A wildlife photographer was thrilled when he looked to his garden and saw Britain’s most beautiful butterflies.
Andrew Fusek Peters, 57, spent a week snapping the colourful insects behind his countryside cottage in Lydbury North, Shropshire.
The butterflies captured include the comma, holly blue, painted lady and small tortoiseshell.
Fusek Peters has been travelling the country to photograph every species of UK butterfly but managed to capture this bunch from the comfort of his own home.
He said: “The interesting thing is I’ve been all over the UK to get the rarest butterflies but these were shot right here in my garden.
“These are the common garden butterflies that are no less beautiful. It has been an absolute delight to celebrate what’s under my nose.
“It’s all to do with the flowers in the garden; I have my wife to thank for that.
“These are going to be part of the book. They’re just as interesting.
“The painted lady has the longest journey migration: they start at 9,000 miles away in Africa. It takes them generations to get here.”
Andrew snapped the butterflies with his Olympus E-M1 Mark II, sitting a few centimetres away and using a shutter speed of 1/6,000th of a second to get the perfect shot.
He added: “It was a super-fast shutter speed. I’m literally going 2cm away from them to capture them.
“So it’s always incredibly difficult to capture. You could call me the butterfly whisper: no one really gets shots like these.
“I think the fact that it’s a safari in my back garden is what makes it better. My mileage is just three yards.
“One thing I want to do with my book is show you that there’s stuff in your back garden. There’s just so much going on: there’s mice, bats, insects, everything.
“You can capture nature in your garden. You don’t have to travel.”
SWNS
