Common Blue

Common Blue, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

Whilst having a cup of tea in the garden, this little critter comes and pays a visit. QUICK, grab the camera I shout!!

Normally this would send any wildlife running/flying for cover, but today this little butterfly just stayed put, thankfully.

Managed to get some good shots off.

Unknown Insect

Unknown Insect, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

I have been ill for a couple of days, typical that it's the bank holiday weekend too. I feel better today, so grabbed my camera and headed out to the garden.

No idea what this little fellow is, but the eyes are quite amazing really. I know my macro photography is not the best in the world, and there are more expensive equipment out there, but all the same I think this is a fairly good shot.

I will be getting a new laptop on Wednesday, and hopefully will be able to breeze through processing more photographs in Photoshop soon.

Painted Lady Butterfly [Edited]

Painted Lady Butterfly, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

I used Photoshop to desaturate the background to emphasis the butterfly and thistle. Ideally I would've liked to get lower down to take the shot, but as you know butterflies I easily spooked.

I have really enjoying the British summer at the moment, there seems to be an abundant supply of insects and flowers to take pictures of.

Although the forecast for the next couple of weeks seem to be rain showers, but then again I think we should take that with a pinch of salt, as the met office said that we should paint our houses white to deflect the intense heat.

Hmmm.................;-)

Butterfly

Butterfly, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

Another shot from our walk at Chest Woods. Still amazed of the amount of butterflies there that day.

I thought that scientists said that there was a big decline in butterflies this year, well I think they need to visit some other area's rather than their labs. OK, I might be being flippant and they are probably suggesting other species of butterfly.

Smoke Mark II

Smoke, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

This is another shot of the smoke session, expect to see some more. I think I will upload some with the black BG.

Would just like to mention that I was inspired by this:

http://gavtrain.blogspot.com/2009/07/smoke-photography-made-simple-week-62_23.html

Smoke

Smoke, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

I have been trying my hand at some Smoke Photography. Equipment used:
1 x Incense Stick
1 x Black Background
1 x Canon 40D with Sigma 28-70mm Lens
1 x Canon Speedlite 430II flash with an Elastic band and 2 pieces of Cardboard.
1 x Table light - to light the smoke for the auto focus on the camera

Ok I will describe the cardboard first. With the flash you do not want any spill over of the flash, so you strap to pieces of cardboard on the side of the flash head, so that you direct the flash towards the smoke.

Setting for the camera, F/9.0 Speed 1/160th. Flash was set to 1/2 power.

After shots were taken, I processed in PS CS4, inverting image and then adding another layer and blending in some colour.

This is the results.

Damselfly

Damselfly, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

Not sure what kind of Damselfly this is, but it was a remarkable blue colour. I am sure it was playing with me too, as I got close it would fly away.

Butterflies

While we were at Chest Wood we saw hundreds of butterflies all over the place, it was quiet an extrondanary site to see. Well here are a couple of shots.

Wildflowers

Well after a hiatus of taking photographs, I went mad at the weekend with a few projects.

We had a lovely walk to Chest Woods at Layer-de-la-Haye. And found an abundance of fauna and flora.

These wildflowers were very eye catching (well just about, as they are tiny). I have no idea on the ID of the flowers either, sorry!!

These other flower I am guessing it a Thistle of some kind. If you can help with the ID of either these 2 please let me know.

Cactus Flower

This is a shot of my Cactus flower, it only last between 24 and 36 hours. I read on the internet how to get it to flower and thought I would try.

Basically you have to NOT water your cactus between November and end of March, none at all. It's now July and I have had success with this beautiful display.

Once the bud starts growing, it is so rapid, probably only took a week to get to this stage.

Apparently the flowers in the wild are pollinated by Bats. Hope you like the shot.

Colour Impact

When do you stop messing about with the colour in a photograph?

I pushed the colour saturation up on this one. To be honest, I think it really does portray the colours that I saw that day.

Very pleased with the details I have captured. The sky is pretty much perfect too.

Once again, thanks for looking.

Sinkhole

This is a shot of the Ladybower Reservoir in the Peak District. It shows the sinkhole for when the water levels are high. I think this is the lowest level I have seen the water at.

Last time, the water was flowing over the top of the sinkhole.

Enjoy!

No Excuses for not posting.

I haven't updated the website for a while. I think I was just going through a lazy phase.

Anyway, The 3 shots here are from a recent trip to the Peak District. They are taken at Padley Gorge and they are of the same waterfall, but in three different placed. I was really pleased with the outcome of the shots, and this is probably the most success I have had with capturing water like this.

I may have overdone the saturation slightly on a couple of the shots.

Any way I hope you like.

Thanks

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

Comma

A shot of another Comma Butterfly.  It appears that these butterflies don't seem to worry about people getting to close to them, or it's that I am getting good at getting closer.

Another beautiful weekend here in Essex, warm and sunny.  But could do with a couple of days of rain to water our grass and fill up our waterbutts.

Thanks for taking the time to look.

Sunset over Mersea

Took a lovely walk last night, down to the sea wall. The weather was pretty much perfect last night, not too warm, but very still.

This is a HDR shot, as I didn't have my ND Grad filters with me last night. Also it's handheld (I must take my Tripod with me more often).

Use Photomatrix to produce the shot.

Hope you like it.

Wall Brown Butterfly

Went for a great walk today over a place call Chest Wood, which is a village called Layer de la Haye in Essex.  There was hardly anyone around, and there was plenty of wildlife around.  

This shot is of a butterfly called a Wall Brown, it is a Satyr, and can often be observed sunbathing with its wings spread open.  It took only a little while for it to settle so I could get a good shot of it.

Also, over in the woods, we saw plenty of birds flying around and even a woodpecker.

Hope you like the shot.

Blossom

Some gorgeous pear blossom form my garden, hopefully these will be pollenated by all the insects in the garden.  The pear tree has hundreds of blooms all over it.

Last year was a disaster, as there were no pears at all.

Some more Spring Shots

These 2 shots are from Fingringhoe Nature reserve, which we visited on Sunday.

Comma Butterfly

Well over the weekend it looked like Spring finally arrived to Essex. We went to Finginghoe Nature reserve and could see all kinds of life springing up.

The trees were getting their leaves, and there were lots of Bees and butterflies around.

One I managed to capture was a "Comma". These are very common and not so scared of a big lump like me coming towards them. I was kneeling on a bramble whislt taking this shot, but us photographers have to think of the shot before our pain. :-)

There were also lots of Peacock butterflies around, but they were not having any photographer coming close to them.

It was nice to see the carpark of the nature reserve almost full. There were lots of bird watchers and photographers over there. Some of the photographers have very big lenses, I guess they were trying to get shots of the many birds.

Well I hope you like the shots.

Fish nets.....sorry Fishing nets

Taken on Sunday 15th.  It was a glorious spring day, then sun was shining and the wind was calm.  I took this shot just down the road from where I live on Mersea Island.  This was taken with my Sigma 24-70mm lens (which I really like).  I wanted to show the nets off, so used a shallow DOF, but also wanted to allow the viewer to see the boats for a context in the shot.

Another Crocus

Not that I am getting predictable or anything, but here is another Crocus shot.  Well they are a nice little flower to practice with my macro setup.

I like the way this shot has turned out, with the stamen just showing behind the petal. 

Not sure that I will get many more shots of the crocus's as they don't tend to last that long, and the wind and rain (which we had today) has pretty much laid them to the ground.

However, I have been trying to get some shots of the helibores that are coming to flower in the garden at the moment.  Plus I can just about see the bluebell shots starting to poke through.

Anyway, hope you like the shot.

Crocus close up

So I have now had a little time to practice with my macro setup.  I will hopefully get a little more time this weekend.

I  must say when I have the bracket attached and the flash over the of the lens it ways a tonne.  But if you grab the bracket and use that has a handle it is much better.  I guess it's something to get use to.  I have been practicing some techniques that other photographers use, and it seems to be working.

I hope you like the latest upload.

Now with the new macro rig.

Ok, I have now got my full macro rig for my camera.  I bought a Kirk Macro bracket with the addition of a Giotto Ball head.  These two pieces of kit combined with my Speedlite 430EX II & TTL Off shoe cord work a treat. 

The photo is of a viola, I was suprised myself of the detail I have captured, and I never knew that they looked like that inside.

Thanks for looking.

3

Not really inspired to go outside today, as it is raining.  Waiting for spring to turn up, and at least I will be able to do some flower shots.

In the meantime, I have been playing around with the Speedlite, and doing some still life.

Selling Prints

Well I thought I would give it ago.  I have setup an account on Photobox, which will handle all sales and prints for people.

At the moment, I only have a few shots up there, so please be paitence.

Here is a link to the site:  http://www.photoboxgallery.com/gallery?vendor_id=3000070

If you think anyone else would like a picture then show them the link :-)

Chilli

Well I have been playing around with my 430EX II flash gun today.  Used it on an off shoe cord (purchased from Ebay), bounced the light on a gold reflector to give a bit more warmth to the shot.

I am waiting for some remote triggers to arrive from Ebay, so I will be trying out lots of other shot with my strobes.

Hope you like the shot.

Another new addition

Well this is the latest addition to my Photographic kit.  I am now trying to learn some techiques on how to use the flash to it best abilities.

As soon as I have some good images I will upload them.

Bye for now.

Just a couple of quick posts.

Just a very quick post.  This is another image from our recent holiday in Devon.  I used a new plugin with photoshop, which simulates HDR photography, but only uses one photo to produce the image.

The plugin is called Re-Dynamix.

Also, another gift for my birthday is a shiny new Canon Speedlite 430EX II flash.  I am going to try a couple of still life shots today, as I also got TOM ANG's book on how to produce better photographs.  There are exercises to do in the book.

I will give a review of the book to at some point.

Dartmoor National Park

Just got back from a cold and rainy Dartmoor.  We only did a short walk, about 2.5 miles.  It was very nice to be out there with hardly any other people around.

A shot from Devon

A shot from South Devon.  We were very lucky with the weather today.  It was  a little cold, but walking up and down the coast certainly warmed you up.

My work is being displayed

A few weeks ago I was approached by my companies Multimedia and Graphics department asking if they could use a couple of my shots to display on the wall at work.

They chose the sunset shot with the boats (displayed on my blog) and another one of the Balckwater canel.  They are having them printed at the moment.  I will take a shot of them when they are on the wall at work and post the pictures on here.

You never know, this may be the start of something...........................

New Addition

Well, as it is nearlly my birthday, I have bought a new lens.  It basically replacing the kit lens that came with my old Canon 350D.

Details:

24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG MACRO

Large aperture standard zoom lens provides superior performance both for Digital SLR Cameras and 35mm Film SLR Cameras

To achieve an F2.8 aperture at all focal lengths, it employs three aspherical Lens to provide optimum aberration compensation. Two Special Low Dispersion (SLD) glass elements are provided for color aberration compensation, to assure high image quality.

 -  - 

Optimised for digital SLR cameras
It incorporates a "Super Multi Layer Coating" to reduce the influence of harmful light caused by reflections from the digital image sensor.

Excellent correction of aberrations
Two SLD elements, one Glass Mold Aspherical plus two Hybrid Aspherical lenses provide excellent correction of various aberrations and a high level of optical performance.

Minimum focusing distance of 40cm
The lens has a minimum focusing distance of 40cm at all focal lengths and is capable of macro photography with a maximum magnification ratio of 1:3.8.

DF (Dual Focus) System
This lens incorporates a Dual Focus (DF) system that is designed to make the lens easy to hold during autofocusing, and yet provides a large focus ring for easy manual focusing.

Petal Type Hood
Since the front of the lens does not rotate, a Petal-type hood and circular polarizing filters can be easily used.

House Boat

The shot is from West Mersea, normally I dont take a 2nd look at some of these boats, but this evening they looked really interesting against the sky.  I took this with my 40D and my Canon 90-300mm lens.  I don't think the lens is a good one, and I am thinking of replacing it, but still undersided which lens to buy.  It is coming up to my 40th birthday, so I think I should treat myself.

Thanks for looking.

Chinese Lanterns

Happy New Year!

I thought I would get my light tent out today and have a play around. With my tent it came with a number of coloured back drops.  I thought that the black one would show the subject off the best.

The reflective surface was obtained by using a piece of polished black granite.  I used my flash gun remotely for the lighting.

Hope you like it.