Monday, March 13, 2006
Purple Fuzzy!

A.K.A. Hummingbird Lunch!

The hummers really love this bush and if it tastes half as good as it looks I can understand why!

Sunday, March 12, 2006
Purple Daisies

My muse took me for a walk yesterday and we found some beautiful daisies that don't seem to mind the sub 40° F night time temperatures right now.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Cosmos Texture

So, I'm pretty sure I took this one it looks like the kind of photo I would take but to be fair my wife :-D and I were trading the camera back and forth that day and I just scanned the roll. Either way, its a beautiful image and it is an interesting contrast to the Cosmos I took recently with a Digital camera.

Thursday, February 2, 2006
Purple flower

The light is perfect on this beautiful flower, the angle brings out the texture of the petals. But, the Internet failed me on this one! I was not able to identify it. I'll keep lookin'.

Saturday, December 17, 2005
Cosmos

So before I took the digital camera back (Canon EOS 20D) I thought I would really see how it compared to my trusty AE-1 and Velvia. I took it through some of my favorite situations, unfortunately it was a hazy day so the lighting was not the greatest. Then again, if it was perfect conditions that wouldn't make for a very interesting test would it?

This is the result of my flower close-up test, I'm pretty happy with it! And, of course, I already know it preforms nicely in low light with a moving subject.

I did, however, find a couple of weaknesses. Velvia is much more forgiving in high contrast environments, especially right into the sun. (Yes yes, I know, "don't take pictures into the sun". but that's something they just tell amateur photographers so they don't get frustrated) :-D     I do, however believe I would be able to overcome this limitation to a certain extent with a little more practice with the camera's finer controls.

The really interesting thing I found was the reloads. I liked not having to reload film, and I was dreaming about 4 Gig CF cards. Then the reality hit me. It is not the Card that runs out first, its the battery! I could not fill up the one gig card without killing the battery (and that's without the built-in flash). The only saving grace was the fact that the battery charged quickly. I assume it is the auto-focus that killed it so fast, and I can do without that in many situations so it is not a deal breaker. But this is an important bit of information for anyone trying to prepare for a long shoot, you have to invest in as many batteries as CF cards.

Lastly, I love the saturation of Velvia. But that is more personal preference. I would imagine that I may be able to compensate a bit for this too with enough experience with the camera. But I felt like my landscape and architecture shots were a little flat.

In the end, I am convinced this would be a worthy tool to add to my bag of tricks. I loved using it, and I believe it has some real strengths. But, as with everything, you have to choose the right tool for the job and in many situations that is still gonna be my AE-1.

(BTW Cosmos is from the Greek "Kosmos" meaning ornament.)

Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Purple Daisy Shadows

I like the shadows on the rock, they are as interesting as the flowers themselves.

Thursday, December 8, 2005
Purple Daisies

I like the petals of the flowers in the middle, the ones that are sticking toward the camera. They are at just the right angle to poke up into the plain of focus, so their tips are in focus. But the flowers themselves fade into the background because of the wide open aperture.

Monday, November 28, 2005
Relaxing Spot

This is a nice relaxing spot in Carmel, California. I actually have to turn off the color correction on my scanner to scan these flowers, it does not seem to believe the color of them, it tries to make them pink.

Sunday, October 9, 2005
Harbor Moonrise

You can see the moon coming up on the right side of the photo, through the fog. This was an amazing night to take pictures.

Friday, September 2, 2005
Purple Tiger

By request! (see yesterday's feedback) This is the only purple rose I could find, and even though they are named "Purple Tiger" they are a very red purple. But, at least I grew this one myself! :-D

Thursday, June 30, 2005
Backlit Agapanthus

Last week, when I was loading my Jeep for a show, I was fortunate enough to catch the sun at a great angle on our little front yard area. On a Saturday my Hound Dog and I would have still been quite unconscious at this time.

This is a variety of Lily native to South Africa. It grows like wild around here, and it's beautiful when they really get going.

Sunday, April 10, 2005
Floral Fireworks

Another beauty in my backyard.

Last fall we noticed quite a few butterflies in our back yard. We decided to look for something that they would like to eat. I grabbed a couple of these Passion Flower (AKA Maypop & Apricot Vine) vines in the store because I have always loved them. After some research we also tried another flowering vine.

A few days after getting the vines settled in, one of our visitors returned and sat right on the Passion Flower vine. Apparently I am not the only one who likes them. Of course, they probably were not admiring the blossoms, they must taste pretty good too. (Butterflies taste and smell with their feet.)

Before long, the small vines were so covered in butterfly larvae they almost didn't make it (they must taste really good). We were able to watch them build cocoons but we did not catch any of them leaving.

Happily, spring is here and one of the vines is covered in buds and we have already seen one early beautiful blossom. The other is still recovering from it's fall job as a butterfly drive thru, (errr... fly thru?) But it looks like it will make it.