February 2019. On two occasions we were guided by Neil Forbes, National Trust Reserve Warden. Seeking out natterjack toads, holding them, requires a licence. So for Neil but not for us. He also found for us the rare yellow bird's nest. At the time, I was writing Cumbrian Contrasts, gathering images for a chapter on The Duddon Estuary. And as you see I was enjoying macro photography. I was looking at flowers and pollinators and the complex signals they transmit to each other which my book explores.
There is strange and wonderful flora and fauna at Sandscale Haws. And there are everyday marvels, if you are curious and look closely. I chose today a certain way of seeing- or letting my camera do the seeing, then running with it and enlarging the macro image. I’m looking for design and pattern. Go close into the corolla of a flower and see it in a new way. Down on your knees, consider the pollinator's approach, guide-lines like a landing-strip to show where the nectar is. Macro highlights the relationship between flowers and the pollinators they seek to attract. A shower greeted us so flowers held rain-drops. And the wind blew tall flowers in and out of camera-frame. Someone on our naturalists’ field-trip offered to hold a stem of greater willow-herb and gasped to see a speck of scarlet deep in the corolla. Too windy to focus well. Greater willow-herb is characterised by a four-lobed stigma which shows clearly. Codlins and cream is another name, little apples and cream. Never seen apples the colour of greater willow-herb. Grass of Parnassus was coming into flower and I remember seeing masses of flowers when our naturalists’ group came here on a field-trip three years ago almost to the day. What does a flower photograph aim to show? That's the question I pose for myself. This first image of sea-rocket could be a classic field-guide identification shot, with leaf structure and flower showing clearly. Go deep into the corolla and the flower tends to lose its identity( the conventional way we look at a flower) and become more abstract. The plants swarmed with the caterpillars of the large white butterfly and little black lumps of caterpillar droppings speckled the leaves, frass it's called. The caterpillar is rather striking in close-up.
February 2019. On two occasions we were guided by Neil Forbes, National Trust Reserve Warden. Seeking out natterjack toads, holding them, requires a licence. So for Neil but not for us. He also found for us the rare yellow bird's nest. At the time, I was writing Cumbrian Contrasts, gathering images for a chapter on The Duddon Estuary. And as you see I was enjoying macro photography. I was looking at flowers and pollinators and the complex signals they transmit to each other which my book explores.
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