Cool time-lapse tilt-shift photography

Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Look at what I found from the web; Tilt-shift lens. Pretty cool stuff as it will cause people and objects in the picture look like miniature! Tilt-Shift as explained from Wikipedia :

" Tilt-shift photography refers to the use of camera movements on small- and medium format cameras; it usually requires the use of special lenses.

"Tilt-shift" actually encompasses two different types of movements: rotation of the lens relative to the image plane, called tilt, and movement of the lens parallel to the image plane, called shift. Tilt is used to control the orientation of the plane of focus (PoF), and hence the part of an image that appears sharp; it makes use of the Scheimpflug principle. Shift is used to change the line of sight while avoiding the convergence of parallel lines, as when photographing tall buildings.

In many cases, "tilt-shift photography" refers to the use of tilt and a large aperture to achieve a very shallow depth of field. "

Tridax Procumbens

As I was closing my front gate, I saw this little flower from a weed beside my front gate. I decided to take a macro shot of it. It is the same flower as my post "View with a different prespective" about a year ago. Some info from Wikipedia :

"Tridax procumbens is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family. Its common names include coat buttons and tridax daisy in English, cadillo chisaca in Spanish, herbe caille in French, Jayanti veda in Sanskrit, ghamra in Hindi, Dagadi pala in Marathi, Thata poodu in Tamil, and kotobukigiku in Japanese. It is best known as a widespread weed and pest plant. It is native to the tropical Americas but it has been introduced to tropical, subtropical, and mild temperate regions worldwide. The plant bears daisylike yellow-centered white or yellow flowers with three-toothed ray florets. The leaves are toothed and generally arrowhead-shaped. Its fruit is a hard achene covered with stiff hairs and having a feathery, plumelike white pappus at one end. The plant is invasive in part because it produces so many of these achenes, up to 1500 per plant, and each achene can catch the wind in its pappus and be carried some distance. This weed can be found in fields, meadows, croplands, disturbed areas, lawns, and roadsides in areas with tropical or semi-tropical climates."

Things you'd probably haven't seen in detail

I got myself a "Macro Extension Tube" last Thursday so I can snap pictures close up using my existing lens. It was very hard taking pictures as the depth-of-field was very shallow. One technique I learned from a book to help me take the pictures were to snap in bursts so that at least some of the pictures turns out OK.

Water droplets on a leaf after an afternoon shower. My lens and the clouds can be seen on the droplet's relection

Water droplet on the edge of a leaf

An insect emerging after the shower


Hibiscus pistil and stamens

Rosemary leaf closeup

The flower is 1cm across and the ants are about 1mm in length

Another magnificent view of the Hibiscus