A freezing start to yesterday but by the afternoon I could feel the warmth from the Sun.
While I was pottering in the garden I had a quick look for any insect life.
There were dozens of bees on the heather. All taking advantage of a calm February day as the temperature reached 10.4°C. Didn't see any bumble bees though. The calm before the weekend storm.
Showing posts with label Heather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Heather. Show all posts
Friday, 7 February 2020
Saturday, 23 February 2019
Buzzing With Life
Yesterday we had wall to wall Sunshine.
The second day where the temperature has reached 14C by the afternoon.
Returning from our mid morning walk the first thing which caught my eye ...
... the various growths on the Hibiscus bush.
Its branches always looks well and truly dead this time of year.
Next spotted were the first opening flowers on ...
... the tete-a-tete miniature narcissus bulbs.
Nearby were in the order of 20 ...
... 7 spot ladybirds scattered about.
I decided to wander over to have a look at my heather plants.
Even more of them there ...
But almost deafening was the sheer number of ...
... bees busy buzzing from flower to flower.
Lots of background twittering from the House Sparrows.
Amazing what a bit of warmth will produce this time of year.
The second day where the temperature has reached 14C by the afternoon.
Returning from our mid morning walk the first thing which caught my eye ...
... the various growths on the Hibiscus bush.
Its branches always looks well and truly dead this time of year.
Next spotted were the first opening flowers on ...
... the tete-a-tete miniature narcissus bulbs.
Nearby were in the order of 20 ...
... 7 spot ladybirds scattered about.
I decided to wander over to have a look at my heather plants.
Even more of them there ...
But almost deafening was the sheer number of ...
... bees busy buzzing from flower to flower.
Lots of background twittering from the House Sparrows.
Amazing what a bit of warmth will produce this time of year.
Sunday, 19 February 2017
Busy Bumble Bee (video)
I have two large clumps of Heather in flower at the moment. Once the Sun comes out they are attracting lots of bees and the occasional bumble bee:
Monday, 24 February 2014
Bumbling Heather
Following a look at the great stacked shots on Adrian's Images and the way things stand out against a black background I had another stacking session with this set up using the black foam lining in a postal package:
I decided to try some macro shots of the heather from my garden.
26 focus stacked shots
31 focus stacked shots
The black background looks better to me and I only used the LED table lamp for lighting. Later I spent some time experimented with the camera settings to get a better balance on the exposure.
While I was cutting the pieces of heather I had a surprise when I found a bumble bee on the under side of my secateurs. I put them down on the top of a wheelie bin, grabbed the 50D which always has the macro lens set up and managed a few hand held shots before it flew away. Afterwards I wondered how well Zerene Stacker would cope with those:
Much better than I expected, especially as the bee was not completely still. Six stacked hand held shots.
I decided to try some macro shots of the heather from my garden.
26 focus stacked shots
31 focus stacked shots
The black background looks better to me and I only used the LED table lamp for lighting. Later I spent some time experimented with the camera settings to get a better balance on the exposure.
While I was cutting the pieces of heather I had a surprise when I found a bumble bee on the under side of my secateurs. I put them down on the top of a wheelie bin, grabbed the 50D which always has the macro lens set up and managed a few hand held shots before it flew away. Afterwards I wondered how well Zerene Stacker would cope with those:
Much better than I expected, especially as the bee was not completely still. Six stacked hand held shots.
Thursday, 20 January 2011
Heath Robinson Meets Heather
In general I've been disappointed with the quality of some, many really, of the stacked macro photos I've taken. The main difficulty being changing the focus by minute amounts between shots. Last week I spotted an article on the DIYPhotography web site which explained a system for automatically moving the photographic subject for each shot. I though to myself I could do something like that so I have been in Heath Robinson mode for the past three days and came up with this:
Canon 350D, cheap Chinese bellows, s/h Super Takumar 1:2 55mm lens.
On the piece of wood:
Top
Stripped computer DVD player keeping the stepper motor and laser carrier. (Sprig of Heather mounted in pink Blu Tack) On the right - relay to fire the camera.
Bottom
Breadboard with Arduino Nano (left) pulsing a stepper motor driver (centre) and the camera relay.
On the right the 5V regulated power supply.
This photo of one heather flower is built from 59 stacked photos processed with CombineZP.
As I have the Arduino Nano programmed at the moment it moves the subject one step, waits for vibration to settle, fires the camera, waits one second and then repeats the process. This it does 25 or 50 times depending on the position of one of the switches. If more photos are needed I push the reset button to carry the process on again. On my calculation each step is 0.15mm.
This time I am pleased with the result though it takes CombineZP quite a while to process all the shots - worth the wait though.
LATER:
After thinking about increasing the sharpness of the resulting stacked photo I took a series in RAW. CombineZP doesn't accept RAW so I converted them all to BMP which CombineZP can work with. It was much faster processing the 69 shots in this stack and with a bit of processing in PaintshopPro to add more contrast this was the result: Full frame with no cropping. I also increased the time from moving the subject to taking the shot to 1.5 seconds to allow vibrations to settle down.
I think I will be satisfied with that, for now.
Canon 350D, cheap Chinese bellows, s/h Super Takumar 1:2 55mm lens.
On the piece of wood:
Top
Stripped computer DVD player keeping the stepper motor and laser carrier. (Sprig of Heather mounted in pink Blu Tack) On the right - relay to fire the camera.
Bottom
Breadboard with Arduino Nano (left) pulsing a stepper motor driver (centre) and the camera relay.
On the right the 5V regulated power supply.
This photo of one heather flower is built from 59 stacked photos processed with CombineZP.
As I have the Arduino Nano programmed at the moment it moves the subject one step, waits for vibration to settle, fires the camera, waits one second and then repeats the process. This it does 25 or 50 times depending on the position of one of the switches. If more photos are needed I push the reset button to carry the process on again. On my calculation each step is 0.15mm.
This time I am pleased with the result though it takes CombineZP quite a while to process all the shots - worth the wait though.
LATER:
After thinking about increasing the sharpness of the resulting stacked photo I took a series in RAW. CombineZP doesn't accept RAW so I converted them all to BMP which CombineZP can work with. It was much faster processing the 69 shots in this stack and with a bit of processing in PaintshopPro to add more contrast this was the result: Full frame with no cropping. I also increased the time from moving the subject to taking the shot to 1.5 seconds to allow vibrations to settle down.
I think I will be satisfied with that, for now.
Monday, 1 March 2010
Is it Spring Yet?
Listening to the radio this morning I heard that some take the 1st of March as the beginning of Spring but others say it doesn't start until the Vernal Equinox on the 20th. Either way it feels more like it this morning with the Sun streaming through the window behind me even if the temperature is only just above 1C.
Yesterday was a complete washout with steady rain most of the day but the water which had started to flood the back lawn has mostly disappeared already. Just a few icy patches left. I didn't even get the cameras out yesterday as the rain running down the windows and the dull lighting would have made it impossible to get anything other than very arty blurred photos.
Another of my windowsill orchids is cheering me up. An Oncidium which has produced a small spike of flowers this year.
Outdoors some heather in a hanging basket is doing its best to brighten up a dull time of year.
The other day I took some better photographs of the fungi I had spotted on the tall stump of an Ash Tree.
Now my Colllins Complete Guide to British Mushrooms & Toadstools has arrived I must make another effort to identify it. Goodness me - I didn't realise there were so many different fungi growing in the country.
Another unidentified 'object' is a duck. Not very far away is a house with a large plot of land which includes a decent sized natural pond. On the pond are a group of ducks. I assume these are not a native breed, possibly imported or specially bred. In the photo they seem to have a lot of brown colour but when you look at them the first impression is they are black with dark blue and purple.
At the same house they have quite a variety of different types of chickens and there are always a few taking advantage of any warmth from the Sun.
One local bird is really annoying me at the moment. It sings very loudly most mornings. It is not the volume of the song which is annoying me. I just cannot get a glimpse of the bird to identify it and nor can I find the song in the examples on the British Garden Birds web site. When I take a recorder with me on the early morning walk it doesn't sing. When I forget, like this morning, it deafens me! Also some times I could swear the sound is moving as though it is one which sings in flight. The song never varies and warbles quite a bit but I couldn't find it among the warbler songs I listened to. I will keep trying to capture it and post a sample here, eventually.
Yesterday was a complete washout with steady rain most of the day but the water which had started to flood the back lawn has mostly disappeared already. Just a few icy patches left. I didn't even get the cameras out yesterday as the rain running down the windows and the dull lighting would have made it impossible to get anything other than very arty blurred photos.
Another of my windowsill orchids is cheering me up. An Oncidium which has produced a small spike of flowers this year.
Outdoors some heather in a hanging basket is doing its best to brighten up a dull time of year.
The other day I took some better photographs of the fungi I had spotted on the tall stump of an Ash Tree.
Now my Colllins Complete Guide to British Mushrooms & Toadstools has arrived I must make another effort to identify it. Goodness me - I didn't realise there were so many different fungi growing in the country.
Another unidentified 'object' is a duck. Not very far away is a house with a large plot of land which includes a decent sized natural pond. On the pond are a group of ducks. I assume these are not a native breed, possibly imported or specially bred. In the photo they seem to have a lot of brown colour but when you look at them the first impression is they are black with dark blue and purple.
At the same house they have quite a variety of different types of chickens and there are always a few taking advantage of any warmth from the Sun.
One local bird is really annoying me at the moment. It sings very loudly most mornings. It is not the volume of the song which is annoying me. I just cannot get a glimpse of the bird to identify it and nor can I find the song in the examples on the British Garden Birds web site. When I take a recorder with me on the early morning walk it doesn't sing. When I forget, like this morning, it deafens me! Also some times I could swear the sound is moving as though it is one which sings in flight. The song never varies and warbles quite a bit but I couldn't find it among the warbler songs I listened to. I will keep trying to capture it and post a sample here, eventually.
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Time to Eat
Which bit shall I eat next?
We are in the Messiest Beak Competition.
Today I am having a packed lunch.
Nothing like a snack of dried mealworms and a slurp of fresh tap water to keep a Hedgehog going.
Most of the IR LEDs on the camera have been covered over and a lamp with five blue/white LEDs fixed above the feeding area.
We are in the Messiest Beak Competition.
Today I am having a packed lunch.
Nothing like a snack of dried mealworms and a slurp of fresh tap water to keep a Hedgehog going.
Most of the IR LEDs on the camera have been covered over and a lamp with five blue/white LEDs fixed above the feeding area.
Friday, 18 September 2009
Friday at the Flicks
They are back. One adult and two juvenile Magpies have returned to the garden. The only time of day to see them together is just after first light. Here one juvenile is clearing up seed left over from the day before.
The Goldfinches continue to visit as a group but now instead of the youngsters chasing the parents for food the parents are tending to hog the old feeder and chase the youngsters away.
The Blue Tits are regulars again. This one enjoying a sunflower heart.
Last night Honey was still feeding when Bobby went out to say a quick hello. I don't think Honey was too pleased as she left in a hurry returning later to finish her meal.
The Goldfinches continue to visit as a group but now instead of the youngsters chasing the parents for food the parents are tending to hog the old feeder and chase the youngsters away.
The Blue Tits are regulars again. This one enjoying a sunflower heart.
Last night Honey was still feeding when Bobby went out to say a quick hello. I don't think Honey was too pleased as she left in a hurry returning later to finish her meal.
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
A Mild February Day
I spent the morning tidying up in the fruit cage. I might feed the birds and encourage them to visit the garden but they are not really welcome to help themselves to my blueberries and blackcurrants so I have those in a large walk-in caged area. While I was pottering about the garden I saw a Bumble Bee visiting a crocus flower. I think that was only the second one I have seen so far this year.
This afternoon as the Sun was shining for a change and the temperature had reached 11C I took the camera with me on our afternoon visit to the cricket field. In one distant field there were several horses; most standing so the cold wind was behind them.
In another field were a few sheep. Only one of the lambs was in view.
All the time Bobby and I were on the cricket field we saw little wild life. Just a couple of Rooks and the odd Rabbit.
I've always been fascinated by the contrast between these trees. The poplar being more pliable is able to bend with strong winds. The older tree has lost one of its twin trunks and the other has been shaped by the prevailing winds.
As we left the one thing which reminded me that Summer is a long way off yet was the sight of a magnificent Weeping Willow seen here as it is today and compared with last Summer.
Returning to the front garden I saw that there were more catkins and that the Mahonia was giving a good display of yellow flowers as were some crocuses.
Finally, just as we about to go back in the warmth, I spotted another Bumble Bee, well maybe the same one I saw this morning, visiting a heather plant.
So at least there are signs of Spring awakening even if I do have to wait a few months for Summer.
This afternoon as the Sun was shining for a change and the temperature had reached 11C I took the camera with me on our afternoon visit to the cricket field. In one distant field there were several horses; most standing so the cold wind was behind them.
In another field were a few sheep. Only one of the lambs was in view.
All the time Bobby and I were on the cricket field we saw little wild life. Just a couple of Rooks and the odd Rabbit.
I've always been fascinated by the contrast between these trees. The poplar being more pliable is able to bend with strong winds. The older tree has lost one of its twin trunks and the other has been shaped by the prevailing winds.
As we left the one thing which reminded me that Summer is a long way off yet was the sight of a magnificent Weeping Willow seen here as it is today and compared with last Summer.
Returning to the front garden I saw that there were more catkins and that the Mahonia was giving a good display of yellow flowers as were some crocuses.
Finally, just as we about to go back in the warmth, I spotted another Bumble Bee, well maybe the same one I saw this morning, visiting a heather plant.
So at least there are signs of Spring awakening even if I do have to wait a few months for Summer.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
A Bit of Colour
I was looking round the garden this morning after I had topped up the food on the bird table. A few days ago I noticed a little clump of yellow crocuses had appeared, along with a few snowdrops, in one of my planters. Also there are a couple of heather plants in full bloom and a variegated ground hugging evergreen is looking a particularly cheerful sight on a grey morning. The Corylus avellana 'Contorta' (Corkscrew Hazel) has been showing catkins on its bare branches for quite a while now.
To cap all that as I returned to the back garden there was a Robin singing away in a nearby tree. I went in and got the Zoom H4 recorder and captured a snippet of his song which can be heard by clicking HERE. I hope this works - if not please let me know. It should use whichever mp3 player is on your computer.
Even though there seems no end to the cold dark weather for a while yet there are at least a few signs that Spring is on its way.
To cap all that as I returned to the back garden there was a Robin singing away in a nearby tree. I went in and got the Zoom H4 recorder and captured a snippet of his song which can be heard by clicking HERE. I hope this works - if not please let me know. It should use whichever mp3 player is on your computer.
Even though there seems no end to the cold dark weather for a while yet there are at least a few signs that Spring is on its way.
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