27th July HAREBELLS IN GRASS
Also known as the Scottish harebell, this picture was taken near my parent’s house in Scotland. Whilst looking for a job I was living here with ample opportunities to photograph my surroundings. This patch of ground isn’t heavily grazed which leads to this long dry grass growing. Whilst walking through the grass I was taken by the colour of the grass and the pastel blue of the flower heads. Lens: 28-135mm zoom

20th July BARN AND FOXGLOVES
I spent a week in the Lake District in July in the Langdale valley. This is right in the heart of the lakes and is a truly wonderful place. We were walking up the valley one day when we came across this scene. It was actually Caroline who spotted it first but I have come to expect this as she has years of practice training her artist’s eye. I think this picture is a little unusual for the lakes as the barn is made of beautiful slate but no one appears to have tried to modernise it yet. The foxgloves pink bonds nicely with the dark grey slate. Lens: 28-135mm zoom

13th July POPPIES AFTER RAIN
Much of Lincolnshire is a rural area and in July the poppies are reaching full strength. The seeds of a poppy are similar in size to some commercial crops such as oil seed rape so it cane be expensive to remove them and over the years a lot of fields have become perfect for poppies. The seeds prefer to be scattered on broken ground (which is why they did so well in the trenches during the wars). This picture shows the flowers and seed heads after one of this summers rare showers of rain. Lens: 28-135mm zoom

6th July MARBLED WHITE ON HARDHEAD
I’d never seen a marbled white before so this was an exciting opportunity for me. I’d been told that a nature reserve near where I was staying was packed full of them at this time of year so I went along for a look. The reserve is called the Hills and Holes and is situated near Barnack in Lincolnshire. It’s a beautiful place filled with wild flowers, orchids and scrubby bushes and in early summer loads of butterflies. I went in the evening to benefit from the lower light levels and warmer tones of the sun. After about 10 minutes I started to key into the marbled whites. At this time of day they are looking for somewhere to rest so photographing them was easier. For this image I used a lens combination an American photo magazine had suggested- a 300mm with a short extension tube