Project 50 - Week 4 - Abrupt Change

Project 50 - Week 4
Concept - Flying High Sunny Day

Due to circumstances beyond our control (epic accident on highway causing major delay getting back home), I was unable to take the remaining pictures of the Berkeley Kite Festival today.  As such, I don't feel I have enough suitable photos to make a project, so on to Alternate Project #1, Sunny Day!  This is a collection of shots of a remarkably happy sunflower hanging our at my mother's house. 

Not quite kites, I know, but I still think quite a few of these shots came out well.  I tried to get some fish-eye shots (note: When using a fish-eye, be careful of your fingers!) as well, but the lens is totally manual and I have still not quite mastered it! 

Enjoy! 

(photos will also be posted to anttree.org site within a day or two). 

Photo 365 - Day 358 (Ancient Menu)

Day 358 (June 26th, 2011)
Title: Ancient Menu

Famous Guo Xi painting or Chinese menu?  You make the call! 

Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 354 (Stack of Gold)

Day 354 (June 22nd, 2011)
Title: Stack of Gold

I love gold dollars!  Next time you are at your bank, pick up a roll and then go and spend them! 

Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 283 (Palm Teeth)

Day 283 (April 12th, 2011)
Title: Palm Teeth

Still in catch-up mode.  Yet another reason to not hug a palm tree.  And yes, they do hurt!

Subject: San Pedro Marina, San Pedro, CA

Techie: 300mm, f/6.3 at 1/320th

Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 272 (Hallmark)

Day 272 (April 1st, 2011)
Title: Hallmark

Still in catch-up mode. I made it to April!  I'm catching up!

Subject: Serving Knife, Maureen and Oshin's wedding, San Pedro, CA

Techie: 100mm Macro, f/4.0 at 1/60, using external flash

Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 267 (Science Band)

Day 267 (March 27th, 2011)
Title: Science Band

In catch-up mode, so no story today.

Subject: Stein of Science

Techie: 100mm Macro Lens, f/3.2 at 1/60 with on-board flash

Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 266 (Hole Piston)

Day 266 (March 26th, 2011)
Title: Hole Piston

In catch-up mode, so no story today.

Subject: Hole Punch, Punching Head/Piston and Spring

Techie: 100mm Macro lens (f/2.8 at 1/60th - using flash)

Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 257 (Strawberry 2)

Day 257 (March 17th, 2011)
Title: Strawberry 2

Here's another fruit photo, Strawberry #2!  The main problem with taking these shots, is now I'm hungry. 

Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 256 (Strawberry)

Day 256 (March 16th, 2011)
Title: Strawberry

Due to some "technical" issues with the Blogger site, they have been offline for about 24 hours and during that time they also had to go back and delete some posts - one of which was my Day 256 post, so here it is again in all of its strawberry glory!

This is the continuation of the Fruity Fun Time week of photos, this time we are enjoying Strawberries!

Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 255 (Alien Fruit)

Day 255 (March 15th, 2011)
Title: Alien Fruit

When I chopped open the cantaloupe and started taking close-up pictures of the "guts" of it, I immediately realized that they looked a lot like the "egg sacs" of the Alien Queen from the "Aliens" movie (and if you haven't seen Aliens - go watch it now, I'll wait.  Really.  Go.  Now.)  I wonder if James Cameron was just sitting around one day and had the following conversation:

"You know guys, I was thinking of doing a movie about a giant boat sinking.  Music, drama, guys hitting propeller blades, crazy old ladies throwing diamonds, but then I was eating this cantaloupe and I realized: We need an evil alien-tries-to-eat-your-face-off movie with marines, laser canons, space ships and no crazy old people throwing diamonds away!" 

James was way ahead of his one time.

Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 254 (Cantaloupe Skin)

Day 254 (March 14th, 2011)
Title: Cantaloupe Skin


Continuing our fruity adventures, we now come to the cantaloupe!  This is a close-up shot of the skin (outside) in all of it's 'loupey glory!  I'm not sure if it reminds me of the thorns on a rose bush or a street map of San Francisco.  Either way, its nifty!


Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 253 (FlowerMelon)

Day 253 (March 13th, 2011)
Title: FlowerMelon

This is the last of the watermelon shots.  At first, I put this one in the "reject" pile, because I just really wasn't happy with it, but when Theresa saw it, she said it looked like a "Watermelon Flower" - and thus was born; the FlowerMelon.  I admit, after giving it a second chance, it's not such a bad picture. 


I hope you like it!


Enjoy

Photo 365 - Day 223 (Green Grommet)

Day 223 (February 11th, 2011)
Title: Green Grommet

Return of the Grommet!  This is a close-up of a condolences card that Theresa recently made for a co-worker.  (For a full-sized view of the card, please see the galleries page on the anttree.org website).  This is one of those cards, while it looks cool and is well designed, I just wish we didn't have to give it out. 

Enjoy

Photo 365 - Day 222 (Pink Button)

Day 222 (February 10th, 2011)
Title: Pink Button


This is another photo of a "scrap" flower that our friend made which just sitting around chatting.  She took some scraps of ribbon, some random buttons and pink thread and added a bit of 'ninja-esq' powers - bang!  Cool pink/punk button-flowers!  I am still surprised when I see people just make things out of just random bits and pieces.  I never would have thought to do some of these things that I see when I watching folks scrap.  Cards, books, flowers, you name it - they can 'see' it in those things that to me, are just paper, buttons, and string. 


Enjoy

Photo 365 - Day 210 (Rivers)

Day 210 (January 29th, 2011)
Title: Rivers

This photo nearly got me kicked out of MoMA (New York).  There is a giant embroidered tapestry on one wall with a list of the 1000 longest rivers.  It's big.  And I was having a hard time getting a good picture of it.  So, I just walked up, put my camera *nearly* on it and shot is from a really low angle.  The lovely security guards were not so happy about my "nearly" touching it.  In the end I really enjoyed how the shot came out.  The way it was made, it makes it look like old computer print outs (who remembers Dot Matrix or Punch Cards). 

Enjoy

Photo 365 - Day 202 (Head Brad)

Day 202 (January 21st, 2011)
Title: Head Brad

Secret's of Scrapbooking: Brads!

Brads are small metal embellishments that are great for linking two (or more) layers together or adding a nice 3D (aka: depth) aspect to your work, or both!  Brads have two thin, pointed, metal shanks that are bent at 45 degree angles after inserting into the object(s), to secure them.  No glue or tape is required, the metal shanks are stiff enough to hold the objects together.  If the brad needs to be removed, you just "un-bend" the shanks and release the items.

There are a LOT of creative (and simple) brads out there, including (really): cocktail glasses, trout, sock monkeys, and of course, rhinestones, just to name a few.  

As soon in this photo, a simple yellow brad is used to enhance the flower in the woman's hair by giving it a color element and a depth element.

Enjoy

 Card by: Theresa A. of Our Results My Vary

Random Note: Back in my school days, these were called Fasteners and were used to hold paper projects together.

Photo 365 - Day 198 (Sweet Love)

Day 198 (January 17th, 2011)
Title: Sweet Love


Perhaps, just perhaps, I might be taking this macro thing a tad bit far.  I stacked all my "zoom" related items together to take this photo - 100mm macro lens, extension tubes, and 10x macro adapter.  I think I've gone a bit too far on this one, but I just wanted to see what I could get.  To put this in perspective, the candy is about 1.5cm tall (the word "love" is only a few millimeters tall).  This photo, if printed full size would be 13x9 inches.  That's a whole lot of sweet love! 


Enjoy

Photo 365 - Day 197 (Cutie Pie)

Day 197 (January 16th, 2011)
Title: Cutie Pie


I wonder if anyone has noticed that I really enjoy macro (close-up) photography?  I think its because that's how I see naturally.  I can't see anything past about 6-8 inches without glasses, but up close, I can see remarkably well.  I can always read the super tiny fine print on thing (like inside watches and on computer parts), as well as see scratches/marks on coins (which is probably another reason I like coins so much). 


This is another heart candy shot, only even more close-up than before!  And before you think "Dang, that's pretty close-up!", just wait till tomorrow!  Mu-hahaha!  Someday I'll actually have a microscope with a camera adapter, then we'll get crazy!


Enjoy

Photo 365 - Day 195 (Candy Hearts #1)

Day 195 (January 14th, 2011)
Title: Candy Hearts #1


Ah, little candy hearts, the epitome of school Valentine's Day candy.  Cute to get, but taste like chalk mixed with sugar.  I've always thought some of the thoughts on them seems a tad out of place for a kids candy ("Marry Me", "Let's Ride", and "Love Me").  But then again, when I was a kid we had candy cigarettes, so who's to say what's strange.  I shot these little candies for two reasons, first they are quite cute and second I really wanted to play with my macro teleconverter. 


Enjoy

Photo 365 - Day 184 (Mr. Leaf #3)

Day 184 (January 3rd, 2011)
Title: Mr Leaf #3

The continuing tales of Mr. Leaf and his photo shoot.  Its kind of hard to tell with the small version of the photo, but there are some really interesting details on this (and the other Mr. Leaf) photo.  You will need to click the thumbnail to zoom in a bit, but you can actually see the cell structure of the leaf.  Go macro!

Enjoy