Utopia Photography

05/06/2026

01/06/2026

Ohhh myyy!
You know I don't use ai for my photography, although I may use it to create images from my photo's for me to use in my crafts - those images are not for this page. All my actual photography is taken physically by camera ... and manually edited (if required) using Paint Shop Pro. (By editing, I mean possibly straightening out horizons (I currently work partially sighted so struggle a bit with it in camera sometimes), cropping (either to remove unwanted or unneccessary background content or to bring my main subject "closer") or simply just to resize and add logo to images to put onto my page.
But some of my friends have been having fun with a new craze on asking ai what "it" thinks about their page/work, so I thought I would try it.
It's good for a giggle if nothing else, lol!..................

31/05/2026

Got an unexpected road trip on Thursday 4th June, I hope the weather will play nice! It's an errand trip to a country estate in Nottingham to collect wedding items for my daughter, so as it's over 200 miles each way I will be making it a day out, calling in to see if the Black Squirrels are about on the way and see what/where else I can fit in after I collect the items ... and if time maybe back to the Squirrels on the way back - they are only a few minutes from the services I use on that route so it's daft not to call in to their location! I'm not planning Butterflies but obviously if I see any it will be a bonus, along with any other wildlife - the Black Squirrels location is sometimes pretty good for Butterflies, Birds and Muntjac Deer too x

26/05/2026

Thank you all for being here on my photography page with me, I appreciate all the support. Please bear with me, I need to find somewhere to go for at least one may road trip before the end of the month. I have had unfavourable health, weather and finances plus a few personal issues to contend with that have prevented me going anywhere since my visit to Emmerdale. But I am starting to feel a strong need to visit some of my photo locations or find new ones and hopefully can do something later in the week or next week, weather/health permitting. I can't believe I have missed the best of a heat wave due to not being well enough to go anywhere, (people complaining about it but it's my kind of weather, it is never too hot for me but what other people find hot, I find cold, lol, and my body can't function if it's cold.)
I am busy tonight, and have a family meal tomorrow for my son's birthday, and am also busy preparing for craft fayres which I have recently started attending again, so again a bit restricted for going anywhere!
Plus I am having issues getting onto this page ... facebook making it so you have to "switch" between pages is a pain, but on my other pages switching brings up the page logo so I can click it and open the page ... not this one, it takes ages to find a way in to open and work on the page. With them deciding to randomly duplicate my albums and randomly delete others, I'm not really getting much luck here lately ... I have worked hard keeping this page for many years, built up a following and uploaded 1000's of photo's, I hope I don't have to start all over again! I hope you like my page and my work anyway, I can only apologise on facebook's behalf for their messing with my page ... and hope it gets sorted out from their end soon!
Some good news though. I found an old memory card behind my computer desk, it must have fallen and I forgot about it. It was one I hadn't managed to get my photo's off, and was before I started using external hard drives. If my memory is right, my desktop computer had stopped reading cards and cd's at the time, before it died completely, so I had no way to see, download or work on photo's for a while. Then I got my laptop with card reader which is what I still use now, which explains why I don't have the photo's that are on the card, on my page or hard drives. There are some of my all time favourite wildlife, equine, snow etc photo's, including wildlife in snow taken years ago when a friend and I were on a 2 week road trip, traveling around various locations in UK for various wildlife, and it snowed the second week, a lot! We came across various Deer, Ponies and Squirrels of various colours on our trip, and were able to sneak up pretty close with snow muffling our footsteps, so I got some lovely closeups (my friend was more of an observer than photographer, she carried binoculars instead of cameras) ... even when they looked at us and just froze on the spot rather than run away (we didn't get "too close", I did have zoom lenses!) I can't believe I forgot about these photo's, but think I probably resigned myself to think I lost them! However, as you know, I never reveal exact locations of my wildlife, to protect them and their habitat, but there is no way I can remember these locations even if I wanted to, especially as a lot of them we had come across by chance along the journey! I will try to start getting them up on the page when I get a chance X

18/05/2026

My Butterfly products received a lot of attention at the craft fayre on saturday, I didn't sell loads but made £25 for Butterfly Conservation. It wasn't all about selling and money, I did get to speak to several interested people and help them understand the plight of the Butterflies.
Now the next fayre is coming up fast ... for this one I will be selling multi theme products (except the Spiritual themes as it's in a YMCA.) ... please come and join us there if you can, feel free to share with anyone you feel might be interested :)
Thank you x
.........

12/05/2026

I will be there with my Butterfly themed products, please come along and join us if you can x

24/04/2026

Just a reminder:
On 16th May 2026, 11am - 4pm ... I will be attending a craft fayre as The Butterfly Lady
The Butterfly Lady
with my hand made Butterfly themed products including Mousemats, Tote Bags, Aprons, Keyrings, Badges, Compact Mirrors, Coasters, Fridge Magnets and more, featuring my photography and artwork. Although in attendance as The Butterfly Lady, just a quick reminder that my crafts are made under the name of Made by Mamgu, Made by Mamgu
so both names will be displayed on my stall. All proceeds from Butterfly themed product sales are to be shared between Butterfly Conservation and my own Butterfly conservational efforts.
The fayre will be at:
Ystalyfera Spiritualist Church,
St David's Road, Ystalyfera SA9 2JQ
Please come along and join us there if you can x

Original Butterfly Photography, Conservation, Information, Education, Identification, Articles, Advice, Ideas, Gift Shop & More. UK based Butterfly lover often known as The Butterfly Lady. I Flutter-ly Love Butterflies!