“I got bitten bringing it back to our boat”
Sue McBean has reconnected with her botanical roots as a digital volunteer for Plantlife
Registered nurse and nurse teacher Sue McBean studied botany decades ago and is a keen photographer. She is now contributing to the image library of conservation charity Plantlife by taking detailed macro photos of flowers and other parts of plants. Sue’s pictures help the public to identify different species and increase interest in wild plants.
Do you work alone?
Yes but my partner accompanies me on walks to photograph plants and I get a lot of support from Plantlife digital volunteer coordinator Sarah Shuttleworth. I love being the first photographer volunteer for Plantlife – they’ve had donations of photos before but not someone they could ask to get specific images. When Sarah says, “Fabulous!” about one of my shots, it makes everything worthwhile.
When do you volunteer?
Daily while on walks or doing specific projects in my conservatory studio setup. The problem is that many wildflowers are very seasonal – I take some images, upload them to my computer, decide to change my photographic approach and may find the flower has passed to a different stage (seed dispersal, for example) or the plant is found somewhere that I can’t visit again for a while.
Where do you work?
I am confined to Northern Ireland and occasionally the west of Scotland and north of Wales. So far, much of my macro photography has been on islands such as Rathlin, Coll, Kerrera, Mull and Islay. I am particularly interested in annual flowering plants that can be taken for granted but are important for insects. Through volunteering, I like making a difference, leaving a tangible legacy for others to enjoy.
What is your proudest moment as a volunteer?
Finding a flower that I had not realised existed. I knew of devil’s-bit scabious and field scabious but not sheep’s-bit, also called sheep’s-bit scabious. It isn’t actually a scabious at all, but it does look like one. It has the appearance of a bridal bouquet with a range of colours, and a style and stigma like a pink cotton bud. I found it on Islay and got bitten by a cleg (horse fly) bringing it back to our boat.