Freesia // March 29, 2005
This is a fairly straight studio shot of a freesia stem. I like the way that you can see the progression from bud to fully-opened flower. It's almost like time-lapse photography.
Sempervivum #2 // March 24, 2005
Another Sempervivum (or house leek) from the botanical gardens. I think I prefer this one on reflection. It has more depth I think and the gravel adds a different texture.
Sempervivum // March 23, 2005
This is another shot from the hot house at the botanical gardens in Cambridge. I've cranked up the saturation so it looks a bit unnatural, but I think it adds to the interest of the shot.
Orchid #2 // March 01, 2005
I really should have made a note of the varieties of these orchids. Oh well...
Orchid #1 // February 28, 2005
A shot from the fantastic orchid house at the Botanical Gardens in Cambridge.
Chlorophyll // February 27, 2005
This is a detail of a bird of paradise leaf backlit by the sun. It was taken in the tropical house at the University Botanical Gardens in Cambridge.
Snowflake // February 23, 2005
Some typically understated English snow. Some countries measure their snowfall in inches or even feet; we count individual flakes.
If you look just to the left of the centre, you can see an actual 6-pointed snowflake. How fab is that? I've never seen one before.
Carnation // February 21, 2005
I've wanted a proper macro lens for ages and I finally got one off eBay at the weekend. It's the Sigma 105mm f2.8 macro. I love the limited depth of field you get with it wide open. It's probably only a few millimetres at 1:1.
I know that macro shots of flowers are not the most original, but hey, it's easier than going outside :-)
Winter Green // January 31, 2005
Well, I've gone and spent all my money and bought a new camera - a Nikon D70. This is one of the first pictures I've taken with it. It's not particularly inspired compositionally or anything, but what I do like about it is the subtlety of the colours, particularly the pale greens in the distance. This is straight out of the camera and I'm really impressed that it has managed to capture the scene as I remember seeing it. With my old camera, I usually had to do a lot of tweaking for colour correction.
