Soft Focus with the Hosebaby

Back in June I made myself a camera with a moveable lens to play around with soft focus and focus points using a flexible vacuum cleaner hose. Decided to give it another go, with some flowers I had been given. The focus point can be moved anywhere in the frame by flexing the hose - see set up at end.

Frozen Lichens, Mosses and Leaves

Some further frosty images taken in Toft Wood. 

 

Snowy Walk in Toft

Toft meadows looked great with yesterday's snow and sunshine.There are still lots of  frozen areas of standing water but the spring flowers are braving the cold. Especially good to see a large plant of Spurge Laurel, a fairly uncommon wildflower. 

A Sharp Frost

Some closeups from yesterday's sharp frost starting with some prickly characters. The bright red Hazel female flowers stood out especially well in the misty grey conditions; the yellow male catkins contrasted with the deep red alder male catkins. The female Alder flowers are in 'bloom' much later when the catkins open.

Shallow Depth of Field

These images were taken using a 8 diopter filter on the front of a 80mm plus 2X tube. Mainly I was aiming for shallow depth of field so used the lens wide open. The images of the Alstroemeria were taken at F2.8, F11 and F22.

Using Macro Wide-angle in the Churchyard

On last sunny Sunday, I used a 12mm Zeiss with a 4X close-up filter to photograph the mosses on the church walls, snowdops and gravestones. A characteristic of the lens is that it is very sharp and renders colours very brightly. The circular image of lichens has an extra 2.5Xcloseup filter in addition to the 4X giving a strong vignette.