A tulip in detail

Shot at home on a bright red tulip. Converted to black-and-white for clarity. Can you spot a teeny-tiny aphid in the picture? You may wish to see this picture in a larger size on Flickr by clicking on the photo.

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Camera Settings: ISO100, f/10, 1/125
Lens: 105mm f/2.8 Sigma macro lens

Hedgehog – winter spotting 

I almost walked over this poor little hedgehog this morning! In November – fancy that! The fact that it went totally still and pretended to be part of the background didn’t help at all..

Not the worlds best photo by a very long way, but the best I could without stressing the animal or muddying my work clothes!

Thanksgiving Cactus (Schlumbergera)

Also known as christmas cactus (but it is flowering here in Cambridge just in time for Thanksgiving), Schlumbergera’s are a strange sort of cactus plants. They have stems that look like leaf-like pads connected to one another. The flowers form at the terminal end of the plant. I grew mine from a small two segment section taken from a friends house and popped into a pot.

Click on the photo for more viewing options.

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Schlumbergera truncata cultivar. Thanksgiving cactus.

Technical Data

Nikon D7000, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 Macro Lens
ISO400, f/13, 3 seconds

Winter blossom!

Happy New Year all! I’ve spent almost 2 months without taking a single photograph but have resolved to change this in 2015! First up, an unusual bloom for this of the year in England. These flowers are those of the Kalanchoe genus, succulent tropical species from the old world which decided to bloom in January here in Cambridge (I suppose that being on a window sill in the bathroom helped!).

Kalanchoe sp.
ISO 200, f/22, 21 second exposure. Click on the photo for a larger version on Flickr.

Photographed using a Nikon D7000 Camera with a Sigma 105mm f/2.8 lens. ISO 200, f/22, 21 second exposure using a remote shutter release cable. Post-processed in Adobe Lightroom 5.7.

Purple Beans!!

Home grown foods are tasty, and some have very pretty flowers too – like these purple bean flowers. This is the first year I’ve grown these and now I harvest more than half-a-kilo of delicious fresh purple beans every two days!

Purple beans
See a larger version on Flickr