We marked the longest day of the year with a small but brilliant evening of nature photography at Grove Farm with Nigel Bewley. With just three of us, it turned into a relaxed and focused session with plenty of time to really observe, experiment, and learn.

The conditions couldn’t have been better with warm but comfortable, with beautiful soft light that made for ideal shooting as we moved through into dusk.

Nigel was on hand throughout, offering practical advice on composition, camera settings, and how to work with natural light, making it a really valuable session for everyone there.

Experiences like this show just how rich Grove Farm is for wildlife, even in a small area and over just a couple of hours.

Ruby-tailed wasp. A parasitic insect that lay their eggs inside the nests of other solitary bees

Cinnabar moth. Feeds on the toxic Common Ragwort as a caterpillar and stores it in their bodies.

Rupela maculata with its Batesian mimicry (roughly mimicking a wasp)

Misumena vatia. the striking crab spider perfectly camouflaged against the white of hogweed flowers,