Grabshot is better than no shot - and the first one is rather a good one.

Each year brings a dearth of some butterflies and an abundance of others. This year has produced a lot of whites and blues

Here is a male common blue (lower one) trying to cosy up to a female



Can someone please tell me the name of the foodplant this large white is enjoying?



The quality is below standard but the subject is most unusual. Purple hairstreaks spend most of their time in the canopies of oak trees.
Catching one at ground level is a rarity - and this one's objective was to get inside a box hedge!



Back to the blue ones



The dry weather has desiccated almost everything in sight except in peoples' gardens leaving thistles as the only source of nectar.
This common blue male gets the 'shove over' from a small skipper who is equally hungry.



Fill up while you can. Even the thistles will be gone soon.



All taken with a K3ii and Tamron 90 (272E)

Haven't got that lens but I had similar problems with the PLM 55-300. Firstly, it is really finicky about precise aiming of the af caret. It is phenomenally accurate. Secondly, it was backfocussing something rotten and needed +7 from the camera body to correct it.

The contra-jour Ringlet is a beauty. I'm quite impressed with what the PLM 55-300 is capable of.

I will go looking for that. Well done Rob.

Welcome. You will need two things additional to your camera:
A willingness to ask questions and
to post some pictures. Remember. There are no daft questions so ask away.

Mega fantastic detail. Well done.

Thank you Lenny, Bill. Bill is quite right about ladybirds. Their larvae are just as ferocious and will try to bite you if you get one on your hand (they can't - their jaws are too small) and they are cannibals, preying on their pupated brethren should they find any !

Here is one caught in the act.

I got one of the captions wrong. The Meadow Browns in image #2 are actually Gatekeepers. I'm sorry if anyone was misled by that.

There is a lot of debate about the quality of the image here (understandably)( ! ) but nobody has raised the old chestnut of it having an SDM motor. Have Pentax solved this one or are users going to have wonder when or if it will fail? The fact that some call it a Self Destruct Motor is quite worrying. I would love to buy a new starred lens but I can't afford to throw £1K away or fork out for repairs that will fail in their turn.