Enjoy the Simple Things

Today looks to be the last day of my imprisonment by the flooring contractor. That is until we have the carpeting installed. Judging by the shape of our carpet it was a wise decision to do the carpeting last. With all of the sawdust and the workers going in and out it is looking pretty bad. What to do on a rainy day? I grabbed my macro lens and took a walk into the backyard. The leaves on Lenore's roses looked pretty enticing covered with the raindrops. So many times I have found beauty in the small worlds at my feet rather than in the grand landscape. Please enjoy the simple beauty of these leaves. god's light and love to all, chris Image created with a Canon 7D and a 100mm macro lens on a tripod. AV mode, ISO 800, F 16.0 at 1/30th of a sec.

Inside Endeavors

Last night the wind just howled. The yard was covered in debris this morning. There were leaves, needles, twigs and sadly the remnants of the new knothole feeder I just put up. It looks like I'll have to search out some more mossy bark and build a new one. I went downtown to work out and buy groceries. What an amazing difference in the weather. At my house on top of the ridge the wind was blowing and it was cold. When I arrived downtown it was calm and warm. When I got back home I made a quick set up to do some smoke photography. I did some red smoke and some blue. My favorite was some blue smoke that looked a lot like a pregnant woman that was just beautiful. What do you see? God's love an mercies to all, chrisAll images were created with a Canon 7D and a 100mm macro lens. Camera was set to manual mode. Exposures varied. Lighting used was a snooted Alien Bee 1600 studio flash from the side.

Dr. Seuss Strikes Again

Yesterday while watering in the back yard I came across a really weird insect.One of those perfectly suited to a Dr. Seuss book. Naturally I had to photograph it. So here are some images of it crawling all over one of Lenore's roses. I found one similar to it last year and our friend Erin was kind enough to ID it. Though I have already forgotten what she stated it was.I looked all through my field guides today and I couldn't find anything resembling it.Still it was fun to look at and photograph. Maybe it's a newly discovered insect and I can get to name it a Seussian Kagrasshopterus.

God's precious love to all,

chris

Mad for Macro in the Meadow

This morning I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to photograph some grasshoppers! I rolled out of bed while the rest of the house was sleeping. I grabbed my macro lens and a tripod and headed out the door. My destination was a small meadow below the dam at Lake Emily near my house here in Northern California. I knew I would find some grasshoppers there. The cool thing was is that I found quite a few other insects as well.There were bumble bees, butterflies,hoverflies and even earwigs. I had a great time crawling around on my knees and getting down low on my belly.I'm really happy with many of the images. Take a look and see.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Tiny Bubbles

This morning the wind is howling on the ridge top. It doesn't make for very good bird photography which is what I had planned for today along with a bunch of paperwork that I need to get done. I went to the kitchen and played with bubbles. Here are a few of my favorites along with one water and oil.Now back to the paperwork.

God's precious love and genereous blessings to us all,

chris

Water and Oil or Playing With Patterns No. 2

Over the past coupe of days I have been thinking about how to improve the set up I used to photograph water and oil patterns. This morning I finally figured it out. Progresso Soup! Now you are thinking that I've lost my mind. I know you are. What the set up needed was more working distance to blur the background more. It also needed to be something that I could easily set up and take down.Two stacked soup cans under the corners of a glass tray would be the perfect height and it would be easy to set up and take down.

I set to work at it early this morning and I had a great time finding all sorts of colors to slide under the tray to provide different colored backgrounds. I used Christmas cards, ads and pretty much anything else that was colorful that I could find. The results were stunning. I'm thinking of enlarging one of the images up to poster size to hang in my office.

A Merry Christmas to all,

chris

Playing With Patterns

I have been reading for some time now about photographing the patterns that oil and water make when they are mixed. Today I photographed some samples in a small plastic dish. The results were interesting enough that I might try it again with a better set up.

A Merry Christmas to all,

chris

The Local Buzz

This morning I was able to photograph a wasp on a Zinnia flower right after I dropped off Jay at school this morning. It is really hot today. Funny thing is just as I typed those words a litle breeze started kicking in from the coast. Maybe it won't get too hot today after all. I guess I shouldn't complain I'm not in Afganistan. My niece Chelsea is though so say a few prayers for her safety as well as others in the armed forces who are continually in harms way.

God's light and love to all,

chris

Cicadas

Cicadas are such cool looking insects. I found one this afternoon lying on the dirt road just down from my house. I saved it until this evening so I could photograph it in the soft evening light just before sundown. Then I set it free

God's precious light and everlasting love to all,

chris

Locals

The family helped me move the remmnants of the wood pile in preparation for a new load of wood for next winter. In the process we found a few of the locals hiding under some of the logs. I stuck them in a jar and this morning Annika worked as the scorpion wrangler while I photographed them. It's so much easier having a second person when you are doing this. Those little suckers can move pretty fast when they want to. After she left I lost one under my desk. I had to dig 'em out of there so I wouldn't get stung on the foot while I'm working at my computer. Yikes!

God's precious love to all,

chris

Things Found in the Garage

I was still working on cleaning the garage today. I was spurred on by the fact that there is rain in forecast for tomorrow and most of the garage was spread out onto the driveway to make it easier to sort. You run across all kinds of archeological finds when you do a dig like this. There was stuff from circa 1950s and possibly some older all the way up to the present.

I found an old rusty lock. Heaven knows why we saved it. There were tins of spices from clearing out Lenore's mom's house and a couple of really old dusty negatives. An old black and white 4x5 from somewhere along the coast and a 35mm strip with a cute one of Jay and Annika walking in a field somewhere. From the appearance of the prints I pulled from them negatives don't hold up very well being stored in a damp garage.

God's precious love and blessings to all,

chris

The Easy Way Out (Or Would You Eat This Mushroom?)

I 'll admit it. This morning in creating this image I took the easy way out. It still involved some work and experience to create this image but I chose the easy way out to do it. I took it right next to my car(my back was against the bottom of the car) in my front driveway less than five minutes after I rolled out of bed.

The beginnings of this image are simple. I always keep my eye out for potential images. In coming home yesterday I spotted a mushroom growing right next to where I park my car. So I logged it into my memory banks . If it's an image that might be taken or shot in the future like a tree that needs to be shot in fall colors I'll write it down in my notebook for the future. If you use a day runner or planner that's even better as you can write it in around the future date in the fall when this image should be taken.

I liked this mushroom because it wasn't the pretty delicate or colorful mushrooms that I often like to photograph. It was covered with dirt from pushing up out of the soil and it was getting past its prime. It was certainly not the kind of mushroom that I probably would want to eat and that is what I wanted this image to be about.

So this morning just as the sun was just starting to come up I grabbed a macro lens, my trust ground pod, an led flashlight and an electronic cable/shutter release. I found my gnarly looking mushroom and laid down on the ground next to it. I set the camera to Aperature Priority and dialed in an aperature of F22.0 for maximum depth of field. I removed all the little leaves that would be hot spots around it . After I clicked the shutter I had plenty of time during the 2 second exposure to light up the underside of the mushroom with my flashlight to make the gills and stem stand out.

The final image was dark, gritty and gnarly looking just as I had envisioned. I wouldn't want to eat it that's for sure.

Sincerely and God bless you,

chris