Sorry, but I had to post this image and then come back later this day to put in a description of this image. "MEaves" a contact of mine has been posting lots of Dragon Fly and Damselfly images so I just had to catch up to him! With the rainy weather we have had here in Southern Alberta Canada there has not been much of a spring or summer and as such very few insects compared to other years. For this image I am using a new macro set-up that uses my 70-300mm VR lens and SB600 flash. This lens is very sharp so I thought I could rig something up to take closer images from a distance. Below is an explanation from my previous image which was taken with this new set-up. _________________________________________________ I rigged a manual extension tube to work on my electronic 70-300mm VR lens. The short version of how I did this is that I drilled a small hole in the side of the extension tube and inserted a pin so that when the extension tube is mounted to the lens the pin moves the spring-loaded lever to approximately F:8. Camera set-up is Manual lens, flash and camera settings. 1/1000 second shutter speed, ISO 200 and F:8 (approximately). With this combination I can shoot insects from 6 feet away up to 12 inches away. The zoom is operated manually to find the approximate focal point and then the manual focusing ring is used to fine-tune the focus before hitting the shutter. I take lots of pictures to find the sharpest images in the bunch. The depth of field is shallow but nowhere near as shallow as my Pipe Extension Tube set-up...with that set-up I have to take multiple images and stack them to get any sort of depth to the image.

Contact sheets of the first night of tVancouver BC's "Festival of Light" Fireworks over English Bay. Thes were an experiment in hand held photography from a rocking, moving, sail boat. All were taken a long way from the fireworks with a 28-75 mm F2,8 lens at an amazing ISO setting of 51,200. The results weren't great but I will work with them.