{"id":1406,"date":"2009-06-01T23:06:29","date_gmt":"2009-06-01T22:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1406"},"modified":"2013-11-14T18:41:52","modified_gmt":"2013-11-14T18:41:52","slug":"if-you-go-down-to-the-woods-today-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/if-you-go-down-to-the-woods-today-2\/","title":{"rendered":"If you go down to the woods today…"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

It was a day of surprises and unusual sightings. Which proves that sometimes you're just lucky, as the time I had to devote to any of this was next to nothing.<\/p>\n

First up is this beautiful dragonfly exuvia (discarded shell) which was perched on a leaf in the pond right outside my office. You can see the exit hole created as the nymph emerges, just behind the head. The white strands are part of the breathing system.
<\/span> Dragonfly exuvia<\/span><\/p>\n

Another grabbed shot was one that I'd been hoping to get, but I hadn't had the chance until now. Regular readers will recall the fun I had around this time last year with some seagull chicks. Well there are two more, very recent (they weren't around last week when I checked). As ever, a brief reminder never to disturb nesting birds. The shot was taken from a window overlooking their roof top nesting site.
<\/span> "We're back!"<\/span><\/p>\n

That was taken at lunchtime, a brief (one minute) diversion before I had to head off to Crawley for work. The traffic was relatively light and I arrived with about half an hour to spare. I don't know the town, but I'm getting quite used to spotting local wildlife haunts and a 5 minute walk took me to Hawth Woods which is a site of 'nature conservation importance'. For a blazing hot day, the light in the wood was atrocious. I struggled with high ISO settings and absurdly slow shutter speeds. I did manage to grab a shot of a speckled wood butterfly, nestling in the filtered sunshine.
<\/span> Speckled Wood butterfly<\/span><\/p>\n

It was as I was heading back out of the wood, that the real surprise appeared. About 30 feet away was a young roe deer. To my astonishment it just stood and scratched as I desperately tried to figure out a workable setting on the camera. This is easily the closest I've been to a deer other than in private parklands. It was alone, and unperturbed by my presence. The first shot was taken at ISO 640, f\/8 and 1\/30s. Thank the heavens for image stabilization.
<\/span> Roe deer in woodland shade. <\/span><\/p>\n

This next was at f\/5.6 and negative exposure bias of 0.7 giving a shutter speed of 1\/80s:
<\/span> <\/p>\n

I cranked up to ISO 1250 for this next one and achieved 1\/200s as it trotted gently through the trees.
<\/span> <\/p>\n

It finally disappeared, but was waiting when I emerged into the blazing sunshine (though not willing to hang around out in the open).
<\/span> <\/p>\n

That last was a respectable 1\/500s taken at ISO 800, still with -0.7 exposure bias.<\/p>\n

All in all a quite wonderful and wholly unexpected encounter.
\"Nature<\/a><\/span>
Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[440,77],"tags":[1144,1181,545,546],"class_list":["post-1406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deer","category-dragonfly","tag-butterfly","tag-deer","tag-dragonfly-exuvia","tag-gull-chicks","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t