Two up for macro shots

Just to show off a bit and to show macro shots do have a wider appreciation, I've managed to wangle two shots into the "Highly Competitive - Flickr's 100 Best / Pool"
I hasten to add someone else suggested I try it with the first pic, after that got in I thought why not try another one.
The first Fly pic was quite funny- I was challenging a flower pic and the initial voting had a clear sex bias- two females voted for the flower and two males for the fly- I commented on this and the next voter (a female) voted for the fly (accidental psychology I think)
Brian V.

Here
http://www.flickr.com/​groups/best100only/

with these two shots.

http://www.flickr.com …3187/in/pool-best100only/

http://www.flickr.com …3019/in/pool-best100only/

Well done Brian! (Must say flickr is awfully slow in downloading )

Good on you, keep up the good work.

So proud of you ...

Regards

Great Job, then again, Your shots are winners here all the time.

Bald Eagle wrote:
Great Job, then again, Your shots are winners here all the time.

I'll second that..

Thanks for the comments all,
Just thought it was good that other people seem to be able to appreciate macro pics and not just us
Just as an aside- one advantage of a FlickR account (I just have the free one) is you not only get comments on your pics (If you want them) but you also get statistics on them - No of views, comments, favourites, and "interestingness"- so you can have your own top10 and see how new releases move up the charts . The bubble shot is the fastest mover I've had (no 2 after a few days) but the fly shot has been at No1 for quite a while now.
BrianV.

Well done and much deserved!!! I always enjoy the images you share here.

Congrats Brian, as others have already stated, your work deserves it.

Brian - how long do you spend on each shot ? how many waster frames does it take you to produce a good macro of a bug ? Gotta say - your shots are some of the best I have seen - been watching Psig for 2 yrs and none match yours fella.

Thanks for the kind comments all,
Ronen, I don't spend a lot of time setting up shots at all. Most of them, It's just pop out into the garden see what I can find- take some shots and pop back to the PC and process them. I don't use a tripod and have got very used to my equipment from all the practice- so I'm fairly quick- which you have to be for some bug shots.
Obviously things like the water drops need more time to set up the camera on a tripod, and doing focus stacking takes longer simply because you are taking so many shots. I never review pics whilst I'm taking them apart from a quick glance to see if the exposure profile is reasonable. This is because I can't see the back of the camera properly unless I put my reading glasses back on again .
I do take a lot of pics though and although my usable pic rate is now about 80%, I obviously only post the "best" ones. Since I starting doing macro shots seriously in late May this year , I've taken over 10000 pics- so that's a lot of practice!
Brian V.

Cheers for the reply brian and thanks for being open about your work / hobby.
To be honest since seeing yours and alot of the pics here, I keep feeling this urge to buy macro kit...arghhh but I'm on a budget...would you be able to reccomend a decent flash to shoot macro and other with please ? I looked at the 500 DG but its a bit pricey...is there something else out there that would suit ?

Many thanks again..

Ron.

You are very welcome.
Fraid I'm not very experienced with flash units, but suggest the sigma 500ST version might be worth looking at, I do not now tend to vary the FEC on my flash unit much (which the ST is missing) but if you have the 350D (XT) think you can do that on the camera anyway.
Brian V.

No worries brian - I'll have a dabble in the flash section then ... came across this metz jobbie which might do the trick...

Cheers

Ron.