a spot of copulation

I wish I had young eyes again!

On a recent walk to our local patch of woodland, my eagle-eyed daughter spotted these five-spot burnet moths, how can I put this politely, at it on a wild plant.  They were still there, in the same position, when we walked back home over an hour later.

Fujifilm X-T5, Fujinon XF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 @ 180mm
1/150th of a second at f5.6, ISO 125
handheld

She then saw this beautiful common blue damselfly warming itself in the afternoon sun.  He or she was, however, long gone on our return.

Fujifilm X-T5, Fujinon XF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 @ 400mm
1/120th of a second at f5.6, ISO 125
handheld

Of course, I didn't have my macro lens with me as we were going in search of birds to photograph, but the telephoto lens has done a decent enough job I feel of both capturing the detail in the scenes, as well as blurring out the background nicely.

Now, if Bethan hadn't been with me there's little chance I would have spotted these little beauties.  Not only is my eyesight deteriorating, but I spend so much time and effort concentrating on not falling over that if I'm not specifically looking for compositions, etc., then it's guaranteed I won't see them!

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This week's video finds me on a quest to locate some cow parsley to photograph.  Did I find any, or did I add to my list of missed photographic opportunities over the spring and early summer? There's only one way to find out…