Self Portraits on Maserati Wheel Lugs

At a parking lot auto show on Sept. 9, there were some pretty spiffy Ferrari's and Maserati's.  I took some pictures of some of the car parts, including a Maserati wheel that caught my attention because the chrome lugs reflected my image taking the shot.  Unfortunately, I could not find one that had the trident vertical, so I had to rotate the image in post processing to get it vertical.  That made my portrait off at an angle and it didn't look very good.   Last Tuesday I found myself at the Maserati dealership and asked a salesman for permission to take some photographs.  He not only didn't object, but he was aware of the reflection properties of the wheel lugs.   So I found a wheel that was oriented with the trident vertical and took this shot.

I like the strong graphical image of the wheel and the reflected images of yours truly are a bonus.
Comments welcome.

Brown's Book Store

A chill October wind rustled outside the small book store.  Inside, Mr. Brown was dozing in a corner, tired of browsing through his collection of volumes.  And an interesting collection of volumes it was.   Some nearly-full shelves of science, engineering and math books.   A large collection of reports of engineering projects long-ago completed and filed away.   Together with the reports were personal notes detailing relationships between the team members of those projects.  An extensive travelogue section held shelves of materials describing locations around the world with pictures, some vivid, some faded, of those locales.   One whole section of the store was home to photo albums of various family activities. 

There had been a time, some years ago, when the shop was busy.   Friends, family and total strangers would come, looking for information and the shopkeeper was happy to oblige.  But now, there was hardly ever a customer.  It wasn’t as if he needed a customer base to get by, but the sad part was, all those resources were going to waste.  He would gladly give away a volume to anyone who could appreciate its value.  He had gone so far as to stand on the sidewalk and volunteer to provide free material to passing strangers, to very little interest.  Granted, his stock was somewhat dated.   No MP3 tunes, no Kindle books.   But still, his offerings had value.  They were good solid information, and in some cases they came at a significant cost at their time of acquisition.   

Lately he had been concerned that maybe his housekeeping had been lagging and as a result, some of the books were deteriorating.   Pages were missing or had faded due to humidity or whatever, to the point it was difficult to locate just the section that he sought.  He would search for a particular document and more often than not, abandon the search before locating it.  And he always seemed to feel a lot more tired than he ought to be.  Maybe a short nap right now would be refreshing.   Just catch a few winks. 

            *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

At the other end of town, at SunnyVale Rest Home, an attendant pulled the sheet up over the old man’s head.  “Well, Mr. Brown went peacefully.   Just passed in his sleep.”   

“I hear he was quite a man in his day: Successful engineer; traveled all over.  Since he came here a few years ago - that is, until lately, he really liked to talk about his work and his travels.  Would give you more facts than you could handle.”   “Just think of all the information in that brain of his.   More than in a whole book store.  But it’s all gone now.”

Phone or camera?

I've been giving some thought lately to the use of an iPhone for a serious camera.  Not for me since I don't have a smart phone and already have camera equipment I need to use.  But the handwriting  seems to be on the wall about the direction the market is going.  Go to any public setting where a lot of folks are taking pictures.  There will be more phone cameras than film and digital SLR's combined and probably more than the total point-and-shoot cameras.  On forums I regularly monitor, serious photographers are talking seriously about the potential of smart phones (and available aps and post-processing software) for taking serious photographs.  Most admit the results will be limited to print sizes of 8x10 or smaller, but that is true of most point and shoots already.   Which leads me to wonder if the progress in camera phones may signal the end of the point-and-shoot segment.   Why would someone buy another little box to carry around and keep batteried when they already have one that can perform as well and immediately share those results with any number of other persons.  

Topsy-Curvy

The July challenge in the Viewfinders camera club is "curves".   The first thing that came to mind was a roller coaster.   I went to Google Earth and noticed there was one next to the fence at Six Flags Fiesta Texas.   I didn't really want to enter the park or to pay the $15 parking fee, so when I went there, I used the drop-off entrance and luckily found there were some free 30-minute parking spots.  Perfect.  A short walk to the parking lot and about 20 minutes standing around led to this shot.  I like it for a number of reasons.  Hope you do too.   Comments welcome.

Hippo-Flection

The June 2012 theme for the Viewfinders challenge was "reflections".  I wanted to try getting some repeated reflections from several mirrors, so I made this shot.   I used three 12" sq. mirror tiles taped together to make a equilateral triangle box, open at the top and bottom.  I set it on a white board and took the shot from the top.  The target is a small silver-colored hippo that is about 3 inches long.  The only concerns I had were keeping the camera out of the shot and getting enough light into the box to offset the loss from multiple reflections.  I put a desk lamp above the box and used a wide-angle lens to get a wider coverage and greater depth of field.  A photoshop adjustment of brightness let me add some light to the far side.  I am fairly well pleased with the outcome.    Comments welcome.

Critters great and small

So I was painting some benches in the back yard and found a good specimen of scorpion under one of the legs.  It was daytime and it was very sluggish, so I was able to scoop it into a small jar.  My thought was to try to photograph it.  Today I transferred it using a monofilament loop through a soda straw into a plastic soda cup.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered it was not alone.  Don't know where the little guy had been hiding, perhaps clinging to the large one (mother?  father?), but he was pretty active, running around the inside of the cup and hiding underneath the large one.  I took some shots of which this is about as good as any, then released the two back into the yard into a leafy area where they should feel at home.  Sure, I may get stung by one of them some time in the future, but hopefully not.  Notice that the little one does not have a tail yet, but his pincers are well developed.


Comments welcome.  gear:  Lumix G1, Leica 45mm Macro handheld, autofocus.

Hurry Back!

We have a small basket near the front door for people to leave notes in when no one is at home.  I don't remember anyone ever leaving a note, but it was a convenient, dry place for a bird to build its nest and here is the result.  I was not able to catch a photo of the parent, but apparently she kept the food coming because the chick is no longer there.  ( I hope the neighbor's cat is not responsible. )  Shot was taken through the window next to the door.