Matt Cole's Wildlife Photography

24th August 2011: I have finally decided to set up my own blog in which I will highlight and discuss some of my latest images and provide other bits of news relating to my photography. I may also provide some occasional thoughts and musings on wildlife or nature-related issues. As a result, I will no longer update this Latest News and Updates page but will instead use the blog to announce new additions to the website. For now, I will keep this page live so that visitors can see the previous additions to the site but in a few weeks I will remove it. The address of my blog is mattcolephotography.blogspot.com.

6th August 2011: At this time of year I love nothing more than being out in the field taking macro images and I've taken many in recent weeks. However, the downside is having to process them all which can become a bit of a chore at times. I'm slowly working through the backlog and am now approximately up to mid June (!) though sometimes curiosity gets the better of me and I process the occasional image almost straight away. Anyway, I've added images of a Four-Spotted Chaser dragonfly, a male Banded Demoiselle damselfly, a nice clean shot of a Scorpion Fly (a shot I've been after for a while and which shows how this insect got its name), and various others. All can be found in the Latest Images gallery and within the Insects gallery.

14th July 2011: I've added a new selection of images including a vivid Common Blue butterfly amongst some buttercups, a rather attractive Potter Wasp, a pair of mating Soldier Beetles and one or two others. However, the image I'm most pleased with is that of a small Black Ant having a drink on top of a Foxglove flower (see right). The new images can all be found in the Latest Images gallery and within the Insects gallery.

12th July 2011: The August issue of Digital SLR magazine will feature a double page spread of one of my wasp images and the October issue will include a guide to photographing fungi that I'm currently writing which will feature a selection of my fungi images.

7th July 2011: I've been a reader of BBC Wildlife magazine since I was a teenager and consider it to be the best magazine of its kind by some distance, not least because of the quality of the photography featured in the magazine. I'm always particularly pleased when I have one of my images published in it so I'm chuffed therefore that the current issue (the August issue) features one of my Small Copper butterfly images. OK, not exactly a double page spread but better than nothing :-)

20th June 2011: I'm still wading my way through a processing backlog but have added lots of new images. Several images of jumping spiders, a Four-Spotted Chaser dragonfly, a male Banded Demoiselle damselfly, a close up of a Black Ant having a drink, Tawny Mining Bees leaving their nest holes, mating flies and several others.

30th May 2011: A recent trip to Ryton Woods in Warwickshire with photographer friends Des Ong and Eric Weight proved fruitful, despite the windy conditions. Lots of new images added, including Dingy Skipper butterflies, a spectacular looking newly emerged Small Elephant Hawkmoth, Thick-legged Flower Beetles, Burnet Moths and one or two others.

25th May 2011: I've taken quite a few new images lately but am having trouble finding the time to process them all. For now, I've added some images of a male Tawny Mining Bee, some close-ups of a Nomada Bee, a Fourteen-Spot Ladybird and a rather handsome Sawfly. More images coming soon.

14th May 2011: The June issue of Outdoor Photography magazine features 2 of my images including a double page spread of one of my Brown Hawker images. Click the thumbnail to view the double page spread or here to see the text and second image.

12th May 2011: I recently had the chance to photograph a wild female Adder thanks to wildlife photographer Andy Astbury and I've added a couple of images. She was a real beauty and quite a large specimen. I've also added an image of a silhouetted early morning damselfly, a shot I've been after for a while. It's not perfect but it will do until I can improve upon it. Finally, I've added a close-up of a feeding Common Wasp queen and 3 images of the evocatively titled Hairy Footed Flower Bee.

30th April 2011: The recent warm weather has meant an earlier than usual appearance for damselflies. One of my local sites is teaming with Large Red Damselflies and I was lucky enough to observe a damselfly nymph emerge from the water and begin its remarkable transformation into an adult damselfly. I photographed the entire sequence and have added four images to the Latest Images gallery and the Dragonflies and Damselflies gallery.

17th April 2011: A few new insect images have been added to the Latest Images gallery and to the Insects gallery. These include a selection of Ladybird images, a couple of nice big Ground Beetles and a couple of images of one of our most attractive bees, the Tawny Mining Bee.

6th April 2011: Updates to this site have been few and far between in recent weeks because of a succession of computer and camera problems. Suffice to say that I have now switched from a PC to a Mac (not surprisingly it's taken a while to get used to it and to get new software up and running) and my 5D has been repaired by Canon. Hopefully it's all sorted now and I can start processing a few images taken in recent weeks. Expect an update or two soon. On a more positive note, I sent a few images to Outdoor Photography magazine a few weeks ago and they've now told me that I'm the winner of the Readers Gallery in the June issue which will feature 2 of my images.

10th March 2011: I'm now gearing up to the start of the 'macro season' and have been practising on a woodlouse, one of the few invertebrates that can be found in winter. I've added 3 images. I've also added an image of a tiny Globular Springtail, no more than 2-3mm in length, which I found under a rock in my garden. They're amazing little things, highly patterned and quite cute looking and I managed to photograph this one while it was preening itself with a tiny water droplet that it had secreted. Finally, I've added a couple more images of a male Bullfinch taken back in November but only recently processed. These images can be found in the Latest Images gallery and the appropriate main galleries (Birds - Finches and Tits; Insects - Spiders, Ants and Misc.).

23rd February 2011: My local county magazine, Leicestershire Life, has published a double page spread on my photography in the January 2011 issue (click on thumbnail to enlarge).

13th February 2011: I've finally finished a long overdue redesign of my website. Hopefully it is all fully functioning and looks a bit prettier too. I've tested it on Firefox, Internet Explorer and Chrome and it all seems OK but if anyone spots any problems I'd be very grateful if they would drop me an e-mail.

6th January 2011: My image of a Globular Springtail in the frost (taken last winter) has been chosen as the Macro Photo of the Year 2010 (2nd place) on Juza's wildlife forum (click on thumbnail to visit Juza's site).

2nd January 2011: I've had a quiet few weeks in terms of photography due to a variety of other commitments, but I've added 3 images of Bullfinches taken towards the end of November. I've always had a bit of a thing for bullfinches and think the males in particular are very attractive. I travelled a few miles to take these (thanks Eric) but was very pleasantly surprised to see a male Bullfinch in my own garden in the recent snowy weather.

22nd November 2010: I recently visited a couple of nearby sites (thanks to photographer friend Des Ong) which are particularly good for Amethyst Deceiver, an exotic looking purple fungi and not something I'd photographed before. I've added 4 new images .

11th November 2010: A few more fungi images added and maybe my last insect images of the year, a close up of a Crane Fly and a mixed flash/natural light image of a Shieldbug against a nice blue sky.

9th October 2010: I am very pleased to say that one of my images has been Highly Commended in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPOTY) competition 2010. My image, entitled 'the ant shepherd and its little flock', which shows an ant apparently 'herding' aphids prior to feeding on the sugary honeydew that they secrete, was Highly Commended in the 'Behaviour: Other Animals' category. As someone who has followed this competition for years, I am thrilled to have an image highly commended. The awards dinner is in a couple of weeks and my image will feature in the WPOTY exhibition which will tour the world. It will also feature in the portfolio book. The competition is very well publicised and I've already seen my image in the Daily Telegraph and The Times to name but two!

4th October 2010: It seems to be a good year for fungi with quite a large variety of different specimens around. I recently visited a good site for Fly Agarics and have added a number of images, alongside a selection of what I can only call 'unknown fungi' given the difficulty of accurately identifying many types of fungi. I've also added an image of a juvenile toad with it alongside a Fly Agaric 'toadstool' in one image.

14th September 2010: The insect season is rapidly coming to a close now and these may be my last insect images for a while. I've added 3 images of a Lesser Marsh Grasshopper, a Red-Tailed Bumblebee feeding on the impressively titled Devil's Bit Scabious and 3 images of a very unusual fly in the form of Physocephala rufipes. Also, by way of a change, I've added an image of a Common Frog and one of a tiny juvenile Smooth Newt.

4th September 2010: A couple of new moth images have been added - a Mint Moth and a Yellow Shell - also a Ladybird on a nice yellow Potentilla flower and a close-up of a Green Lacewing.

24th August 2010: Some new images of hoverflies feeding (Marmalade hoverflies and Sphaerophoria scripta) have been added together with a few more grasshopper images (Common Meadow, Common Field and Common Green Grasshoppers).

17th August 2010: I was recently contacted by the editor of The Photographer magazine (the magazine of the British Institute of Professional Photography) to ask if he could write an article about my macro photography. Obviously I agreed, and the result is a 4 page spread in the August/September issue. (Click thumbnail for a larger image of pages 1/2 and here for pages 3/4).

9th August 2010: Lots of new images added, including grasshoppers (and an unusual image of a grasshopper being attacked by an ant), Small Skipper, Small Copper, Painted Lady and Holly Blue butterflies, a Robber Fly, an impressive Vapourer Moth caterpillar, a mating pair of Emerald Damselflies, an extreme close-up of a Horse Fly (which shows you why it hurts when they bite you) and finally a Dartford Warbler from a recent trip to Suffolk - good to see them around after the harsh winter.

27th July 2010: I recently found a small group of black aphids on a foxglove in my garden and noticed several black ants in amongst them. The 2 species have a mutualistic relationship whereby the ants protect the aphids from predators and in return the aphids provide the ants with small drops of sugary honeydew which the ants eat. Through my macro lens (Canon MPE-65) it is possible to see the ants gently stroking the aphids with their antennae and every now and again they would eat (drink?) a globule of honeydew, helping it into their mouths with one of their antennae. The challenge is to actually get a globule of honeydew in the shot but this is very difficult because the aphids produce it only sporadically and the ants consume it almost instantly. In addition the very narrow depth of field at these magnifications (less than 0.3mm) means even if the honeydew is in the frame it is not often in the plane of focus. I've added 6 new images in total, one of a black ant on its own, 3 of a black ant in amongst the aphids and 2 with the honeydew actually visible (this one and this one).

6th July 2010: I've always been intrigued by the idea of 'wideangle macro' i.e. shots of insects that include much of the insect's environment. My fisheye lens is quite good for this sort of shot so on a recent early morning visit to a nature reserve I tried this technique on a sleepy Brown Hawker dragonfly that I was lucky enough to find. I've added 2 images. I've also included 4 more conventional views of the Brown Hawker together with images of a Scorpion Fly, a Green Lacewing and a Lesser Marsh Grasshopper.

16th June 2010: I was lucky enough to recently have an encounter with a Ruby Tailed Wasp, one of our most attractive insects in my opinion. Their colours are remarkable. I've added 3 images. I've also added images of a male and female Banded Demoiselle damselfly and a couple of a nice Longhorn beetles.

6th June 2010: I recently visited a new site and found a large number of newly emerged Broad Bodied Chaser dragonflies (strangely, all were female). I've added four images. I also photographed my first Common Blue butterfly of the year, a pair of mating Burnet moths, and a very co-operative Dingy Skipper butterfly. New images of each have been added.

1st June 2010: A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to find a damselfly nymph as it left a pool and climbed up a reed. Within a couple of minutes the damselfly started to emerge - a remarkable process. I've added 3 images.

28th May 2010: Lots of new images added including 2 close-ups of a Jumping Spider, a couple of a Red Lily Beetle, a Fourteen-Spot Ladybird and a Nomada Bee on a flower.

14th May 2010: I entered 2 images in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2010 competition earlier this year and have now been told that they've both reached the final round. Great I thought, although I've since found out that approximately 1,600 images have reached the final round! Having said that, last year there were over 43,000 images entered in total so 1,600 still represents the top 3% or so. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

10th May 2010: It's that time of year when insects start to think about increasing their numbers and I recently found a pair of Seven-Spot Ladybirds putting their thoughts into practise. I've also added a few images of a sleeping Nomada bee, with its jaws locked onto a small piece of conifer.

2nd May 2010: Continuing the bee theme, I've added 3 new images of Miner Bees.

26th April 2010: This year seems to be a good year for bees and I've seen quite a good variety in my garden. One bee I've not seen before is the evocatively titled Hairy Footed Flower Bee and I've seen a few of these in my garden over the last 2-3 weeks. I was lucky enough to find one sleeping in the way that many bees do, with its jaws locked around a leaf stem and have added a couple of images. I've also added images of a Drone Fly and a Bumble Bee feeding.

14th April 2010: I've added an image of a Ladybird sitting on a Daffodil petal and a couple of extreme close-ups of flies. As always, new images can be found in the Latest Images gallery as well as in their appropriate section of the main gallery (in this case the Flies gallery and the Bugs and Beetles gallery).

11th April 2010: My attention is now turning to insect photography, although I'm still sorting through some bird images from last month. I've added a couple of images of Little Grebes which will probably be my last non-insect images for a while!

29th March 2010: I recently had the opportunity to photograph some water voles, a species seen all too rarely these days along our rivers and canals. They're very photogenic, particularly if you can find a co-operative one! I've added 4 new images.

16th March 2010: I have two images in the April issue of Outdoor Photography magazine portfolio section, a Small Skipper butterfly and a Banded Demoiselle damselfly. I also won a Lowepro rucksack! (Click thumbnail for a larger image).

12th March 2010: One of my favourite birds to photograph is the Nuthatch and I recently had another brief session with a pair of them. I've added a couple of images (here and here).

5th March 2010: A week or two ago I found my first ladybird of the year, looking rather cold and damp sheltering among some leaves. I thought it was the first sign of spring, although a couple of inches of snow have been and gone since then.

28th February 2010: With spring hopefully not too far away I have updated my macro photography hints and tips page, both the text and the images.

17th February 2010: At the end of January I decided to try some winter macro and set about looking for suitable subjects. Under a log in my garden I found a few woodlice and a Harvestman and have uploaded a few images.

2nd February 2010: The cold weather in January resulted in a huge number of Fieldfares and Redwings visiting the UK from Scandinavia. We had one or two of each visiting our garden, with the Fieldfares particularly fond of apples. I've added a shot of a Fieldfare eating an apple in the snow.

25th January 2010: A bird that I've always struggled to photograph well is the Pied Wagtail, basically because they are always on the move. I was quite pleased with a recent shot of one in the frost and have added it to 'Latest Images' and the 'Other Birds' gallery.

18th January 2010: I've added a couple of Nuthatch shots taken shortly before Christmas and a Blue Tit too for good measure.

11th January 2010: One of my 'Springtail on Ice' images has been made Image of the Week on Juza's website (see here).