Water ways of seeing

I've been told a number of times I "see things" differently. And every so often, I agree. There are these times when I see something so beautiful or different that I have an insatiable NEED to photograph it. A drop-everything-you're-doing need. In this case, a "put-pants-on-because-it's-mosquito-y" need to photograph the Maher's asparagus plants after a rainstorm.

Originally, this is what caught my attention as I was wandering through the Maher garden looking for edible tomatoes. The reflecting light caught by the thousands of large and small droplets was what got me through the fence as I passed by. At first I thought, "wet Christmas tree," and then laughed.

It's just that the branches of the asparagus are so pine tree-like!  And the bokeh of the droplets in the background reminded me of Christmas lights. Haha!

I ran back inside and grabbed my camera and attached my macro lens and snapped away. My pants got soaked and I definitely need to clean my macro lens after this adventure. And I only received one mosquito bite! He got me though my jeans! Thumbs down.

There's just something about the varying greens, the spikey branches and the plethora of water droplets that I absolutely love.

What was the last time you had a "stop-everything" moment and snapped away?

Buzz on

A buzzing noise I heard when I got home Wednesday had me puzzled of its origin. It was loudest in our computer room but there wasn't anything in the window and nobody was flying above my head. I wrote down a dinner recipe and went to close a window in our bedroom when I found this lady - a yellow jacket! (Doesn't it look like she's wavving hello?)

I didn't want to kill her, so I grabbed a clear glass jar because I knew I would want to photograph her when I captured her buzzing self. I corralled her in this container and then thought to myself "Now what!?" I worked up enough courage to slip paper between the window and the container and turned it upright. Truthfully it took a few minutes for the uprighting, but I did it and she didn't escape and sting me! 

She was crawling around so fast! I grabbed my macro lens and bumped up the ISO to the 1100 range and snapped away. I love the symmetry in her coloring!

She looked quite funny when she would crawl around the bottom where the glass is thicker, warping her image. 

After a few minutes I brought the jar outside to let her free - and she wouldn't leave! 

But that was alright. It gave me more time to photograph her! Buzz on, little lady! Buzz on.

Macro magic

Macro lenses are amazing! I love how I can zero in on one specific place and magnify the heck out of it! At first glance, I thought this spider was actually a speck of dust in a friend's Morning Glories. And then I took a shot, reviewed it and got the heebie jeebies. I like how the first photo seems to have a white heart - it's like the purple tunnel of love ... for spiders.

What are your favorite macro shots?

As bzzz-y as a bumble

I've been super, super busy these past few days but thought I would share some awesome and heeby-jeeby inducing macro shots I've taken of some insects I've come across lately.  Isn't this bumble just so cute? I love his little feelers and how fuzzy he is. 

This guy and his eye! It looks like he's got eyebrows. 

Okay, this spider is disgusting. I've got goosebumps just looking at him in a photo. Sean found him hiding in the rafters of the porch on his parents' deck. We had just saved the above frog from a death by the pool filter and found some weird pincher bug. Sean baited the spider with the bug and holy cow, I've never seen a spider bolt so quickly! He ran to the bug and IMMEDIATELY began twisting him in web. I cannot stand spiders at any size, so I was severely freaked out, but pushed my macro lens all up in its grill .. er.. web. 

Poor pincher bug. Not really. He was pretty , um, goose bump-inducing, too. 

I can handle these guys, though. Probably because they're so flimsy. Does that make sense?

A productive production day

This morning has been the most productive. All before 9 a.m., I have made breakfast, baked Peach Cobbler, washed some dishes, cleaned the stove, showered, gotten dressed and put together a lunch. Now I'm sipping coffee at my apartment waiting until I have a meeting with a fellow editor to show her how to use her Facebook page. (My apartment is closer to her office than my office is to hers). Awesome job, right? Yup. Then I'm off to production, where I will proof/copy edit my two newspapers.

It was only a matter of time before I stuck my macro lens in Kali's face. I spent a good chunk of time last night taking pictures of her nose and her mouth poofs. Isn't this photo hilarious? It looks like she is pursing her lips, or being stern, hahaha!

She's such a tolerant cat!

Yesterday was National Thrift Store Day and some other bloggers shared their ultimate thrifted finds. My number one find is this vintage Kodak camera.

It's a 1932 Kodak Vigilant Junior. When I used to work at a local thrift store, I saw this baby put on display and knew right away I had to have it.  This was the find that was the impetus for my now massive vintage camera collection. 

My other favorite find are on my feet right now! Houndstooth heels, which actually match the houndstooth skirt I'm wearing which I just thrifted last week. 

What's your favorite thrifted find?

Macro magic

Tax free weekend here in Massachusetts was good to me. Last week as a whole was extraordinary - family visits, group dinner, estate sales with my dad, meeting Andrew McMahon .... I digress.

I've wanted a macro lens for SO so so long. An old point and shoot Fuji camera I used to use has the best macro feature and I used to take super close photos of everything with that camera. Recently, I was scouring Canon's website to assist my boss in picking out a camera to share between my company's various satellite offices which do not have editors equipped with DSLRs they purchased on their own. I try to avoid that website, as I can spend hours dreaming over the number of lenses I'd like to add to my arsenal. Tax free weekend was just screaming "Buy a lens, buy a lens!" I listened.

Our local camera store, Hunts, has a really fantastic employee named Steve. My Mum and I have purchased numerous cameras, lenses and accessories through him over the past few years. He's beyond knowledgeable, fair and I value his opinion as both a film and digital photographer. Truthfully, I think he enjoys speaking to a photographer who is not a student at the Five Colleges, pretending to know what aperture and ISO are. When he told me last year to purchase the Canon 7D over the older, less expensive Canon 50D because it would soon become obsolete, I listened. (Mum goes, "Which would you suggest if she was your daughter?" Steve said the 7D. Mum goes, "Welp, 7D it is!") Best purchase ever! His suggestion for the Canon 85mm prime lens over a 50mm was excellent - that lens is a beautiful piece of glass and works great for shooting weddings. So, as I was himming and hawing over the 50mm and 60mm  and Canon vs Sigma vs Tamrac, I sought his advice.

While I may joke about Canon > Nikon, I'm really not a brand-specific person. Canon and Nikon are both excellent camera brands. The same can be said for Sigma and Tamrac. I actually own a Quantaray 55-200mm 5.6 telephoto lens and enjoy it. It's slower than a Canon, but at the time when I purchased it four years ago, it was within my college student budget.

Because tax free weekend was such a draw for customers at electronic and tech stores, the Canon 50 and 60mm weren't in stock. Steve suggested the Sigma 50mm 2.8. Remembering that I purchased the 7D, he let me try it out on the in-store 7D (You can't get customer service like that anymore!) and I fell in love. I purchased it, a  UV filter to protect the lens ( please please buy these to protect your lenses!!!) and $400 + later, I was out and about shooting away. In addition to macro shots, it doubles as a great 50mm lens for sharp portraits, which fills a hole with the lenses I already own.

I've been in a photo slump lately, and this is just the thing to bring me out and shoot again!