Photography

Cormorants at Work

November 8, 2009 Cormorants

First, a sidebar. I know this and continue to ignore it: tripod = tack-sharp photos. The IS (image stabilization) inside my Olympus is pretty darned good. And with the right shutter speeds, I can brace the camera in such a way that it renders crisp images without a tripod or monopod — which is super, [...]

Studies in Vagueness: Don’t Play With Your Food

October 10, 2009 Food

I grew up with parents scarred by World War II, so you can imagine the [deserved] admonitions we got with respect to wasting food. I used to cringe when Letterman dropped watermelons off New York city rooftops. Frozen turkey bowling . . . well that one completely busted my little paradigm. But food, in all [...]

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Studies in Vagueness: Halogen Shadows

August 18, 2009 Photography

Saul’s Deli in Berkeley is an undeniable fave. One of the few things Hugh and I miss from our Los Angeles existence is the old neighborhood deli — with its naugahyde booths and rough-and-tumble wait staff. Saul’s is a bit more refined in its Gourmet Ghetto enclave. But it has a deli pedigree stretching back [...]

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Studies in Vagueness: Everyday Translucence

July 24, 2009 Edibles

Layers of Gherkin

I was filling up the compost pail and decided the items on my fridge deserved a photographic tribute for the good works they do.

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Refracted Light, Arcs and Rainbows – Over SF

July 12, 2009 Bay Area

I’m not a big fan of Descartes. In spite of his genius and complexity, he held callously mechanistic views toward nature and non-human animals. And women, too, depending on his mood. But I’ll give him some love for this explanation of rainbows I recently read at the UCAR website. He simplified the study of a [...]

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Wasp Art

June 18, 2009 Bay Area Faves

Wasp Nest – ©ingridtaylar I didn’t see it this way through the viewfinder — the aquarelle tone and texture of this wasp nest, clutching the painted boards. (Just as I didn’t see the pixie face of a blue damselfly I’d been shooting over a pond — until I offloaded those giant orbs-for-eyes onto my Mac.) [...]

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Wildlife & Nature Photography Ethics

May 7, 2009 Ethics

“Responsible wildlife photographers observe a strict code of ethics. The cardinal rule: if anything you do directly or indirectly endangers, restricts or harasses an animal, stop and leave the animal alone. The integrity of a wildlife photograph evaporates if the subject was not free to come and go, if it shows fear or anxiousness, if [...]

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Spring in Micro (and Macro)

April 27, 2009 Photography

My lens life felt banal this week, so I moved in and went macro. Super macro. I call it my “bug lens” but it’s actually a set of two lenses which go by the names of Raynox DCR-150 and Raynox DCR-250. They’re $40 gifts from macro heaven that snap on to the lens of my [...]