It looks like one of the casualties from the car accident on Thursday is my trusty carry camera. That camera has been a constant companion for over two years now. I believe it was whacked against the steering wheel during the impact. When I tried to photograph the accident it wouldn’t focus, but I was immediately distracted by the police, then I called my insurance, the exchanged info with the other driver, etc.  When I went to do a photo later, I noticed the camera was still having a hard time focusing, and the lens motor was making a grinding noise. Then I noticed the UV filter was missing, so it must have been knocked off the lens by the impact. It’s probably in my car somewhere.

I took photos at our gathering yesterday, and everyone on the edge of the frame is very distorted and there is even some distortion on the people in the center of the frame — one of the elements must have been knocked out of place. The last thing I noticed is that the lens does not click tightly onto the body now. I put on another lens tonight, and that lens doesn’t click on tightly either. The photos today were taken with the undamaged lens — even though they are pretty sharp, I know from the past that lens is extremely sharp, plus it has image stabilization, so the focus may be a little out of sync between the body and lenses from the impact.

 

This is the first butterfly of the season I was able to get close enough to photograph with a macro lens. It was sheltering itself from the wind in the black bamboo, but the bamboo was still getting whipped around by the wind. I bumped the ISO up to 1600 so I could have a 1/200 shutter speed at ƒ/11. I used 4 focal points hand held for today’s photo.

Tristan prepared Nigerian dishes for lunch and our friend from Nigeria, who is a visiting math student, came over and ate it with us. He had given us some ideas of food to prepare last week. He told Tristan that it came out very much like it is in his country.  We asked him for suggestions for Nigerian dishes and if he would be willing to try them if we made them. Both he and Tristan were up for the challenge.

By using the macro stacking over a shorter focal range, but still taking focal points that are much deeper than what the normal depth of field would be so close, the photos today have more depth and look much more natural.

I downloaded Photoshop CS 6 beta this morning while I was taking the roof off the house at the other end of the property. I haven’t tested it other than saving these files, because the new camera raw allowed me to adjust blacks, whites, shadows and highlights separately, which gave me much more control over the images before I brought them into Photoshop. Actually, I didn’t make any adjustments on the photos in photoshop other than adding my name.

 

A baby from an amaryllis we got a couple of years ago bloomed today. I got interesting light patterns on the daffodils from the wind slightly moving them around while I went through the 30 focal points I used to create the image.

 

 

While in the shower this morning I noticed a daddy longlegs trying to keep from getting drenched. I quickly finished my shower, dried off, got dressed and grabbed my camera to try the multi-focus technique on the spider. I had to run the the various focal points very quickly because the spider didn’t want to hold still. Furthermore, I couldn’t set up the tripod, so I was only able to use it as a stick to help stabilize the camera. I think the results are really interesting. I made seven exposures, with seven focal points for each photo. I used a 100mm macro lens at ƒ/3.5, 1/100 second at ISO 100. I used a ring flash on the lens.

While I was on my way to meet with a tree trimmer to get an estimate for chipping up the trees I cut down in Tristan’s and David’s yard last Saturday, I was driving through the green light on 5th street and Tijeras when an on-coming car turned left into me.  Needless to say I wasn’t able to meet the tree trimmer. The impact broke my front wheel and bent the front fender in such a way that the driver’s side door cannot be opened. The damage doesn’t look extensive, but if the drive-shaft is bent and the ball-joint is broken, they might total the car. I’ve learned from the last time I was hit, that what looks like a little damage can be too expensive for the insurance consider worth repairing.

 

I’m trying out a new technique that requires fine and accurate focus. All these close-ups are composite photos shot at ƒ/5.6 at 1/15 second using multiple frames for each composite — each frame has a different focal point from the background to the foreground. The frames are put together so the focused portions of each frame shows, resulting in composite photos that are sharp throughout the image. I took 15 frames to create the photo of the spider lilies above, and even with that, I missed the focus on part of one of the leaves.  This technique definitely takes practice when doing it by hand.

 

I’ve walked by this building many times and hadn’t noticed the primary colors dripping down the gray wall. I don’t think it’s new because the building has been boarded up at the ground floor for a couple of years now, so maybe the light was just right.

They moved the Sopranos poster under the motorcycle in Lindy’s which made both more interesting, and I gave Sophia a grunge look which seemed fitting for her inquisitive look.

 

 

The sunrise with the clouds and snow on the Sandias was wonderful this morning. The clouds at sunset matched the tree line, creating an illusion of mountains on the western horizon.

The wind was terrible today. I was really happy that the weather was so beautiful yesterday for the wedding and yard work. We spent the afternoon at Tristan’s visiting with a math student from Nigeria and being entertained by Tristan’s cats and birds. When I got home at 5:30, I had a message from the neighbor that the roof was blowing off my parent’s old house, so I spent the rest of the evening taking down some of the aluminum and tin roofing the wind had loosened and securing the rest so it will stay in place until I can get it all taken off.  Since most of the roofing on that part of the house is aluminum, I’ve been planning to remove it and take it to recycling, but I haven’t had the energy to get out in the cold and do it. Now that it’s warming up, maybe I’ll start on it this weekend.

With chainsaw in hand, I can cause almost as much destruction as a tornado. I felled eight trees and dug out as many bushes in Tristan and David’s back yard this afternoon. I wanted to hire a tree company to take down the trees and chip them up, but after two weeks of failing to get one of them out to give us an estimate, I decided to cut them down myself. Now we need to find someone to chip them up for us. I thought the tree guys would be needing work, but apparently the tree cutting business is so good there is no need to bother to return calls.

I went to Annie’s wedding this morning. There were many beautifully tattooed people in attendance. They wedding was in her parent’s back yard, and the weather was great; however, the sun was a little harsh. The ceremony was really quite nice.

When I got home tonight, Stretch was pestering a wolf spider, so once I got Stretch away from it, I couldn’t resist photographing it. It is really quite colorful when photographed with a combination of a flashlight and ring flash.

Stretch is watching something from the table. He’s wide-eyed, and has is nub slightly bushed. What he’s looking at, I can’t tell. There are no other kitties, nothing that I can see; but he looks over the counter and follows something with his eyes, then he look under the counter and then over the counter again. It’s a little creepy, because whatever he sees he won’t turn his back on it. I turned him to show him some food I dished out for him, and he immediately turned back to watch the phantom that I can’t see.