August.31,2006

The Monarch

A slightly different perspective on the butterfly. I chased him around for about half an hour before he gave up on me and flew far away.
Click here for a few more perspectives of him

August.30,2006

I pulled out my camera and "shot" a fly
It was dead anyway, stop the hue and cry!
It's all for art! You call it a crime?
Oh! What would I not do for a photo sublime
I need another, the last was too small
It's compound eyes will be it's downfall
It's better to be ugly and a creepy crawly
Otherwise you'll be dead, but famous! Oh! What Irony!!

-- Pallavi Ramam (a fellow photographer who came up with this cool verse after my previous moth eye attempt)

A friend of mine was weirded out at my delight on hearing he had a 'zap-zap' at home. :(
And unfortunately dead bugs aren't as clean as live bugs, so you can see dust specs all over his eyes. I got one almost twice as magnified, but I liked the colors on this one.

Click here for a couple more pics of the housefly at various magnifications

August.29,2006

First flight

Got my first proper BIF!!
Not one, not two, but three Black-necked Stilts

August.28,2006

Perched high

I guess I should be looking up more often :)
That aside, how do you go about identifying which bird this is? I don't have the first clue...
Rear view here

August.27,2006

Down to Earth

The 25th Palo Alto Arts Festival showcases some of the street painters..

August.26,2006

Mansion Grove

Although it looks like a court or a library, it is a residence.

August.25,2006

Running low

Grass reclaims the land from a dried up pond

August.24,2006

Compound eye

The eyes of a dead moth - at full resolution. Take a look at the EXIF and be surprised!

Click here to see how I set this up. I still can't believe how effective reverse mounting a lens is!

August.23,2006

Burrowing Owl

Blurred everything but the owl because the grass was too distracting.
Here is the original picture.

August.22,2006

Chromatic aberration

Picked up a used Sigma 400mm prime in good condition for dirt cheap. And even as I bought it I knew it's not an SLD glass so there'll be color fringes. The first couple of shots I took are of Sunset so I can see how bad the fringing is - and as you can see it's pretty bad (all that yellow around the sun - particularly at the hill border). An even more glaring example here

If there are no bright objects in the frame the lens seems to be doing quite well actually. Might be a decent lens for me to start experimenting with birding.