Digital Photography Today

A short while ago i decided to send some of my macro images to camera magazines in the vain hope they would get published, i didnt expect any of them would get published but since it was going to cost nothing but my time and with the chance to get paid £50 a published picture i gave it a shot, so off went emails to 3 magazines some with just images and one with a letter. Once they had been sent i awaited replies by email for a few days before i gave up hope then just the other day i received an... Read→

Scarce Emerald Revisited, originally uploaded by garethjones206. I recently uploaded a similar image to the one above to flickr but i wasnt happy with the overall picture, so today with a little spare time on my hands i decided to have another go at focus stacking. First up you need to open your 2 images, then zoom into the area you want to concentrate on at 100% (control +) or the magnifying glass. once you have your images opened and zoomed in, select the clone tool. now the hard bit, select... Read→

Scarce Emerald Damselfly, originally uploaded by garethjones206. Today i had a visit to the local nature reserve at fairburn ings, it is a wonderfull place for anyone interested in nature. Apart from the ovious features of Swans, ducks and all manner of birds there are ponds for the kids where they can go pond dipping (fishing with a net for creepies) and all manner of guides by the staff the most interesting being the mini beast hunt. Whilst my little one was off playing with mummy i went off... Read→

Well it would appear i have a new hobby, i find myself over the last few weeks constantly taking more and more macro pictures using the poor mans macro tools (reverse rings and extension tubes). I have treid macro photogrpahy previously with these tools but always found the depth of field to be very small so the pictures i took where in focus the line of focus fell off very quickly and the pictures didnt seem right. Since i joined the poor mans macro group on flickr i have found a wealth of information... Read→

This image of the Episyrphus balteatus (Marmalade Fly) was taken in my garden using a 70-200 F4L reversed lense (reverse macro). Hover Flies belong to a large family flies. They are true flies or Diptera, with only one pair of wings in the Family Syrphidae. ( Wasps and bees have two pairs ) The Marmalade Fly is one of the most common types of hover fly to be found in the garden, the distinctive double stripes on its abdomen make it unmistakable (see images below) Hoverflies are seen in the summer... Read→

This macro portrait of a wasp was taken with a 70-200 F4L reversed lense using a cheap ebay reverse ring which cost around £4. I know i know what the heck are you doing sticking a £500 quid lense on a £4 ring! Well the reverse ring srews into the thread of the lense and creates a nice tight fit and on the opposite side of the ring is the connection to the camera which clicks into the body nicely so unless i bang it against a wall or drop the camera it is perfectly safe. The only thing i would... Read→

for the last few weeks i have been playing at poor mans macro, this term is used for folk like me who cant/dont want to buy a dedicated macro lense and we use tools like reverse rings and macro extension tubes to get the shots we want. This shot was taken after a period of rain, the rain subsided for a few minutes and i grabbed the oppertunity to get some bugs with rain drops on them. For this picture i had my flash at 10pm left of the lense on 1/8th and shutter speed roughly 1/50th the lense was... Read→

I have been entering competitions over at photoradar for some time now with mediocre success, down to poor efforts really but i blame the camera So it was a normal weekend out with the family, a lovely sunny day at the park shooting for the weekends theme flora and fauna, i shot pretty much everything in the park, from grass,daisies, ducks, bugs and trees and nothing was inspiring me. Until i found some perfect intact fully seeded dandelions my daughter was with me helping and i asked her to hold... Read→

The bank holiday weekend is here and i have set myself a few challenges throughout my time off, first up was breaking a light bulb and taking a picture of the burning filament. I have seen these pictures before and have always wondered how they were done, so after a search i came across some a really informative post on the subject and loosely followed the instructions, however it didnt work out too well and after the 5th bulb was broken i had to change the way i “broke” the bulb. Remember... Read→

Panoramas and vertoramas are types of photography i have wanted to do for some time now and finally whilst on holiday i decided to do a couple. first up is a vertorama from bempton cliffs in east yorkshire, this was taken with my canon 400d and 70 200 F4 L lense on april 23rd 2010. I hand stitched this image in photoshop using opacity slider and nudged it until it aligned correctly then did some slight blending to remove edges of birds and give it a cleaner finish. File size is very large so you... Read→