New photos from the garden and the walk along the river / in the woods today...
I've shrunk the images a fair bit and cropped a couple, but I've not done and post-processing on any of them.

The apple tree (Elster) that I planted last year, when we moved into the house.

I found the spiral leaf interesting.

With the little Ixus, getting any sort of shot of the spider web was hard work, that was the only one of 6 picks that was usable...

I found the perspective and size "feeling" in this image interesting.

I didn't spot this little fella hiding in the flower, when I made the photograph.

This little guy was taking a snooze on the flower, he didn't move for a series of shots.

I found the macroed grass perspective interesting. I also had some with the neighbours house in the background, just goes to show how bright it was, with macro mode on, the grass and the house were both in focus! Not really what I was looking for though.


The crab apple we planted last year. The photos don't really capture just how radiant the flowers are.

The flower is so bright, it seems almost fake in this photo, even without any processing.

The new bench, taken from the seat going up the back.

Here at full zoom, with the sun overhead, just the very top of the bench, directly in the middle is in focus.

Found this blue flowers lurking under the stingers.

I found the structure of the leaf interesting, but it wasn't until I got the image home, that I realised just how much polen was laying on the leaf.

There were a lot of stumps which had lots of stems growing out of them, very interesting to see, even if the photo itself isn't anything special.

Given the distance, I was impressed that I got anything usable from the little Ixus. A Buchfink (Chaffinch).

FInally, this little pair running around together.
Edit: I very nearly bought a new camera this week. I was looking at the Nikon D5000, with an 18-105mm lens (679€) or a Canon EOS 550D with 18-135mm lens (837€). When it comes to Canon and Nikon, is it just down to which one you feel more comfortable with?
What is the "film" equivalent focal length of those lenses. With my old EOS 500 (film) I had a Sigma zoom lens (50-300mm), can you use them with the digitals? On my Praktica, I had telephoto convertors, which 300mm as well, which I found I used a lot to get a decent close up (motor racing etc.), therefore 105 or 135mm seems rather small, but I know that digital lenses give them a differnet focal length equivalent.