Practice your panning skills before you go!

There are some good basics here: http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Beginners-guide-to-getting-started-in-motorsports and here: http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Camera-panning

Good luck!

From a personal point of view, I think the first shot would have been better if the subject wasn't looking straight at the camera - it's that that gives the impression of the photo being "posed". Nothing wrong with the focus or exposure so I'd say the camera settings were right.

With the second photo I think a wider angle would have suited better to give a little more of the background and therefore context. Without your text we wouldn't know the cat was sat at the back of a dimly lit shop so you need to involve the shop in the picture a bit more so the photo tells the story on its own. Good job on extracting what you did from the RAW file though!

It's not that you're doing anything wrong, nor is there anything wrong with the lens. Depth of field gets progressively narrower the closer you get to the subject; as macro lenses get very close indeed they have wafer-thin DOF's - this is why macro shots are often taken at very small apertures (I use f8~f22 typically) which can mean using a flash even in broad daylight.

There is a definite art to taking macro pictures, you just need a little practice and you'll be up there with Clarky and Dan!

Nice work on the judging and another excellent selection this week, congratulations on the win Martin - great shot!

Something old, something new, something borrowed and something...




K10D / DA18-55 @18mm / f8 / 1-180sec / ISO100

That first one looks like one of our House Spiders - perhaps he hitched a ride on one of the thousands of student backpackers we seem to exchange with you every year?

I like the red bug in #3 - fantastic eyes!

Some excellent colours and textures in that photo, I especially like the gold flecks in the eyes and the gunmetal tones in the skin. Great stuff!

I can't tell you their name but they're quite common around these parts. Great capture though!

Some lovely photos there Lilly, if pushed I'd say that numbers 4 and 5 were my favourites but they're all excellent and capture the event very well.

You should try some more of this colour malarky, you have a good eye for it...

This is a really good set as well; nicely conveys the impression of people celebrating and enjoying themselves. I imagine your local rag was delighted to get them.