Processing pics

Yesterday evening I was going to re-submit my application to istock, but when I went to do it they already had the last 3 images I submitted as part of submission, and they wanted 3 more images, so I couldn't just re-submit 2 new photos and one of the ones I submitted before.

So this morning after breakfast I went in the garden to take some macros, unfortunately it was quite cold, and there weren't many insects around. There were some flies warming themselves up on the wall, where the sun was shining, but if you got near to them so your shadow fell on them, they would fly away. The only other place in the garden I could find any insects was on/near the Lemon balm. There was the Knot grass moth catterpillar, but it kept getting out of the way and hiding whenever I got the camera near it (the flash heads would push against the plant and I think this disturbed it). Then on one of the leaves of the plant that grows with the Lemonbalm, there was a fly on that, but it was quite hard to photograph due to being reasonably high up and lots of plants in front of it.

After taking some photos and keep checking around the garden to see if anything had turned up elsewhere, I went back inside and processed the photos. I think it must be getting too cold outside for insects now, it's quite cold for humans as well, my hands got pretty cold and I had to wear a jumper and my thick coat.

The photos of the fly I'd taken were quite dark, so I had a look through my other fly photos and found a couple there I thought might be better. After lunch I processed the one I thought best to remove dust spots and then uploaded the 3 pics (leaf texture, clouds reflecting in canal and fly) to istock.

Trying to search for information on what type of fly it might be I came across these weird flies that have their eyes on stalks. Then that lead me to a site that had a document about ageing. Although I didn't understand all the technical terms used, it was still quite interesting, and that lead me to reading about Mitochondrial DNA.

I spent quite a bit of the afternoon playing on de blob for the PC, which was a free download, although I didn't know how to complete the level. Also went on the pinternet a bit.

In the evening I went on the pinternet a bit more, in the weekly macro thread there was some discussion on using reversed lenses. This was of interest to me since I previously used reversed lenses before moving to the 450d - MP-E - MT-24EX setup, and if I could sell part of that setup and get similar results with much cheaper reversed lenses it would be very useful.

The points made in the thread were that with canon lenses that don't feature an aperture ring, what you can do is mount the lens normally and set the aperture you want to use. Then while holding down the DOF preview button, remove the lens. The lens will now have it's aperture set to whatever you set it as. Then reverse mount the lens.

The disadvantage is that the lens is permanently stopped down, making the viewfinder quite dark, although people had posted some good pics using this technique, so it must not be too much of a problem. The main problem I had with using reversed lenses was that you had to stop down the lens just as you're going to take the shot, and this would cause a bit of judder, and throw off your composition and focus. So if the lens is already stopped down, it should elimnate this problem.

I tried reverse mounting my Miranda 24mm OM mount lens on my D200 and stuck a bit of plastic from inside my Freecom external Hard drive case next to the aperture lever to keep the aperture closed down. Surprisingly, I could see well enough with my light on to focus. In the shadows though (it was still light enough to see easily, just not receiving direct light from the light) it was too dark to focus. The other thing I found was that with the pop-up flash pushed down slightly, it would light the subject properly, but with the pop-up flash extended normally the light would be thrown beyond the subject and the subject under-exposed. If the weather is okay tomorrow I will have to try it outside and see how well it works in real life.

I received an email back from istock to say I had been rejected, so I obviously need to work on improving my photography more. Though it's sad to be rejected, it's good how quick they get back to you to let you know. I applied to stockxpert with the same pics, so it'll be interesting to see if I get in there. Then I watched 'O brother, where art thou', which was pretty good.

Food
Breakfast: Blood orange marmalade toast sandwich; cup o' tea.
Lunch: ½ Beetroot sandwich; Strong white cheddar cheese with crunchy salad sandwich; Nectarine; Chocolate digestive bar; cup o' tea; Roses.
Dinner: 3x fish cakes; potato; peas. Pudding was Slice of Apple tart with custard and cream; small coconut tart with custard and cream. Coffee; Roses.