From the archives...

I haven't been out with the camera for a few days, the weather hasn't been the best and I have been pretty busy, so today's set of images comes from the archives.  These are from back in December/January when I was playing around with the Dandelion seeds

With Winter on its way and hopefully the rain that comes with it - will be lots of rain drops in the garden. I am hoping that on the days that I can't get out with the birds because of the weather, that I can try my hand at capturing rain drops instead.

More macro

I haven't really had a lot of time to pick up the camera of late and the birds are getting totally neglected. They are still coming to visit the feeders but they haven't had a camera pointed at them in well over two weeks! I am becoming a little bit obsessed with achieving the reflection in the water droplet thing. Reading up lots and playing with the macro lens some more. I have a feeling that I need to get a whole lot closer to the droplet but I am working on making that happen.

In the mean time I have been playing some more and these are a few of the results. After doing some research I was pleased to see a reflection in the main droplet of water but when I changed the flower to something different I lost the reflection which was a little disappointing. I am sure there is an easier way and I will find it!

Macro magic

I did a radical thing this afternoon. I took of my big lens and replaced it with a macro. Macro photography is not something I have done very much of, and when I have, I have generally used my 70-300 zoom lens to achieve it. Every time I picked up my macro lens I got frustrated with the results. So for about four years now it has sat untouched, except when I have lent it to others.

Now, I have decided it is time to revisit the macro. I know a bit more about my camera now and how to achieve the results I want. Google tells me where the sweet spot is on my lens and a recent workshop at the PSNZ regional convention gave me the idea. These images are not so much about recording nature as they are about creating art using nature as a tool.

These images were achieved with coloured plastic and dandelion seeds and a whole lot of guesswork. I am really happy with the results and will be trying lots of new things now that I have worked out how to make the camera do what I want.