Spider in red

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Rachael

This shot didn’t make the cut first time around but it has been growing on me so I thought I would share it. The spider was completely hidden under sumach leaves so the light is poor but I like it anyway.

Over on The Shed Gallery’s Blog today, my post is about photographing flying bugs. If you have been reading Focused Moments since the beginning, you will already know the piece as it is almost the same as one I posted here in April. If not, why not pop over – I share all my secrets, such as they are 😉

Blazing pathway

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Rachael

The Thames Path at Molesey.

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.
-Albert Camus

Still Autumn, just…

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Rachael

Today the leaves have begun to fall in earnest. Flurries billow under the wheels of passing vehicles and the windscreens of parked cars are patterned with a tapestry of gold and orange. Although the season is nearly over, I thought I might share some more Autumn shots, taken during my recent visit to Painshill Park in Cobham, Surrey.

The Mausoleum

The Gothic Temple

Autumn foliage

Harvestman

Coot on golden pond

Painshill Lake

For an earlier post where I talk about some of the history of Painshill and share some more images, see here.

Autumn unending

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Rachael

This year Autumn seems to be extra colourful and extra long. I have been gazing all week at the extraordinary hues of the sycamores and beech trees in my neighbourhood. Some photos will follow in another post. But I thought I couldn’t let Autumn pass without at least one shot of another characteristic part of the season, funghi.

And then of course there has to be a minibeast. This shot of a spiderling will never be a competition image – the background is too busy. But I could hardly resist sharing the little critter’s autumnal livery.

Finally, here’s a truly terrible shot but I include it because it is my first ever recognisable photo of a bat in flight! Karen Anderson, of Modern Memory Keeping, and I went for a morning stroll in Painshill Park the other day and to our astonishment spotted this bat flitting about between the trees. Of course, I had my macro lens on, but I gave it a go anyway. What the little thing thought it was doing out and about at nearly noon is anyone’s guess. I suspect stocking up on some last minute protein before hibernation.

More endless Autumn next time.

Celebrating Autumn

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Rachael

St. Aubin, Jersey

But then fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September. It stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since last he saw you.
― Stephen King, Salem’s Lot

Windsor, England

For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad. –Edwin Teale

Clandon, Surrey

Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.
I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.
But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.
― Robert Frost

Windsor Great Park

Her pleasure in the walk must arise from the exercise and the day, from the view of the last smiles of the year upon the tawny leaves and withered hedges, and from repeating to herself some few of the thousand poetical descriptions extant of autumn–that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness–that season which has drawn from every poet worthy of being read some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling.
― Jane Austen, Persuasion

Tiny spiders on Autumn leaves

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Rachael

Autumn is spider time. The monster house spiders invade our homes and scare us arachnophobes silly. But in the garden, their smaller and far less intimidating brethren hang out on and even in Autumn leaves. The green orb spider didn’t stay long enough for me to get its legs in focus, but I like the shot anyway, for the colour.

This next one, sitting in a hole in a cherry leaf, is probably the smallest spider I have ever photographed.

The last shot is an old one but it fitted the post, so I thought I could get away with repeating it.

We are away on holiday at present so I am not doing a very good job of keeping in touch with everyone’s blogs. I will catch up on our return.

Little nymphs

Posted on October 21, 2012 by Rachael

Is this not a cute little thing? This is a psocid nymph, pottering about on a dogwood leaf. These are so small you hardly notice them, unless you spend a ridiculously long time staring at leaves, risking ridicule or at least benign amusement from your family.

This little nymph has a parasite in its belly, which I understand is very common for these little critters. But if you ignore the parasite, it tones quite prettily with its colourful Autumn environment. Perhaps that’s just me…

Westminster Autumn

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Rachael

Autumn in the Victoria Tower Gardens, Westminster. In the foreground (and below) is the Buxton Memorial Fountain, commissioned by Charles Buxton MP to commemorate the emancipation of slaves in 1834, dedicated to his father Thomas Fowell Buxton, and designed by Gothic architect Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812–1873) in 1865.
In the background, of course, is the Palace of Westminster aka the Houses of Parliament, designed by Sir Charles Barry with advice from the great Augustus Pugin.