Hi all - been trying out my new camera (Ricoh R7 - 8mp, 7x zoom) & so far I've been very impressed with it. It has a function where it'll continue taking photos as long as the shutter button's held down - my idea being that if I hold the shutter button down for long enough, & take enough photos, then at least one of them will turn out to be at least half decent (that's my theory anyway!)
We have a newly established nature area on the college grounds - the intention being to attract bugs etc for the taught minibeasting sessions. We've set up a bird feeding station close to this area. I was hoping to find some blue tits (or somesuch) on the feeder, so that I could try out the aforementioned continuous shooting mode, but all I found was a greedy pigeon ...... & that flew off immediately !
Anyway I did find this little chap who allowed me to take the following photos before flying off. He(?) is a soldier beetle & they're often seen as mating pairs in June/July & are therefore known as "bonking beetles" apparently (you learn something new every day don't you?). They're carnivorous & feed on other small soft-bodied insects.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a88/pauluspaolo/RIMG0073.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a88/pauluspaolo/RIMG0072.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a88/pauluspaolo/RIMG0074.jpg
Here's a cropped image of the soldier beetle - cropped from the first photo using MS Office Picture manager
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a88/pauluspaolo/RIMG0072A.jpg
After he'd flown away I moved on to a subject less inclined to bu&&er off - in this case a hydrangea - quite like the contrasting colours in this one (the clear blue of the flower against the darker mottled brown background)!
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a88/pauluspaolo/RIMG0083.jpg
We have a newly established nature area on the college grounds - the intention being to attract bugs etc for the taught minibeasting sessions. We've set up a bird feeding station close to this area. I was hoping to find some blue tits (or somesuch) on the feeder, so that I could try out the aforementioned continuous shooting mode, but all I found was a greedy pigeon ...... & that flew off immediately !
Anyway I did find this little chap who allowed me to take the following photos before flying off. He(?) is a soldier beetle & they're often seen as mating pairs in June/July & are therefore known as "bonking beetles" apparently (you learn something new every day don't you?). They're carnivorous & feed on other small soft-bodied insects.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a88/pauluspaolo/RIMG0073.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a88/pauluspaolo/RIMG0072.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a88/pauluspaolo/RIMG0074.jpg
Here's a cropped image of the soldier beetle - cropped from the first photo using MS Office Picture manager
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a88/pauluspaolo/RIMG0072A.jpg
After he'd flown away I moved on to a subject less inclined to bu&&er off - in this case a hydrangea - quite like the contrasting colours in this one (the clear blue of the flower against the darker mottled brown background)!
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a88/pauluspaolo/RIMG0083.jpg