"Padraig" wrote in message
...



Hahahaha! Well, ya won't get any squawks from me. I thought ya did good
kiddo.

chest swells with pride!

I was impressed with the depth of field you have on the poppy.

So was I.

It's not quite all in focus but almost*,

....


*That's a hard shot to make for anybody.

I know ...

When you're that close it's almost impossible to make your depth of field
cover the whole flower from front to back so don't beat yourself up too
much about being a little bit off.

I wasn't really beating myself up. If I'd been wiser and used a tripod I'd
have been able to do better with a long focus but I'm so impulsive ... have
always been in trouble for that :-)

I have an older Olympus C740 point 'n shoot camera laying around the house
somewhere and in the beginning while I was getting used to it I shot
everything on "auto".

Yes - these pics were done on auto. I find it gives better results than the
macro setting which I was so keen to have.

After a while though I discovered I could make some manual settings and in
this case I would have clicked it over to "A" (for Aperture) and set it to
F/16 and given it a go. Otherwise on Auto the camera will always choose
something like F/8 or F/5.6 or F/4 --- all of which might be okay for
general photography but not for close ups. So there is a way to out-think
your camera. Experiment around with it a little. (Of course if that's
what you did already I better shut up!) :-)

I don't. I keep reading the manual and remembering that it can be done, just
like on my SLRs of the past, then I forget when I need to!

That's another problem with old age :-(

One day I might spend a few hours experimenting in the hope that I might
retain some of what I learn ... in the meantime, thanks.

Off to Aberdeen tomorrow, might get some nice shots there, the sky is clean!

Mary