interesting what you see in the center of a flower when you get right next to it.

looks good enough to eat. but only if you are a bug.

i start my new job at Yahoo! tomorrow. i am really looking forward to it.

a few new shots of the poppies with a new macro lens. the old one wouldn't stay in focus and my images were always a tiny bit soft. this one is crisp and I am having fun exploring the depth of field with it. a couple more of these and then pics from my recently completed trip to death valley in the new touareg!

poppy centers are super complex compared to the petal structure.

some things are too good to pass up—like photographing the poppies in my garden. i am enjoying being lazy during my week between jobs

looking down into the white calla lilly

today was the first day not at AOL. my team roasted me last night for a going away gathering. it was hysterical and super touching and meant so much to me. geez guys, i am going to miss you so much. too bad i won't be hiring in my new gig... ;-)

today is my last day at AOL. Almost 3 years to the day from when I started. It feels like many more years than that because of all the reorgs, the different divisions and the many bosses I have had. Actually the last 2+ years, I really only had 2 bosses with a couple of brief moments reporting directly to VPs.

But knowing that doesn’t necessarily make today any easier. So long running man. So long aol email address. New AIM name for folks to find me after today.

slightly different plane of focus than the previous image. I am not sure which I like better—crsip or soft. Exact or impressionistic.

the last of the rosehips until next year. they shrivel and wrinkle up and eventually I cut them all down. in a former time these were dried and stewed for tea and other medicinal purposes but modern life has taught us to lose all that earlier knowledge.

straight into the center.

out working in the garden this weekend and was struck by the beauty of the end of the cycle of the rosebushes. the rosehips are huge and the sun is cooperative.

macro of a fuscia plant hanging outside my bedroom.

this is also the first shot with my new camera—the canon 1Ds—resolution so rich that it doesn't show up online, but the prints will be wonderful. i have been sick with the flu so the images are a little spare right now.

spent the weekend hacking away in the garden. I was sited by the city because some of my plantings were cascading over the curb and the sidewalk and had to be removed. I did so under protest - the tightly trimmed, suburban crisp edges of plantings and yards is not my thing. I prefer the natural cascading of plants to soften the edges of concrete and manmade objects. I took a break and got in close on one of the flowers.

the flowers in the late afternoon in my garden remind me that today is the last day of august—which generally signals the end of summer. even though I am long out of school, I still feel wistful for the long summer days and even though I am in California, I am looking forward to the fall—which really won’t arrive here until January. I am looking forwar to September and October. Good things always happen then.

my fascination with the bee is neverending: the bee on a strand of lavendar

if the bug is yellow green and the spots are black is it a lady bug or man bug?

the edge of a giant poppy

busy bees buzzing around the lavendar on a warm summer afternoon

overlapping petals of flowers backlit?reminders of matisse or the tissue paper collages we made in grade school

powdery stamen inside the lily

the blood red of the rose against the soft velvet green leaf

another single ant coming out of the center of the flower. i shot this with the extension tube (EF25) on the 28-80mm macro zoom lens. i am still working out if it is possible to hand-hold and get an image without shakes. so far i am about 50-50 successful.

a look into the depths of a nasturtium and we find a visitor.

peruvian lillies have spots and stripes and the most intense colors in the evening.

some of this recent macro work is featured over at 28mm.org. i am very excited to be "showing" this set of work shot in my rose garden.

the color of spring moving into summer—my rose garden is full of this color

tiny hairs along the edge of the rose leaf. amazing what the macro sees

inside the rose the light glows.

interesting article at the NYTimes on photoblogging: Prospecting for Gold Among the Photo Blogs

recently began landscaping in the backyard. last weekend we had all this rock and gravel delivered and proceeded to shovel and move with the wheelbarrow for 3 days straight. of course, I couldn't resist pulling out the camera to capture the feat as well as explore the textures and subtle colors.

exploring what the macro and new macro extension can do. I planted these delphiniums in a pot and within a month the snails have mowed them down, so it seems as if a photo is all i'm going to enjoy of these.

rose bush thorns seen up close are even scarier than far away.

came out to the garden the other day and noticed that the nasturtiums were collecting really large clusters of dew. so i grabbed the canon with the macro zoom and here is the result - a nice collection of closeups.

in the rose garden, the roses glow. I go out with the camera and try to capture some of it with the infrared filter. The light is the best of the day, I take the filter off and capture the glowing roses and the light filters through petals and leaves. It is summer and it has been a good day...

I have spent the last couple of weekends enjoying the sun and working on the side garden beds I started last fall. When I ripped out the grass and put in the patio, I left these wonderful tranglular shaped beds. They wintered over with large piles of soil/manure mix and earlier this spring I spread out the dirt and turned the soil a couple of times. Finally, as the weather has warmed I have begun planting and finishing the beds.

I dug up some existing beds and thinned the plants, moved things into the sun that had been in the shade of the fence and have added a bunch more plants - mostly sage, types of dianthus, salvia, oregano, different thymes and other stuff. I also have planted gladiolus bulbs for late summer.

Before and After Click for the popup window (600x600) and cycle through the before and after shots of my side garden renovation. Basically I designed a patio, gravel path system for the side yard to expand the available beds for gardening while getting rid of all the grass. No more lawn mower - much to the chagrin of the dog. I found great 2 inch thick clay tiles and pink tinged gravel for the path that connects the two sides of the deck. The patio is edged in redwood. The dog area is covered in pine bark chips. The two piles of dirt in the pics will be the new beds. That comes later after I figure out what I will plant. We worked on this for a couple of weekends and the tile work began on the day the WTC came down. We finished the edging and spread the gravel and bark yesterday. In some ways this was a good way to work through all the emotions of this past week. Physical labor is a good cleanser. With bittersweet guilt - I am happy.

The front of the house shots show the new bed I created around Memorial day and have been working on all summer. Not much fl typing this year, but I expect a full blooming spring.

Just got one of my new lenses (thanks to an ebay auction) and have been experimenting with the macros setting. The lens is a 28mm - 80mm with Macro settings at the 80mm setting. I shot all these shots late in the evening - 7:30 to 8:15 and used the built in flash. Some of the blasted out ones seemed pretty interesting as well, so they are here too. Roses provide some really interesting texture and form when photographed closeup.

Summer. The word evokes impressions of heat, light and sounds. Bright colors of flowers and the drone of birds and lawnmowers. Sprinklers offer respite from the heat and the light is dense.

I spend a lot of my free time gardening. I like the idea of designing in color, texture and three dimensions as well as not being fully in control of the outcome. A friend also referred to the temporal quality as a dimension of exploration. My garden last summer was bursting with color and the flamingos came to roost en masse.The act of gardening as well as just sitting surreounded by the gardens, make me happy. photos shot with Canon Elph APS, scanned with Olympus APS scanner into the computer, no ps work other than resizing
flamingo1 | flamingo2

This spring a pair of little
birds built a nest in one of my
rose bushes. A couple of weeks ago, the eggs hatched and a brood of
little ones emerged. I am not sure how many there are, but I captured this
routine last weekend. The parents are off hunting every 5 minutes - the chicks
start screaming mommy. Here is a version closeup. The mom (or dad - they look alike) shows up with some grub mmm good. Checks out the situation.
Is it safe?. How safe if I am there with the camera going. But babies are screaming so dinner it is.
These images shot with my new Canon D30 I also posted these same images on a very cool site: Photographica. A place where people share photos and comments. It is very cool. Check it out!

Working on the garden over the weekends has inspired me to seek out others who like to garden. I am intrigued by the Master Gardener program. Could be an interesting thing to explore. Gardening, for me is a very creative thing - almost like painting with color and texture, except nature has a hand in it as well. There are things beyond my control - part of the beauty of gardening - and the delight of success makes me happy. I am learning about the California weather, my soil and have had a lot of success growing things here. Some of my favorite plants from my garden in Rochester have not succeeded here and it is a never ending battle with the snails.