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Saturday 6 October 2012

Upton House Gardens


I recently took a trip to the south of England to visit my good friend Baz. I spent a very enjoyable few days there and visited some beautiful places. Many thanks to Baz, and his mom, for the hospitality.

My fave place that we visited was Upton House. Officially designated as Upton Country Park, the central feature is the grand late-Georgian mansion house. Unfortunately this did not appear to be open to the public. The extensive grounds feature woodland, walled and formal gardens, and even some tidal wetlands where the grounds meet to outer parts of Poole harbour.  As usual, being a macro-freak, I spent most of my time in the gardens getting up-close-and-personal with the flowers and insects. I took loads of shots. Below are a few of my favourites, the rest you can find in a slideshow at the bottom of the post. To view the photos in the slideshow better quality, click 'play', then click the 'full-screen' icon, bottom right, you will then see the slideshow full-size on Flickr.

If you want to read about Upton House and it's history, please CLICK HERE,

1) Berry Nice

Berry Nice

2) Inspecting The Pod

Inspecting The Pod

3) Dahlia Swirl

Swirl 1

4) Butterfly Feeding

Butterfly Feeding 1

5) Emerging

Emerging 1

6) Bee

Bee 1

7) Heart Of Gold

Heart Of Gold 1

8) Hoverfly

Hoverfly 1

Flickr Slideshow:

41 comments:

  1. Fantastic Mitch, wonderful macros. That must have been a super holiday.

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  2. I knew you shots would be awesome mate, but you outdid yourself, wonderful captures I am sure you have many more. Your always welcome here my friend it was a pleasure to have you Visit;)

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    1. Thanks Baz. It was just a great day for macro-shooting, and the fact the gardens were sheltered by the walls meant not so much battling the breezy conditions. I had a great time, thanks :-))

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  3. Oh the colors!!! Brilliant!! Fantastic!! :)

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    1. Thank you :-)) One of the good things about macro-shooting flowers is that there's never a shortage of good colour.

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  4. Mitch these shots all are just great.
    I bet you two Guys had a blast.

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    1. Thanks Sue. Yes, we had a great few days, got a lot of good photography done, despite the sometimes rainy conditions, as you may have seen from some of the shots in the slideshow.

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  5. OH.. so pretty... Love the brilliant colors... Very detailed...

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  6. Wow Mitch, looking a the slide show makes me wonder how on earth you managed to choose favourites. They are all stunning.

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    1. Thanks Shayna. I could probably have added another 20 favourites, but the post would have been REALLY long!! LOL.

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  7. So beautiful Mitch, a nice post for this cold brisk morning here in the ozarks. I am drinking my coffee and enjoying this. I am off to view your slideshow-thanks

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    1. If I had to choose a favorite-I love the full view butterfly on the pink flowered bush, and that gorgeous gate-

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    2. Thanks Kathy, I'm glad you enjoyed them :-))

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  8. thank you for the eye candies. what kind of lens did u use?

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    1. You're welcome Gina. I use an Olympus SP800UZ, a bridge camera with a powerful built in zoom/macro lens.

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  9. You most certainly got some gorgeous photos Mitch.
    I am sure that I too would love to see the building and grounds of that historic building.

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    1. Thanks Milli. I could easily have spent many more hours exploring and photographing the grounds but the rain showers were getting more frequent.

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  10. mitch these pictures are amazing !

    and yes...you are right..we somehow never connected on multiply....but so sweet of you to stop by now and make time to read...thank you...:)

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    1. Thanks Sonny :-))

      I'll be dropping by regularly to read your writings :-))

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  11. Great photos Mitch ~ especially the one of the hoverfly. Upton House looks interesting in itself. It's a pity it wasn't open.

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    1. Hi Charlie. Thanks, I think the hoverfly is my fave too. I would certainly have liked to have looked round Upton House.

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  12. Lovely photos....but what a shame the house wasn't open for viewing. It's gorgeous!

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    1. Thanks River :-))

      It's certainly an impressive building. I tried to get shots of the other side of it, as it is even more imposing, but the sun wasn't in an ideal position when I was shooting the house, and once I was in the gardens it completely slipped my mind to return later!! LOL.

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  13. OMG your shots are making me jelous Mitch , thanks for sharing all those beauties.

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    1. Hi Fatos, nice to see you back. Thanks for looking at my photos :-))

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  14. Thank you for the link, Mitch, lovely macros for sure, love the bee, but my favourites are the pictures of the manor itself, the little courtyard with the pump, it looks so inviting and quaint, I can see it was raining a bit and the butterfly is awesome. You know me, not really a flower person, now take a picture of something I can eat, like basil and carrots and peas *winks*

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    1. Thanks Marianne. I'd have loved to have spent more time there photographing other things, but the rain showers were getting more and more frequent, so we gave up for the day. The shot of the courtyard with the pump was taken from inside the tearoom where we were sheltering from the rain. Edible plants aren't as interesting photographically, well for me anyway :-))

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  15. I am so glad you enjoyed your time with Baz and his mom !
    Mitch - your Macro photography is getting better and better every time you pick up a camera. these photos above are mind-blowing !

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  16. Had to come back for another Look these are awesome Mate;)

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  17. Great pics Mitch...love your site, but it takes me forever to open and scroll through..not sure if its just me or if its becasue there are so many pics to open..dunno...

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    1. Thanks Heather. I don't think it's the page itself that takes a while to open, I've noticed that sometimes Blogger takes a while to load all the gadgets enabled on a page. When I open a page I wait about 20 - 30 seconds to allow it to load before trying to scroll the page.

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  18. Right. Maybe I'm following you now. These are seriously fabulous pics, MItch.

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    1. Hi Neil!! Welcome to my page!! Thanks for having a look at my pics :-))

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