edinburgh city

The university trip to Edinburgh was a photographical gold mine! Great day, great city and great (but cold) weather, I took well over 200 photos of all different styles but my favorite images from the day came form the Scottish parliament buildings roof because of the bizarre shapes created and materials used and a large gothic church we passed on our way to visit some other buildings, the ornate detailing, bold contrast and towering arches made it a great subject to photograph.

 The clouds add a lot to these images esspecially, they add texture to the background and ensure that no inch of the frame is left blank.

cheep macro

For a while now I have wanted to try a bit of macro photography but shiny new lenses are much too expensive for my current money situation! I heard magnifying filters work as a very cheep alternative so thought I would give them a try. They work the same as magnifying glasses but when screwed onto the end of a lens they shorten the focal length allowing the camera to focus much closer to the object. These are just a few shots I took the night I bought them, just things I had lying about my room but when zoomed in on create some nice images due to the very shallow depth of field and additional detail not usually visible, I was impressed with the performance of them considering how little they cost in comparison to a macro lens.

I found that focusing can prove to be difficult and a tripod is recommended for these kinds of shots because even the smallest camera shake will be exaggerated due to the magnification, but as I was just testing a few shots out quickly I didn't bother. I am looking forward to summer as there is a lot more opportunities for this kind of photography in nature such as plants and insects.