Kithurst meadow Brown Argus

Brown Argus, Aricia agestis

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I attended a camera sensor cleaning course at Cameracal, West Chiltington on Saturday. The sensor is the equivalent of film from way back. We used to ration ourselves to 36 shots Underwater you couldn't change film so it was even more important to ensure every shot counted. Today we are limited only by the size of our memory cards and the battery charge. I am unlikely to be challenged by these limitations as I have 100GB in memory, always go out with a fully charged battery and carry a spare. However, the sensor collects dust, especially pollen in summer which makes a spotty mess on the glass covering the electronic sensor. The particles are so small they seep through joins in the camera and lens. I found that a couple of months after having the sensor cleaned, it was covered in spots again which show up badly on clear light backgrounds when used with small apertures. I had to remove these spots during processing in Lightroom.  Anthony Sinfield's 4 hour sensor cleaning course is designed to enable you to clean your own sensor safely. There were 3 students and 2 instructors, both extremely knowledgeable and they gave us a thorough grounding in the theory and practice - highly recommended.

On the way home I called in at Kithurst meadow. There were plenty of butterflies and a few moths, including Chalk Hill Blues, Brown Argus and Straw Dots.

Blood moon - Sussex version

One day earlier we would have had a wonderful view of the Blood moon eclipse. However on Friday the rains came and this was the best view!

Brown Argus, Aricia agestis

hand held, wide aperture, no flash. The rest are with flash, small aperture.

Chalk Hill Blue ♂, Polyommatus coridon

Straw Dot, Rivula sericealis

Straw Dot