Love the daisies Gareth, but I suspect I would love them even more in colour?

Cheers
David

Thanks guys. Gareth, it will initially be a music room, somewhere for me and the family to play our guitars, keyboards, drums etc., but it could be anything in the future; sitting room, cinema room (no natural light), bar room.

Cheers
David

Hi Everyone

Just thought I would let you all see a couple of pics which explain why I haven't been around much for the past 6 months. It's sort of a 'before' and 'after' story of the ongoing renovations in our house. We have a 3 storey Victorian house, the bottom floor of which comprise cellar rooms which occupy the full footprint of the, so a lot of space. When we moved in 14 years ago, the cellars were derelict and recently we have been working hard to bring them back to a liveable state. The first to be almost completed is the room at the North end, which will be a music room, full of guitars, amplifiers, keyboards and drums. Here's the 'before' (9 years ago when the room was first stripped back) to the 'after' taken this evening.

Before - Dereliction:




Huge cracks in the walls, everywhere soaking wet, no wall to the right of the fireplace (I'd just taken it down as it was badly built), rotten joists etc.

After - Renovation:




All walls repaired, re-pointed and waterproofed where required, fireplace waterproofed and re-built with a new stone lintel, joist ends cut off and replaced with metal 'Bower Beams', new ceiling, reinforcing stone wall (double) built to the right of the fireplace, new electrics, new lighting, walls plastered with renovating plaster, underfloor heating installed. All that remains is to whitewash the walls and put down a slate floor.

All done by my own fair hands, 6 months of hard graft!

Cheers
David

I've made all manner of contraptions that can be used with a standard flashgun. The best I've found so far is a light box made of cardboard that fits over the flash head; the front is covered with some of that thin packing foam that has neutral colouring. This set up spreads the light beautifully with no 'hot spots' and also none f the 'ring effect' in insects eyes that you get with ring flash. It allows me use F16 at ISO 100 or 200; ideal for macro work.

Regards
David

All very high standard Bill, for me 5, 8 and 10 stand out. I don't know what you think, but I find it quite hard to get original and interesting shots of Bluebells and Woodland, there's so much detail everywhere that it's difficult to find effective focal points. I think you've done it well here, particularly in the three I've mentioned.

Regards
David

Marvellous shots, they show the huge potential of the Z for macro, if only it were a bit lighter and smaller! Maybe the new full frame will be a killer macro machine? 1 is the stand-out shot, but 3 is also very fine.

You've inspired me to get out in the garden tomorrow (weather permitting) with my K-3, it's buzzing with all manner of wildlife at the moment.

Regards
David

Thanks for posting Barrie, very interesting.

Regards
David

Very nice and quite original too, which is rare nowadays! I also like them all, but 4 and 6 stand out.

Regards
David

I my experience the K-5 and K-5ii variants tend to over-emphasise yellows and greens in landscape images, an issue which seems to have been solved with the K-3, which to my eye renders more accurate tones on greens in landscapes.

You can buy quite cheaply grey neutral cards made of plastic to carry with you, these enable you to take a shot of the card in the lighting conditions prevalent at the time and use this to set the WB in your camera. I never bother with this as I always shoot RAW and adjust in Adobe Camera RAW, I find this much easier and more accurate, but if you're not confident or bothered about software processing the grey card is probably the best way.

Regards
David

I agree with Maria on the Aquilegia; they are indeed this variety of flower. We have many in our garden, including some in a 'wild area' which have self-seeded. I'm not so sure they are also known as Columbine; this is a different species and is also known as 'bindweed'. Field Columbine is common on the UK and the stems wind themselves around other plants and climb up them; this is something that Aquilegia doesn't do.

My view would be to encourage Aquilegia to grow if you can, but don't encourage Columbine as it is an invasive weed.

I like your Aquilegia images, they show off the flowers very nicely, with diffused backgrounds.

Here is an Aquilegia image from our garden, in the 'wild area':




Regards
David