Shards and Phractures

...created this image specifically for my wife to celebrate the day.  Here you go, babe...flower that won't die on you any time soon.  -=ad=-

This shot was part of an experiment--testing out a lens adapter.  So, while it was shot with a fairly recent Canon Digital Rebel, the lens used is from a near-antique thirty year old Minolta X-500.

...we never did get any seeds out of this sunflower...probably because the insects beat us to it... -=ad=-

...I've said it before...I generally make it a point to not murder my models after the photoshoot is done, but in this case, I had to make an exception... -=ad=-

Flowers for the wife... -=ad=-

Mantises (Manti?) are so much fun to shoot...and it definitely helps to have a not-so-squamish assistant, too. -=ad=-

...very soon now, I'll be uploading pictures from my new camera...*grin* -=ad=-

Mental note: When the wife decides to grow sunflowers in the front yard, grab the camera and follow the hose when she waters the plants...because water droplets make cool pictures. -=ad=-

"...to boldly go where no one has gone before..." Sure, it's a tagline from Star Trek, but it applies to photography also. It's one of the reasons for photography, I think...to see things no one else can see. To really stop, and really LOOK, and get down on your hands and knees and see things you never knew about before. And, more importantly, to try to record those things after you've seen them. That's why I'm into close-up photography, or "Macro" photography. Did you know bees wear fur? Did you know beetles have spikes on their collars, like a natual built-in punk rocker fashion design? You can't make out a bug's fashion sense from five or six feet in the air...you have to climb down to his level, look him in the eye, ask him nicely to hold still...and hope he's in an agreeable mood... I enjoy shooting bugs and flowers and water droplets and anything else that will sit still long enough for me to zo...