Hi Simon,
Thanks for the compliment actually this was taken during June 2023, just wanted a bit of colour on the first day of Winter.
Many thanks
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Many thanks for the compliment
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Dahlias are such beautiful flowers. You have captured yours in just the right light to show them off. Gorgeous!
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@MarkG
Nice pics, I particularly like the pair of Egyptian geese.
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With the start of a new year, the first flowers have popped their heads above ground, these snowdrops are always a pleasure to see in the depths of winter.
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I love to see snowdrops. They’re a sign spring is on its way.
Oh, how beautiful! We are just seeing snow and -14 celsius here. BRRR! But cheer up, Indiana, should be 10 degree. So long as the furnace is working, it is okay.
Hi All
I’ve just joined the forum. 4 years post stroke and had no physical issues at all, so very lucky! Brain and motivation a bit buggered though!
I made some comments on photography in another thread and they kindly pointed me to this one.
I’m a definite amateur, but have been interested in photography since I was about 12 (now 64) At an early age and with film in it’s heyday, I found the taking/processing/waiting a bit of a faff, not knowing if the shot’s ok until it’s developed. By complete contrast, my sister was the absolute opposite, she enjoyed the anticipation of sending a film off and waiting for the results in the post. Unsurprisingly, I was pretty keen to get a Polaroid camera. It was one of the first and was black and white. You took a photo and pulled the film out of the camera with your fingers. This squeezed developing gel along the film. You then bunged the film in an aluminium clip and popped it under your armpit to keep it warm and after the required time, took it out and peeled the backing off. There’s your pic! The quality wasn’t great by any means, but was pretty quick, so I liked it a lot. And here it is:
Oops! run out of steam (again). If you’re ot asleep yet, will post up more later 
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Its good to hear from you. Having a stroke can be severely limiting but by using a mobile phone there are usually ways you can make pictures.
Anything related to photography is welcome here. Please contribute there are many here who appreciate the art of the camera.
That Swinger is almost a museum piece, very much like myself.
Hi @Bobbi
Thanks for your positive comments! I’ll keep posting up until people’s eyes glaze over 
Yes I’ve been in the museum for some time. It’s quite and nice and warm!
Hi @SimonInEdinburgh
Yes I remember the ones with bellows! Blast from the past eh? As a complete amateur, I’ve got what I call a ‘proper’ tripod which I scored from a local charity shop. It was outside and was a tenner, so I bit their hands off! The legs each have 3 poles of different sizes that fit inside each other, so it can be made quite tall. Also the hot-shoe-bit will extend upwards using a crank. It also has spirit levels for perfect levelling. I’ll have a go at posting a pic up…
I spent flippin’ ages last night searching ebay for pipe clips as I want to mount the lens on 2 different points for stability. I came up with ‘Munsen Rings’ which are for clipping pipes to a steel tray with holes in it. These types have a rubber insert, so as not to damage the lens barrel. The lens barrel is 38mm and these rings go from 38-43mm, so hopefully will be ok.
Here’s a pic:
No, I live about as far as the south-east as you can go without getting wet! It’s called Deal and not far from Dover. On a clear day, you can see France from the beach and with a telescope you can see the clock. I’ve always fancied taking a piccy of that.
The zoom lens is made by Apexel here:
I’m reasonably pleased with the quality although some of the mechanical design leaves a lot to be desired. The mounting is a ring with a single screw at the top and a 1/4" tapped hole in the bottom for the tripod. OK in theory, but getting a 36x zoom lens stable with such a poor design is a challenge, but I like the lens enough to do a bit of work and make my own mounting.
And… As usual, I bought the wrong item and found something better. MIne is a 36x fixed zoom. When I bought, I didn’t know they also do a 20x-40 variable zoom. While not impossible, it’s a challenge to line up your subject with a 36x zoom. Also the top end of the other lens is 40x so a little better than mine. It’s on order and I’m waiting for it to arrive.
Pleasingly, the 36x zomm also works with my 5x optical zoom on my phone, so is that 180x? I’m not sure.
There’[s some pics below. All taken from the kitchen.
The 1st is the reference shot and if you zoom in. you can see the bird box on the tree.
Pic2 is the 36x zoom over my normal phone lens, showing the bird box.
Pic3 is the 36x zoom over my phone 5x optical
My complaint so far is some of the images are very soft focus. atm, I’m putting this down to movement of the zoom lens, hopefully which I can fox next week when my pressies arrive so here goes:
Oh yes, managed to catch a squirrel on the second one! Not planned, complete chance 
And while I’m on a roll… It was a clear night last night here with a full moon. Got my first shot - still a bit soft, but pleased I got it.
Keep Smilin’
Steve
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If you are familiar with GIMP, an image processing application, you might know that ‘soft’ images can be sharpened up using an unsharp mask. It is possible to get good improvement by this means. GIMP is cross platform, a free and high quality software, available to download over the internet. There is a bit of a learning curve but it is well worth a bit of effort.
This is your moon picture quickly tweaked up a bit with an unsharp mask in GIMP and the bird box with similar treatment…
maybe a little better?
Hi @Bobbi
Yes, much better thanks. I’m a long time user of Paint.net and know it well I just downloaded the unsharp mask plugin for it and see it’s the feature I need. I think I used Gimp some years ago, and remember it was very well regarded. Yes the images are much better thanks for taking the time to process them.
My first go-to will be to get the best sharp images direct from the lens, of course. See what I can do with pipe clips, two boy scouts and a bob and take it from there. Very nice to know there’s an image processing solution too.
When I get a mo, I’ll download Gimp and have a play with it.
Thanks again
Steve
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Hold on! Wasn’t the Gimp the person kept in the lockable box in the basement at the gun shop in Pulp Fiction? eek!
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@fryingtonite love the photo with the squirrel. I see you said it wasn’t planned but the unplanned ones are sometimes the best. Great work.
Hi Mrs5K
Thanks! Yes, it was lucky. We have a couple of squirrels that hang about our garden. Dunno where they go, but we often see them running along the fence and back again a while later.
Last year, I saw one running along the fence with a couple of babies in tow. Now THAT would have made a nice pic!
I’ve got a pretty rubbish tiny plastic tripod with the zoom lens, but think it might be OK for low shots. Tomorrow if I get time, I’m going to put a pile of peanuts out for the squirrels and set the camera up next to them. Hopefully get a close-up 
.
Following @Bobbi 's post, I did an unsharp mask on the moon pic, converted it to black and white and played around with the contrast/brightness. Now you can see a bit more detail, which I quite like:
Cheers
Steve
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I would like to make it plain that I am not advocating introducing bondage into the hobby and pursuit of photography.
GIMP is a software package, the ‘Gnu Image Manipulation Program’, and is not connected with the wearing of leather and rubber.
This is not the GIMP mask to which I was referring.
Image manipulation is a vast subject which was being studied before photography came into existence. The way that light works, perspective, light and shade, colour and perception are all relevant and can influence the manufactured image. It can be useful to have some knowledge of these things.
The formation and arrangement of words can also influence what we perceive and how it comes across.
keep on keepin’ on
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I’ll throw this into the mix for anyone who might want more.
This is a vast subject but knowing how perception can be influenced is worth discovering. Whether you chose to use the know how is up to you.
If this is too technical to take in, relax. Don’t let this stunt your creativity. We all have something to share. Do it your way. Nobody goes out and tells a bird they hit a wrong note, or criticises a daisy for getting its colours wrong. You are the way you were meant to be.
keep on keepin’ on
Hi @Bobbi
Yes, of course I was joking as I can see you are. Nice mask though, do you know where you can buy them? Just for the weekend of course
Thanks very much for the vid on unsharp masking. I’ll check it out later as it’s a early start today and not had my coffee yet. I see there’s plenty for me to learn here.
Just as an aside - I zoomed in on my reference image (the kitchen one) and measured the width of the bird box as 36 pixels. Then I did the same with the 36x zoom image and it was 778 pixels. So, 778/36 = just over 20x. Is my method right? If so, my lens is only 20x, not 36x. I bought it as ‘opened never used’ on eBay and wondered if it’s a knock-off? I’ll try and find some official images of it and see if there are any errors in the appearance/text. Hmmmmm
Cheers
Steve
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Believe it or not I’m no expert, just an enthusiast. I would have to google how that works, I too tend to accept what I am told. It isn’t nice to feel that you’ve been ripped off though.
I know for certain that magnification and quality are inversely proportional. A decent quality magnification can work out very expensive, Those super large lenses used by journalists are tens of thousands of pounds I believe.
I’m likely inaccurate here but I think I think 35X refers to focal length rather than image size. Also variation in image size appears to not be proportional to variation in focal length. My brain is boggling in trying to conceive of what is involved.
Looking on the big net I don’t think you have wasted your money and you will likely enjoy capturing some interesting images.
I wouldn’t advise searching for used gimp masks on ebay, they could introduce complications.
Maybe an enthusiast, but a knowledgeable one! Your input is much appreciated! I see someone else is up early too!
I’ll test the theory of image size versus x zoom on my phone later as it will do 0.5x, 1x and 5x so I’ll take a sample and measure them and see what comes out the pot. I trust my phone to be correct (he says hopefully!)
On the Apexel lens, I’ve had a closer look, and there are some other issues with it.
Down the objective end, there’s a knurled ring that will not turn, even if you use some force. Looking o the Apexel site, this is the Field of View adjustment. Additionally, on the official site, it has the text next to the ring saying “-FOV+” and mine does not.
Searching on the Aliexpress site, there’s lots of supposedly Apexel 36x lenses, all with the FOV text missing and reading the reviews there are complaints the FOV ring doesn’t move.
Currently, I think this is an Aliexpress knock-off but have emailed Apexel with some pics to ask their opinion. I’ve also emailed the seller to ask where they bought it from.
The other thing I noticed on one of the pics (36x), was a little chromatic aberration, which surprised me (see below) You can see a blue tinge around the edges of hole in the bird box:
