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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Natural art

A bit of snow this morning.  It's beautiful, but fleeting.  It's beginning to rain.

F Number5.6
Lens IDLUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length40.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 80.0 mm)
Exposure Time1/125
Exposure ProgramManual
ISO100
Exposure Compensation0
FlashOff, Did not fire

Friday, February 22, 2013

Skywatch Friday

I haven't done a Skywatch Friday in a while, and this sky just spoke to me.  I walked out the back door and to my left (southwest) - the front.  To my right (northeast) stunning, clear, cloudless sky.  The demarcation was so strong I had to go back inside and snap a few photos.  It took 2 snaps to get it all, which meant making a panorama.

Click the link to see some amazing skies from round the world!

F Number8.0
Lens IDLUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length14.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 28.0 mm)
Exposure Time1/640
Exposure ProgramManual
ISO125
Exposure Compensation0
FlashOff, Did not fire

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Vale

We call it The Shortcut.  We almost always want to go down to the creek when we go into Vale, an we can either take the long trail with the switchback or the more... direct route.  I like the direct route although it's pretty difficult to climb back up it in the winter!  I can't tell whether my favourite part is the gigantic tree that's fallen over the path (we walk under it!) or the wiggly tree on the left.  What made it grow like that, I wonder?

F Number7.1
Lens IDLUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length14.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 28.0 mm)
Exposure Time1/400
Exposure ProgramProgram AE
ISO400
Exposure Compensation0
FlashOff, Did not fire

Pitcher plant

The youngest wants to enter the science fair this year, and his project is going to be carnivorous plants.  That surprised me, given his affinity for insects, but he's seen the cycle of life enough that he probably accepts that flies exist to be eaten.  Anyway, this is one of the plants he's chosen to study.  I didn't realise they have lids!  I think it will be a challenge to give them the humidity they are accustomed to, but we'll see.


F Number5.2
Focal Length29.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 58.0 mm)
Exposure Time1/50
Exposure ProgramProgram AE
ISO3200
Exposure Compensation0
FlashOff, Did not fire

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Patterned

The snow looked very different in the afternoon light.  As the sun lined up with the snow bank, a pattern began to emerge.  Clearly, the snow blower had made these marks, but it isn't immediately obvious to me how.  I'm thinking that it's a slight left/right vibration that did this.

F Number8.0
Lens IDLUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length45.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 90.0 mm)
Exposure Time1/320
Exposure ProgramManual
ISO100
Exposure Compensation0
FlashOff, Did not fire

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Winter Monarch

If this seems an unusual sight for Schenectady in the middle of winter, you're right!  The Schenectady Museum (now called MiSci) has built a butterfly house.  We went late in the afternoon, and we had the room to ourselves and the docent.  I could hear the butterflies flapping their wings as they went by.  In the winter!  These beauties would normally overwinter in Mexico or California, but we have some enjoying the nice weather inside the museum.


F Number5.6
Lens IDLUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length45.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 90.0 mm)
Exposure Time1/25
Exposure ProgramManual
ISO800
Exposure Compensation0
FlashOff, Did not fire

Friday, February 15, 2013

Crazy icicles

We're past the coldest part of winter now.  The sun stays up longer and the air isn't quite as cold.  This part of the house faces the morning sun, and it's just enough to heat up the metal awning and cause the bottom layer of snow to melt.  Thus, the icicles.

Of course, if it melts a bit more, the whole pack of snow   s l o w l y   slides down the face of the awning.  It freezes again when it leaves the awning surface, but there's a chunk of snow that bent over the 45 degree angle where the top meets the front.  So it curls under as it slides.  Thus, the (almost) horizontal icicles.


F Number5.6
Lens IDLUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length25.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 50.0 mm)
Exposure Time1/50
Exposure ProgramManual
ISO200
Exposure Compensation0
FlashOff, Did not fire

Thursday, February 14, 2013

A boy and his cat

Lance and his human.  True love!

F Number5.6
Focal Length45.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 90.0 mm)
Exposure Time1/15
Exposure ProgramProgram AE
ISO1600
Exposure Compensation0
FlashOff, Did not fire

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The next morning

Yesterday's storm has moved on... for us.  When I took this, the storm still covered Boston to Portland and continued to dump snow on them.  It's amazing to think the sun can be shining in a cloudless sky here, and 3 hours east, not a glimpse of it can be seen.


F Number8.0
Lens IDLUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length36.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 72.0 mm)
Exposure Time1/400
Exposure ProgramManual
ISO100
Exposure Compensation0
FlashOff, Did not fire

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Stormy weather

I took this photo last Friday, leaving work.  The parking lot cleared out right quick - the weather people had been saying that this was a big storm.  It turned out to be pretty big for Boston, who got close to 3 feet of snow, but I only got about 1 foot at my house.  We don't think of a foot of snow as a lot.

F Number4.9
Lens IDLUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length25.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 50.0 mm)
Exposure Time0.3
Exposure ProgramProgram AE
ISO400
Exposure Compensation0
FlashOff, Did not fire

Friday, February 8, 2013

Amaryllis

I almost never give up on a house plant.  I have gangly poinsettias that were left at the office three and four years ago.  I bring them home, move them outside in the summer and bring them back in for the winter.  Somewhere along the line, I picked up an amaryllis.  (The only reason I know this is that there's one of those plastic identification tabs stuffed in the pot.)  This amaryllis went followed the same path as the rest of the oddball plants.  Outside for the summer and back in before the frost.  It lost all of its leaves before I brought it in, but that didn't stop me - I could plainly see the bulb, and figured that I'd save it from the frost.  I sort of lost track of it after that.  It's pot sits inside one of the pots containing a spider plant and what looks like a begonia.  It got watered somewhat infrequently, and it's very hard to find any sun inside, but I move them around when the opportunity presents itself.  Despite my abject neglect and even forgetfulness, this amazing flower has decided to bloom.  I'm (almost) speechless. 

LensMinolta MD 50mm f 1.4
F Number2.4
Focal Length50.0 mm
Exposure Time1/40
Exposure ProgramManual
ISO200
Exposure Compensation0
FlashOff, Did not fire

Monday, February 4, 2013

Naughty Spot

Spot knows he's not supposed to be up on the stove, but the smell of meat on that pan was apparently irresistible.  I liked how the light over the stove shows that although he seems black to my eyes, he's apparently a gorgeous brown.  Hand-held, so I'm not sure how well the enlarged version will look.


F Number5.4
Lens IDLUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length33.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 66.0 mm)
Exposure Time1/5
Exposure ProgramManual
ISO1600
Exposure Compensation0
FlashOff, Did not fire

Friday, February 1, 2013

Theme day - Umbrellas

Each month, on the first, the City Daily Photo community suggests a theme for members to interpret as they see fit.  This month, it's umbrellas.Visit the Monthly Theme page to see how others in the community interpreted the theme.

I was a bit at a loss for this one.  I don't own an umbrella!  My wife has several, but it seemed strange to ask her to pose for me, and I couldn't come up with an idea that was either natural or representative of the area.  As is usual, all I had to do was open my eyes and look.  Literally across the street from me was this beauty.  Some time ago, a neighbour bumped into the fire hydrant and snapped it off.  Water poured out, the fire department and city crews showed up to shut the valve off, and the hydrant was left flopping around in the hole.  Snow came, was plowed onto the broken hydrant, and then it melted again.  Eventually, the city came by and took out the old, broken hydrant and replaced it with a brand new one - this one.

Sure, the top has an umbrella shape, but it's also a metaphorical umbrella, a shield in case of fire.  I'm very glad to have it back.

F Number5.6
Lens IDLUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length43.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 86.0 mm)
Exposure Time1/50
Exposure ProgramManual
ISO200
Exposure Compensation0
FlashOff, Did not fire
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