How to build a better lemon drop

So yesterday, my brother gave me some suggestions on how to improve my high speed captures. Even after I got the images I posted yesterday, I was still possessed with the idea that I could get the ultimate SPLASH! So I set up again, thinking about the physics of the burgundy glass I'd used before. I wondered if the inward curve of the burgundy glass had been diminishing the amount of splash I could achieve, so I switched to the glass above, which has an outward curve. VOILA! That was all I needed to get the image above. Now, my brother has suggested that a black backdrop would be even more dramatic. When I get back from my writing conference next week, I'll have some work to do!

High Speed Photography

This morning, I decided to experiment with high-speed photography. At first, I was trying to capture limes and lemons dropping into a wine glass at 800 ISO and 1/3200 second speed. The effects were super grainy. After talking with my brother, he suggested turning the ISO as low as it could go but keeping the shutter speed up. So I turned the ISO down to 80 and kept it at 1/3200 second. These are the photos I came out with.

To the right is another effort at 80 ISO, but below, is what would've been my favorite photograph because of the amazing wall of water surrounding the top of the glass, but it was taken at 800 ISO and therefore, super grainy. I include it because I couldn't throw it away! It was Maya's last day of 1st grade, so I decided to devote most of the morning to photography before I lost my daylong "freedom" for the summer.

Fun in the garden

I was inspired by a photo of a dandelion clock I saw recently, so I decided to do my own experiments with the macro function and a dandelion. I kept trying to catch one of the seeds blowing away in the wind, but the only one I managed to get came out blurry. Still, I love the blue sky background and the rainbowy effect of the silky seeds. I also got pictures of some amazingly brilliant single flower peonies next door to my house. (See Below) The crazy colors haven't been augmented by me or photoshop in any way.

When Maya got home from school this afternoon (there are only 2 more days of school left before summer vacation!) she let me take a couple of pictures of her in the dress we bought her for her school talent show that happened this morning. She played Ode to Joy on the piano. Below is one of the pictures.

Garden Talk

This beautiful Iris (Top) was blooming in my garden on June 1st. It was an overcast day, and I've always heard that flowers are best captured on "film" when it's not overly sunny out as the pollen on them creates a dulling effect with the colors of the flower. So I switched my camera to macro function, got in close and captured this image. I didn't even notice the water droplet caught in the anthers (I think that's what they're called) until afterwards, when I put it on the computer screen.


I also used the macro function to capture the last of my lilacs in bloom. They're a very pale lilac color, and when I put them up onscreen, a lot of the color didn't show up at all, so I opened the best photo up in Photoshop, added some sharpening, color tweaking and cropped the picture to get at the part I liked best.

I also tried to get a good shot of the last of my columbine in bloom. (Below) This is shot from above it because I think it has such an unusual, interesting shape as a flower. The colors are really intense, too. (But it's not a wonderful picture or anything. . .)
I've been working hard at weeding my garden this year, and have the best intentions to keep it up because it's looking so great, but most years, I do well until it gets really hot, and then the weeds start crowding in!
I have this grand plan to get up as early as I normally do during the school year three times a week this summer and weed, but check back in July and see if I've done it! To be continued. . .

Other stuff I've been doing recently. . .

Over the past week I've been taking other photos, of course. The image to the left is an infrared view of the Fort Williams abandoned castle. It looked much more interesting in IR than it did in color. You get such stark blacks and whites, almost like silver gelatin photography, to my untutored eye!














Above, you'll see a photo of the Catholic church, Sacred Heart, I attended on and off through my childhood. My great-grandfather, Thomas Joyce, helped to finish it. He and his 2 sons (my great-uncles,) Thomas and Henry Joyce, did all the fine plasterwork from the columns to the fancy work in the dome. I wish I knew more about how they did it, because there aren't many people alive who can do work like that anymore. Unfortunately, the church is rapidly falling into disrepair because there isn't enough money to stop the towers on top of the church from leaking, so lot of the plaster in the back of the church is bubbling and peeling off. I'm glad I went in last week and got the pictures I did. If you click on my link for Photobucket, you can hear the organist, Rocco, playing the incredible organ for a few seconds, too. The organ, pictured below, was donated by a former governor of Maine, Phineas T. Baxter, in the 1920s.

A morning with Maya

Maya and I woke up this morning to beautiful, bright sunlight streaming through the skylight. I was excited to play with my Hoya R-72 Infrared filter again, so after a breakfast of waffles and tea, Maya and I headed out to Stroudwater Falls and Evergreen Cemetery. Maya used the old Canon A-510 and had a blast taking all kinds of pictures. This first picture is an Infrared view of us before we struck out on our trek through the cemetery. The first picture below is a particularly clear one Maya snapped of one of the graves.

Below is an infrared picture of Stroudwater Falls from this morning that I like.