I am taking part in the Wild Arena July photo challenge. I’ll be following their themes for the month and adding a photo every day,updating this blog post as I go along for my own record of the challenge.

Here are the pictures:

Day 1: The Beauty of Light.

After a wet and wild day the sun came out in the evening, allowing me to capture the sunshine glinting on a dripping flower bud- this photo was taken with an iphone. 

Day 2: Summer

It was National Meadows Day today and we visited Wakehurst Place to see their beautiful Coronation Meadow. It was a typical summer’s day of sunshine and showers, the sky over today’s shot looks particularly threatening- taken with a Nikon D3200, as are all those below unless otherwise stated.  

Day 3: A moment in time

No rain today for the first time in a long time, the woods and meadows near to us are looking beautiful. We went for a walk around the area and spotted dandelion clocks on the verges, fitting with today’s theme.

Day 4: The need to feed

This is one of our regular garden visitors. I think they are beautiful in their own right although they can be clumsy. We also have starlings visiting regularly and juvenile blue tits but they were being very flighty today, and did not stop for long enough to get a photo.

Day 5: Motion

After a rather wet, wild and chilly June, July is turning out to be a better month weatherwise so far. It was gorgeous this evening so I headed for the nearby Mill Pond to watch the birds and take a photo of this Canada Goose in motion.

Day 6: Low Key (dark images)

I have to confess that when this came up as the theme I had no idea what it meant, but I had a quick google and after an hour or so with my trusty husband as a sidekick holding a torch as a spotlight, I had a few images I was happy with, I’m going to have to play more with this technique. Here’s the one I entered for the challenge: 

Day 7: Green world

Beautiful hydrangea leaves from the garden.

Day 8: Patterns

I didn’t have a huge amount of time to dedicate to photography today, but spent some time in the garden looking for patterns. There were lots once I started to look but the one I was most drawn to photographing was the twisted weave of the willow hanging baskets. 

Day 9: Life close to home

A busy day today catching up with my lovely family, so I caught one of our resident woodpigeons on film for today’s challenge. 

Day 10: Stormy times

The view south from Leith Hill, the highest point in South East England, storm clouds marching across the sky. 

Day 11: Details

The centre of a geranium in the garden, taken using a macro lens on my Iphone.

Day 12: In praise of plants

I have been amazed watching the hollyhocks shoot up in the garden this year, the flower bud reaching up into the sky, almost as tall as the plum tree, and each bud a beautiful intricate shape. I was glad to have the opportunity to photograph the buds against a clear blue sky tonight after storms earlier today.

Day 13: Reflections

I had a walk around South Hill Park in Bracknell after work, watching the play of light on the water, I managed a snap as a Canada Goose was stretching its wings, which looked best in black and white. 

Day 14: Blue

Honeysuckle against a clear blue sky, it was gorgeous this morning. 

Day 15: Reclaimed

We are on holiday for the next week or so, all these pictures are taken on my i-phone, as I have no laptop with me or wi-fi.

This photo was taken at Broomhill Sculpture Park. I love the way he looks like he is both being reclaimed and trying to escape.

Day 16: My favourite thing

Camping with my husband, campfire going, at our favourite campsite, Hole Station.

Day 17: Life in miniature

This little spider had spun his web to catch prey, a mini predator.

Day 18: Journeys

At Spekes Mill Mouth we watched the end of the journeys of 1000s of raindrops and riverlets as they finally tumbled down cliffs in these waterfalls to meet the sea.

Day 19: Outlines

Loved the shape of the outline of this umbellifer against the sky.

Day 20: Infinity

The swirls in this snail shell seemed to go on into infinity.

Day 21: More than one

Wheelbarrows wait at the drop off point for camper’s to transport their stuff to the woodland pitches at Hole Station.

Day 22: Orange

This orange lily was blooming in the garden of The Potting Shed in Herefordshire, our little glamping retreat to finish off our time away.

Day 23: Monochrome

In the fields next to The Potting Shed, a herd of young bullocks roamed, this one came right up to the fence to say hello.

Day 24: Eyes

Home tonight and back to using the Nikon to capture my pictures for the competition. We were very glad to see all our pets, including these two, our rabbits, dwarf lop Toni and Belgian Hare Cornelius, who were very obliging in posing for me.

Day 25: Giants

After work this evening I headed to South Hill Park in search of giants. It was a toss up between the tall trees and the giant gunnera, which I also photographed. I love the way this tree trunk seems to go on forever before the branches start.

Day 26: Hide and seek

I went to Peacock Meadows to try to find wasp spiders, which I know have been seen there recently, but was unlucky. I did find this grasshopper trying to hide behind some grass stems in the meadow.

Day 27: Shapes

We added this solitary bee house to the garden as part of #30dayswild this June. I love the collection of circles in the picture, you can see that some of the bamboo canes have been blocked by visiting bees. 

Day 28: High key (light images)

Not sure I really got the hang of this technique, it was dull and rainy by the time I got home from work, so this was taken with torches and lamps in the living room. Very challenging.

Day 29: Lines

Day 30: Relaxation

Day 31: The end