Lasers

I have always had a keen interest in lasers - to be honest with light in general, but the purity and brilliance of laser light holds something special.  My uncle (who is no longer with us) spent years working with lasers for all sorts of reasons - everything from a few milliwatt (Helium Neon) up to 2W Argon Ion lasers which on one occasion led to him accidentally cutting his tie in half! - and I spent a lot of time learning from him.

I've owned quite a few lasers - I was gifted a 2mW HeNe laser first off, and I've had quite a few standard laser pointers (all red diode lasers).  But in the last few days I've finally got hold of a couple of diode lasers that are a bit different from the norm - a 20mW green, and a 205mW red one.

7D Macro - Summary after several shoots

I've spent several hours out now taking macro shots with the Canon 100mm f2.8 (non-L) lens on my 7D, and I wanted to showcase my favourite images and give a bit of technical detail about how I've taken them.

Macro shots - Insects with the 7D

I went for a wander at lunch time today with my 7D, Canon 100mm f2.8 macro and 430EX.  Most of the shots were taken with the flash mounted on the camera, but a few were with the 7D acting as flash master and the 430EX in slave mode, hand held in various positions.  I'm pretty pleased with the results - I don't have a lot of time tonight so I'll just put a dump of the pictures (all were Manual mode, 1/125s, various apertures, but most at f/11, with some down as low as f/2.8):

52 Weeks - Week 6: "Flowers"

This week has been all about photographing flowers, and to try and avoid another post with the excuse that I was too busy, I have made a bit of an effort here!  Unfortunately, it's been more in the taking and processing of images than the pruning, so there may be a bit of an overdose, but hey, at least it's better than the last couple of weeks.

Latte and Espresso

Time for a couple of coffee drinks!  My wife loves a nice Latte, and I like Espresso.  I had the camera handy and took a few shots of preparing the drinks:

Pamphill Bluebells

Pamphill has a "secret" woods which springs up with thousands of bluebells in April/May time.  I went along a couple of weeks ago and only a few were flowering, so I had hoped to get back last week during some lovely weather.  As usual, things got in the way, but I did manage to get out and take a few shots under a fairly overcast sky.  All shots are taken with 5Dmk2, 17-40, Hi-Tech 0.6ND grad, tripod, mirror lockup and remote shutter.

52 Weeks - Week 5: "Chocolate"

My Wife has been setting my weekly photo topics generally, and she's just figured out that it might be in her interest to suggest things she likes - like Chocolate!  Unfortunately, for the 3rd week in a row I've not really had the time that I would have liked to spend on the photos, so here's a few picked out for the theme of Chocolate:

(5Dmk2, Sigma 50mm f1.4 at f1.4m 1/500s at ISO 400)

52 Weeks - Week 4: "Morning"

Once again, I was desperately busy this week and capturing shots for my topic wasn't really much of an option.  I've picked a few out from the week that work for Morning:

(Canon 7D, Canon 70-200 f4L IS at 111mm, f4, ISO 160)

52 Weeks - Week 3: "Happiness"

This weeks challenge was Happiness.  Unfortunately, I had a somewhat mad week and didn't really have much of a chance to focus on the topic, so I've picked out a few shots from the week that sort-of represent happiness.

(7D, Sigma 120-400OS at 400mm, 1/800s at f8, ISO 100)