Photos
I’ve now set up a photo site, although it’s still developing – can’t decide on the final layout! You can find it at www.dgcphoto.com and from there there’s a link to a shop site where some of the photos are on sale.
For the time being, I’m leaving the selection below but not adding to it. To view any of the photos below, click on a photo to enlarge it and use the arrows to navigate through the set. Click on any enlargement to return to this page.
Kenya: Golden Palm Weavers building a nest at Kilifi
This pair of Golden Palm Weavers chose to build their nest over a period of two days in a tree very close to the verandah of the house where we were staying. The male of course did all the work, while in between checking out his progress, the female brought along some tasty caterpillar snacks. The intricate spherical nest grew by the hour as the male laboured away through all the daylight hours.
Kenya: Chameleon at Mtwapa
When we were staying on the coast at Roger & Carol Jessop’s place (see the link to Roger’s Art of Africa site), Roger found this fellow on the drive and brought it in for us all to look at. Chameleons are docile creatures, quite unfazed by being picked up. However, they do always seem to manage to keep one of their beady eyes on you. They must have true ’split screen’ vision.
Kenya: Grey Plovers at Mtwapa beach
This flock of grey plovers were mainly in their non-breeding plumage, but there are one or two visible with the strong black from face to belly of the breeding plumage. The in-flight images show the characteristic ‘black axillaries, white rump and obvious wing bar ‘ ( Birds of East Africa; Stevenson and Fanshawe). They were all having great fun up and down the beach, playing in the shallows and on the sand. They allowed me to get fairly close and then almost as one they lifted off into the air for another pass along the shore before landing a little further away.
Phuket: Little Spiderhunters – nesting pair
This pair of little spiderhunters chose to build their nest almost outside the door to our bungalow in Phuket. They are small birds – 16 – 16.5cm overall – and they move fast. Native to SE Asia, they build elongated nests with a side entrance – almost a porch! – that are fixed to the underside of leaves.The male was of course doing all the work, but Mrs LS was always on hand to make sure that he didn’t get sloppy. From some of the shots of him leaving the nest, you can see that launch often involves falling upside down with the head turned first, followed by the body.
Phuket: Butterflies 1
These images were all captured at the Phuket Butterfly farm, a well-presented attraction that all visitors to Phuket should take time to see. Bit of a cheat from the photographic point of view in that the butterflies are all there waiting for you, but it saves spending weeks trekking around the hills in tropical heat – the heat is fierce enough under the netting at the farm. The delicate beauty of these insects is captivating, and their variety amazing. Image 1-1 shows the leaf-like disguise of one clever species while image 1-2 is the same type of butterfly with its wings open.
Phuket: Butterflies 2
A second set of images from the butterfly farm. The first set was taken using the 300mm IS f2.8 lens, which, because the butterflies were very close, was a bit restrictive. I went back for a second visit a couple of weeks later with my newly acquired 40D with 10-22 zoom and 1D MarkII fitted with an also newly acquired 70-200 IS f4. A couple of the shots taken with the wide angle were so close that the lens was almost touching the butterflies, who took almost no notice. The timing of the visits is clearly a matter of luck since on this second visit, the variety of species wasn’t so great.
Italy: Humming Bird Moths
These amazing insects visit the lavender in the garden at our house during the summer months where they spend their time darting from flower to flower at incredible speed. They don’t settle on the flower but grasp it with two legs, their probosces flick out and back in a tiny fraction of a second, and then they are off to the next flower. Capturing their images therefore required a bit of patience and experimentation. I used extension tubes, various lenses, and for some, flash. Some of the shots remind me of old photos of military aircraft refueling in mid-air. I’ve seen at least three types of these moths, some quite elusive. I’m not sure the last three shots are a humming bird moth since the proboscis is fixed – they remind me of Gonzo from Sesame Street.
Italy: Crab Spider
This fellow’s modus operandi is to sit motionless for hours on end on a lavender flower stem with his several arms outstretched, waiting. He knows that sooner or later one of the many insects – mainly bees – that visit the lavender will touch him and when that happens, he will pounce. On the day I saw him, I reckon he waited about five hours and then he had his meal: a nice juicy bee.
Italy: Starling Clouds
Every evening in the late autumn, clouds of starlings arrive over Arezzo & other cities in Italy to roost for the night. There are huge numbers of them and as they arrive, they put on the most incredible show. Gathering in ever changing groups, they swoop and swirl through the sky, forming into any number of shapes and patterns that are constantly changing. It all lasts about ten minutes at dusk, after which they are in the trees, chattering away. Each pattern lasts a fraction of a second – the killer whale shape (#6) formed momentarily from shapes in the two shots before it (#4 & 5), and then was gone. Same with the over-balancing man (#14).
An Italian photographer won wildlife photographer of the year a few years ago with a shot like these taken in Rome – ok, his had the added drama of a prowling peregrine falcon.
Singapore: Orchid Collection at the Botanic Gardens
The Singapore Botanic Gardens is impressive enough, but the Orchid Garden is just beautiful. There are dozens of these gorgeous plants, all displaying their exquisite forms and colours. To add to the fun, there are also some very pretty pitcher plants.
Italy – Honesty: seed pods
Honesty is a fickle wildflower; it seems to appear for a couple of years and then disappear for a few. In the year these photos were taken, there was a carpet of it through the wood at the end of our land in Tuscany. Since then, there has been far less of it, although nothing much else has changed in the wood. As the season goes on, the seed pods slowly disintegrate into the skeletal forms shown in the last five shots.
