The autumn feel has arrived here in Tuscany – cooler evenings, the smell of woodsmoke permeating the valley. and when the sun shine, magical colours. This shot is of our small rhus tree in the garden that always puts on a spectacular display of colour before settling down for the winter.
Canon 40D with Canon EFS 60mm macros lens ISo200 1/100 at f14
The more I use the iPhone camera, the more I like it. It’s true that it will never match a real dslr, but for ease of use, quality of images for uploading to a website and sheer versatility, it takes some beating. This one is a duo of panos taken in Florence. The location is a couple of bridges down from the Ponte Vecchio.
The pano setting produces some fun effects – note the extended limo taxi at the extreme right of the sunset shot – it was moving away from the traffic lights at the same rate as the shutter frequency. Note also the almost full moon and its reflection in the night shot
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Close up of a small bee busying itself with the lavender.
Canon 40D with Canon 60mm 2.8 EFS Macro lens ISO400 1/400 f8
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The Adriatic Lizard Orchid (Himantoglossum Adriaticum H. Baumann) is described as a perennial herb with an erect stem 30-80 cm high. It has 15-45 flowers per stem which are green white with reddish brown markings up to 5 cm long sepals and petals forming a hood. It occurs in countries around the Adriatic including northern Italy and including our garden where this year there are at least 25 plants growing among the grasses. It is protected in some countries and by CITES. It is found in calcareous ground up to 1600 metres.
Although described as ‘quite attractive’, when you get close to the flowers and examine their delicacy and structure, the beauty becomes apparent. If you peer into the hood, there appears to be a face peering back at you. (Check in the images in the Gallery)
Canon EOS 40D with Canon 28-70mm F2.8L lens at 70mm with Canon 25mm extension tube ISO400 1/250 at f10
Cropped a little in Lightroom
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This swarm of honey bees picked out a tree in the valley below our house in Tuscany and has spent the day growing and growing. The were initially several small clusters that eventually fused into one large shape. How long they stay remains to be seen. I took shots from all angles and at all magnifications! – without getting too close, although apparently the bees are not aggresive when they are swarming like this. Some of the shapes resemble other creatures – there’s a leopard gracefully descending the branches, and this one – a sloth or perhaps an orang-utan swinging by one arm.
What is less obvious from the photos is the constant movement over the surface of the swarm and the low buzz surrounding it.
I was sitting on the balcony of our apartment in Phuket, dozing over the corrections to my new novel, when I was awoken from my reverie by what sounded like a large lawnmower flying overhead. Looking up, the beast turned out to be a powered paraglider (aka paramotor) skimming the roof and the treetops. Grabbing the camera, I fired off a few shots as the pilot swished around and then descended into the valley over the local village and out over Kamala bay. Looks like fun!
Canon 40D with Canon 70-200mm F4.5 L lens at 200 ISO 400 1/3200 at f6.3
Cropped and tweaked in Lightroom
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This rather large spider took up residence in a very durable web of his own making next to the steps leading down to the car park from our apartment in Phuket. For a while he was in another web directly over the steps, but found that a little precarious. Either that or he ate one of the residents and decided to move to one side while he digested the unfortunate victim.
He’s gone now, but I find I miss his alluring mask which kind of says, “Come closer, enjoy my party!”
Canon 40D with Canon 70-200 f4.5 L lens at 155mm with Canon 12mm extension tube. ISO500 1/200 at f9 with built-in flash.
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What’s the collective noun for a load of fireworks in a display? A confusion? An explosion? A cacophony? A spectacle?
Here’s another shot of the a whatever-it-is of the fireworks in Hong Kong harbour at Chinese New Year
Canon EOS 40D with Canon EFS 10-22mm lens at 22mm on manual. ISO1600 1/30 at f10
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I’m just blown away with the panoramas you can take with the iPhone 5. Not only is the process fun but the quality of the image is excellent.
This shot was taken in the IFC 1 mall in Hong Kong. The couple on the left are the same pair as the couple on the right. Completely oblivious to me and what I was doing, they just happened to walk behind me as I was panning the phone/camera (phonamera? -there’s a new word in the offing here!) and arrived my right as I completed the shot. The glass/chrome railing I’m standing by is in fact a straight line; the panning causes the curve. There’ll be more of these!!
To see this image larger, click on ‘Panoramas’ in the menu bar
The data recorded on Lightroom from the iPhone is as follows: ISO200 4.13mm 1/120 at f2.4. It’s all automatic, of course.
There’s a collection of these in the gallery, but a few are special favourites that I want to post here as well. Here’s the first, a somewhat abstract shot that captures a fleeting moment in the ever-changing spectacle of twenty minutes of exciting sound, light and flashes from three barges in Hong Kong harbour. There’s nothing like it!
Canon 40D with Canon 10-22mm EFS lens at 22mm ISO1600 1/30 at f10 (manual setting)
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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.
