, it did result in some brief role reversal, where the male is lifting the female and not the other way round. Anyway, it was fascinating watching this Sminthurides aquaticus behaviour.

The males reach 0.5mm in length, this makes the small females about 0.3-0.4mm long at a guess :o)

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