Dragonfly
Dragonfly soaking up the sun in the garden at Rangala House, Knuckle Mountains, Sri Lanka.
Canon EOS 40D with EF-S 60mm macro lens. ISO400 1/2000 at f/8
Spider
Two of these fellows have taken up residence in webs they’ve strung across the bamboo outside the door to our apartment. They are around three inches toe to toe. Check out the mask-like structure at the junction of all the legs.
Canon G3X ISO 1000 1/100 at f/5.6 at 220mm (600mm 35mm equiv)
Fireflies
July is the season for fireflies around our garden in the hills of Tuscany. Having shown them to entranced six-year-old granddaughter Mali, I decided it would be fun to photograph them. As ever, the Internet was a font of ideas and this is the result of my efforts.
Six shots taken with my Canon 40D with EFS 10-22mm lens at 22mm, mounted on a tripod with ISO set at 1600, each exposure 15 seconds at f4.5. All files pulled into PS and overlaid as layers. Block all layers (copy the background one first so it’s included) and set the blending mode to ‘lighter colour’. This has the effect of letting the bright spots through the layer pile while ignoring the rest of the images, which then effectively adds all the lights from the fireflies in each shot to the top layer Pretty cool – and Mali now has a lasting record of her magical experience.
Bumble Bee
Bumble bee on lavender filling her pollen baskets. Taken in garden at Gupole, Tuscany.
Canon 1DMkII with Canon EF 300mm 2.8 lens with Canon 25mm tube. ISO160 f8 at 1/800 Tweaked on LR
Phuket Praying Mantis
These fellows seem to follow me around. They are always in the garden or on the terrace at Gupole and yesterday, this guy was on the balcony sliding doors of our apartment in Phuket. He clearly knew that he made a good silhouette as he checked out the apartment, and he obligingly waved his front legs for me.
Canon 40D with a Canon 60mm EFS 2.8 macro lens at ISO 400, 1/1600 at f8
Cropped very slightly in Lightroom.
Praying Mantis
A few minutes before I took this shot, this male praying mantis had been floating face down, legs sprawled, in the swimming pool. Whatever stroke he was trying, it wasn’t proving successful, so it was fortunate for him that I wandered past and fished him out. He stood in the sun for some considerable time drying out – you can see a droplet of water on his head behind the antennae – and he was only too happy to repay my service by posing for a few pictures. Just in case he thought it was all too much fun, I then moved him into greenery far from the pool.
Location: Tuscany, Italy
Canon 40D with Canon EF-S 60mm macro lens. ISO 160 f6.3 1/320. Tweaked in LR.
Welcome to the revamped dgcPhoto site, complete with a new theme and a new look.
I’ve been rather busy with other things for a while, so I thought a makeover was more than overdue. I hope you like it.
In many ways, the site is the same as before except that with the new theme it’s easier to navigate and more efficient to load. And the layout is far cleaner.
I’m currently using two cameras: the truly excellent Canon 90D I bought several months ago that is streets ahead of any other camera I’ve owned over the years, and a Canon 100D that I’ve had for a couple of years — a really lightweight little workhorse. I am also using my iPhone SE far more than I expected. The latest OS makes it an incredibly versatile camera.
Keep checking out the galleries; the old ones have been reinstalled and new ones are being added.
What were the ‘other things’?
Check out ‘My Novels’ here or in the menu above where a couple of clicks will take you to the world of ClarkeFiction and details of my seven edge-of-the-seat thriller novels and my wife Gail’s wonderful fully illustrated children’s books.
