by David Clarke | Oct 27, 2013 | All, Insects & Spiders, Italy
The misty Autumn mornings highlight the webs of the literally millions of spiders living in the woods around our house, each one busily constructing its own little world where it patiently waits for lunch to arrive. The trees and bushes are full of them, with the more enterprising, or maybe foolhardy, spiders slinging their webs across pathways or from one tree to the next. As the sun slowly burns off the mist, the webs light up a glistening display of water droplets on the threads. If there are millions of webs, imagine how many water droplets there must be…
Canon 40D with Canon EFS 60mm f2.8 macro on manual ISO500 1/1250 at f2.8
Full frame shot.
Location: Val Cerfone, Tuscany, Italy
by David Clarke | Oct 22, 2013 | All, Italy
The autumn feel has arrived here in Tuscany – cooler evenings, the smell of woodsmoke permeating the valley. and when the sun shine, magical colours. This shot is of our small rhus tree in the garden that always puts on a spectacular display of colour before settling down for the winter.
Canon 40D with Canon EFS 60mm macros lens ISo200 1/100 at f14
by David Clarke | Sep 27, 2013 | All, Italy, Places
The more I use the iPhone camera, the more I like it. It’s true that it will never match a real dslr, but for ease of use, quality of images for uploading to a website and sheer versatility, it takes some beating. This one is a duo of panos taken in Florence. The location is a couple of bridges down from the Ponte Vecchio.
The pano setting produces some fun effects – note the extended limo taxi at the extreme right of the sunset shot – it was moving away from the traffic lights at the same rate as the shutter frequency. Note also the almost full moon and its reflection in the night shot
by David Clarke | Aug 7, 2013 | Insects & Spiders, Italy, Wildlife
Close up of a small bee busying itself with the lavender.
Canon 40D with Canon 60mm 2.8 EFS Macro lens ISO400 1/400 f8
by David Clarke | Jun 14, 2013 | All, Flowers, Italy
The Adriatic Lizard Orchid (Himantoglossum Adriaticum H. Baumann) is described as a perennial herb with an erect stem 30-80 cm high. It has 15-45 flowers per stem which are green white with reddish brown markings up to 5 cm long sepals and petals forming a hood. It occurs in countries around the Adriatic including northern Italy and including our garden where this year there are at least 25 plants growing among the grasses. It is protected in some countries and by CITES. It is found in calcareous ground up to 1600 metres.
Although described as ‘quite attractive’, when you get close to the flowers and examine their delicacy and structure, the beauty becomes apparent. If you peer into the hood, there appears to be a face peering back at you. (Check in the images in the Gallery)
Canon EOS 40D with Canon 28-70mm F2.8L lens at 70mm with Canon 25mm extension tube ISO400 1/250 at f10
Cropped a little in Lightroom
by David Clarke | May 11, 2013 | Insects & Spiders, Italy, Wildlife
This swarm of honey bees picked out a tree in the valley below our house in Tuscany and has spent the day growing and growing. The were initially several small clusters that eventually fused into one large shape. How long they stay remains to be seen. I took shots from all angles and at all magnifications! – without getting too close, although apparently the bees are not aggresive when they are swarming like this. Some of the shapes resemble other creatures – there’s a leopard gracefully descending the branches, and this one – a sloth or perhaps an orang-utan swinging by one arm.
What is less obvious from the photos is the constant movement over the surface of the swarm and the low buzz surrounding it.
