Fresh from the Garden

Didja know Jersey is known for their tomatoes? This is why.

I picked these today out from the backyard, along with a slew of basil (in the background).

Alas, their beauty didn't last long as I massacred them as an offering to the bruschetta Goddess. :D

There's just something so cool about growing/picking your own herbs and veggies... no pesticides, utterly fresh, and no other random weirdness.

Crochet on Ice

See... I have this thing with hobbies. I jump from one to the other, focusing solely (usually) on one at a time. I seem to have fallen into a crocheting hole. *snickers* I have way too much yarn than any woman under the age of 60 should own. It's truly a sickness. I've been making purses for friends and family members, various pouches and scarves and blankets and shawls and...... blah. Anyway. I've not abandoned my camera, just slowed down as I didn't wanna burn myself out too quickly.

Must..... resist...... urges to combine...... both hobbies! I'd rather not bore people with images of yarn and froo-frooness, but I think I can make the hooks look nifty. Mebbe. I'll put it on my things to try list. I'm always looking for boring and mundane things to photograph, 'cause sometimes you get something neat.

Which brings me to glass of ice water. I dunno why I decided to snap pics of my swiftly condensating glass (damn humidity), but I did. I like how it looks like it's glowing. Oooooooo... ghost glass... whoooooooooo. *makes slow, flappy arms and obligatory ghost noises*

*ahem*

Sorry about that.

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I'm /so/ easily amused. :P

Green Vase

When you were a kid and you got a new toy, it was the best thing in the world.. you played with it until you wore the damned thing out, broke it, or you got bored- whichever came first. This is how I feel about my close-up/macro filter. Hopefully, I won't break it, and I don't think you can technically wear one out... and hell, I'm certainly not bored with it.

While looking at nifty photos, I've always been automatically drawn to extreme closeups, especially where they look nothing like they do as a whole and a bit abstract. So this is what I've been doing: scouring my home for things that while quite mundane, can be made to look almost... other worldly (I've always liked that term).

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This is a vase I came across in my pantry closet. I like it fine. It's unique, it's glass, and well... it's pretty. :D It's an odd shape, kinda like a pitcher with an oval rim and spout like things on either end.

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Gel: Take 2

This time, I just didn't take a close-up of the bottle, but squeezed a li'l out. *marks her words with a farty-squeezy-gloppy type noise*

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*hums and doesn't mention that this is the only angle she caught where it didn't look like a mini, pink pile of translucent dog poo*

Ode to Hair Goo

Ahh... hair gel. A curly head's best friend. Behold it's... bubbliness. *snerts*

Just a drop...

My first (of probably many) images using water as the main subject.

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I just love close-ups.

Glass and new lenses

*hops around like a mad woman running solely on caffeine and pixie stix* Damn skippy! Switchin' to bigger thumbnails on this one, baybee...

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Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about, people. I love my new ... wait, is it a 'closeup lens' or a 'macro filter'? Whatever it is, I wanna marry it. No, really. Wouldn't you?

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I sat on my living room floor for a couple of hours, testing out all sorts of ways to get a decent closeup and I'm finally happy with my results. I would have uploaded larger images, but I thought these were a good enough res to show them off without taking a million years to load. This is just a small, glass/crystal/I dunno goblet that, I believe, was a favor from someone's wedding. I just love how the light refracts and swirls around all the li'l nooks and crannies of the design. A shame the darn thing is so nicked and scratched; it woulda been awesome if it were new. Not to mention if I had thought to wipe my damn fingerprint off the surface. D'oh.

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Apparently, one of the secrets is staying -very- still and having adequate lighting. And no matter how still you think your hands are, they're not still enough.. I learned that the hard way. As I've mentioned before, I have no fancy equipment, but I do believe I need to invest in a tripod. For these pics, though, I used a combination of a two second timer and a pack of cigarettes to raise/steady the camera. High tech, eh? :D Usually, I kinda wing it and make due with what's handy, cheap, and useful. When there's a lack of sunlight, I use a small goose-neck desk lamp with a $5 'daylight' bulb. You know, those weird squiggly ones. Even my new lens.... *hears a chorus of angels singing whenever she types the word 'lens', looking off and into the distance; seemingly lost in a day dream....*

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Hmm? Oh... yeah. Right. What was I saying? Oh, yes. My lens. Even my new lens was basically on the cheap, compared to a lot of others I've seen with similar features. I have to keep reminding myself that this is just a hobby and I don't need all the gear, so I'm being choosy on what I spend my dough on. I'm happy to say I think I made a very good investment of, oh, $30 or so, give or take shipping, for this beauty.

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Heh, obviously, since the lens is /in/ the picture, I couldn't use it to /take/ the picture... so, well, it's not as clear, but I kinda like the hint of abstractness it has. Yay me.

I am so a happy camper, right now.

Lemonade

What says summer more than Lemonade? Before making a batch, I rinsed off my lemons and was just about to start reamin', but something made me stop and grab my camera. I got a new close-up lens and wanted to play. So I did.

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I didn't get the some of the shots as crisp as I wanted to (even though I tested out my new 'toy' on a dime and was pleasantly surprised at the magnification and clarity), so I guess I'll just have to practice a bit more on what settings to tweak and when.

*wanders off with a naughty song about lemons stuck in her head* Damn you, Robert Plant...

Turtles!

I have a rather vast turtle collection. No, not of actual turtles, but turtle related... items. Figurines, pens, books, stuffed animals, little boxes, etc. You name it- if it's in the shape of a turtle, I probably have it. I can't quite explain my love for 'em, all I know is one day I bought a small turtle pendant and that was the end of it all. *snickers*

This is my turtle pen. I LOVE this pen. Not only is it a turtle, but it has a big ol' hematite stone at the end. The turtle's shell is embedded with all sorts of small, semi-precious stones and stuff.

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And these are my crystals. When I was a teenager, my grandmother got me this pair of Swarovski crystal turtles, with li'l jet eyes. They're my favorite of all my 'collection'.

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Red-Tailed Hawk

Back in '02, there was this young red-tailed hawk that decided it was gonna have, er, lunch in my yard. Luckily, I didn't get a good shot of said lunch (which was a bunny of some type), but I did get a few semi-decent shots of the hawk. Now, these were shot with a much older camera than I have now (not to mention I didn't even know how to work it properly), so they're not all that crisp. I decided to post these, though, after I accidentally deleted all my new pics from the park off my memory card. I needed /something/ to fiddle with, and besides.. it's very rare you're able to get this close to a hawk- in the Jersey suburbs, at least.

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There I was, just sitting in a lawn chair in my yard when this poor thing, about two or three yards from me, was trying to drag it's prize away. The bunny, however, was heavier than the bird had imagined, so when he/she went to fly off, it almost smacked me in the head. That woulda sucked- no one needs a disemboweled bunny thwacked against their forehead.