Category: photos

April showers bring May…showers

This first day of May started out chilly and rainy. Happily, it was not raining hard as the kids and I waited for the school bus, so we didn’t need to huddle under an umbrella. As we waited, the water drops on the pine trees along the driveway caught my eye, as they have before. I tried to get some photos with my phone, but in the low light of the dreary day, I could not get the camera to focus where I wanted it. I kept trying for long enough that Phoebe asked, “why do you take so many photos of raindrops on pine needles?” I found myself thinking, “why wouldn’t I?” But I probably said something like, “because they look so cool.”

After the bus came, I had about 45 minutes before I had to leave for an appointment. The plan was to eat breakfast and take a quick shower. Instead, I went back in and got my camera and macro lens set-up, and went back outside. It was raining lightly, and my hair got wet, so I figure this is practically the same as taking a shower.

(While I may not have taken a real shower, I did take quite a few photos.)

Curses. Foiled again.

Really, I just wanted to use that post title. (Because I have these photos of foil.)

All the same time, I am feeling cranky, and somewhat thwarted in my efforts to be productive. I have too many pokers in the fire. I have 2 conferences coming up next month for which I am involved in 4 total presentations (3 posters and 1 talk). Two of the posters are on my own research, and the others on the group research, in which I am also heavily involved. Plus I am working on finishing up a paid annotation gig. You’d think this would make me too busy to agree to various school volunteer things, but I am a sucker, so I helped out at the book fair at the school today, and am also going on a field trip with Theo’s class next week. In any case, I have a lot of work to do tonight, so can’t spare the time to work on the post I’ve been hoping to write.

But I am happy to have this excuse to share these photos I took with my macro lens set up. (Seriously, I think I may milk a couple dozen posts out of the many photos I managed to take wandering around my mother-in-law’s house and garden while the kids played.)

fruit, up close and personal

In addition to wandering the garden with my macro lens, I also went poking around in my mother-in-law’s fruit bowl. (Okay, one piece of fruit was too big to fit in the fruit bowl. It was on the kitchen counter.) Can you identify these 4 fruits?

unfurling

We went down to my mother-in-law’s for a few days this past week. (It was April vacation week for the kids’ school, and we had planned to be there with my mother-in-law for her eye surgery.) I was quite pleased that I thought to bring the lens and extension tubes that allow me to take macro shots with my camera.

My mother-in-law’s yard and garden was full of plants that were just waking up in the warmth of the late April days. (Spring was delayed down there, as well, due to the prolonged and bitter cold winter.)

I had a lot of fun taking photos around the yard, while the kids played.

I got a few shots in the late afternoon. The macro shots are tricky, and need plenty of light.

It’s also hit or miss whether I can keep my target in focus, especially when I am standing, and pointing up into the leaves of an overhanging tree branch.

I’m not really sure why I haven’t much remembered to take macro shots lately. I guess that when I am home, I don’t as often think to take photos. (I’ve noticed this before.)

Walking around with my camera, I saw details that I might otherwise have overlooked. Looking through the resulting photos, I was really charmed by the character of the fresh new leaves.

cantonment highlights

This week’s friday foto finder challenge was to find and share photos on the theme of candle I did poke around in my photo library for a few old photos of candles, and even found a few, but then today happened serendipitously upon some candles. We went to a Revolutionary War historic site, the New Windsor Cantonment, where quite a few candles were around and about.


A lopsided candle hangs out by a chess set.


Many of these tin candle holders were hung along the walls of the temple building.


You can see the candle holders along the walls.


This photo has nothing to do with candles, but it was fun to talk to the costumed staff member. (Really, the candles weren’t all that important a feature of the visit. It was much more interesting to learn about 18th century musketry and medicine.)


(Here are some samples of medicines that were used in the Revolutionary war era. Not shown was the equally fascinating array of surgical implements, including many used for amputations.)


But there were candles. (I was looking for candles.)


Candle wax that had dripped down the walls made interesting shapes.

To see what other candles are on display this week, check out the fff blog.
fff 200x60

filling the gap: 2 photos of Portland standpipes

So, um, yeah. These were 2 sets of standpipes that caught my eye in Portland, Oregon, when I was there on a trip for a conference. In September, 2012. (And so my gap of the previous post has been filled. More or less.)

5 photos of standpipes

Here are 5 standpipes (or sets of standpipes) that have caught my eye. Some caught my eye for their reflective shininess, and some for their weathered patina.


2009


2010


2011


2013


2014.

As I put these together, I saw that the 5 photos were neatly from 5 different years. (I had a 6th photo that was also from 2011, but it didn’t fit as well, so I didn’t include it.) Would you believe that it bugged me that I didn’t have a standpipe photo from 2012? Further, I noticed that it should have been of a weathered (rather than shiny) standpipe, in order to best complete the pattern. I actually started to look through my photos from that year before realizing that it was crazy to do so, especially given that I have more work to do tonight before bed, and it is after 11 p.m.. (This is the sort of compulsion that I’m talking about.)