www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

It should be easy to test the illusory phenomenon of the moon seeming to be bigger when near the horizon. Take photos at exactly the same zoom settings and then count pixels. I suspect that part of the “large moon” illusion comes from the fact that when it’s near the horizon, refraction “squashes” the shape and compresses it vertically. Maybe we instinctively think that the vertical size is correct so by comparison, the width looks big.

I have been very impressed with the colour of the moon since I had my left-eye cataract surgery last week. I had appreciated that previously the blue end of the spectrum was getting filtered out so even when the moon was high in the sky, it looked decidedly yellowish (as if through weak sunglasses). Now with a lovely new clear Acrylic lens, the moon really has become a silvery moon. (Mind you, it’s still slightly yellowish with the right eye but that’s not due to be repaired for a year or two).

Jack

David M wrote:I presume you're using a tripod for these 200 million mile pics?

I most certainly am using a tripod. I tried without and not a cat in hells chance

i'm getting twitchy now with spring round the corner, frogspwan in members gardens, a celandine flowering in the garden today and reports of sand martins arriving is all getting too much. I have now dived in the deep end big time (big time for me anyway) and ordered some lenses for my lumix. So in preparation for their arrival next week and with water being the order of the day this wet weekend i thought i'd have another play. i have the members on this forum to thank for this as normally i wouldn't dare take it off the Auto setting but with this camera i have messed around quite a bit. I'm not saying the results are any good but i can assure you they are good for me here's a couple from today. lost the focus a bit on the 2nd one not very interesting subject matter i know but got me out of the house briefly,

Chris

well the lenses for the lumix arrived and i duely spent a few hours with them on their arrival, not a decent picture amoung them and a very disillusioned me at the end of it, so i gave the camera a break for a few days and then spent an hour mucking about with it and a 5p last night. I like to think with a small degree of success. this one being one of the better ones. (uncropped and semi hand held) I just hope for some good weather so i can get out after something living (but not too lively). I'm no fortune teller but i do think i'm going to have fun and games trying to get any decent DOF. (bring back my old 3.1mp Nikon point and shoot) It sure is a steep learning curve. roll on warm sunny days.

Amen to that.

Keep it up, you're getting there.

thanks Susie.

and so the learning continues, half hour out in the garden today and the realisation of how important good light and no wind are for macro, mind you i'm probably trying to run before i can walk with the camera but you know what it's like when you get a new toy probably could do with cropping the pictures etc but they aren't that sharp yet

ChrisC:

...and no wind are for macro...

I don't like using flash but flash does stop movement caused by wind shake beautifully. Needs to be used with discretion though.

Jack

messed around with various settings in the garden again today. got a couple of birds in flight to the feeder but on full zoom the quality is lousy But while i was out there i rescued this eyed ladybird from the pond. i noticed when i lightened this up and zoomed in could just about make out his eyes, not something i recall seeing on a ladybird before and as it was preparing for take off i caught a glimpse of folded wings. but alas still no butterflies.

more messing around in the garden. an avoidance to the real world of sky news and the japan images. anyway, more messing around in the garden. despite 7 butterfly sightings not one pic.... yet. instead it was the feeder again. this crop of a chaffinch best of the bunch you never know, by the time the butterflies start i might have got the hang of it.
getting familiar with the camera certainly helped get the next raven record shot, i hear them regularly but don't fly over the garden very often. only managed 3 before it disappeared but still pleased i got something at the distance the bird was. and before i send any readers off to sleep with my non-butterfly entries, just one more. this 7-spot ladybird with what to me looks like condensation under the wing cases. macro, even as poor as mine, certainly opens up a whole new world.

i now keep the camera to hand and this chap caught my eye while watching the rugby, it's been females until today. had another quick crack at the moon tonight too.

what did you learn today? I learnt the little bright spot on the moon (on the left) is called Aristarchus crater which also led me to find out who he (Aristarchus) was. I never expected having a camera to be such and education.

well the butterflies are around now but very flighty so the macro lenses came out today. i'm very pleased with the results as only resting on walls and the floor so better to come hopefully with tripod and timer. and a record shot of a new ladybird for me and the garden, this one an 11-spot(approx 4-5mm). pond skater zebra spider and a wolf spider just to show the different eye arrangement

inspired by susie and others. thought i'd have another go with the HD video on the lumix but with the macro lens on. this small fly came out ok apart from an out of focus bit in the middle. looking at new smaller tripod maybe even just a bean bag, hand held just doesn't do it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmHLdHjR7TE

Just have try out editing, and file size etc.
so much to learn. including embedding the movie into the forum (susie how do you do that?)

That's a remarkable good close up video. It almost makes house flies (if that's what it is) seem to have character.

Jack

Oh I like that! Most excellent

Add the link and then right click it to highlight and use the "video" button which is on the top right hand side of the post box.

Voila!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmHLdHjR7TE[/video]

thanks Jack, i'm pleased to say that this chap was at least half the size of a house fly. no more than 7mm i'd say
here is a still pick i took ( cropped ) and it was really a weird day, no butterflies were settling the lens too close up for bee fly and it was only when i really looked that i could see anything to photograph in the bad light these 2 pollen beetles and a spiderling were all on the same dandelion, pretty much invisible to the standing up naked eye. so. . . so far this year out of all the photos( and there have been hundreds if not thousands)i still only have one peacock.
thank you susie for the embedding advice
roll on sunny weather
Chris

my first hurried attempts, will have to decide now whether to keep the macro lens on. the lenses i have magnify too much to fit butterflies in, so more shopping required.
my first ever pics of a either male or female Orange tip. was chuffed to get both. first large red damselfly and speckled woods in the garden.

Many people find that deliberate underexposure , say 1 stop, is beneficial. This is particularly useful when photographing whites.

jack

thanks for the tip jack.
i only managed 5 shots of the orange tips combined and that was the only one of the brimstone all on auto setting. and as you say all the others were ver much washed out. the other problem i found on the auto setting was getting the camera to focus on the butterfly in the first place. the one with the bluebell she had her face buried in the flower so couldn't have seen me, i was inches away, no zoom, but the camera just wouldn't focus. I was probably being over enthusiastic in gettingthe pic too which doesn't help . still more practice for using the controls required.
Chris