unidentified insect

I took this photo and I am trying to identify it. I have gone through an insect book and posted it to two groups on Flickr, but still no ID. Do you know?

edit - It's been identified as an Emphid - Dance Fly thanks to Ian Boyd

unidentified insect, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

Flickr Views

I don't really read that much into views on Flickr, I much prefer to get a constructive critique rather than a few hundred views. On the flip side, my photo's on Flickr have now been viewed over 10,000 times so I am glad that I am generating a bit of interest.

Rivington Terrace Garden

Rivington Terrace Garden, a set on Flickr.

I have been trying to catch up with my Flickr photo uploads, this set is from Rivington Terrace Garden in Lancashire, England. I really like this place, it has a bit of a lord of the rings feel to it.

Southport Sunset

I went to Southport last night to photograph the sunset, it was a low tide and I couldn't go out any further. I was planning on going right to the sea but I couldn't get that far. Another try again for me, next time I will check the tide times. I have uploaded a few more to set on Flickr


Southport Sunset, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

Stitching Photos

I used to stitch quite a few photos together but I haven't done it for a while, I had to replace my PC a while ago and I hadn't re-installed Autostitch, the program I used. It's a free program and available to download here http://cs.bath.ac.uk/brown/autostitch/autostitch.html It's a fully automated program, you chose the settings - file size etc, select the files you want to use and then the program does the work for you.

I usually do one quick run on low size settings and then a second one at a higher resolution, when producing a file for maximum resolution it takes a lot longer to run than when using lower settings so I run the lower setting to make usre it will stitch together properly.

When it installs it doesn't show in the list of programs, you have to launch it from the folder where you installed it. I have created a shortcut on the desktop.

You must choose the settings first, as soon as you select the images the program starts to run. To start, open up the program and then select edit>options. This should open up new screen.

I usually select the scale option on the top left hand corner and change this to 100%, then click ok, I also change the JPEG quality (bottom right hand corner) to 100.

then select file and chose the files you want to merge, I used these files 

I like to have a large overlap between the photos, if I were merging manually then I would have less overlap but since it's an automated program I go for more.

this produces a file like this

I then crop down to this 

if you want to see some more of my photos that have been stitched together like this then visit my stitched photo Flickr set.

Super Moon

It's a 'super moon' tonight (5th May), the moon is 14% closer than average and 30% brighter so its an ideal time to get photos of it but unfortunately tonight it's full cloud cover where I am, so I have to wait for the next one. I had planned where I was going for the shoot, the weather forecast was very sketchy so I thought there was a chance. Hope you all have better luck/weather than me and can manage to get some shots.

April 2012 photo a day mosaic

Another month down, this is the mosaic of my photos

04-2012, a photo by garyd155 on Flickr.

Hoya Star 8 Special Effect Filter

Hoya Star 8 Special Effect Filter

I bought a 55mm Hoya Star 8 Filter. This is a special effects filter that when you take a photo through it you will get an eight pointed star burst. These filters usually cost about £25 but I bought a used one on Ebay for £2.99 – (99p + £2 postage). They are quite common at this price, there isn’t a lot of demand for them and they are quite a specialised filter. The one I bought is in mint condition and looks like it has hardly been used. You can buy a generic non branded one on Ebay new for this price as well but with filters I wouldn't recommend buying cheap ones.

The filter this pattern etched into it and it’s these which cause the stars to appear.

Here are two shots taken with and without the filter.

These photograhps were taken with a light just out of the frame, the star effects are coming from where the light was reflected out towards the camera. Taken on my Sony A450 camera with the 18-55 kit lens. I will take some more photos with this filter attached and post them to here, I think a cityscape with this filter would be interesting.