Helen Stephenson's Garden Pictures 3

I have owned a set of extension tubes for a while, but recently added a Centon ring flash to my collection of accessories. It is particularly useful for outdoor macro photography as it allows a small aperture to be set on the camera (delivering a picture where more of it's in focus) without needing a long exposure time. Very handy when little puffs of wind tend come along half way through a time exposure and spoil everything!

This page has to start with my Berberis pictures.

On the left is the start of a bud, and when I scanned it and looked closely at it, there is a greenfly tucked away inside! It's definitely a picture to click on, as you should be able to see the greenfly in the full-sized image.

On the right is a picture of a more advanced bud. It's a pity I didn't take the camera out to the garden a week or two later, or I could have shown the flower in full bloom as well!

I have a long-standing fascination with the conifer trees in my garden. They have very tiny flowers on them in the Spring, and it's only now I've got the ring flash that I've managed to capture them in really close-up detail. The two pictures on the left are from the tree which has the red flowers. They were taken on different days and one picture's turned out a bit darker than the other. The picture on the right is from the other tree, which has much paler flowers.

Another fascinating thing about the conifers is the little green shoots which appear on the end of the leaves. I wasn't sure what they were, but observation over the following weeks has yielded the information that I was looking at the early formation of the pine cones, which are round on these particular conifers.

The picture below shows this early cone formation, and it's well worth clicking on, as there is all sorts of detail revealed which simply can't be seen with the naked eye, or even through the viewfinder.

Strictly speaking, the rest of the pictures on this page aren't pictures from my garden, although some of them were taken in the garden when I moved the pots containing the plants outside while photographing them.

Stephen brought home this chrysanthemum in a pot. I put it on the kitchen counter and set up my tripod, taking some pictures using available light and some using the ring flash. I'm not sure which way I took the picture on the left, which is of the centre of one of the flowers; but the picture on the right is definitely a ring flash picture. I like the way the flowers in the background are less well illuminated.

Stephen is fond of carnivorous plants, and this is a honeydew. He's been keeping it on the window above the stairs, but I took it outside to photograph it. The side of the flowerpot acted as a reasonably efficient windbreak.

Another group of plants which Stephen admires are house leeks. At first glance, they look like cacti, but they're actually succulents. The picture on the left is taken using the ring flash, while the one on the right is relying on natural light.