Thirsty Hedgehog

Last night my regular visitor arrived just before it got dark (no sound on this video):



That was the first of several visits to the hedgehog house to feed during the night.

Pitcher Pollen

The second flower on the pitcher plant has now fully opened.



In the process a couple of the strands bearing pollen fell off. I placed them under my LCD microscope to try taking some closer shots.

The ruler (cm / mm markings) shows how small they are:


The resolution is reasonable, though as expected, the depth of field in shallow:



Those tiny grains of pollen are really minute.



In case you don't remember the LCD microscope I use .......





It works from 5V, has a memory card which can store photographs and video and connects to a PC / laptop so the card content can be copied across.

Dog Walker

I took the 1200D full spectrum and R72 IR filter for another walkabout. This time through the back of the churchyard and then across the street to Old Mill Lane. I took lots of photographs but for now here is the one I personally like best.



I have always liked this view with the trees standing out against their surroundings. I happened to take this shot just as a dog walker and his three dogs were approaching them. That, for me, put the finishing touch to the composition. I cropped out some of the insipid looking sky.

I case you were wondering - no it hasn't been snowing. The usual practice when taking photographs with an IR filter is to photo an area of grass and set the camera to use that as a reference for white balance. Hence grass and similar shows up as white.

IR and Clouds

How time flies. It is seven years since I purchased a Canon 1200D which had been modified for full spectrum photography. That means the IR cut filter which is normally installed on the sensor was removed and replace with clear optical glass. The camera now responds to light from near UV through the rainbow colours and into some of the IR spectrum. Previously I had used the camera as supplied, without any added filters. For IR photography it helps a great deal to add an IR pass filter to the lens. To that end I now have a R72 filter which passes light from about 720nm. The results? Great for producing B/W (grey scale) photos.

The photos are taken in RAW format and processed using Affinity Photo. First a photo which has had the colour saturation upped to maximum and clarity boosted:



The rest have had the colour saturation reduced to -100 and clarity boosted:











All taken along my lane today. Lots of Sunshine (needed with an R72 filter) and some decent cloud formations. The main problem when trying to frame the photos is the R72 doesn't let light through that the viewfinder can see so I cannot use the camera viewfinder. More a point and hope exercise. Once taken the photo can be seen on the LCD screen so a quick check can be made on the final result.

An Open Pitcher

It has taken nine days but the flower on the Pitcher plant has gone from this



to this



Three of the petals fell off to expose the inside of the flower and its bright yellow pollen. What was fascinating to me was the part which looks like an upside down umbrella. The petals which fell off appear to have been 'guarding' the gap until it was fully ripe.



From the angle of the second new photo you can see this 'umbrella' is growing from the centre of the flower. I guess it leaves a gap just large enough for whatever insect pollinates it in the wild.

A Pretty Pitcher

No - my spelling hasn't gone haywire. A pleasant surprise this morning when I was about to water my Pitcher plants.



I almost missed it as it was facing away from me ...



... a large red flower. I don't think it is fully open as yet but I just had to photograph it. In fact there are two flowers, the other hasn't started opening yet.

Pocket Love

It is all much of a muchness hereabouts at the moment but one new flower is catching my eye. One of my small orchid plants is showing flowers, on last years growth! The plant is a Dendrobium hybrid - Pocket Love:





It is also forming lots of flower buds on the new growth which should give a lovely display in a month or so.