Common Blue

Common Blue, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

Another view of the Common blue butterfly in my garden.

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