Dragonfly

This picture was taken on the same day as this picture of a drop of water, and this other picture of a drop of water. I was in the Imperial Palace gardens shooting for a good part of the morning on an extended business trip to Tokyo in October 2007. This dragonfly was just hanging out on this hedge and didn't seem to mind that I was following, watching, and shooting him. It was really cool. He was really big!

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Yet another water drop

You might think that I'm obsessed with water droplets, what with that other two shots of water drops that I've uploaded to the photo blog. Yes, you're right. But I couldn't help myself with my macro lens. It really does make it so easy to get up close to clearly see things like a drop of water. Anyway, the depth of field and the focus is the hardest part, of course. If you don't have a steady hand...which I don't...then it could make taking shots really hard.

Anyway, this time this photo was taken in Tokyo. It wasn't in a very peaceful place at all. It was along the side of the road on my way to the Imperial Palace...where I took this shot. It had rained the night before and despite the throng of pedestrians and the rumbling of traffic behind me, I was able to snap this shot. I promise this will be my last water droplet shot for a while...until the next time, right? This shot happens to be my background on my work laptop.

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San Francisco Rust

I was in San Francisco recently on business and I challenged myself to get out and shoot as much as I could with the free time that I had. While shooting the well-known sites, such as the Golden Gate Bridge, were cool, I think I had more fun exploring things that were right under my nose - like the rusted links found in this picture. These links act as a guard rail so people don't fall into the bay below. The cracked and rusted metal caught my attention, which I thought would make an interesting subject for my macro lens.

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Another drop of water

So, I love taking macro shots, but this one frustrates me. I like what I'm TRYING to do, but I think my execution is still lacking. I can't get the focusing quite right and so I'll shoot 100 shots and each shot can't quite get the droplet of water in perfect focus. So I have to do some digital manipulation, which is what I did here. It's fine.

But to say something positive about this shot, it's amazing to me that water has as much form as it does. I'm so used to seeing it go anywhere and everywhere, but it's cool to see it nestled on a leaf.

This shot was taken at The Getty Museum. This place is seriously one of my favorite spots in LA. Not only is it the site of my first date with Shelley, but it just has all you could ask for in a museum - great art, cool architecture, beautiful views of the city, and nice landscaped gardens.

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Green apple

When I come to Japan on business, I get to stay at The Peninsula Hotel, an upscale hotel that just opened up in Tokyo in September. One of the great aspects about the service at this hotel is that the staff brings to your room two servings of a really great fruit each and every day. If you don't eat it, they bring in new fruit. I've had huge grapes, kiwi fruit, clementines, Japanese pears, etc. Over the weekend they brought me a couple of green apples, which became the subject of this picture.

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A drop of water

I actually took this shot today. I'm on an extended business trip to Japan and had the entire day free on Saturday. I lugged all of my photographic equipment all the way to Japan for just such an occassion.

It has rained the night before I took this shot and that meant plenty of opportunities to take pictures of leaves with little beads of water on them. I've never successfully shot one, and I'm not quite sure how I feel about this one. maybe it's the closest one I've taken to being remotely shaprly in-focus. This was taken inside the public gardens of the Imperial Palace. I took a lot of time looking for shots - nearly two hours. I had my iPod on and I tuned out the world while taking pictures. A very good day.

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A Butterfly, Up Close and Personal

So, another macro shot while we're on the subject. Shelley and I spent a long weekend in Utah. We were visiting with her grandparents and we spent the morning up at Payson Lakes in the mountains in southern Utah County. Tons of wild flowers, bees, butterflies and other insects. This little guy didn't seem to mind having a macro lens focusing in his face. He was more interested in the flower itself. I'm amazed at the level of detail. You think you have a good view of what a butterfly looks like until you see its nose and weird eyes and the long tongue.

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Translucent Red Leaf

I recently purchased a new macro lens, which allows me to get really close to my subject and take pictures. This is used for things like bugs, flowers, that sort of thing. Last weekend, I was able to use it for the first time while visiting Santa Rosa, California. My entire family was there to celebrate my Grandmother's 90th birthday. After the celebration, we took the kids to a park and I found a tree with dark leaves that glowed red in the sunlight. This is where I snapped this shot.

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