Well I find myself back at the keyboard
posting pictures that I hope you love 💖
and in so doing, I hope they measure up to your expectations.
Showing posts with label macro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label macro. Show all posts
Beans
I decided to have a play with a little home made macro studio set-up to see what the results would be. These are some beans we are growing in the garden, for a comparison the ones I used are about the size of a fat grain of rice. I was amazed at the vibrant colours that came out of the pod.
Embrace Red
As part of the Brenda Photo Challenge for this month I bring you “Red”.
Bright bold colours, as I have explained in earlier posts such as “Colour – Red, Standing out from the crowd”, can really enhance a photograph. That is why when I found that this months Brenda’s Photo Challenge theme was to be “Red” I just had to take part.
Just to confirm my decision to take part in this months challenge, as I parked my car this afternoon what should catch my eye but this door…
with its bright bold sparkling red paint.
Red can often work best when in contrast to an opposing colour on the colour wheel such as Blue.
Red is seen as a warm colour; vibrant, fiery and passionate which contrasts well with the calming effects of the blues. In this picture the blue sky accentuates the bold red of the cable car to maximum effect.
You can also use red to add an extra dimension to a photograph here I took a macro water droplet shot with a plain background…
Then to add a bit extra punch to the shot I took it again this time with a red card background…
Do you think its added anything to the shot or do you prefer the plain silver backdrop of the sink?
Finally just to confirm that red was to be the topic of todays post ,what do I end up chopping up for tea but a bright red pepper…
Red is also, for my family at least, a very wonderful memory. A memory of our cat Red…
Yes I know, before you all shout, but she is Black and White! I know, but her name was `Red' so named after the joke, “What's black and White and Red all over?”
Red passed away last year after a very long and happy life, God Bless you, Red.
So the colour RED; fiery, vibrant and most definitely worth including in your photos. Why don’t you drop in on the others taking part in the Brenda Photo Challenge and see what they have come up with for RED, just click on the button below…
Thanks for visiting and come back soon!
Day 6 of our family holiday to Pas de Calais, France.
Day 6 of our holiday broke bright and sunny. We hadn’t planned anywhere particularly to visit today, we thought we would just go out in the car and see where we got to. Looking on the map there seemed to be a ruin of an abbey near the village of Watten situated a little north of Saint-Omer, so we thought that sounded a good starting point.
When we arrived at Watten we called in at a little tourist information office in the village and found there was a windmill nearby too. So, back in the car and up the hill to the abbey first. Typically the ruins are now closed to the public and mostly hidden from view behind a high stone wall and mature trees.
The windmill was much nicer and just down the hill from the Abbey.
We decided to stop and relax by the windmill. The girls went off to explore, Mel and her mum found a bench in the sunshine and I went for a look around with my Canon camera.
It gave me chance for a few artistic shots of the windmill.
The windmill was built from the reclaimed stone of the abbey and is still in working order, although it is only open on Sunday’s, so we weren’t able to view the inside.
Above is the working mechanism that allows the top of the windmill and sails to be turned to face the wind.
The views from the hill on which the windmill stands are fantastic, although it was a little hazy on the day we were there.
It was whilst we were here, that I found the frog in the grass that I showed you last week, as part of the macro header post.
Here's another view of him.
The afternoon was spent looking around Saint-Omer. I will show you more of that in tomorrows blog post.
Technorati Tags: Calais,France,Watten,Saint,Omer,tourist,ruins,photo,viewpoint,French,revolution,Abbey,Canon,windmillMacro – Header Challenge 15th September 2010
It was imac’s turn this week to choose the topic for the header challenge that I take part in with ‘fishing guy’, ‘imac’, ‘Gailsman’, and ‘Lanny’.
His choice for the subject this week is ‘Macro’.
Now I like macro, I’m not always very good at it but I like to experiment with photography.
So what treat should I bring you this week?
A guess the item of food in macro…
Nah too easy.
A close up of wildlife venturing out?
Maybe, he is cute.
How about some flowers close up?
Or even an oil painting up close…
All possible for the top spot but today I have gone with some vibrant flowers with a little bit of wildlife thrown in. I hope you like it.
If you liked this walk through macro why don’t you let me know via the comments section, then you can check out what my other headbanger entrants have been up to this week, for their take on a macro header. Just follow the links at the top of the right hand column or click on their names at the top of this post.
Don’t worry all those looking for the continuation of the posts on our holiday to France. I will continue them tomorrow.
Technorati Tags: Macro,Header,Challenge,photography,wildlife,flowers
Samsung Galaxy S
Back in June I did a post called, Mobile Phones love 'em hate 'em? At the end of it I said I was looking at changing my phone, well eventually I have.
I suggested that I was going to get the HTC Desire powered by the Android operating system.
Well since that post a new phone came on to the market powered by Android. This one called the Samsung Galaxy S.
One of the first things to test was its camera function.
Now even though this photo was taken inside with only normal room lighting and no flash the camera on the phone has coped fairly well.
The above picture tested its macro capabilities, again in artificial light with no flash it has coped fairly well albeit with considerable grain. It will be interesting to see how it copes during daytime shooting.
I will bring you a more in depth review of this phone once I have found my way around it a little more.
Interesting close-ups
I was out in the garden taking some close-ups of some of the bugs on the flowers such as this one.
As normal though it wasn’t long before my camera started to wander onto other subjects such as this unopened rose bud.
As I was leaning in to take a photo of the seeds inside our bird feeder, who should pop his nose in front of the camera, but our Irish setter Corky. Hence this strange photograph.
I did manage to get him moved out of the way, after a quick bit of affection of course, and managed to get a shot of the seeds.
As you can see you can go out with all the good intention of capturing a certain type of photo and end up with some shots completely different but hopefully still worth the effort.
Ruby Red Macro - The Brenda Photo Challenge.
As part of the Brenda Photo Challenge I bring to you today
Ruby Red Macro.
When thinking about what I could bring to you under the guise of Ruby Red Macro my first thought was of a red flower. Typically no red flowers where in bloom in our garden, so, looking around the house I came across this little green frog, holding a ruby red flower.
I thought at first I would just bring you the one photograph today but whilst sat at my computer thinking about this post I glanced in my mug of tea sat next to me and realised that the inside of the mug is ruby red.
So grabbing my camera again I bring you a Ruby Red mug of tea. I think the bubbles that had formed along the edge of the tea lend that little extra panache to the photo.
Check out the other entrants to Brenda's Photo Challenge at:
Playing with macro frogs!
I was visiting Christine's Arts blog the other day and came across a drawing of two tree frogs she had done. Check them out at: http://christinesarts.blogspot.com/2009/07/red-eyed-leaf-frog.html I love Christine's art work, she puts so much work in to her pieces showing the various stages on her blog along the way. While you are visiting have a look at some of her other work too, the Calla Lily painting is especially beautiful.
Seeing these frogs of Christine's got me thinking. My wife collects frog ornaments, so we have lots of frog figurines around the house to practice my macro photography on.
The frog I chose first is a tiny little silver frog. Its only just over 2cm long so getting an interesting shot was going to prove tricky.
After photographing it on a ruler to show you its scale, I placed it on a green blanket, to give it a pleasing and textured background.
Although the shot above is ok I personally think it's a little boring. The natural light has bounced off the green of the blanket and highlighted the little silver frog green. Well aren't frogs meant to be green?
I think the problem with the picture is there is just too much in focus.
So, I changed the camera's aperture from f29 used for the above shot to f4.0 for the shot below. As I was shooting in Aperture priority mode with my camera the shutter speed also changed from 6 seconds to 1/2 second.
This I think has created a much more dramatic shot with the head still in focus but the body thrown into relief with the light playing over its surface.
Which do you prefer and why? Or it may even be that you don't like either? Let me know via the comments section what you think.
Exploring Macro!
Whilst visiting Madsnapper blog the other day I got talking to its author Sandra about Macro photography. I suggested she try using macro rings between the lens and camera as an alternative to an expensive dedicated macro lens.
This got me thinking, I hadn't used my own macro extension rings for quite some time and if I'm suggesting them to someone else maybe I should test the quality of the magnification and resulting images.
So armed with my Canon Rebel XTi camera I attached the macro rings between it and my Canon 35-70mm lens. First what does macro mean? It means the image projected onto your camera sensor is roughly the same size as the subject a ratio of 1:1. Using the macro rings in this session I think I have gone further and shot super macro a ratio of 2:1 or greater see what you think!
To give you a reference point for the magnification the above picture is of a British 5p coin which is about 1.5cm diameter.
All the shots in this sequence have been taken using the same magnification for ease of reference.
The centre of a daisy. The aperture was set at f29 to try and get maximum focus across the whole flower head. I used a desk top tripod for all of these shots and used the cameras delayed shutter to avoid any camera shake.
Just for fun I attempted to take a shot of a couple of pin heads. If you look closely the markings on the coloured pin resemble a frowning face, obviously a critic!
To round off the set here is a close-up of an everyday object see if you can recognise it.
The outcome I think is a favourable one for the macro extension rings. What do you think?
Bee's in Close-up.
I wandered into our garden for today's photo's.
My first choice had been to just take some pictures of flowers or plants. However, when I started taking pictures of our flowering hedgerow, the bumblebees started to fly into the frame. The photo shoot changed to that of a impromptu macro session.
I used my Canon EOS Rebel XTi camera with Canon EF 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5 lens to take the photographs.
The bumble bees were constantly moving, so I had to make sure that the focal point was it and not the flower it had just moved from.
Because the bee was flitting about so quickly, I had to set the shutter speed fairly high so that the whole bee did not become a blur. Unfortunately this also froze his wings in some of the shots.
Getting an even exposure as the bees moved around the hedgerow was another challenge. I used both shutter priority mode and aperture priority mode, as well as manual, to try and find which gave the best shot. On this occasion shutter priority gave the better combination. It ensured a fast enough shutter speed that the bee was not blurred, but also allowed the camera to select the best aperture for the available light. I took the shots early evening, before the light started to fade, but after the harsh light of midday. This helped to create a much softer light on the subject.
I tried to use the rule of thirds, (explored in an earlier post) to compose the picture to make the composition more interesting. The depth of field has been kept short, thus enabling the background to remain out of focus. This ensures that the eye is not distracted away from the bee and the flower in the picture.
The white and subtle yellow of the flowers also help to enhance the prominence of the bee in the frame.
For an impromptu macro shoot I really enjoyed it and I hope you did too. I will try and do another close-up photo shoot in the near future.
Why not add a comment or suggestion of what you would like to see as the subject of that shoot. I will then, if possible, carry it out and then I will post the photos on here once I have done it for you to see.
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