Malachite

A change from the earlier upload. Gill preferred this one and she wears the trousers in our house. This from an early day trip to Wisley. Tried for a short-eared owl later and saw two, sadly both beyond my lens for any decent image but great to watch them. So it's back to the butterflies, adding new ones to the gallery.

"What do you do with them?" asked a woman at the butterfly house. "I put them in a gallery," I said, rather weakly. I didn't mention this place or the calendar I made from last year's efforts, or my mate, Jerry, who has begun to draw on my gallery for commercial projects.

"Why do you use that lens for this?" asked a man who had used his phone for his pic - a perfectly acceptable image I should add. "It's the only one I have with me," I said. No point in going in to shallow depth of fields to blur the background and get bokeh. That approach doesn't go down with those who use ring flash, I assume to get a deeper depth of field and therefore get more of the butterfly "in". Not my thing.

I was prepared today, first in the glasshouse, but that didn't give me a start because I had to wait 15 mins for the lens to unfog. I'd only taken light layers so could strip down to a t-shirt. It's no fun in the crowds. You shape up a shot then someone pokes their phone in front and the bloody thing flies off. Still, there's lots for everyone. I can't wait for summer and those trips to Bookham Common and the downs.