Friday at the Flicks: Above and Below a Snail

This is something I have been wanting to film for quite a while and was in the way of an experiment. I couldn't find a spare piece of glass to film through from underneath so ended up with a section of clear plastic which I cleaned up as best I could. This was the rough and ready set up in the kitchen:



Fortunately the monitor screen on the 70D can be flipped round which enabled me to see what the camera could see without having to stand on my head. It took longer to find a snail than it did to set up and film. A few days ago, after heavy rain, I couldn't move for them covering the paths. The day I chose for the experiment was hot and I had to look under endless pots and stones before finding one.

The 70D was used to film from underneath and I used the pocket Nikon hand held to film from above:



Sparkly bits are just reflections of the lighting.
The sound track is 'Stale Mate' by Jingle Punks from the YouTube Audio Library.
When I find a piece of glass I will have another go at this as the plastic was still a bit misty which blurred the fine detail but you can see the 'foot' rippling as it moves forwards.

The Garden Dragon

Wednesday I spent a very pleasant three quarters of an hour watching a Migrant Hawker Dragonfly as it hunted round my garden, every so often stopping to rest, always on the same leaf:



Many dragons are not afraid of people. It would often fly within a few feet of my head as it zoomed round looking for its next meal. Unfortunately never hovering in one place long enough to give me the chance of a flight shot.

Wordless Wednesday

Garden Snail

Moonday

Recently there have been some very clear evenings so I took the opportunity to take an up-to-date photo of the Moon:

A Friday Flutter

Lots of Peacock butterflies around at the moment feeding on next door's Buddleia or just resting and soaking up the Sun's heat:

Wordless Wednesday

Bindweed Flower

The Pond Dragon

Mid August is usually the time when a few Dragonflies visit the garden pond. Not to breed like the Damselflies, I think they come just to feed as there is plenty of small insect life. Today it was the turn of two male Common Darters. One had chosen a particular vantage point on the old branches I set up in the forlorn hope a Kingfisher may use them one day:







As usual its head was in almost constant movement as those large eyes sought out the next meal. Nor did it stay still for very long, constantly taking off for a short flight and always returning to the same spot. I tried to get a flight shot but this was the nearest. I caught it just as it was landing.



All were taken with the Canon 70D fitted with a 100-400mm zoom lens used at maximum zoom. As the minimum focal distance is around 6m I was usually about 20ft away which meant Mr Dragon didn't bother about me taking his likeness and the background was well out of focus. All photos are crops.