Blancawing, Me too...I love the sea and anything to do with it. Years ago (20?) I bought an underwater camera setup from a coworker and got hooked. I've taken jillions (seems like it) of photos and have sold many. I have my own photography company called "Something's Fishy". I even had a 5-year contract with a company (Cayman Chemical) to provide them with photos for the booth space and their catalog. That let to a copyright infringement lawsuit because the printer of said catalog stole a photo from me and started using it on all their materials too. (UGH) I will say that with the knee and Achilles problems that have plagued me for the past 5 years, I haven't done more than snorkle, but...in a way...things happen for a reason. When I am photographing underwater I am so intent on the subject or finding a particular subject, I am not paying attention to all of the other wonderful things going on. I have set the underwater camera down for now (may upgrade to a digital SLR), so that the next time I scube (soon!!?!) I can see all those garden eels, angel fish, coral heads, etc. And.....BIG SIGH.....Cary Grant was the real deal. I think I'll watch Roman Holiday today. My mother looked like Aubrey Hepburn and that movie is just too cute. OH....so like Jodi said, the manual for my digital camera might as well be written in Dutch. I didn't even think the exposure was adjustable because it's so automatic. Looks like the F stop is set at 2.6, but I have some control over the shutter speed. Darn camera is too smart, I'm used to fully manual cameras! Have a Hippi day!! :-) K

I actually first got into photography to capture images of my plants. I'd always had little point-and-shoots, but a couple years ago, I got serious and bought a DSLR. The initial costs were pretty high for the gear, but hopefully I won't be replacing this stuff any time soon! It also took some time and effort to really understand the ins and outs of proper exposures, but to me at least, it has all been worth it. My current kit: Canon Digital Rebel XT body Canon EF-S 60mm Macro (the lens I used to take the Hoya shots) Canon EF 24-105mm (the lens I use for pretty much all the other photos I post) Canon EF-S 10-22mm (don't post many pics shot with this lens, but it is tons of fun!) Canon Speedlite 580EX (95% of the photos I take use a flash, even in broad daylight) Canon MR-14EX macro ring light (A good ring light makes taking macro shots much less frustrating) Here is a link to a gallery of all my succulent photos: Succulent collection

scubastan, I'm not good at describing the s/h method, and I was going to provide a link, but unfortunately it was blocked because it said I was promoting the site. The only thing I'm providing is info, but now I am forced to explain semi-hydro. And since I'm not an expert and find it difficult to explain, I'm almost inevitably going to do a realy lousy job at it. From what I understand, s/h to me is just like those self-watering pots you see all over. You know, the ones where you put the potting soil in a compartment over a reservoir of water and the soil wicks up the water. Well, semi-hydro is almost exactly the same, only you use hydroponic media like hydroton/LECA. You can make the pots yourself at home by putting a few holes an inch or so above the bottom of any plastic container of the appropriate size for your plant. This provides the reservoir. Then you fill the container with LECA media and when you water thoroughly, any excess will exit the holes while the water in the reservoir wicks up through the media. The only thing you have to do is top off the water when needed so it is filled up to the holes. From what I understand (with orchids, anyway), you only weakly fertilize with this method. I'm doing something similar with my miltoniopsis. I have it in a net pot filled with hydroton and it is submerged about 1/2 inch to an inch below the surface of my tank. The clay on top shines slightly so I know the water has wicked up into the clay media. I just checked the roots today and noticed a new growth on one of the roots. Thankfully, it's working for me. I've never tried it before.

Sharon, while I haven't been posting directly to your photo tip threads, I've been following them avidly. I so appreciate all the effort you've gone to to explain in such an easy way so many aspects of taking good [better for some of us] pictures. The last week or so I've been very busy organizing and then hosting our family reunion at a local fancy diner and have not had a real chance to digest the latest installments. The macro stuff interests me very much. I've tried to use my macro recently and found when I did the camera refused to take the picture?? Odd. LOL.. I'll figure it out but I suspect I'll have to dig through the manual to see what the problem is. Your post makes me suspect it has something to do with the camera not being able to focus on what I'm trying to do or the distance, or something..heh.. and it won't fire as self preservation. Smiles. I'll figure it out and then be back to digest more of your post. Btw, I got a tripod for my birthday! Yay.. I relative I had staying with me for a while apparently absconded with my last tripod. Grrrr... Needless to say I'm looking forward to using the tripod to work on some of your 'lessons'. Thanks for all your great work on our behalf.