A bright orange asiatic lily from earlier in the year!

I always think of starfish when I see their centres! :)

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A lovely geranium I found yesterday! I rather liked the veins running through the petals!

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I'm not sure this one is abstract enough for my Abstract Nature theme, but it's all I've had time to shoot today, so I'm going with it! :)

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I couldn't resist posting another shot of the flying bee fly I encountered last weekend! :)

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I'm still trawling through my water drop collision backlog...

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It's only day six, and already I seem to have grumbled about a few things that annoy me about the 365 project!

Today I came across another one!

Here's the thing...

Today I took six or seven perfectly acceptable photographs - but I can only use one of them for the project! Now that just doesn't seem fair, as some day soon, all of the photographs I take for that day will be complete crap, and I'll have to post one of them!

Oh well! :)

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I'm glad I brought my brolly because I thought I felt a drop of rain! :)

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The rain arrived this morning, but at least it made the flower petals even prettier! :)

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After the great series of water drop collisions I got yesterday, I was expecting good things from today's shoot!

However, nothing seemed to go right! It took me ages to get the timing right to shoot a collision, and just as I'd got a bit of rhythm going, the batteries in all three of my external flashguns gave up in quick succession!

So, this is the best of a bad bunch today! Hopefully I'll have better luck tomorrow!

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Here's another for my water drop collision series!

Actually, this one is the reflection of a water drop collision! :)

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My first daylily arrived the other day - and was promptly battered to the ground by some torrential rain!

At least I managed to capture it before the rain came, and there are lots more buds on the plant all bursting to open!

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Getting into the centre of a large rhododendron bloom!

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This week's Macro Mondays group theme is Eye: 17/06/2013.

I was sat outside at lunchtime, trying to recover from whatever nasty bug has struck me down, when a frog jumped out of my pond, and sat right in front of me!

I thought his golden coloured eye would make a perfect subject for this week's theme!

HMM! :)

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It's always annoying when you get a hair in your eye, isn't it? :)

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It's always nice when the garden surprises you with a new flower!

This lovely looking alstroemeria appeared over the weekend, and is already attracting the few remaining bees and butterflies! :)

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Sorry for posting and running - I haven't been feeling too well for the past couple of days. I've got a fever one minute and am freezing cold the next!

I'm going back to my sickbed for now, but I'll try and catch up with everyone over the weekend...

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Another day, and another weed!

This time it's from the willowherb family, although I'm not sure exactly which species it is!

It's fairly pretty though, so it's earned a stay of execution!

Sorry for posting and running again, but real life is getting in the way of fun at the moment! I'll catch up with everyone when I get some free time...

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I was preparing some images for a stock photography library tonight when I came across this one of a water drop impacting on the side of a soap bubble...

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I almost overlooked these tiny escallonia blooms as I went searching for my picture of the day today!

They're a little past their best, but I thought they were still worth uploading! :)

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I thoroughly enjoyed shooting my month of Abstract Nature! Nature is really quite fascinating when you start looking at it closely!

I'm not sure what I'm shooting next month! I may have a month off themes, and just shoot random stuff!

Watch this space! :)

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Another outtake from this year's 365 day photo project...

HBW! :)

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The pyromaniac in me really enjoyed getting this close to the crackling details of this burning match!

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I'm not feeling too well today so this is all I managed for my 365 shot.

It's a yellow handled corkscrew...

I hate being ill, but even more so when I need to shoot a picture every day!

I'll try and catch up with everyone tomorrow if I'm feeling better...

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A greenbottle enjoys the sunshine!

Happy Fly Friday! :)

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All of the rain recently has reminded me that I have quite a few water drop collisions left to post, and even more to process! :)

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I'm still steadily working through processing my collection of water drop collision images taken earlier this year!

I'm currently about half way through, with over 300 left to go! :o

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Thanks for all of the comments and faves on yesterday's high key collision shot! They took it to the top 100 shots in Explore for the day! :)

I tried to retain a bit more colour in this one, and toned the lighting down a little!

I'm very busy at the moment as I embark on a work related project! I hope to catch up with everyone as soon as possible!

Actually, I think I've been working too hard, because I definitely see a happy fish face in the collision here! :)

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Large daffodil, small trumpet!

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I guess it's not immediately obvious how this one fits into my self imposed In Somebody's Garden theme!

It's actually a shot of the condensation on the window inside the lid of the cold frame I use for growing seeds!

Sorry for posting and running again, real life is taking me away from the important stuff at the moment! :)

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So, here is my month of April!

I hadn't realised that it had been such a colourful month until I put all of the shots together!

I know I said I was going to write a blog about my water drop rig, but as yet, it hasn't materialised! I am working on it though!

I'm not sure what the month of May will bring!

I enjoy shooting the water drop collisions and splashes, but after three months, I think it's probably time to call it a day, and shoot some other stuff for the project!

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Day two of my self imposed Abstract Nature theme was a good one!

This is the centre of the very first ox eye daisy to appear in my dad's garden!

I find the pattern quite mesmerising! :)

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One of my echinacea plants is still producing new flowers!

This is great for me as it extends the growing season, and gives me a chance to try and finally grab the perfect echinacea shot! :)

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Thought it was time for another water drop collision upload! :)

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This week's Macro Mondays group theme is On The Inside: 11/02/2013.

I didn't have anything prepared for this week's theme, and had decided to give it a miss!

However, when I saw this pop up on the back of the camera, I thought it would be ideal!

You can see the water drops that are following the main water drop refracted inside it and I thought that was very cool!

HMM! :)

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Missed out on some frosty leaves this morning and had to shoot dewdrops instead...

...which was nice! :)

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I've seen quite a few snowdrop photos posted to flickr recently, so I thought I'd add my own to the springtime collection! :)

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I've been looking back at some of my earlier efforts at water drop photography from earlier in the month and decided that I liked the simplicity of this one!

For some reason my purple flash gels don't give enough oomph so I had to help this one along in Photoshop...

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It's only five days since I stopped shooting water drops and I'm missing them already! :)

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I was very excited about attempting today's shot, and am absolutely thrilled that it came off almost exactly as I'd planned it!

I may have to adjust my lighting set-up slightly to avoid the blown highlights on the top of the bubbles, but other than that, this is pretty much how I envisioned it turning out!

I'm one very pleased 365er today! :)

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A water drop just about to break the surface...

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Looks like our short summery spell is now over with rain falling for the past 48 hours!

At least it's given me a couple more ideas for my Abstract Nature theme! :)

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I hope you're not getting sick of these dewdrop shots...

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The rain didn't arrive in time to spoil the Bank Holiday weather, but it has certainly arrived now...

...at least it gave me something to photograph in my garden! :)

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I've just had a mega picture processing session where I've been mostly removing dust spots from my water splash images!

It was a very tedious and boring afternoon!

Anyway, I thought I'd better upload at least one of the fruits of my labour...

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Just as the oriental lilies arrived the other day, the asiatic lilies have now finished!

This was taken on the first day of their short reign! :)

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I've just about finished processing all of my water drop images which means I've got just under 200 to upload!

That should keep me going for a while, although I'm seriously thinking about shooting some more when the dark nights come round again! :)

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I love the combination of raindrops and spider webs - and even more so when there are still some summer colours remaining in the garden! :)

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Like most macro photographers, I'm always picking things up and ferreting them away for a day when I need inspiration!

Today was one of those days!

I picked this pinecone up from my visit to Exbury Gardens at the start of the month, and thought it would fit into my Abstract Nature theme quite nicely! :)

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Well, it's the final day of the month, and my final water drop upload!

The goal for the month was to try and perfect water drop collisions! With my water drop rig, I've gone a long way to making it easier, and have hit upon a system where I get far more keepers than not!

To put things in perspective, I estimate that I've taken approximately 1000 shots, and I know I've got just under 300 images I consider good enough to try and sell awaiting processing on my hard disk! That's a mighty high hit rate considering I used to be lucky to get one or two good shots in every hundred exposures!

Anyway, I thought I'd end the month on a close-up of my initial goal - a collision!

For once, I'm rather pleased with it! :)

Here's a link to the YouTube video showing my water drop rig in action! The blog post I refer to is still being written, but should be finished by mid March!

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Another one from my water drop processing marathon the other day!

I really liked the colours of this one...

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