Tag Archives: butterflies

What a show off!

Posted on by

2

In my grandmother’s New Forest garden was a huge buddleia bush accompanied by a long lavender bed. In the summer I would sit there hypnotised watching the butterfly coated tree and hearing the somewhat
magical sound of peacock and red admiral wings thrum past my ears. My memory tells me there were many many more than hover on the buddleia bush in the New Forest Garden I am looking after currently.

This may though be a case of romantic childhood memories as Butterfly Conservation’s research shows that they have increased, possibly encouraged by the warming climate, in the South of England. BC tells us that there has been a “significant overall increase in the abundance of the Peacock since 1976.”

Well I am jolly pleased about that. The above Peacock butterfly surprised me by settling within perfect focus range when I was concentrating on some mating Chrysolina herbacea on Mentha aquatica…that’s wild mint beetles on copious wild mint to you and me!

Cheeky!

Embracing Experience

Posted on by

0

 

A butterfly loving friend arrived at my door one night with a cocoon. It started vibrating not long after, by the time I settled into my bed a butterfly had been born. Early sunrise woke us both and I took this before opening the window…


Go wild at the Burlesque Boudoir!

Posted on by

3

It’s time I shared with you some of the wilder people I have been working with lately! After shooting a burlesque show for new club POP in Southampton I was inspired to put together a Burlesque Boudoir portrait package. To try the idea out for size a group of great friends volunteered to model, I raided Superdrug for eyelashes, borrowed a beautiful back drop from the Squeeze boys and raided Madam Jo Jo’s amazing attic collection of vintage and theatre wardrobe. Not to forget cutting chinese paper butterflies late into the evening before to fulfil my need for wildlife. With some pink fizz to soothe nerves we were ready to roll!

Firstly to introduce the beautiful, the stylish, the actor’s actress, the wenches wench! Madam Jo Jo!

To follow we have the delectable new male model on the block, with cheekbones like a stags antler, Luke the Lovely!

Our next portraits are of the de-lovely, the delightful, sultry songtress with a voice like rich honey, Miss Lucy ‘peekaboo’ Kitchen!

Phew! Next up we have fellow butterfly and wild life fanatic, Kinky Kira the Butterfly catcher!

And last by by no means least the naughty, irrepressible, mystic Scarlet Nightshade, she will eat you alive!

And the full group grand finale with added Dylan and his double bass ‘the room shaker’!

Thanks so much to The Brook, Holly Deacon for lighting loans, Gareth for lighting fiddling, Michelle for her make up help and all the great models who made my first styling job in a decade a breeze! Gorgeous the lot of them!

If you would like to enter the Burlesque Boutique to discover your showtime sauce or flash your delicious derriere just drop me an email with your ideas. Individuals, couples and groups catered for with the utmost care and some extra flare!

 

 

Circles in the corn…

Posted on by

0

It is 10 years now that I have been visiting crop circles. Late spring begins, the rape fields flower and the circles start to arrive in the fields of Hampshire, Wiltshire and slowly over the decades they have spread up country, over the channel, the atlantic, the globe. Beautiful circles, beautiful art work, beautiful messages, beautiful questions…

‘Who’ is usually the dominant question when people see the amazing images created in the crop fields but after dancing that dervish for a decade and finding myself down Alice’s rabbit hole I am now much more interested in the ‘Why’ of them. Why? For fun, for mystery, for art, for communication, for connection, to create wonder and amazement in the viewer and for those that read these glyphs a little deeper: a truly mindboggling array of geometric patterns to decipher and understand.

Like cherries on the top of a fine cake, crop circles enhance and add that little bit of magic and mystery to an already luscious ancient landscape filled with monoliths, stone circles, archaeology and wild nature that are the fields of Merry England…and beyond!

This little photo series show a few of the circles, the croppies (the people) and the surrounding areas that I visited this year and the wonderful Barge public house that provides safe haven for relaxed colourful campers on the banks of the Kennet Canal.


“In this green and pleasant land
We have a dream to understand
In the mountains of the mind
There is a spirit you will find…” © Dreadzone

I don’t think Dreadzone were singing of crop circles when they wrote this but my, doesn’t it fit well!

A fellow photographer, who creates superb calendars, Steve Alexander is the lucky one who gets to fly above the circles and capture these wonderful images. Like flying over the Nazca lines ~ it is only in flight that we can see the full picture. Thanks Steve :)

Secret Garden ~ Blooming people!

Posted on by

70

bboys

It’s not always flowers that I love to photograph but also the human blooms that arrive in the fields of England when the marquees are set up, the sound sytem plugged in and the festival fancy dress adorned. This year … Continue reading →