January 31st, 2010, posted in 365 Challenge, Photography
Sunday was spent cleaning up the garden and even though there are many things growing out there, there wasn’t anything photographically inspiring. My daffodils should be open in a few days, so then I’ll have something botanical to look at.
In the meantime, I came across some wonderful photos using the creative aperture filters on a Lensbaby, something I haven’t played with much and want to learn a bit more about. So out came the Lensbaby and on went the heart ring. I set up a few candles and focused on the closest. The points of light from the ones in the background take on the shape of the aperture cutout. This was fun, but I have a lot more work to do with it to achieve the results that i’ve seen elsewhere.
Here are some much better examples…
Shaped apertures – a set on Flickr
And this one, on a video, is hysterical….
January 30th, 2010, posted in 365 Challenge, Photography
It was a cruddy Saturday and so what better thing to do than visit the Vancouver Aquarium and spend some time in the Amazon. Beats hanging out in the drizzle.
In 2004, just weeks after defencing my PhD thesis I had the good fortune to travel to Brazil for a conference and a subsequent boat trip up the Amazon above Manaus. We feasted on fish the likes of which we had only seen in aquariums. One of these was a fish called the Arapaima, one of the world’s largest freshwater fish. The scales are 2-3″ in diameter and used for everything from decoration to nail files. I ended up buying about 50 and bringing them home for display in a bowl. But it is still awe inspiring to stand and view this fish in a living state…it really does seem to be a remnant from the past.
January 29th, 2010, posted in 365 Challenge, Photography
We bought this clock a number of years ago, it caught Kirk’s eye and we had a good laugh over it. It was inexpensive so it came home and has been a source of fun ever since.
The human brain astounds me with its capacity to interpret. When we first bought this clock both of us would mix up the time because it is natural to read the numbers and interpret them literally. As in, it’s three past ten. But that’s the trick with this particular clock. Many clocks have no numbers at all, and we just interpret the time based on the position. But this clock provides too much information and the brain responds to the numbers before it translates the positions. So, with a little exposure and “brain training” we now don’t even see the numbers, unless very tired I suppose.
January 28th, 2010, posted in 365 Challenge, Photography
The “Green” Olympics… Call me crazy, but I miss winter. The Olympics are a mere 15 days away and we haven’t a stitch of snow. The rain comes down and down and the freezing line is way, way up. Whistler is in fine shape for most of the outdoor events, but the local mountains are in a sad state with a few events to be held at Cypress. The world media is making a huge deal out of the entire thing, but really, there are only a few events at risk, and they aren’t even really at risk because they can be salvaged using ingenuity.
But it would still be nice to get some cold weather and snow…. I’m tired of the rain….
January 26th, 2010, posted in 365 Challenge, Photography
Feeding Time at the Zoo — If there is one thing Loki loves (other than me) it’s food.
Those radar dishes on the top of his head make it difficult to sneak a treat to Milo sometimes as even the slightest clink of his food dish or the cookie jar brings him flying from a dead sleep.
View other Loki shots in my Flickr Photostream
