24 Jun 11. I've written often about the idea of macro vs close-up photography, with the generally agreed definitions that close-up is something along the lines of 1/10 to 1/2 life size and macro starting at half life size and going up to roughly 10x life size. After that we start getting into the ream of photomicrography at greater than 10x. Here we have a photo that I'll let you decide with respect into which category it should be assigned. Look closely, and you will notice little things sticking out of the legs of the critter. Now the bigger question is what is the critter which the image name gives away but try to ascertain what you are seeing before looking at the name. If you are familiar with books of electron microscope images, this form factor should be something you've seen prior, but, as I don't have a personal electron microscope, the question is just what is it. Of course it could be a photo of another image, but . . . . So, have a good look and see if you can come up with it's identity, or if not that specific, something close, before checking. ISO 200; 1/200 sec @ f / 14. 105mm macro.
27 Jun. The backlog of prepared images to share is now over 350 and I'm finding it hard to decide what to use. Spent Sunday afternoon at a Civil War enactment, then came home for dinner and the birth of another calf (unassisted.) Meanwhile there have been several visits by large mammals and a whole slue of birds only some of which have been captured. All of which is just more material for additional images. But I think we'll return to the initial rainy day of departure and go with another Icelandic Poppy shot, only this time, we will forgo the blossom and work with just the leaves. At the time I left that June 1st morning the rains had let up for a few minutes and I had an opportunity to shoot the droplets of water that were forming on all the leaves of the poppies. This image is a portion of the total shot and cropped to highlight both the water droplets (primarily) and hairs (secondarily.) This would have been the ideal candidate for a serially focused set of shots, but time didn't allow for such luxury and I had to quickly grab what I could. It would be a much better image sans the soft leaf at lower front center, and in retrospect I should have simply clipped it off, but I didn't. ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 7.1. Hope you enjoy, dave
28 Jun 11. One visiting our shores anywhere in the states of Washington and Oregon are certain to be visited by seagulls, of many different species. They are constant companions even if not necessarily of the affectionate type. But they are very graceful birds who are fun to watch, sometimes for hours on end. They can also be quite comical and I find that I truly enjoy watching them whenever I'm in their company. Trying to capture all these different aspects of the birds on some form of storage can be a real challenge, and although I try to do them justice every time I'm around them, I seldom get what I'm after. The image for today is one that provided something different from what I set out to get, but it did wind up presenting a single bird against a very nice background, and one that I feel supports the bird well. I would have preferred for the bird to have the right wing fully extended rather than beginning to flex, but that was beyond my control. What we do have however is a nice combination of color supporting the dynamics of flight which, when combined, make for what I feel is a reasonably acceptable image. ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f /11.
