Humming

The heat wave continues here - late, though welcome, at least within limits. I was still wandering around in my nightshirt at about half past eight this morning, wondering whether I had the stamina to make another road trip today, after a couple of full-on days of yomping around carrying two cameras in the kind of temperature that would normally find me sitting on the hall flagstones with a book... when I glanced out of the kitchen window and saw this Hummingbird Hawkmoth whizzing around the perennial pea.

With no time to get dressed, I simply raced upstairs for the R7, knotted a summer robe over my nightshirt in the interests of minimal decency, slipped on some sandals, and pelted across the top lawn. Luckily the camera was still set up for yesterday's task of photographing dragons in flight against a dark background, so all I had to do today was find the moth, find the focus, and shoot. Forty nine frames later it departed, leaving me wired, but pretty satisfied with my couple of minutes work. Ferocious and finicky culling has taken the keepers down to sixteen, but that's a high hit rate for something as fast and unpredictable as this, and in all the years I've been photographing Hummingbird Hawkmoths, I've never been as happy with the resulting images as I am with this set.

The decision about road tripping ("...Or not...?", © the Boy Wonder) made itself in the end, after I spent half the morning researching flash units for macro photographers - only to end up deciding on one that Amazon (other retailers are available) kindly pointed out to me was already bookmarked on my account. This is because my friend RC uses the same unit, and he recommended it to me and sent me the details several months ago - but despite the annoying waste of time, the fact that I came to my decision independently makes me feel pretty positive that the choice is going to be a good one.

So today has been a good day already, and it's only half way done. R and I are about to go out for lunch, for which I have high expectations. And then tonight Chipping Campden Festival Chorus will begin work on Mendelssohn's Elijah, which we'll be performing in December. I've never sung this piece before, and I know some sections are quite difficult, but the choruses are lovely, and I'm very much looking forward to learning it.