IGPOTY

I am not usually one for entering competitions.  This not through any lack of desire or thoughts that they are not important, just that the priority never seems to get to the top of my pile.  Today, however, I made a time slot to enter some images into the Micro Animals section of the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition.  I include them below:

 Here a male broad bodied chaser rests on an ox-eye daisy stem.  This male was holding territory on a small pond on a local nature reserve.  From time to time he would be joined by up to three females with which he indulged in aerial copulation.  The female then busied itself with ovipositing with male hovering in close attendance to ensure that his genes were passed on to the next generation.

 A brown argos butterfly rests briefly on a grass flower.  As suggested by Chris Gomersall in his book on creative wildlife photography, I have positioned the butterfly with some space to look into.  I was also able to work from a point of view which enabled me to isolate it against a plain background.

 Here a crab spider hunts in an ox-eye daisy flower. Again the spider is given space to move into as suggested by Chris.

 A rare marsh fritillary in a sunny meadow.  I have been able to select a plain background here.

 An orange tip butterfly rests on a grass stem in a patch of sunlight.  Again, as Chris suggests there is space for the insect to move into and I have chosen a point of view which gave me a plain non-distracting background.

 A male scarce chaser rests on some dead reed.  When I realised that these insects were looking for somewhere to perch, I positioned some dead reed stems where I would be able to achieve a plain background.

 A sloe shield bug.  I liked the drop of water on one of its legs.

A garden spider taken just outside our conservatory.  I noticed the drops of water in the web and was delighted when I realised that each one held a reflection of the conservatory.