Thrifty Thursdays feature photographs taken with equipment costing less than $500. [Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 - $241] A prairie ant (Formica montana) tends treehoppers (Publilia sp.) for honeydew on the back of a sun-soaked leaf. This relationship between ant shepherds and bug sheep goes back millions of years and is always a rich subject for compelling natural [...]

Thrifty Thursdays feature photographs taken with equipment costing less than $500. [HP deskjet F4280 printer/scanner - $150] Central Illinois is reaching peak color, and I’ve placed it on a flatbed scanner. This sort of imaging couldn’t be easier.

Thrifty Thursdays feature photographs taken with equipment costing less than $500. [Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 - $241; Canon 430EX II speedlight - $208; Jasmine the Cat - priceless] I wouldn’t ordinarily attempt this kind of precision shot with a cheap automatic camera. But I needed a photograph for Thrifty Thursday, so here we are. In high-speed photography, [...]

Thrifty Thursdays feature photographs taken with equipment costing less than $500. [Nikon Coolpix 995 - 3 megapixel classic digicam from 2001] One frustrating aspect of point-and-shoot cameras is the sheer ugliness of the on-camera flash. One can circumvent this problem by building an external rig with various lamps or reflectors, but often it is simply [...]

Alex Wild over at Compound Eye is quick to point out with his Thrifty Thursday posts that great photos can be taken with relatively inexpensive equipment… IF you know what you’re doing. Here’s a great case in point: A few nights ago, I was strolling along a pedestrian mall in Boulder, CO with some friends. [...]