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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.