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.

Lars is you can get what you want with fully automatic settings then that's great and it's true you can usually make adjustments in Photoshop or other programs. I had some disappointing results the other day with my DSLR in the Botanical garden where there are extremes of dark shade and bright sunlight. I'm going back there again and will use only automatic to see what settings the same camera chooses and how the pics turn out. Then I can go back again and hopefully fine tune my settings for some better pictures. It's all trial and error sometimes in difficult lighting situations. Luckily the entrance fee is just a couple of Euros. :-) SharonCb

and the second one, in progress All taken on 35mm SLRs, some with macro lens others with basic homemade setups. Here is a link that might be useful: Macro page 2