Cotton Harlequin Beetles

I've shown photos of Cotton Harlequin Beetles before here but I found some really nice looking examples of male beetles on Saturday, so here's a few more.

I took dozens of photos but there's a pretty low success rate when you're trying to do macro photography without a macro lens - it wreaks havoc with your autofocus.









The female beetles, which are larger and orange, weren't looking as spectacular this time around. Must be the wrong time of the year for them.

Service Bay

This old garage is at Redland Bay, a stones throw away from where the ferry leaves for Karragarra.

I've driven past it many times, but never bothered to stop and photograph it because it's always been full-light and I knew the results would be mediocre at best.

On Wednesday night, the light was just fading from the sky as I got to the ferry terminal, so the light was right.

I still think the results are mediocre, but at least there's some colour in the sky. It got me to thinking about my speed light and how terrified of using it I am. A bit of fill flash might have made all the difference in this photo. I could have darkened the sky dramatically in Photoshop and just had the garage door lit up.

I saw this photo yesterday, posted on a blog. It was taken in depression-era America, when very few photos were being taken in colour.

And I just love it: The colours, the sky, the use of fill flash, the solid edges you get with film. I wish I had a high-enough resolution version of it, because I'd be blowing it up and putting it on my wall (if that wasn't, ahem, copyright restriction...)

So now, my aim with my photography is to learn to master my speed light. Expect a lot of flash photography posted on here in the near future...

Spending An Evening

I sewed myself this li'l bag on the weekend. It cost me more than $50 in materials and took about three hours.

Really, I could have just gone out and bought one - or two - for that money. But I reassured myself that it's all about the PRACTICE and EXPERIENCE.

I plan to make another one in the next week or so. I was going to start tonight, but, well... I just ended up taking photos of fabric stacks, thread and pin cushions instead.

Photography is probably a cheaper way to spend an evening than sewing, to be honest.