A really lovely set . No favourites, but No. 8 is a very inviting path...

Please send some wet to the south coast. You can keep the miserable and windy, though .

Your wife is correct, botanical name Eschscholzia Californica aka Californian Poppy. Not a true poppy, though.

Steve

Today is a good day, two new and pointless things learned before lunch .

Thanks to careful examination of early morning videos from the camera trap, I can confirm that:
- Robins don't leave the ground by flapping their wings, they jump. Wing flapping starts when they have left the ground.
- A blackbird running is a good candidate for the Ministry of Silly Walks.

Next week, perhaps a video investigation into worms turning...

Steve

Nice one - it took a couple of seconds to get it, but worth the wait.

Steve

This one works for me - two foxgloves are definitely better than one . And the light, shadow and texture of the rock are spot on.

Steve

Jobs for the day done, Talisker in the glass, level dropping...

Steve

You can pay upwards of £2,000 for a top quality scope or binoculars for bird watching. Why should a top quality lens for an SLR cost less?

Most amateur bird watchers won't spend that much and will be quite happy with (much) lower price optics that are good but don't reach the absolute pinaccle of what is technically achievable. Why should it be any different with us amateur photographers? Of course, if you've got the money, want the very best and must have it ASAP, go for it!

Steve

Wandering around looking for patterns and texture in vegatation with the FA77 at f2 and the sun low (as usual - the dog can't take the heat earlier in the day). Look low, always low, and there's a lot to see. The intention was to focus (pun intended) on leaves, but the last one crept in just because I like it.

Cropped and some processing to remove distracting background material.

Thoughts and comments welcome as usual.

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Steve

Nos. 2, 5 and 7 for me, please. The hills and clouds complement each other very well. And No. 1 for the half-way point in the walk (when it's open again...) .

Sorry, but I can't get excited about solitary foxgloves . Tried it many times myself and it never seems to work. For me, foxgloves need to be in groups, something to do with the width of a group balancing the lanky spike.

Steve

This afternoon's experiment in the garden was to see how well the Irix 150mm macro and Pentax Q-S1 would play together. The subject was a temptingly low cluster of flowers on the elder tree. The wind around the flowers was gusty but a sprig of flowers (not an entire cluster) was held in place by a newly arrived flower clamp. Even then, the flowers were vibrating a lot. The Irix 150mm was mounted on a focusing rack on a tripod, with the Q-S1 hanging off the end. So tiny, white, brightly lit, vibrating flowers against a dark background - a bit of a challenge for lens and camera.

Here are some of the results. All were about 1:1 magnification, the first uncropped, the others cropped. The was a small amount of coloured fringing around some bright areas that were not quite in focus, but nothing to be concerned about. Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised at how well the lens/camera combination worked.

The other surprise was the tiny bug that joined in. It was never still, trying to cling on while being blown around by every slight air movement - not easy when you're only just over 1mm long (estimated from size of image on sensor). At the time, I thought it was a mini-spider trying to start a web. On looking at the pictures, though, it seems to have six legs and two antennae so is an insect. The shape of its head reminds me of a grasshopper, but it could be something totally different. Do any of you bug lovers have any suggestions?

Thoughts, comments (and bug identification :wink welcome, as usual.

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Steve

Glad you said that - I was struggling to understand what they were!!

Steve