Tag Archives | Nature/Travel

Life Gives You Lemons, Make Butterflies

By on August 18, 2009 in Photos

I think that I’m going to publish a research paper on butterflies. Based on extensive research on the topic, I’ve come to the following conclusions:

  1. Butterflies are expert photographers
  2. Butterflies are jerks

More on that in a second.

I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to buy caterpillars in order to make my own butterflies. I like photographing them in the wild, but they seem to have the uncanny ability to take flight an 8th of a second before you’ve got focus. Moreover, if you’ve put your camera away, they call all their buddies and appear out of nowhere to mock you, opening and closing their wings in spite.

So, as my caterpillars formed their chrysalises, I eagerly awaited the moment I could shoot them at home.  I imagined trained butterflies performing for my photographic amusement. Trapeezes? No problem.

But alas, who was I kidding? All they do is sit there. While the outside of their wings is pretty, the inside is much better. So of course, they don’t show it to you. Well, they don’t show it to you until you’ve decided to adjust your flash or need to answer the phone or something. At that point it turns into the bloody Cirque du Soleil and the animals put on an amazing show.

So in short, I anticipate making millions off my scientific discovery, unless you steal it from me. I’ve only shared it with you because I thought you were cool. And you’re cool, right? ;)

As I get better at shooting them, I’ll try and remember to add more pics to this post.

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Smokey Stables

By on July 5, 2009 in Architecture/Man-made, Photos

I had planned to do some bike riding around Back Bay Newport today, but because of a severe case of Independence Day foot sunburn, that was out. Instead, my brother and one of our Irish lasses (Annette) and I did a photo hike through Smokey Stables at sunset.  Here are some of the shots from the day.

I don’t usually shoot “pattern” type shots, so this was a lot of fun. Try and spot the photo in which Annette is an unhappy subject. :)

Click the thumbnails to pop.

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Day at the Getty

By on March 16, 2009 in Architecture/Man-made, Photos

Some friends and I went to the Getty museum yesterday as part of an assignment. Unfortunately, the gallery we were supposed to look at was closed, so that was a bust. But the Getty is beautiful, and it was fun to walk around and shoot. Of the samples below, the second to last picture was taken by my friend Sonja, with retouching by me afterwards. Click all to make bigger.

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Lost and Found

By on March 8, 2009 in Beach, Photos

Not much to say about these; just some random photos from my trip to the beach with Heidi and Arce today. Click for embiggening.

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Of Flowers and Flames

By on February 17, 2009 in Photos

So I’m about two weeks into my daily photo project. Because of my hours at work, I’m only really able to shoot at night during the week. One of my frequent subjects has been a poor daffodil (?) that I’ve abused a number of times. I’m not super crazy about these shots, but since I don’t photograph flowers often, I guess I kind of like them. And since I’ve got a theme running, I might as well share the collection.

If you’re interested in reading a little more about each shot, click the photos for the full-size in the gallery. You can also find the latest dailies near the top of the page.

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Casino Point, Catalina Island

By on June 17, 2008 in Photos, Scuba

Note: if you hear sound, scroll down to the bottom of this post and press pause. Chances are the video is autoplaying when it shouldn’t be. That said….

I, and my friends Ben and Sonja took the Catalina Express over to Avalon Saturday to do some diving at the Casino Point dive park. The morning started out a little cold and overcast, but within a few hours the day turned beautiful. The diving was just as good, with excellent visibility, no current, and decently warm water. Alas, I don’t have many photos to share, but here’s a sample.

Here’s me with the Jacques Cousteau honorary plaque:

Sonja, apparently napping on the bottom:

I found this nudibranch on one of the wrecks. He was around 1 inch long. Not sure what species it was, but it was beautiful in person.

Ben and Sonja work their way through the kelp:

A juvenile garibaldi, with its opalescent spots:

Ben and I after a veeeeeery long day in Catalina:

This video isn’t particulary interesting, but I put it up so that you can see a sample of what diving in the park is like. Lots of kelp and sunshine. I’m holding the camera, and that’s Ben’s rear in the lead. If you want to download the whole video, or just want to open it in its own window, click here.

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