I went outback this afternoon with my Sony & macro lens & look what I found.
An empty nest at eye level, don't know how I missed it?
I have seen some young chicks drinking so maybe this was their nest.
I know there must have been chicks by the evidence left behind.
Cheers Wendy
"Paddy's Pig" wrote in message
...
"Wendy7" wrote in message
...

Interesting Pat, I didn't know this but then again I'm just a point &
clicker! Too old now to learn all this stuff. I shall have to try using
a Minolta macro lens on my Sony A100 to see what happens.

You can have some real fun with a macro lens. I encourage you to do it.
Just remember to use small f/stops --- f/11 or f/16 --- I even sometimes
find myself shooting at f/18 or f/20. The reason is that these larger
number f/stops represent smaller lens apertures. Small apertures have a
couple of effects. One is that the circle that admits light into the
camera is significantly reduced in size and therefore it takes longer to
get a proper amount of light to fall on the sensor for a good exposure.
The GOOD side to this longer exposure/small aperture business is that the
depth of field is stretched from nearly non-existant with a wide aperture
(f/3.5 or f/4.0) to 1/2" or more, depending on how close you are to the
subject. This really helps to produce a better close-up picture. The
problem is that these longer exposures with a small aperture may mean
you'll have to put the camera on a tripod to avoid blurring from camera
shake. Optionally you can provide more light via flash and shorten the
exposure time enough to not use the tripod.

I had to take my camera to a shop as there was dust on the sensor & it
cost me $50!! I later found a video on how to do it but one still needs
the supplies.

Hah! Yeah. That's one of the little items that will jolt a new user of
most DSLR's. I taught myself how to clean the sensor so I could avoid
those costly visits to the service department. I got plenty of practice
with my old D70 and D80's. My new camera is a D300s and it has a feature
that is supposed to eliminate or at least reduce the problem. It can
jiggle the sensor and make the dust bunnies fall off. In theory, anyway.
It may work most of the time but I've got a spot that's showing up on all
my pics lately so obviously the sensor isn't jiggling hard enough and I'll
have to go back and use the good old manual technique again pretty soon.

Enjoyed all your flower photos in the last set. Gerbera's my fave.

Great! Glad you liked them.

Cheers
--
Pat Durkin