Flag

Most of today was pretty vile, weather-wise; and for me quite a lot of it was spent on irritating things. I had to make two journeys to and from Coventry, where the car was in for service and MOT, and because the weather precluded the compensation of visiting a nature reserve while I was there, much of the intervening time was spent back at home doing paperwork. On the plus side, R and I went out for lunch, which was nice, and I bought some new walking shoes, which was.... an expense I could have done without, quite frankly - but somehow new shoes are always satisfying.

When I finally got back to the Shire this evening, the weather had improved enough for me to think that a walk with the camera might be worthwhile. I caught a few reasonable bug shots, but there's something about the light on these flag irises that makes this my favourite photo of the day - and no, I'm not at all contrite about there being two, rather than one, or three, or fifteen. I'm only a little annoyed with myself for not noticing what I think is probably a moth fly on the right hand stem; if I'd seen it at the time I'd have tried for a portrait, though they're ridiculously small, even for a decent macro on a crop sensor camera.

When I was involved in a discussion yesterday about the Green-socks Peacock Beetle that I also failed to notice until I saw my photo on a large screen, the entomologist who identified it for me said that this has happened to him so often that he now makes a point of looking at everything in the viewfinder, just to be sure he's not missing something fabulous. I kind of admire this, but through slightly gritted teeth: when I'm stalking an unwilling model - a dragonfly, say, or one of the Offspring, I think I've done pretty well if I manage to get its head and feet in the frame and the rest of it in reasonable focus; if I stopped to examine every item I could see through the viewfinder, my central subject would probably be in the next county before I got round to pressing the shutter button.