Martin,

Your face has changed dramatically - you have had a technicolour makeover

Congratulations to Giving Tree - a definite winner IMHO.

Many thanks to Dr. Mhuni for the excellent judging, for my coveted second place and for the fabulous weather that we have enjoyed over the past week in the UK

......................that all important umbrella




Sigma 105 macro

+ £15 delivery = £725

Barbie : I thought it always rained in The Netherlands

Actually whenever we have been 'up your way' by boat, the weather has been good, albeit very windy.

Enjoy your holiday.

It will be interesting to see how strict Lilly will be on the interpretation of the theme, since very few of the entries appear to be of the local grocer's shop, let alone include the 'keeper'

I 'bottled it' this week (to use a political phrase) since I did not wish to photograph Waitrose and the local butchers that we use is too difficult to photograph, always having cars parked outside 24/7, with the wonderful produce inside under highly reflective, curved perspex covers to the chilled counters.

I also don't like asking people to pose for photographs.

Anyway those are my feeble excuses

I think that I prefer this one - nice, natural produce rather than something in a bottle / container

Outdoors - crab apple blossom - natural light - grey skies - no sun.




Indoors - top of a tiny (40mm x 30mm) Russian, handpainted, wooden box (see photo no. 3 for scale) - natural light - no sun.




Outdoors - taken to illustrate the tiny size of the box in photo no. 2 and the lack of sun




My initial thoughts :-

# Manual focussing is testing on the eyes.
# Getting the light right is tricky.
# Sunlight would be better.
# Wind is a problem moving the subject matter around.
# I probably need a new tripod head.
# I think that Dan and Clarky must hypnotise their insect subjects to keep them still


Tried another one late afternoon, when it was raining outside.

Indoors - natural light.

Looks great to me.

How do you keep these 'critters' still long enough to photograph them :

I have been experimenting with macro for the first time this morning and manual focussing on something that is static is difficult enough

Dan,

Very nice shots.

With you and Chirpy both posting DA* 300 shots on the forum, I think that I had better keep my efforts to myself

The close focus ability of the DA* 300 is great, just like having another macro lens.

Breakfast for 25 sounds rather arduous, unless you just give them cornflakes