Bad Blip Day

I must have taken at least 200 images today, none of which were any good.  Bad focus, bad lens choice, bad ISO, bad F stop, you name it, it was bad.  I've been trying to learn about depth of field, and I can't seem to get it right.  It turned out good in the end - I just calmed down, got a few good shots of skinks, bless their hearts.  My best skink shot is in Blip (of course), but here's another one I liked.

I also got a good bee shot, plus a few general ones of the garden, primarily for Wayne who's overseas right now, and is missing the best of the flowers.  I still have to get the definitive bee shot though, and that's I want to get better depth of field, so I can get more in focus.  Of course all these images are better large.

And finally here's a couple of the front garden.  The flowers in the centre are all leaning away from the oak tree to get more sun.

Wide Angle Closeups

 Wide Angle Closeups - not quite what you would expect, is it?  I was reading a book today, recommended by a fellow Blipper, called Understanding Closeup Photography by Brian Peterson.  This is one seriously good book - very easy to read, and very hard to put down.

In one chapter he suggests going closeup with a wide angle lens.  It sounded really strange to me, so I got out our widest lens  (16-35 mm) and went out into the late afternoon sum to capture the images you will see underneath.  It is an absolute revelation, and gives a whole new meaning to closeup photography.

As the author says, it is very good at giving a sense of place.  And the images are as sharp as they possibly can be.  I especially like my magpie against the sky and the trees in the background.  I love macro, but this is a completely different take on closeup work.  The blossom is our flowering cherry tree, in full bloom.

Little Miss Muffet got frightened

Yesterday I posted a macro of a huntsman spider on Blipfoto.  Scary stuff, but amazing detail; I had no idea that a spider's face looked like that.  I had a couple of other shots.  One shows his breadth - he's about 6cm wide from leg tip to leg tip, and the other shows a bit of a scar on his head - he must have been in the wars at some point.  He was put outside after the photo session. Just to show how patient he was, I actually went back to photograph him 3 times before I was satisfied.  He didn't move a millimeter during all of that time.

I'm doing this for the photos

I need a place to post more of my photos.  Some days I take so many, and I can only post one per day on Blipfoto.  For example, I was in Belair National Park the other day, and posted a photo of a sundew.  The problem was that I had dozens more images I could have posted.  This one is called, rather appropriately, the Common Donkey Orchid.  I'll most likely go back and try and get a better image than this one.  Or maybe two in the one shot.  I love to do macro work, and that really is my main focus.