Orchid and the new toy...

The oh-so-sweet-and-awesome-wife gave me an early birthday present -- not, not the flower. It was a professional-style mini-photo studio. 2 sizes of collapsable photo tents with colored backdrops, lights, a tripod, and a handy carrying case for the whole she-bang.

Mind you, I've got a BUNCH to learn about these things (light placement, choice of backdrop, etc), but I really like it).

I'll take a picture of the whole thing for my birthday (a week from Saturday, in case you are looking for an opportunity buy something expensive for one of your favorite bloggers!!).

Closeup pretty violet flowers...

I went for a short walk to the Bart station this evening. There is a new-ish apartment complex across the street from the station, and they have these really interesting plants in the landscaping.

Gettin' cuter by the day...

I may be just a little biased, but I think Ziggy is getting cuter every time I take a new pic.

Texture and focus...

My eye was drawn the the fascinating combination of texture and focus that was this particular shot. I think it represents a distinctive and unique view that speaks to the jejune nature of ...

Oh what the heck. I'm really full of it. Look at the submission time. This was yet another example of "CRAP, it's damn near midnight and I haven't even touched the camera today -- what the heck am I going to find to capture this late?!?!"

So, I stepped out on my porch, turned on the porch light, pointed my camera at an interior corner, and snapped a close up to grab the texture of the stucco, accentuated by the odd focus caused by the wall surrounding the camera.

Yeah, lame, but I'm 127 for 127!!!

Beach rock, plus, some movies...

Went down to Sharp Park beach in Pacifica to get some beach/waves pictures. Loved this rock and the way the water and foam swirled around it as it crashed into the shore.

I've been toying around with what I call "motor-drive movies". That is to say, I take a couple of dozen or more pictures with the motor-drive mode on my D70, then stitch them togther using iMovie on the Mac. The effect is a little like stop-action movies (which, technically, they are).

Here are a couple of them that I've done.

This first one is of the same rock as today's picture.



This one is one (again of waves) that I took when we went out to the Point Bonita lighthouse a couple of weeks ago.



And here is one that has a series of glacier calvings from our 2005 trip to Alaska's Hubbard Glacier.

Not a great photo week...

With the "San Francisco Summer" (aka FOG), there just haven't been all that many great photo taking opportunities.

Here's one I snapped out my side window driving back from the grocery store. The spot on the tree trunk is actually some kind of shmeg on the window.

Sorry -- they will get better soon!

Ugly chair -- interesting fabric...

The fabric is interesting enough, but the chair it covers is pretty hideous.

On the bright side, it is farily comfortable.