The Red & The White

I think Rick Santorum predicted something like this happening:  a Red Trillium, aka, Wakerobin (Trillium erectum) and a White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) are seen here cohabiting in the woods.

Taken today on an after-work bike ride south of the Hildebrand lock & dam.

Killing Time

I stumbled upon a C/Net news item titled Microsoft reportedly testing smartwatch prototypes.  Now I doubt that I'm the first, and I know that I won't be the last, but here's the first thought that came into my mind:

Paradigm tilt

Tilt-shift from Wikipedia

Tilt–shift photography is the use of camera movements on small- and medium-format cameras, and sometimes specifically refers to the use of tilt for selective focus, often for simulating a miniature scene. Sometimes the term is used when the shallow depth of field is simulated with digital post-processing; the name may derive from the tilt–shift lens normally required when the effect is produced optically.

Do date, I've only been able to produce faux tilt-shift, using PhotoShop or an iPhone app like Snapseed.  An outfit called Lensbabymakes them in prices ranging from $80 to several hundreds of dollars, but I've been entertaining notions to make my own someday.

But someday doesn't always come, or at least not soon enough.  Rather than trying to simulate a miniature scene, I went directly to a real miniature scene.  Witness a co-workers model N gauge railroad yard:

Macro-a-Macro

There's something strangely compelling about this macro shot of an old (c. early 1960s) Minolta Rokkor-TC 135mm f/4 macro lens.

This was shot using a Canon EF-S60mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens and a ring flash.   The center of the iris was edited to remove the reflections from the flash.  You'd almost expect to see James Bond appear there.

This old lens is non-focusing, meant to be used with an old macro bellows from that same era.  Check out the 12-blade diaphragm!

More Trail Mix

Posting a few more shots taken from last Saturday's bike ride.  Notice how the photographer got down nice and low to shoot these lovelies straight-on instead of looking down.  That photographer has poison ivy AGAIN.  Some people just never learn.

Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)

Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum) 

 Large-flowered Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum)

Lard of the Ring

Another freezing bike ride this morning; this time along the river around Uffington.  At least there was a decent variety of wild flowers.  Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) were out in abundance, as were Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), and Large-flowered Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum).  I saw some Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) too, but they weren't in those big, colorful patches that I remember from past years.

This was the first time that I took my new Sigma EM-140 DG ring flash out in the field.  It really made a difference, because besides being cold and cloudy, it was also windy.  The flash allowed me to stop down my aperture for better depth of field and still achieve a shutter speed that minimized the effect of wind motion.   The only problem was that the batteries were fading, causing longer and longer recycle times for the flash.

Here are four of my favorites:

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

Because it was kind of early in the day (11 a.m.) and cold, it was had to find a Bloodroot brave (or stupid) enough to open up its petals.

Red Trillium (Trillium erectum)

The depth of field on this Trillium shot is pretty decent, too.  You can also see a difference that the ring flash makes in lighting the subject.  A shot taken last year relied entirely on sunlight for the exposure, so I lost some of the vivid color in the flower petals.

Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum) 

Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) 

It's a Cookbook!

The origins of life (Michelangelo meets Warhol) 

I couldn't leave well enough alone.  The soup can needed a bit of work (it still does), so I re-worked the picture to the version you see above.   Below is the originally posted version: