Backlit new growth on a late spring afternoon can capture some beautiful textured lighting. This collage is an example of one of the new mosaic collage options in picasa 3 beta

If you like the mosaic below this is just a reminder you can download a screen wallpaper based on it and other wallpapers based on my photo from my flickr screen wallpaper set

I have been doing a lot of "playing" with photomosaics, specifically the ones that make up another image. My software of choice has been andrea mosaic for a long long time. It is free to download, and gives you a lot of control over, as well as the tools to build the library of tile images you use. To be fair its user interface is old fashioned text forms, but perfectly servicable.

The past couple of weeks I have been trying out mosaic creator, it has a much snazzier user interface (it may not be any easier to use though) and has two important differences to andrea

1. it can generate an image using a range of tile shapes (eg triangle and hexagons)
2. It does not need to firstly compile libraries of tile images (you can give it individual images or directories of images)

This second feature got me thinking, I could use a standard image and get a photomosaic made from any given day's photos (providing I had taken enough photos). Here is how a few of the different day tilings worked out on my photo eye icon.

 

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Now is the right time (well in the southern hemisphere, it is) to get out in your garden (or some one else's, these photos are all from my mother's garden) and get up close to the magnificent spring display. Close up photos, where the image is close to the size of the original are usually referred to as Macro Photography. Most digital cameras, and a lot of camera phones, these days have a macro setting, usually indicated by a button of setting on the lens marked with a flower. When you get up close you may find your run into few special issues, If you are using a view finder, you may find the image you captured is half cropped off (so it is better to use the camera LCD screen to frame your photo before you take it). When you are close up depth of view (not normally seen as an issue on digital cameras) will mean you may only be able to focus on part of the flower, so don't be afraid to take a few shots and move the camera in and out, till the results are pleasing. With an intricate flower a slightly out of focus background can enhanced the image. Your camera manual may have some other good advice on using that unused marco feature, for close up images.

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