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I live a somewhat Bohemian lifestyle at the moment, spending months away from home, in a camper van parked beside a canal. It gets me away from the hassle of city life and allows me to enjoy the pleasures of the countryside, with the attached wildlife. I've been adopted by a number of local cats...

I spent part of yesterday reading up about lens stacking as an easy and cheap way to do macro. So, after a bit of reflection yesterday evening, I decided to try my hand at it this morning. As you can see from my list of goods below, I have 3 lenses at present and decided to try out the 18-55...

This is the best of a sequence of about a dozen shots I took this morning. There are a few trees with over-ripe fruit near where I live and they are attracting insects of all kinds. I was stalking a hornet when it suddenly attacked a wasp and flew off with it onto a branch. This was a...

I live alongside a canal and work at a marina about 200 metres away. It would be easy to assume that there isn't much to photograph and yet you would be wrong.This afternoon, I set off just before 2 pm and came across this little chap. Come closing time we came across this character who...

This photo would probably never been posted here had a friend, a keen photographer, not returned from a 3 1/2 month trip on his boat (he left the day my camera arrived). I spent yesterday (Sunday) morning and afternoon looking through the 4000 photos I've since taken to find a selection to show...

Until I took up photography seriously in May I saw little of what went on around me. Now I can spot the tiniest spider from long range. This evening I discovered this little guy sheltering from the rain under a 2cm diameter handrail on a boat. I've decided to do this with two photos as the...

I opened the door of my camper van earlier today and found a small jumping spider hiding behind the door. It then suddenly leapt and caught a fly. .. 40mm, f/5.6, 1/125th sec, ISO 100

Weather is rotten outside today so I settled for a day without taking any photos. A day to check through the nearly 4000 shots I've taken in the last 3 months. All of a sudden I saw this tiny spider trying to climb up my computer screen and had to get a photo. One more of many dozens I've...

I came across this little chap the other day and, to begin with, he turned his back every time I tried to get in front of him. Later, he didn't seem to mind and, finally, I twice found him floundering on his back. I ended up carrying him back to the grass. He was no more than 1 cm long. 40mm...

Anyone who has come across these creatures will know that the young congregate in "schools" which look like oil slicks on the water. I've always wanted to get a shot of this but never had the camera to do it. This is a group I came across in the port where I work, though they are now growing at...

Flies are probably the most hated creatures on the planet after politicians and yet they make great subjects for photography, if you can get one to stay still long enough while you focus on it. This is a photo I took earlier today and shows two flies in the process of mating. It has been cropped...

We all dream about taking the perfect picture, of being there just at the right moment to capture a dynamic event, or just have enough luck to include something significant in a photo. It rarely happens and, in a way, it is a good thing as it makes you appreciate those special moments when...

I wasn't sure if this would fit in with the rules for the August competition as it was at sunset. Weather was stormy giving beautiful colours. Other than cropping and resizing, this is as taken. D3100 40mm, f/10, 1/250th sec, ISO 800, AP mode. PS: Maybe I should send this to a "paint by...

Anyone who has ever worked with Photoshop knows about the amazing corrections which can be made and the more difficult changes to photos using the tampon tool which enables one to wipe out small distracting details. However, the last two versions have included a tool, which until then, existed...

This is a shot I got this morning. It's a European Grass Snake taking a dip in the canal. D3100 Sigma 70-300mm at 150mm 1/200th sec, f20, ISO 800

After buying my D3100 with the 18-55 kit lens, I bought the Sigma 70-300 Macro. I now have a Nikkor 40mm Micro which gives me brilliant results. However, I"m new to the macro game and would like to know if the 70-300 could give me better macro results if I added a set of macro rings? Would one...

All those creepy-crawlies we learned to keep away from or killed when we were children. Suddenly, as adults, with a miraculous camera in our hands, they become like friends and we take shots of them from just a few inches away. Let's have your insect shots. The nastier, the better: bees, wasps...

Part of my job requires me to occasionally sit doing nothing on a canal bank. Yesterday, this took up an hour so I made use of it by taking photos. This is a young grasshopper I came across, about 1/2 inch long (13mm) D3100 Nikkor 40mm f2.8 Micro 1/640th, f3.2, ISO 200

Ants are definitely not the easiest of creatures to photograph, especially for the amateur who does not have access to specialist equipment. Firstly, this chap is quite big for those we find where I live but is still only 4mm long. Secondly, they never seem to stay very long in one place. I was...

Only just round to processing this after 2 weeks. Previous attempt at jpeg turned out rubbish. I took some specialist advice before attempting this because all my previous attempts at snapping the moon just gave me a white disk. It was suggested that the ideal setting was 125th at f11 and ISO...