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Showing posts with the label Purple Emperor

Photos of the Year — 2020

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Obviously, 2020 will be remembered for all the wrong reasons and wherever you are in the world, I hope you stay safe. I was unlucky enough to suffer fever, body aches, a dry cough, loss of taste and smell and confusion back in March. An NHS laboratory test in November confirmed the presence of Covid-19 antibodies in my blood. If there's a silver lining, I still had antibodies (at the time of testing) some 8 months after recovery and they should confer at least some immunity. Since I am on the priority list due to my job in adult social care, I expect to receive my first injection in the new year. Sadly, not everyone was lucky enough to recover unharmed. I have met several older adults, who nearly died from Covid-19, along with younger people in my age group, who display symptoms of 'Long Covid'. 2020 was a year in which many of us attended more closely to our health. I dropped 17 kg using diet and exercise and this winter, I'm walking 8 miles, several times per we...
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The Sussex Butterfly Safari 2020

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Welcome to my summer butterfly project for 2020, which, like my Roe deer essay last month, was completed by travelling many miles on my bicycle from one end of Sussex to another. Locations include the Knepp Estate, Malling Down Nature Reserve, Castle Hill National Nature Reserve and Friston Forest. The summer butterfly season is always something I look forward to, despite the intensely farmed, vandalised UK only having 59 species, many of which are hard to find. I had booked leave for the Orange Tip and Pearl-bordered Fritillary this spring, but the UK was in lockdown and sadly I missed out. It was just as well I'd spent time on butterflies before my holiday. Although my first visit to Knepp took place in hot, sunny weather, conditions deteriorated a few days later, as gales swept across the country. The weather improved just as my time off ended, forcing me to use spare evenings and days off to complete the project. Big Butterfly Count. The Purple Emperor will be familiar ...
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Garden and Landscape Photography with the Sony ZV-E10

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There are times when carrying a heavy Canon EOS 5D Mark IV body and various lenses is not convenient, especially when I'm on a leisurely day out to Wakehurst or Kew Gardens. Smartphone cameras can take high quality images   — I use the Xiaomi 14T PRO, which comes with a fine Leica-branded camera, but I wanted an everyday carry, lightweight mirrorless camera to bridge the gap between my smartphone and professional-level Canon DSLR. The lack of a viewfinder on the Sony ZV-E10 has not hindered me, as I am already used to taking photos this way using my phone. The camera provides me with access to 24.2 megapixel RAW images, eleven frames per second and a small enough body to fit in my backpack. After testing the supplied kit lens, I decided to replace it with the much better quality Tamron 17-70mm f/2.8. The lens has 5 stops of image stabilisation and sharp resolution across the focal range, even at the widest aperture. Although the Tamron is slightly bigger than the Sony camera ...
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Photographing the Roe Deer Mating Season

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I have wanted to photograph the roe deer rut for years, but despite trying, I never managed to witness actual mating or the conquest of territory. It would appear that I have arrived too late this time around to observe any battles.  The second-largest buck had a limp, which is likely to have been inflicted during a fight. Fortunately, the injury seems relatively mild, like a sprain, and it should heal in time. I spotted three adult males in late July, but it came as no surprise that the territory was conquered in my absence by the oldest, strongest buck. I first saw the dominant buck in early June, and he was already accompanied by a female. I was lucky enough to locate the pair again in a small field next to a public bridleway on August 4th. The pair sat together and every hour or so, the doe stood up and walked to a corner of the field, seemingly inviting the buck to get up and follow his mate. The buck was very interested in the doe's vaginal area, scenting her phero...
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The Beautiful Starling Murmurations at Brighton Pier

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Every winter, starlings escaping the harsh Scandinavian winter migrate to the British Isles and other mild European countries. Starlings feed in gardens and farmland in the daytime and gather in huge groups called murmurations over Brighton Pier in late afternoon.  Murmurations are thought to serve a number of purposes. Firstly, they are a defensive strategy against birds of prey; each starling monitors and shadows seven of its neighbours and this leads to murmurations adopting a typical fluid movement. Should a predatory bird attempt to intercept a murmuration, each starling in its path will automatically move aside, allowing the adversary to pass straight through. Flying in murmurations generates body heat and the collective warmth of bodies acts as a giant radiator when the starlings roost. Competition for the most sheltered places to roost is fierce and dominant males get first preference. Females and juveniles have to sleep in more exposed spots. Although migrant starling...
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Brighton Beach in the dead of winter

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As a squally January blizzard gripped the city, I took a cold and uncomfortable walk across ½ mile of pebbles to photograph Brighton's ruined West Pier. Temperatures fell to -1ºC and a strong breeze on Brighton seafront created a wind chill factor of -10ºC. I'd been waiting for something interesting to happen, before getting my camera out for the first time in 2013. Cold and austere weather conditions are my speciality. Sometimes, there is no other way to create distinctive interpretations of well-photographed landmarks. 
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Early Summer Roe Deer Project 2019

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Don't miss my roe deer projects from 2020  and  2021 . 23rd May 2019: I was so pleased with the images from my first visit, that I could easily have finished the project in one evening. Temperatures were a good seven degrees warmer inland, reaching 23 °C and the Roe deer were just shedding the last of their thick winter coats. Grass height was still short enough to allow the easy observation of these small deer. The three babies from last year survived the winter; two bucks and one doe. The young buck was quite tolerant of me. When people wandered through the field, the buck went and hovered about the perimeter until they disappeared before returning to grazing on buttercups. Two adult does were present, but neither were pregnant. An adult buck accompanied one of the does. Possibly mistaking her availability, the buck chased the doe around the field in an unusually early display of courtship. My theory is that the doe is infertile, as she was not pregnant in 2018 either....
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Brighton and Hove Snow Diary 2010

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The temperature on December 1st 2010 never rose above -0.3ºC and heavy snow fell across Sussex. I started taking photographs two hours before work, in the afternoon and resumed photography after an early finish due to severe weather conditions. Continuous light snow fell until 19:45, when the powdery snow turned very heavy, dumping 15 - 25cm in  just a few hours. I caught the number 6 bus into Brighton city centre, where I spent two hours meeting friendly faces and photographing familiar places in unfamiliar conditions. As I braced myself for a long walk home, I thought I'd pop into Brighton Station on the off-chance that tonight's snow was of the 'right kind'. Miraculously, the 22:34 Southern train to Chichester was on Platform 2. The train crawled up to Preston Park, reversed and struggled along to Portslade. I met Frank on a very cold, snow-swept Hove Promenade. He was out walking his West Highland Terrier. He told me that he owns the Snoopers Paradise on...
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Roe Deer: Fairies of the Meadow

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I've been visiting a nature reserve in West Sussex, known for being a reliable place to see Roe deer, since 2011. The fields are a home from home. I once pitched a tent overnight in a secluded spot to capture the deer roaming in the morning dew. There was nothing better than brewing morning coffee after a dawn session with my favourite wild animal. There's a wooden lodge at the end of a private drive, complete with a private buttercup meadow and a 24-hour nature reserve within walking distance. I wouldn't mind making an offer if it came onto the market. The land use has changed. Buttercups no longer appear in the two large, privately-owned fields adjacent to the reserve, as the horses, which kept the grasses short, have gone. In 2022, I spent 90 minutes following two bucks as the eldest drove the youngest through the buttercup meadow and away into a farmyard.  They are choosy eaters, preferring oak leaves and buttercup petals.  As night follows day, if you find the butter...
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Brighton Starling Murmurations - 2020 / 2021

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Welcome to my starling murmuration essay for 2020/21. I had planned to photograph something else this winter, but I changed my mind on a whim, after going to Brighton Pier a few days after the second lockdown ended. By the forth visit, I had enough creative images to stop and publish the essay  — and the twenty images here are from a total of six trips to the pier . Some of my images are highly unusual, and left me wondering how I even managed to take them. Take the first picture  —  a night city motion blur shot of birds and light trails from evening traffic. Shots three and four give us an idea of what a starling murmuration would look like, if photographed from within the atmosphere of Jupiter. The monochromatic motion blur images (ten to eighteen) look like they've been sketched on art paper using a pencil. I captured the strangeness of the murmuration, as it compacted into an oval before unravelling like a rope in pouring rain well after sunset, as most other photogr...
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Early Summer Roe Deer Project - June 2021

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I felt like a fraud at first, but I returned to the deer meadow in 2021 by train and bike. Last year's prohibitions on the use of public transport for non-essential journeys meant completing the entire 52 mile round trip by bicycle. I can now step off the train and cycle to the nature reserve, but I still get 8 miles of cycling. I am drawn to the meadow in early June because an explosion of wildflowers attracts Roe deer from surrounding land to feed, raise young and establish territory for the rutting season.  I've struck lucky with a tolerant older buck this summer (see below). At first, I thought he was the same buck from 2019 and 2020, but they are probably just related. He was a little nervous on the first encounter. The buck got up, ate as many buttercups as he could and moved to a different spot nearby. It's almost as if was hedging his bets. My presence didn't frighten him, but the deer stocked up on energy in case I turned out to be one of the unfortunate recen...
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The Roe Deer Files: April to June

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In his 76 image photo essay, wildlife photographer Alan MacKenzie tells the story of roe deer from an undisclosed location in West Sussex, United Kingdom.  29th April 2026.  By the time I arrived at the Angmering Park Estate in West Sussex for the bluebells, the season was nearly over, thanks to an unprecedented mild, wet winter and warm, dry spring. I would normally be photographing bluebell woods well into May, but there was already carpets of bluebells in Sussex on the 2nd of April. With two weeks off, I turned my attention to the lives of roe deer, as they transitioned from their bulky grey winter coats to sleek tan red over the month of May. I watched last year's twins, brother and sister, as they parted company with their mother. A mature buck is in a field with two does. He spends most evenings in a small field, next to a lodge in the woods. Two adult does accompany one another  —  in daytime, they remain hidden, but in evening the pair become different animal...
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