Someone has commented on the Mail website that the photo they describe as a small tortoiseshell is in fact a plain tiger butterfly which are widespread in Asia and Africa, but not the UK. I'm not going mad after all!

Really good images of a difficult to take subject. Well done.

Indeed! Thank you.

Thanks. I'm pretty sure mine really IS a small tortoiseshell. Any idea what the one in the Mail article is though?

Just taken this in the garden.
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Hadn't thought of using the DA*200 for this type of photograph before but it works just great for it.

Can anyone confirm I'm not going stupid as the Daily Mail has just published an article saying the small tortoiseshell population has crashed link but their photo looks nothing like a small tortoiseshell to me. So if that isn't a small tortoiseshell, what is it as I've not seen one of those before? I suspect it is an overseas variety. There is one comment confirming my thoughts that the Mail got it wrong - unbelievable!

It was!

Thanks for the comments, appreciated.
Perhaps I should have mentioned all were taken on the K-3 with the16-85 lens which given the weather (rain was in the air) it proved a good combination.
Should anyone wish to see some more from the day they are on my site here:
http://jkpg.ddns.net/piwigo/index.php?/category/263

All the photos taken last Sunday in this thread
https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/topic/york-micklegate-soapbox-challenge--august...
were with the 16-85.
I do have both and prefer the 16-85. Not only does it have a useful longer reach with no apparent loss in quality, the zoom of the 16-45 goes out to wide angle that can cause issues with the inbuilt flash (on those cameras that have it.)
The 16-45 is quite an old design now being one of the first designed by Pentax for APSC, but the results from it are fine. I guess in the end the best one to obtain would be based on its cost/usefulness to you. For a single walk about lens I find the 16-85 is hard to beat.

I've never taken so many photographs in a single day before. Indeed I more than doubled the shutter count of my k-3. The reason being I've never actually used the continuous shooting facility before, there's always a first for something!
The weather was very overcast but at least that meant I didn't have to deal with extreme highlights and shadows between the buildings.
Besides my recent weekly competition entry, here are a few more from the day.

The course began with a steep ramp.
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Along the course was a ramp which led to some interesting photos

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The 'pits' were easily accessible down a side street.
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7 An early casualty



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That's just 10 of the.... 550 (though many near duplicates have since been deleted.)

This week's competition, 'Wide Angle Everything' is now up and running. Look forward to seeing your entries.