A short note about the Macro shots

What I failed to mention in my blog yesterday about the photos included was that all the photos were "as taken'. There was no Photoshop tweaking or cropping - except for that very last shot of the ants in the centre of the flower.
Normally EVERY shot I take is modified in some way. The levels are adjusted, there might be a slight colour adjustment and there is always a touch of sharpening.
However I thought it would be better for comparison if there was no adjustment at all to the shots taken by two cameras using different lenses.
AJ

Fun with Macro

A friend of mine has given me his Canon 40D and f/2.8 Macro lens to play with while he is away touring Australia. This morning - before the thunder claps and rain arrived - it was sunny and worthy of going outside with a camera. With this golden opportunity I decided first to take a few shots with the dedicated macro lens and then take similar shots with the Nikon with the screw-on macro adapter lens I had bought (new) from Ebay.
Here are the first two shots of a tiny grasshopper I spotted on one of the early Chrysanthemums. The head of the flower is only two centimetres across which will give you an idea of the magnification/closeness of me to the creature and petals. First the Canon 40D

 and now the Nikon D90

The depth of field is actually better with the dedicated macro lens on the Canon but I am really amazed at how well the sub $50 adapter behaves. The adapter is in two halves and when I unscrew the wide angle lens I can get up really close - to about 15cm from my subject.
Here are a couple more photos for comparison - the ones taken with the camera were when the light was a bit brighter - the thunder had already started rumbling by the time I took the Nikon outside. The loud bangs and the torrential rain came as soon as I moved indoors! We have had 29 mm of rain since it started ten minutes ago!
First the Canon

The colours are true in this picture from the Canon. The Nikon has tended to pinks.

The colours may need adjusting but see how much closer I can get once I take off that wide extension? Mind you, the depth of field is really really narrow! This flower is only tiny - about 1.5cm across. Because of the fading light I moved the plant outside.
All my photos are taken in full manual (with a few trial runs to get the settings correct!) The pre-sets did not seem to suit either the macro lens on the Canon nor the supplementary lenses on the Nikon. Focus is on manual too.
I enjoy playing with cameras (you would never know it, would you?) so being given permission to use someone else's camera and expensive lens is like going to heaven!
Just to finish, here are two more shots I want to share with you.

Both these flowers are small - the partly open Chrysanthemum is only 2cm at the most. It wasn't until I peered through the camera lens that I could see there were ants crawling around inside it.

If you click on any of these photos, they should open into a larger image, to return to this blog to finish reading or look at other pictures, click the "back" button.
Apologies for not writing in my blog for a while. I have not had good Internet connection due to switching ISPs but hopefully all that is behind me!
AJ

Sign of things to come

For over three weeks now I have had to rely on using a pre-paid Internet connection which has meant very modest use of the 'net. Its just a hiccup regarding the removal of "codes" by one ISP so that the new one can then switch on my new connection. - but patience has run thin and here I am back with my blog page!!
The main reason is because this evening there was the most glorious sky and I just wanted to share it!

 The first of the two shots was taken looking due west to where the sun had disappeared while the second picture is looking north directly out from our back veranda. The whole sky was coloured - but it didn't last more than a few minutes. It was "wow! Look at that! Where is the camera!" good fun!
The weekend is upon us and the weather men are predicting a wet day tomorrow - usually a bright sky like this means that it is going to be a good day - so we shall see who is right!
To see the photos larger, click on them and then hit the "back" arrow to return to this page.
AJ

Another garden

I really enjoy wandering around Botanic Gardens and when a couple of friend suggest I meet them at the Gold Coast Botanic Gardens I jumped at the chance - and of course made sure that my camera batteries were charged and that I had a few lenses to play with!
These gardens are not very old - they have only been converted from parkland to Botanic Gardens in the last five years - but I really enjoyed my time exploring.

f/10 1/250  300mm  ISO200

The first image I am sharing is of a very common bird found in gardens everywhere in Australia. It is known by its common name "Mickey Minah". Not only do they enjoy nectar - here taken from a grevillea - but they eat all sorts of things and can often be found at picnic spots waiting for handouts to be tossed to them.

f/5.6  1/250  300mm  ISO200

The cormorant is not an uncommon bird either - this one is found all over the world. The Chinese have managed to train cormorants to fish for them in a rather novel way. They do not have a great deal of oil on their feathers so they do get water-logged and it is not uncommon to find them on the banks of waterways with their wings held out from their bodies to dry! This fellow was doing his brush and comb job before hanging himself out to dry.

f/5.6 1/250  300mm   ISO200

A black duck was trying to snatch forty winks in the sun when three camera wielding females noticed him! First the eye opened to see how close the danger was and then, since we wouldn't go away, he came awake and made plans for further action.

f/7.1   1/125  300mm  ISO200

He really had been curled up and comfortable, his beak had been tucked under all those glossy outer feathers and snuggled into the down!

f/14  1/250  240mm   ISO200

I couldn't resist including at least one flower! This one looks to be a member of the Tibouchina family.

f/5.6   1/400   300mm  ISO500

In a lovely shady patch under some Malaleuca trees (paper bark trees) at the edge of the lake were several water dragons of various sizes. It was a challenge to take this in an acceptable (to me) way because I do not like taking animals from above and since I was standing on an elevated timber walkway I had to get down really low and poke my lens through the railings and shoot from a slight distance. I like to have my creatures taken at "their eye level". There were eels and turtles in that same patch with the lizards but I shall have to return to that garden to take a few more shots!
Just a reminder - to see any pictures in my blog larger, click on the picture, then click on the "back button" to return to see other pictures.
AJ

Alpine Gardens

Before moving on to other places and other topics I shall give one more story of one of our visits in the Blue Mountains. I had set my heart on returning to the Mount Tomar Botanic Gardens - when Colin and I were last in the Blue Mountains we had called in there and arrived only half an hour before the gates were shut and we were so interested in what we saw there that we planned to return should we ever return to the Mountain. Adam's wedding gave us that chance.

f/7.1  1/100  44mm  ISO320

It is always tempting, when visiting gardens, to take lots of close up pictures of individual plants! Of course I had to allow myself to be tempted! But there were huge displays of colour that required a wider look - like this stand of red hot pokers. I should look up their botanic name because there are some yellow ones too! I like the common name though! It reminds me of my childhood in the UK. These red hot pokers would grow in the home gardens and I am convinced they are responsible for my interest in gardening today!

f/5.3  1/60  44mm  ISO320

So you spotted the white cockatoo! All through the garden were tin sculptures - they are designed as a "look and find" thing for children to do when in the gardens. There are lots of tin "ants" the size of a Shetland pony scattered through the gardens too!
There was a sign to a "Jungle walk" so Colin and I left the manicured lawns and designer garden beds and ventured into this patch of totally unspoiled rain-forest bought and donated to the gardens by Lady Fairfax who was determined not to let it be cleared for agriculture. It was dark so photography was quite a challenge (but not for Colin's point and shoot Olympus as it turned out!) Not having taken a tripod with me I had to either lean against the trunk of an obliging tree or else find some other stable prop to prevent me from shaking!
This photo of the vines was thanks to a tree beside the path.

f/4  1/4  18mm ISO320

A ring of trees could only be seen as a ring by placing Colin in the centre! These are sassafras trees and apparently when the main tree is logged or burned in a bush fire new growth starts from the roots around the original trunk, not replacing the trunk but circling it. To take this picture I leaned on the signboard that gave me that information!

f/3.5  1/4   18mm  ISO320

I did try taking pictures using the flash on the camera but that did not work at all. The nearest trees and leaves would be illuminated and the background would all be totally dark and colourless. The information under the photos tells of a slow shutter speed - which is why it was necessary to use a prop to keep the camera still so that I would not have motion blur.
Back out in the sunshine I gave way to my urge to take a few close ups.

f/50  1/50  38mm  ISO 320

Some flowers just shout out to have their photo taken!

f/16  1/60  40mm  ISO320

Under many of the trees were tall brown stalks with lighter brown flower buds held erect on the tops, they looked so comical and I did take a few pictures of them, but when I found a little group of open flowers they gave me a greater pleasure, the pink of their petals was so striking against the drab brown of the leaf litter.
I hope you have enjoyed my trip to the Blue Mountains. It gave me such pleasure with the camera both in bright sunlight and in the shade - and I have enjoyed showing you a few of the pictures I came home with!
AJ

Green gardens

Being back in the land of the mundane - housework and grocery shopping - I look back on one of the walks that Colin and I took last weekend when we were in the higher altitudes of the Blue Mountains. Our motel was in walking distance from some Rhododendron gardens so we donned our jackets and walking shoes and tramped our way to investigate them.

 

Of course the bushes are not flowering at this time of year, the brochures told us of a Rhododendron Festival in November, but we were not to be put off by this, we just felt like taking a walk and having a look! Perhaps we shall visit one November to see the place at its best but this isn't all that likely.

 There were several walkways among the trees and shrubs, this row of bushes look to be azalea so there will be colour at other times of the year as well as November. Many of the trees look to be deciduous so they will create an autumn show of coloured leaves in May and June.

A shelter with seating provided me with interesting framing for the view of the gardens.

Walking back to the motel after our short walk I spotted a magnolia tree in flower and couldn't resist getting a little bit of colour other than green! The tree was in a private garden and overhanging the edge of the road so I did not trespass to get my picture! Since this magnolia is so obviously healthy it surprised me that there were not more varieties of magnolia in other gardens.
AJ

Beauty in the bush

Today I am sharing a few of the pictures I took while wandering around in the Blue Mountains. Sometimes it is good to stop looking at the wider vista and take note of what is close at hand. It is surprising just how many things you could miss when gazing out across the wondrous open spaces offered by such places as the Blue Mountains!

This area of the world gets both wet and cold and as a result the trees are covered with lichen, both the flat pale green variety and the spidery tangle of strands of what is affectionately called “Old Man's Whiskers” (But I have a tropical plant that has that same name and it drapes down in lush long tangles of soft strands)

f/9  1/50  55mm  ISO 640

Most of the time of our three night stop-over in the mountains the weather was dull and damp but even that gave me a different look at how the mountains are. The spectacular “wow” scenes are in the brilliant sunrises and sunsets but there was no colour for us this trip. However the misty rain gave a rather special look to the jagged tree covered mountains.

f/16  1/60  26mm  ISO640

The thousands of trees smothering the mountains exude eucalyptus oil the warm air and this is what gives the distant hills a blue look – and that is how these mountains were given this collective name “Blue Mountains”

f/10  1.60  18mm  ISO 320

One of the places we visited (we chose only to go to places we had not visited on previous occasions) was Anvil Rock. At the foot of this mighty rock – which was not anvil shaped but did have a big iron anvil set in concrete on the very top – was a fabulous weather worn stone. It was quite large so I guess it was a rock not a stone! I would have loved to have clambered around the other side for a different perspective – but the steep slope stopped me! I did not fancy slipping down the thousand of more feet if I lost my footing!

Another of the interesting places we visited was called a wind eroded cave and with such an unpretentious name, very few people visited it. But it was wonderful!

  f/7.1  1/60  30mm  ISO 320

I must have taken a dozen photos and Colin the same. Its a good job we no longer have to pay to have our photos developed! The cave is really just the face of a huge rocky outcrop that has been weathered into a concave shape so is not really a cave. The face is also carved with millions of mini “caves” of different sizes giving every angle a different look.

We have now left the Blue Mountains and are on our way home. No photos were taken during our travels today, we were too busy enjoying the drive – the GPS took us on a route we would not have chosen if we had to rely on a printed atlas! We drove over 30+km of gravel road. Our car will need a good wash when we get home!

AJ