Monday 25 May 2009

Geranium - Cranebill

Found this flower underneath a tree in the garden.  I think it is from a packet of wildflower seeds that we spread there.

There is a little patch underneath a tree that we thought we would try and make a little wildflower meadow with lots of natural wildflowers.  At the moment we have this flower, which I believe is a Cranesbill and there are 2 foxgloves.

Hopefully, there will be lots of flowers there in the summer.

Sunday 24 May 2009

Something a little prettier

Another shot of a Cosmos Daisy in the garden, they are excellent subjects for a flower photographer.

The wind was only slight today and made the job easier.  Used a very shallow DOF, I used f2.8 with the Sigma 105mm Macro lens.  Using the shallow DOF really focuses you onto the flower.

Any way hope you like it.

Monster house fly

I think I was lucky with this little fellow, no matter how close I got he just didn't want to move.  Good for me.

Well this is a shot of a common house fly in all it's glory.   It never ceases to amaze me how hairy these things actually are.  The detail in the eyes are quite spectacular too.

Sunday 17 May 2009

Bee Closeup

Managed to get a good close up of a bee today.  He was cleaning the pollen off his eyes, hence the leg.

I actually used "Live View" to set this shot up, as the ground was wet after the rain.

Settings:
ISO: 100
Speed: 1/250th
F stop: F10
Flash fired -1.25 stops

Cosmos Daisy

We have some lovely Cosmos Daisies flowering at the moment, this one is from the Greenhouse, so pretty much under controlled conditions.

Used my macro setup.  Settings used:

ISO: 100
Speed: 1/250th
F stop: F10
Flash fired -1.25 stops

Using these setting gives some nice lighting on the flower, and the background is pretty much non existante. 

Sunday 10 May 2009

Hawthorn Shield Bug

Another shot from the garden today. This little critter was on the Pear Tree, and I was wondering if to sqaush it or not. Apparently they do not harm the plants......... Well hopefully.

Techie Bit:

Exposure: 1/125
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 105 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Geranium - Cranesbill

A shot from my garden, this is a white Geranium (not a pelagonium), commonly know as a Cranesbill.

I have used a very shallow DOF, f 2.8. This is to isolate the flowers from the distracing background of the garden fence.

Techie bit:
Exposure: 1/3200 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 105 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Plucky Pheasant

This was a quick grab shot at Fingringhoe Wick.  The Pheasant was in a little wildlife enclosure and I guess was looking for some food.

Was amazed how close we got to it, but I am guessing that it is pretty used to seeing the "Public"

The feathers on the bird are very beautiful.

Thanks for looking.

Damselfly

This is a shot of a common blue Damselfly, taken at Fingringhoe Wick wildlife centre.  There we so many flying around it was hard to focus on them.  This one was on his own for a little while.
The only thing I am dissapointed with is that I jut missed the end of the tail, but I am still happy with the sharpness of the shot.

Friday 8 May 2009

Pink on White

I have been playing around with a piece of software called CombineZP. Essentially this software stacks several images together to create a sharp image.
With Macro photography you have a limited DOF, and can't always show a full focused shot. With the software you can take several images (6 in this shot) at various focus points and then combine them together.

The software is freeware and would recommend having a go at focus stacking yourselves.

Anyway, I hope you like the shot.