A favourite subject of mine at this time of year - a skeletal hydrangea bract!

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A hoverfly enjoys a sunny spot to sit!

Sorry for posting and running - will play catch up with everyone later today! :)

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My echinacea are still going strong, and it's almost as hard to resist posting pictures of them as it is to resist posting pictures of my dahlia!

I've given in this evening after looking at my backlog of pictures to post to flickr!

After a quick count, I found that I have over 30 echinacea images alone! :)

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For remembrance Sunday...

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Looking at the hairy innards of a periwinkle bloom!

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I had another surprise when I went out on my patio this morning for a cup of coffee! This lovely pink rose was waiting there for me! :)

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I wasn't going to participate in this week's Macro Mondays theme of Dried, but then I remembered I'd ferreted away a leaf from last autumn in a box somewhere! It was bound to be dried up by now!

It only took me about an hour to find the box! Like most macro photographers (I assume), I have hundreds of boxes full of odds and ends that could make useful subjects one day!

Anyway, I found it in the end! I think it would make a nice texture too!

HMM! :)

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A little house sparrow feeds from one of the bird feeding stations in my garden, and rounds up a disappointing month of images from my self imposed In Somebody's Garden theme...

...at least it's not raining today! :)

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Don't you just love autumn colours? :)

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What better way to celebrate 200 days of images than with this stalwart of the summer flower garden!

I didn't even plant any this year, but they still arrived and managed to brighten up a little corner of my garden! :)

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I thought I'd upload something other than a macro - just to confuse those who follow me! :)

This is where I went to hunt for dragonflies and damselflies the other week - but ended up shooting butterflies instead!

This is the second attempt at uploading this - the first, smaller file was hideously over sharpened by flickr! I think I'll stick with my more familiar 900x900 square format! :/

UPDATE:

I've uploaded this same image to 500px as they've just redesigned their photo page! I think it looks great, and shows what could have been achieved by flickr, if only they'd thought about their design a little! You can see the image here! :)

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I thought the textured petals of this Welsh poppy made a nice addition to my Abstract Nature theme!

This is the first shot I've processed using the new Adobe Lightroom 5! I didn't need to use any of the new features, but it did feel like it was a bit faster than the previous version!

Anyone got any thoughts on that? :)

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Normal service has been resumed in the shape of this square macro shot! :)

My michaelmas daisies have been putting on a splendid show for a couple of weeks now, so I thought it was about time to feature one in my P365...

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An outtake from day 30 of my 365 day photo project - the day I played with polarising film to explore the stress defects found in cheap plastic objects!

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It's been a wet, windy, dark and cold day today!

As I'm still not feeling 100%, I decided to make myself some comfort food, and watch TV!

Hence my tasty treat became my shot of the day...

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I have to apologise for posting and running, but apart from being ill, my iMac's hard disk decided to stop working today!

It was the last thing I expected!

I'm insanely good with my backup routine so I'm pretty sure I haven't lost any images or work material, but even after several hours I'm nowhere near to having a correctly working system again!

I'm currently booting my iMac from an external USB disk that was loaded with a Time Machine backup from earlier today, but things are far from being normal!

I must admit that Apple have made it quite easy to operate in this way, although there are a few odd things happening as I type this!

Hopefully I'll be a bit further forward with my system restoration when I upload tomorrow's image! :)

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Today's offering is a single purple lobelia bloom...

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For this week's Project 52 I decided not to go with the group theme, which was Self Portrait, partly because I didn't have the time to do a creative setup and partly because I hate being the subject of my photographs!

I'm planning on doing an SP for my final shot of the project though - but don't hold me to that!

Anyway, for something completely different, here are some vibrant magenta flower buds from a winter flowering viburnum bush...

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Whilst most other flowers seem to be having a late start this spring, the forget me not's have bucked the trend and have started early!

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Parque de las 7 tetas, Madrid

I think I've officially run out of titles for my water drop shots, although looking at this once uploaded, it sort of looks like an octopus!

Anyway, I had a go at lighting today's splash with my golden / yellow flash gels tonight and think the colours have come out pretty well after I gave them a quick saturation boost in Lightroom!

Interestingly (for those who are interested in such things), I had to shoot this in a dark room, as otherwise the gold came out white!

I think I'll do some more shooting in the dark though as this is possibly the sharpest collision I've shot yet! :)

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I wasn't intending to post a shot of the sycamore tree at the bottom of my garden today, but the light shining through the leaves looked great against the blue sky!

This shot doesn't quite do the sight justice, but it's the best of the bunch I took, and I'm still pretty pleased with it! :)

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The network of veins in a leaf...

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Another little bit of colour arrived in the garden last weekend with this periwinkle bloom...

...spring is on the way! :)

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A pretty wildflower and its hairy suitor!

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A feathered friend for Friday!

HFF! :)

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A fly enjoys the summer sunshine...

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I told you I'd be taking pictures of lettuce before the end of the month!

This is one of my Lollo Rossa seedlings, which will be turning completely red soon!

Home grown garden veg - you just can't beat it! :)

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More colours from Exbury Gardens...

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This is the amelanchier tree blossom in dad's garden! It only lasts a few days in spring before it's blown away, but it really shines in the sunlight and lights up the garden! I wish I had room for one in my garden!

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Oops!

It's the first time I've grown echinaceas, and I was so excited by seeing a flower head developing, I forgot to post my picture of the day yesterday!

So, you'll be getting two Abstract Nature shots for the price of one today! :)

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I was surprised to see this lovely bright orange flower still in bloom during my visit to Exbury Gardens a couple of weeks ago...

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The escallonia are still going strong and providing some colour in the garden!

HFF! :)

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This week's Macro Mondays group theme is Divided: 02/09/2013.

As you can see, I went a bit mad with Photoshop and some selective colouring of this echinacea bloom!

HMM! :)

I'm slowly trying to catch up with everyone after my bout of weekend sickness...

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I'm still struggling to find flora and fauna to photograph in my garden, so I'm now having to resort to pots!

I'm really well prepared this year! I've got the correct type of compost for each type of plant to grow in, the correct environment, the right plant foods, the containers all ready and waiting and I've still got the enthusiasm to make it all happen!

The only problem is that none of the plants are growing - seeds, bulbs, rhizomes - none of them!

It's so frustrating!

Hence, today I present to you, the bottom of a terracotta pot filled with cobblestones! :/

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A damselfly enjoys the summer sunshine...

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I found a fly today, but lapsed into shooting rear ends again!!

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I liked how these Japanese maple tree leaves reminded me of feathers...

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For once, I'm quite pleased with today's shot for my 365 day project!

This object featured a couple of times in my 365 project from 2011, so I couldn't resist giving it another outing for the group's weekly theme of monochrome!

For those still wondering, it is, of course, the surface of a meat tenderiser! :)

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✰ This photo was featured on The Epic Global Showcase here: bit.ly/1W2kTcz

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. Be what you are. Be what you can do. Never lose hope 😉 In frame: Unknown model from Google Photo Collaboration: unsplash.com (@unsplash) _____________________________________ #DEXMOGRAPHY #Dreamer_Theater #CollabStream #LensaMy #IkutCaraKita #SZVPics #Hasil_Kita #MeisterShots #Liferemixed #FX_HDR #D_Expo #World_BestEdition #IGW_Edit #EditsItalian #FA_Hypnotic #RSA_Graphics #Ig_Underground #IgRecommend #Ig_Malaysia_ #Loves_Fantasy #Surreal42 #Ponggolohuta #EditLab #IgersMalaya #Grafix_My #IgFeedsMenarik_ #IgCreative_Editz #TheSmart_Igers #VSART_MY #SonyXperiaZ2 _____________________________________ 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 Interested in Digital editing? Don’t forget to follow & submit your Graphics photo to @DEXMOGRAPHY for a chance to be featured. 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 _____________________________________

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I'm still missing my insect buddies...

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I had a wander around my local city centre last weekend, so thought I'd share some of the shots I took...

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I finally had to resort to my backup shot today as there was nothing else going on in my garden!

Sorry for posting and running, I'll try and catch up with everyone tomorrow! :)

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What a great day for my Insect theme it was today!

It was a beautiful sunny day, and the insects were out in abundance!

I was spoilt for choice over a subject to upload!

I decided to go with this lovely Speckled Wood butterfly, as I don't often see butterflies, and manage to get a decent shot of them even less of the time! :)

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I'm definitely getting lazy with these water drop collisions! This is the fourth day in a row I've used the same lighting set-up, and viewpoint! Today I just swapped out the pink gel from the middle flashgun for a light green gel!

I'm also shooting at a larger aperture (f/9) to try and save me time from having to remove an insane number of dust spots in post processing! I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and clean my sensor!

Has anyone got any favourite sensor cleaning tools, products or tips that they'd like to share?

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A fly for Friday!

It's always pleasing when one of my bug friends decides to sit in a photogenic location!

HFF! :)

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Some crocosmia flower buds from earlier this year!

I rather liked the pattern they made! They reminded me of a colourful zipper! :)

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It was a beautiful day today, and I took the opportunity to go and visit the wonderful displays of rhododendrons and azaleas at Exbury Gardens with my dad!

We weren't disappointed! The whole 200 acres seemed to be awash with colour, and I got plenty of colourful photos to show you over the coming weeks!

However, my self imposed theme for this month is Abstract Nature, so I had to find something more appropriate than a pretty flower to shoot for today's picture of the day!

So here's today's effort - a tree trunk! It seems like a bit of an anticlimax posting this after seeing such vibrant colours for most of the day! :)

I'm absolutely wiped out with all of the walking we did, and am wondering what possessed me to take my D800 with me, which weighs in at nearly 1kg without a lens!

Oh well, I guess I'll sleep well tonight! I'll catch up with everyone when I can move again! :)

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