Yes, greenfinch. The yellow flash on the wings is a giveaway for both male and female. A small, brownish or greenish bird with that yellow flash is a greenfinch, you don't need to see anything else.

Nice pics. I like the way the out of focus foliage in the second one frames the bird and draws attention to the head, beak and lunch.

Steve

Beautiful. All of them. What more is there to say?

If I were forced to choose a few to hang on the wall, they would be 1 (love in the mist?), 7 (buttercup) and 9 (grass). But it would be a tough call.

Steve

Its name suggests that 'love in the mist' should have a misty feel about it, so I had a go at seeing what could be done with the FA77mm + 20mm tube @ f2 (on a K3). Here is the result. A mixture of mist and mystery to my eyes, but feel free to think differently!

Thoughts, comments welcome as usual.

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Steve

Just when you think you know how Lennybloke will photograph his garden, he comes up with something different...

The blackcurrants are the pick of the bunch for me, the reflected flash adds the perfect sparkle to the ripe fruit. No. 2 (clematis?) is almost up there with the blackcurrants, but losing the tips of the top and bottom petals just knocks it into second place. Not sure about No. 1, it looks like a paper rose to my eyes, something to do with the flash but not sure why. The last one doesn't do anything for me, it just looks a bit jumbled and incoherent.

However, you've made me wonder why I haven't thought about experimenting with flash in the summer garden. And that show the value of a forum like this - there's always something (and someone) to challenge you to think about things differently.

Steve

Welcome!

Feel free to be a prolific or unprolific as you like, we all have times when we feel the urge to post regularly and times when we feel the opposite. I've always found the folk on here very helpful and friendly, so feel free to ask and comment on whatever you like. And like you, I lurked for some time before signing up.

Steve

Thanks folks. I'm always amazed at what the world looks like through a fisheye lens and how it can change enormously with only a small change of position or direction. Visualising before looking through the viewfinder is still way beyond me with a fisheye, so it's all play when the fisheye is on the camera!

Steve

Got to agree with that! But you've done well with what the birds offered you, in particular getting the heads against the sky rather than a confused background of leaves and branches.

Steve

And now the days are getting shorter, nights are drawing in, sun getting lower, and it's only 6 months to Christmas. Will anyone join me in starting a campaign to move the mid-summer solstice to a better time of the year, such as the middle of August?

Steve

Privet hawk moth hiding behind foliage in the garden on Saturday. A monster of a pollinator (if indeed it does pollinate - it certainly feeds on nectar). Showing the full glory of its outstretched wings when I first saw it, but had folded its wings by the time I'd got a camera in hand... . Plenty of the expected butterflies (marbled white, meadow brown, small blue) seen during a butterfly hunt a couple of miles away last Friday.

Please form an orderly queue when you visit south Dorset to see the only butterflies in the country this year... .

Steve

Ooops! The title of the third should of course be 'Looking north', not 'Looking west'. Spotted too late to edit. Sorry.

Steve