Friday, October 15, 2010

A medical sample?

Not quite! Its actually a paper and plastic CD slip case photographed at 40X. Because of the minimal depth of field when shotting thru a microscope I couldnt get both the surface, with the bubbles on, and the fibrous part below both in focus, so I took two photographs at different focus points and combined them as layers in Photoshop. The two layers overlapped slightly due to focus shift but I left the borders in.














Canon A470 on the microscope
Optics, 10X eyepiece and 4X Meiji flat field objective.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Go!

This is the word go as displayed on my book reader (Sony PRS 300), and viewed through my microscope at 40X.

















Photographed with the Blackberry.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

A household abstract!

Just saw this one day while laying down and looking up!













Canon 10D + Vivitar 19-35mm at 35mm

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

A little Ray of Sunshine...

...on a cloudy (and very windy!) day.
Had to get down really low and point the camera up-a dirty knee shot!

Click to enlarge


Canon EOS 10D
Vivitar Series '1' 19-35mm zoom
Polarizer filter

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

A fabulous cloud formation

Took this earlier this summer with the 19-35 zoom at 19mm for full effect.

Click to enlarge












Canon EOS 300
Vivitar Series '1' 19-35mm zoom
Kodak Gold 200 ISO film

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The SV Tenacious at Hartlepool

Tenacious was launched in 2000 and is  the largest wooden tall ship to be built in the UK for over 100 years!
I saw her moored at Hartlepool as part of the 2010 Tall Ships races-quite a sight!

Info here: SV Tenacious on facebook  where you can help celebrate her upcomingh 10th birthday, and here Jubilee Sailing Trust

Monday, July 19, 2010

An Alfa at Night

Spotted this lovely car while walking the dog and got off a quick shot with my Blackberry

Saturday, July 3, 2010

In the Town

Just a quick grab shot of some people in the town yesterday, taken with the Panasonic.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

First flower to open on a Pelargonium which I created by crossing two others.
Canon 10D + 50mm lens

Friday, June 25, 2010

These Streets

A photo of a nearby street, taken with my G1 phone and converted to gritty B/W

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Hot looking Aloe

One of my Aloes began flowering. The stem is a whopper compared to the baseball-sized plant!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Ants!!

Spotted these atop a branch on an apple tree in my garden and got in close with the macro lens, camera on the monopod.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Hedgehog in the garden

Well I say in the garden, he was actually near the back door step! I let the dog out and wondered why she was hesitating. I went to get her and came across this big pig!
First time I've ever been able to get a good hedgepig shot!
Click to enlarge

Friday, May 28, 2010

Wood Avens

Also known as Herb Bennet, this is a wild flower in the Rose family  that seems to like my garden! Its a sprawling low growing plant with these tiny yellow flowers that are less than the size of a penny. These are follwed by seedheads that are like burrs that catch on your socks as you walk through the grass.
Click to enlarge:

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Approaching Fairyland

This is a very close up shot of a Dandelion clock, taken in the garden earlier on a cold dull day. I set the widest aperture to give an extra soft look.
10D +100mm macro lens at f3.5
Click to enlarge;

Monday, May 24, 2010

My daughter, the photographer

This is 6 year old Katie taking my photo with her new camera, a Canon A470.
She has developed an interest in photography and has had a cheap digi for a while with which she took great photos of trees and flowers, but we thought it was time she got something better.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

A Bee's head up close

 I found this dead bee in the bath and set out to photograph it. (I took other photos at much lower magnification - theyre RAW files and need processing.)
I then set the camera to jpeg Large and stepped up the magnification by reversing a Pentax 50mm f1.7 onto my 100mm macro lens to got a head shot which was fabulous to see on the preview screen!
I'm so glad I kept that Pentax lens!!
10D + 100mm macro +50 reversed, mag approx 2X (2:1)
Lit by wind up LED light
Focusiing was difficult and I tried to get most of the important features in focus but I had to be quick because the wind up light fades quickly. 

Click to enlarge

Friday, May 21, 2010

Down amongst the Dandelions

Pretty much a guessed shot in my garden earlier. Not strictly macro but I was pretty close to those Dandelion clocks!

I just held the Panasonic FZ7 down low so it would be looking upwards through the dandelions and fired off a shot.

1/400 at f5.6
ISO 80
Click to Enlarge:

Monday, May 17, 2010

Yellow doesnt want to play today!

This is a line of kiddies paint pots,leftovers from a paint project of my daughter's. They were due to be thrown out but I gave them a new life.
I liked how the yellow pot's lid was still down-it appealed to me somehow!

Taken with the Canon 50mm lens-I've found that the 50mm really comes into its own in such still life settings!
Click to enlarge
 

Friday, May 14, 2010

Salutations from the Cactus World!

This is a 1:1 shot of new stems on my Schlumbergera 'Christmas Cactus'. Each stem is a mere half inch long!
10D + 100mm macro lens at 1:1
Lit using a wind up LED torch (long exposure) 

Click to enlarge


Monday, May 10, 2010

Smells as good as it looks!

A close up of Lilac (Syringa) on a dull windy day. Flowers just starting to open.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Veronica!

Also known as Speedwell, this is a very common low growing plant with very small blue flowers. Each flower is about half inch across-the bud there is about the size of a match head. It is currently carpeting lawns everywhere and it seems a shame to cut it!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Fly

Found this little one on our kitchen window yesterday, and managed to get really close with the macro lens for a handheld shot.
I've just discovered this is a species of Empis, and  a female at that, thanks to Paul on diptera.info!

Monday, May 3, 2010

A sign of Spring!

I thought of the guys on the BBC Wildlife Forum when I saw these new Oak leaves emerging! I had to wait for the sun to come back out-it has been doing a disappearing act all day!

Moss!

A close up of the  moss found in a pot in my garden-I was reminded of the film Avatar!
10D + 100mm macro lens

Sunday, May 2, 2010

3 tiny parasols!

I came across these in a farmer's field while out on a walk with the kids recently and had to get on my knees to capture it!.
Taken with the canon 10D + the 19-35 zoom

Pine cone-mono

A close up of a cone from a Scots Pine (I think), taken with the macro lens and converted to mono with a slight warm tone.

Reaching for the Light

This is a close up of one of my house plants (a Peperomia), handheld with my Canon 10D + 100mm macro lens.