A Tale of Two Pretties – Gannets and Sandwich Terns.

'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times'. What the Dickens does that mean?... Well, it was 'the best of times' when I found myself on an Scottish island amongst thousands of nesting gannets totally indifferent to being photographed, allowing a wide angle lens to be placed almost under their beaks and in focus from here to 'almost' infinity - taking infinity to be that strange little 8 lying on its side at the far end of the focusing ring, otherwise known as a lemniscate. 'The worst of times' had already happened a month and a…

Read more about the article My New Garden Pond – What Showed Up in the First Four Weeks: Dragonflies and Water Boatmen and the Best Way to Photograph Them.

My New Garden Pond – What Showed Up in the First Four Weeks: Dragonflies and Water Boatmen and the Best Way to Photograph Them.

During the summer dragonflies arrive to fly over our garden in numbers - they simply come to feed on insects - taking a break from the hassles that life throws at them when they are hanging around their breeding pond. I have counted as many as a dozen at any one time doing circuits and bumps, and none could truly be described as resident... But, as soon as our new pond was filled with water, a male instantly took to patrolling and hovering in front of me as I worked; the insistence that this was now his territory was encouraging. Later…