Photo of the Day

Sunday 3/16/03	Pheasant feathers. A wonderful woman named Ingrid gave me, a number of years ago, the side of a pheasant. She thought I could use it for a craft project, but I could never bring myself to tear it apart. So I laid it out on the floor and simply shot straight down.
Monday 3/17/03	I believe this plant is called hyacinthoides or bluebells. They showed up in our garden this spring . . . I clipped a stalk, stuck it in a glass, and put it on the kitchen counter. ISO 400, 100mm macro lens with 20mm extension tube, 1/5 second at f/5.6.
Tuesday 3/18/03	I'm still working these flowers. Today, however, I sprayed them with a bit of water. ISO 400, 100mm macro lens with 20mm extension tube, 1/125 second at f/2.8. And the background colors? Provided by a can of straw mushrooms . . .
Wednesday 3/19/03	Rain today. A towhee sits on a bush just outside my rain-streaked window, puffed up against the wet and the cold.
Thursday 3/20/03	A quick stop at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. It's not raining, so it's over to the puffins. Overcast light — perfect. ISO 200, 75-300 IS lens at 170mm, 1/400 second at f/8, underexposed by 2/3 stop.
Friday 3/21/03	More rain, confined to the house. So I point the camera out the front window and, choosing a slow shutter speed, move the camera during the exposure. These are the same flowers that you can see in the towhee picture, above. ISO 400, 75-300mm lens at 300mm, 1/8 second at f/32. Kind of a cool effect, don't you think?
Saturday 3/22/03	"Midnight Twister" begonia leaf. ISO 400, 24-85mm lens at 70mm, 20mm extension tube, 1/13 second at f/8. Looks sort of like an octopus tentacle at first glance . . . but then I think I've been hanging around aquariums too much . . .
Sunday 3/23/03	Sea lion dozing in the rain. Newport, Oregon.
Monday 3/24/03	We took off for a couple of hours to explore the Seal Rock area during a - 0.2 low tide. What I found most interesting, however, were the colors of these rocks found at the high tide line. Rainwater leaches out various minerals from the cliffs above, turning these rocks down below a variety of colors. I love the abstractness of it all, with no sense of scale. I used a polarizer to eliminate reflections and to make the colors appear more intense. 24-85mm lens at 40mm, ISO 400, 1/250 second at f/8.
Tuesday 3/25/03	My old standby when it rains: Hyacinthoides or bluebells. ISO 100, 100mm macro lens with three extension tubes: 12mm, 20mm, and 36mm. 8 seconds at f/16.
Wednesday 3/26/03	Common murre, Oregon Coast Aquarium. Sunny day! ISO 400, 75-300mm IS lens at 270mm, 1/400 second at f/8. These guys are tough to shoot. Their bodies are a dark grey but their undersides are very white; the water, too, can look very dark or very light. Invariably something goes wrong when photographing them. Except this time.
Thursday 3/27/03	Oh, gosh . . . when you see me break out the sea shells, you know I'm in trouble! Not much time to shoot today so, just before sunset, I put this shell on the dining room table. I held a diffusion disk between the sun and the shell and Chris reflected some gold light onto the shell from the other direction. But really, doesn't this look more like a cinnamon bun (or Princess Leia's hair) than a shell?! 100mm macro lens, ISO 200, 8/10 second at f/16.
Friday 3/28/03	There's a tulip festival going on near Salem, Oregon and we just had to check it out. Woof! Row after row of tulips and they were absolutely beautiful. I waited about 20 minutes for a family to finish stomping through the tulip beds before I could take this shot. ISO 100, 75-300mm IS lens at 210mm, 1/30 second at f/8.
Saturday 3/29/03	Even though I shot a lot today, nothing really excited me. This was the first photo of the day, taken at the Oregon Garden in Silverton, and it was a quick, grab-type of shot. I'm not super thrilled with it, but it's pretty much the best o' the day . . . ISO 200, 24-85mm lens at 82mm, 20mm extension tube, 1/60 second at f/5.
Sunday 3/30/03	Underside of a (deceased) sea star. ISO 100, 100mm macro lens with three extension tubes: 12mm, 20mm, and 36mm. 4 seconds at f/22. I also used a silver reflector to even out the light, which was a bit shadowy in the upper left. Even though this was a really easy shot, I like it! It's got texture, diagonality, color, and look at this depiction of the Rule of Thirds!
Monday 3/31/03	Skeleton leaves. It was tough this afternoon coming up with something to shoot. Nothing seemed to be working. Although I didn't think the shot was interesting at the time, I really like the simplicity of these two leaves, one placed on top of the other. The grey color is handsome and the texture is subtle. ISO 100, 100mm macro lens, 1/4 second at f/16.