After sorting that out, I was going to test the camera with some real-life subjects, but found the camera battery was just about run out, so I put the battery on to charge and tidied up my room a bit and hoovered it.
I made a bit on the larger mini-softbox for a background thing to come off, then went on the pinternet / checked my spleenmail.
After lunch I finished checking me spleenmail and then went in the garden to test the new macro setup. First of all I opened up the green bin and there was about 3 bugs (haven't checked what type yet, probably a Hawthorn shieldbug or a Forest bug or sumat like that) there, a large green caterpillar and a smaller green caterpillar, which I think is an older version of the one that I've seen eating Montbretia seed buds previously. Also lots of smaller bugs/beetles. So I got the smaller green caterpillar on a leaf and put it over by the pond where there's lots of greenery for it to eat and took some photos of it. Despite all the work I've done recently on diffusion I was rather disappointed to see the caterpillar had bad blown out reflections on it.
Clare got the big green caterpillar on a piece of cut plant from the bin, which she put down by the Buddleia growing on the pond side of the fence between the pond and the greenhouse. I tried taking some photos of that, and was getting nasty blown out highlights on that as well. Next I got one of the big bugs on a leaf, and brought them over to the same area, WOW, highlights were really bad on it.
I thought "Have I cut up my Yong Nuo external flash diffuser and done all this work in vain? Was my old setup actually better?" So I went and got my old mini-softbox and Puffer diffuser and stuck them on the MT24. I decided to just shoot with the old mini softbox since I know it's better at diffusing highlights than the puffer. I took a couple of shots of the bug, which had now run off and was making its way through the grass, and the highlights were quite a bit worse than my new setup, which was reassuring (and of course the old setup requires more power for the same exposure). 
I would really like to get some of the diffusion material John K uses to see how well it would work for me.I took some more macros of various other insects, and after a bit tested out the background thing, I found that with just the green crêpe paper the background looked too fake and cyan coloured. So I coloured in bits of it with a couple of Rad's green marker pens, which looked a bit better. After taking quite a lot of shots with this background, I decided that the background still didn't look very good, and still looked fake due to the colour of the crêpe paper showing through in parts. So I cut up a plastic pocket, and taped this over the background. Then I got a sheet of white(ish) coloured paper and coloured it in using the more yellowy green marker, cut the paper to the right size and put it in the plastic pocket on the background. I shot some pics with this setup and they look loads better, quite natural I'd say. Occasionally there'd be a bit of a white highlight in the background (probably the flash reflecting off the shiny plastic pocket) but it still looked natural to me.
I found a couple of subjects where I couldn't use the background, so I tried using a green gardening glove - looked fake, same sort of colour as the crêpe paper, and the bag for my ghillie suit - colour was okay, but the threads are visible as distracting and un-natural lines in the image. Both also gave quite dark backgrounds, despite being nearer to the camera/flash than the other background normally is. I need to experiment with different materials/gloves to solve this.
I also got a metal tent peg - Rad said we didn't have any wooden ones, stuck a piece of card over the top hook, and then clamped the Wimberley Plamp onto the card bit. I only tried it once to hold a piece of grass, but it seemed to work okay. I also used the plamp on my tripod (subject too high for plamp to reach it when attached to peg in the ground) to hold the camo bag for one of the backgrounds as per above.
A couple of times I had trouble with the flash heads hitting into things, and trying to focus on a worm there was no way as the softboxes extend further than the focus distance. I also found that I needed more flash power than I had in tests - generally at 1x I needed both heads at 1/64 or A at 1/64 and B at 1/32 - quite a bit more than the 1 head at 1/64 I needed in testing, but still a bit less than what was needed with the old setup.
Eventually my 4GB SD card got full up, so I copied the pics to my PC and started converting the CR2s to JPEGs. While that was working I went on the pinternet, then it was dinner time.
After dinner I watched TrashelTrash TrashTrashtica with Mac while eating my 2 Happy Hippos that were for pudding. Yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum!
Then I went on my comp de la spomp and sorted/edited some of the pics from today. I didn't get all of them sorted, so I'll have to finish that off tomorrow.
Food
Breakfast: Golden Balls (fake golden nuggets); cup o' tea.
Lunch: Ham with mustard and iceberg lettuce sandwich; pear; banana; pink 'n' white; breakaway; cup o' tea.
Dinner: 2 x medium sized (not small) Sausage rolls; Carrots; green spleens (green beans); corn on da cob; chili sauce (didnae go well with the dinner); brown sauce; potatoes. Pudding was 2 Happy Hippos that were for pudding. Yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum!
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