Our Leaf Insects Close Up

Back in the summer, I acquired five very small leaf insect nymphs. Only two survived for long but these two are still developing well and, fortunately, we have a female (1) with broader abdomen and short antennae and a male (2-8), which is quite slender with long antennae. The male shed its skin yesterday and then proceeded to eat it (a common occurrence perhaps to recover the nitrogen). The first five images are all with Fuji 80mm macro, 35 stacked images processed with Zerene Stacker while the last three are single images on the Olympus with supermacro setting and in-built LED light.

Cambridge Botanic Gardens Glasshouses

I took my Olympus 'tough' compact camera to the Botanic Gardens yesterday to familiarise myself with the custom settings etc that I have set to do macro shots on our forthcoming trip abroad. It has various modes and lighting systems to aid close-up work. These notes are really for my benefit so I can look them up if, as is very likely, I forget what I have set! 

Images 1 and 3-6 are in-camera focus stacks of three images (F2.3) using the 'microscope' mode with LED light on; number 2, 7-9 taken using the super macro F9 and autoflash (C1 custom setting) and number 10 on Aperture priority mode for general use. The focus-stacking mode give three images - the middle JPEG and Raw and the stacked JPEG. 

Last Minute Win for CRUFC

Cambridge Rugby Union Football club left it till the last minute to score the final try needed to overtake Canterbury in a tight game with 4 trys each. Weather cold and very dull so 2000 Iso and 1/640th was the best I could get at f5.0.

Toft Wood - Lichens, Catkins and Moss

Beautiful sunny day after early frost so a bit of photographic recording in our local wood - still intending to put together a book of the wood through the seasons.

 

 

 

High Water Levels at Welney

The water levels at Welney Ouse Washes are still very high so there were very few Whooper Swans around yesterday as there is no ground for them to graze but there was plenty of activity among the Mute swans, ducks and Coots to keep the camera happy. Here a few portraits in beautiful winter light.

Swan Lake at Welney

I had fun today at Welney taking sequences of the Swans preening and the ducks and coots diving. Here a low-resolution time-lapse movie of the 'ballet'. Some of the individual photos to follow.