Hi all,

Many thanks for your replies. What month were you there Roger? And thanks for the tip about the opera season.

A grateful Will

Hi, I will be staying the third week of August 2011 at Garda. Does anyone have any gen on the sites and butterflies of the area. Will it be worthwhile to go up into the mountains in this area? I have searched the web with little fortune in finding any specific info. Any information would be apprecia...

Hi Cotswold

Looks like a teneral (fresh) female Southern Hawker to me. Probably resting up while wings dried out.

Here in W. Wales numbers have been well down on 2007. No Clouded Yellow seen in 2008, though Painted Lady seen June, August, Sept and Oct. Good numbers of Small Tortoiseshell in Sept and Oct but recorded every month from February. Red Admiral numerous this Autumn. Earlier on, like Gruditch, saw lots...

If its as good as my D80, its a superb camera.

Today on a roadside pig field, overgrown with buddleiah, in Burry Port, there were around two dozen each of Small Tortoiseshell, Large White and Red Admiral. Also 8 Peacock and the odd Green-veined and Small Whites and a single Speckled Wood. Sorry Denise!!

Here in SW Wales I have recorded the Small Tortoiseshell in every month from February to September, except for July. This may have have had quite a lot to do with the fact I was away for most of the month! Numbers have been lower than 2007 by some margin. Lets hope for better weather in 2009.

Ther are two meadows in the river valley where a ford crosses the unclassified road near Wallas Farm, south of Bridgend, South Wales. The meadows are either side of the road by the ford. Most of the area where they occur seems to be private.

Will

You dont really have to spend much on the monopod, spend it instead on a really good head. I use a lightweight Velbon 4000 UP (Unipod), £19.99 from morrisphoto in a fetching gold finish! I use a Manfrotto 222 Pistol Grip Head, £77 from Amazon. This head turns a cheap monopod into a very useable tool...

As a retired pro (but a beginner with butterflies) I wouldnt dare show my feeble efforts to the gifted photographers on this forum. I was recently invited to enter a competition. I declined on the basis that if I hadnt won, eyebrows woud have been raised. And if I had won, there would have been a ho...

Thanks Paul, Im really looking forward to exploring the area. The chateau in which we are staying has 50 acres including flower meadows and woodlands.

Will

Hi

I will be visiting the Lot Valley near Cahors in France soon, has anyone any experience of the butterflies of the area, and any good sites to visit. Thanks.

Will

As I see it, aside from the lighting issues, the main advantage of flash for macro is that it allows the use of small apertures to increase the depth of field. Another advantage, if using manual flash, is that you can always control the aperture by changing the ISO on the camera. Off for 10 days wat...

I too have a Sigma 150mm. It isn't the latest model, but an oldish AF model with a max. aperture of F5.6. The max. aperture is not a disadvantage for Macro. It only goes to 1:2 and it's a recent ebay acquisition for the cost of a good meal! Does anyone else here use this lens and what is their opini...

I saw one similar, but not quite the same as this in Extramedura, Spain in April 2007. I came to a similar conclusion. It was the same size as Small Heath and was most similar to that species. Or is there a new species out there waiting to be discovered?

Or at least abolishing the lowest rate!

And I thought this was a political post!

Depends on what you mean by over-priced. I recently acquired a Tamron SP 70-210mm CF F3.5-4 Adaptall 2 ( fits any 35mm camera with the right mount) for the princely sum of £5.50 on ebay! The CF stands for continuous focus (down to 1:2 Macro). On a digital camera, it is a 105-315mm zoom. There are sn...

I am looking to buy a tripod mount collar for a zoom lens. The diameter of the lens body is 65mm/2.5 inches. If anyone has one lying around that is not being used anymore I would be delighted to take it.

Presumably its fitted to a DSLR giving around 600mm actual? Unless you use a full framer, of course. Nice lens, whatever!