My trusty gear

 Here is a selection of the gear i use.
1st is my Nikon D300s which has 12.3 megapixel sensor and with a standard battery will shoot at 7 frames per second ,it is fairly robust with a alloy body and virtually waterproof (but i wouldnt try it in storm conditions).I started my photography hobby with a Nikon D40x and only used it on manual as i did not know what all the other settings meant ,ie M,AS and P and i certainly did not not know what an ISO ,shutter speed or aperture were ,so i booked a place in college to learn the basics.Since my first course i was told to put the camera setting on M (manual) and also on manual focus (i never even new i could set a manual focus)and after a week or 2 i was completley hooked .I tried diffrernt setings and got a lot of blank screens but when i look back know i never traded light and speed so i was never going to get far,But then it clicked in my head and since then i have never been on anything else but Manual'.

Below are a selction of the lenses i have bought and the first one is a Nikon Macro Lense which is a 2-8 -105m lense with an aperture as low as 2.8 which in real terms gives you a focal point at about 4 inches with a focol point ot only a couple of mil that will be razor sharp,a crackin lense that also has a SW motor (silent wave) so when up close to bugs and flies the lense is very quite.
2nd is my favorite piece of kit,its the Nikon 80/400 lense which is brilliant for my wild life photography as you can get the object you are after closer with this telephoto lense .I mainly use this lense when it is attached to a tri pod but can still use it hand held but it is quite heavy,i also find it usefull when panning on moving objects like birds in flight or motorsports.

 
 The next lense is a Nikon 55/200 which alows me to get closer than my 80/400 but not as close as the
acro lense.

Here we have 3 extension tubes that are placed on the camera body and then the lense is attached to the tube.You can use 1 ,2 or all 3 in any combination or singular and when attached to the camera the image you see is enlarged on the camera sensor enabling you to get closer to the image and magnifying the image in the camera sensor.

This is a Nikon speed light which i normally use on a second tripod with a small slave unit attached to it that fires the flash when not attached to the camera,so i can lighten the object i am shooing from any angle.

Another favorite bit  of kit is this cordless shutter release that will work upto 100 m away so i place the camera on a tripod close to the image and manually focos on the point i need and retire back to a distance that doesnt spook my subject and silently press down the shutter .

Here is a Nikon angled view finder which i use when shooting low subjects or Macro work.It is fitted with a 1 or 2x image magnifyer so you can instantly see a close up image and then adjust your focus manually to get the desired image that you want,