Kevin Whitworth / Jacurutu

It was a nice day today, and the weather seems to have brought out the ladybirds, so I couldn't resist digging the camera out and having another play at macro shots with the extension tubes.

There wasn't enought ambient light to hold the small aperture needed to keep some depth of field (at least with sensible shutter speeds), so it gave me another chance to play with off-camera lighting as well. It's a shame ladybirds have convex shiny wing cases though, as it makes it really difficult to avoid reflections of the flash. Still, I'm reasonably happy with most of these - see the full set on Flickr, or on the ladybird album on my site here.

At long last, I've finished editing the photos of our trip to London in February. They're all on Flickr in my London set. I've also uploaded them to the photo albums on here as London 2007 under Holidays and Days Out.

The photo on the right show the Queen's House and the old Royal Naval College in front of Canary Wharf.

This now means I have no excuse for not finishing the Kenya photos from last October, so watch this space...

Just posted another batch of photos from the London trip. These are from the V&A museum. It's not always my idea of fun, but Jenny likes it. However, the photography section was interesting - mostly to see about the different types of film/slides/prints.

Also, at least they let you take photographs in there (unlike the Tate Modern). I'm glad I stuffed the 50mm f/1.8 lens in my pocket though, as flashes and tripods aren't allowed, and the lighting isn't that great.

OK, so getting thrashed by Wales was bad, but to rub salt into the wound, France managed to win overall on points difference. If only Ireland had taken the 3 points instead of giving away a try to Italy!

Well, I suppose the only consolation is that I can't see any of the 6 nations teams being strong enough to lift the world cup this year.

Hurray - we beat the French! Not that I want to gloat or anything, but...

I also think Wales were robbed on Saturday. Bang out of order.

So, looks like an interesting final day to the 6 nations next Saturday. (Especially as England v Wales tends to raise the tension at home, with Jenny being an avid Wales supported.)

Added a couple more photos from the recent London trip.

This, and one of the others is from the new New Zealand war memorial. Thought I'd try them in black and white, which seemed appropriate. Not quite sure I've got the hang of B&W yet, or that the originals were particularly good photos. Guess I need to head to the back issues of some of the camera mags for some hints and tips...

OK, so I still haven't finished the London photos (or the Kenya ones for that matter), but I have pulled together a couple of photos I took of the lunar eclipse last weekend.

They were taken with the Nikon AFD 80-400mm lens, and for some I also had the Kenko 1.4 TC on as well. Unfortunately, none of them are fantastically sharp. I wonder with hindsight whether using the 70-200mm lens would have been a better bet, but it's too late now. If only I could afford something bigger and faster (like the AF-S 200-400mm f/4 VR)!

So, as promised, here's the first installment of the London photos.

This is taken in the grounds of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, looking out between Wren's domes of the former Royal Naval College to Canary Wharf and Docklands.

There's a couple of similar photos in the London, February 2007 set, and I'll keep adding to it as and when I get more photos edited. Once I complete editing, I'll post them up to the photo album on here as well.

Didn't take too many photos this time. Guess I must be getting more discerning. Either that or lots of the places we went wouldn't let you take photos once inside. (Got told off in the Tate Modern - whoops!)

Hopefully what I have taken are good though - watch this space.