Short Pyrenees Timelapse

Unfortunately despite my best intentions time restraints are preventing me from producing a detailed write up of my trip to the Pyrenees at the beginning of July. This lack of time has been due in part to the amount of work I have been putting into developing the video production element of the business. In addition I am also developing a video library so that other video producers and stock clients can license sequences to add into their own projects. As with my stills photography some video sequences will also be available via my agents.

With that in mind if you are an individual, organisation, or business that relies on the wonderful landscape of the UK to help promote their product or services please feel free to get in touch without obligation. Equally if you are another professional videographer/photographer/producer who requires someone to collaborate with footage on a landscape, or wildlife project, again please feel free to get in touch without obligation.

Anyway enough of the promotional speak. With some of the footage I took in the Pyrenees I have found time to produce a short timelapse test to compare different techniques using the Canon 5Dmk2 for the first two sequences and a Canon XA10 for the final Vignemale sequence. Overall two different techniques were used, with the first two being true timelapse sequences and the final one is a cheat as it is simply speeded up. Wind movement has distorted the final scene as well, which may not have been particularly noticeable with a true time-lapse technique.

Pathogenic Fungi

In the rain forest there is a fungi that has a life cycle straight out of a science fiction horror movie. It is called Cordyceps and once the minute spores are ingested by an invertebrate, such as an insect the fungi slowly begins to grow inside it.

This infection eventually kills the host, but then as the fungi continues to grow it bursts out of the body of the victim creating a macabre sculpture like growth from between the body segments, the antenna and even the eyes. This is the fruiting body of the fungi and it is from this that the spores will disperse to infect other unwitting victims.

What is also interesting about some types of fungi is that they also produce toxins that affect the brain of the animal causing the infected insect such as an ant for example to climb up a stem and attach itself there before dying. This elevated position is a perfect place for Cordyceps to spread its spores.

In a dark damp jungle on the other side of the world you could perhaps expect such a parasitic organism to be common, but in Britain surely not? Well believe it or not there are several species and the last few damp and humid weeks have created perfect conditions for them. While raking about in the undergrowth the other day I was fortunate to spot this infected fly. I think this fungi may be one of the Entomophthora species, possibly Entomophthora muscae. That said I am far from an expert and would welcome a more accurate ID if anyone can help.

The fungi is growing between the segments of the flies abdomen, the spores of which will then infect other flies. Copyright David Forster

Close up of the abdomen. The growth looks a bit like the expanding foam you get from builders merchants. Copyright David Forster


Click here to see Cordyceps in action in this short BBC video, narrated by David Attenborough.


So what is the purpose of such a fungi? Well it is all about the natural balance and as many of these fungi are actually species specific, it prevents a particular species becoming too dominant. It has to be said however, that humans are not in any danger from these fungi, in fact they are used to our benefit in drugs, food supplements and as a form of biological pest control.

Common Lizard Lacerta (Zootoca) vivipara in Upper Teesdale

It has to be said that sunshine has been hard to come by of late and half an hour after capturing this image I was forced to don my waterproofs yet again when a really heavy rain shower managed to sneak up on me while I was filming. One minute I was wearing a T shirt and the next I am soaked to the skin in the time it takes to stash the camera kit in a drybag and open the rucksac to get my waterproofs out - some summer this has turned out to be. There is lots of wildlife about though.

I spotted this Common Lizard Lacerta (Zootoca) vivipara basking on a Bilberry covered fence post in Upper Teesdale yesterday. One of the survival strategies for this species is to shed their tail when attacked by a predator. This one looks as if it has survived such an encounter and appears to be growing a new one. Frustratingly I only had landscape kit with me and was disappointed not to be able to get up close with a macro lens.

Copyright David Forster

I think? it's a female and if so will soon be ready to produce young. Interestingly in warmer climates they do lay eggs, but in the cooler northern climate rather than produce eggs these lizards actually incubate the eggs internally and then give birth to live young.


Lizard Info
· The Common Lizard is the only native species of reptile in Ireland

· Lizards are cold-blooded and hibernate, or perhaps more accurately "Brumate" during the colder months.

· They feed on invertebrates such as woodlice, spiders, insects, worms and slugs.

· Like all of our other reptiles they are under threat from habitat loss and are a protected species under the wildlife and countryside act of 1981