Climbing the Walls

There's been a lot of this at our house lately.

What a monkey!

Macro

A friend asked me for some advice about macro lenses, and I took these pictures this afternoon to show her what a 50mm macro photo looks like.

You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

These were both shot with a Canon 50mm macro lens at f/2.5, and the focus was set to be as close as possible to the subject, so this is as tight as one could possibly make the frame and keep focus.

With a 50mm macro lens, you have to be a lot closer to your subject than you do with an longer (higher number) lens.  I tried to photograph a fly, but it flew away before I got the shot, because I got too close.  Sometimes I like shooting these kinds of pictures with a zoom lens at around 100mm because I can stand a little farther away, and the shot still looks just as close.  But, a 50mm lens is very versatile, and wider shots (like portraits) that are not macro look really good with this lens.

It is fun to shoot with the lens at the widest aperture setting, because the part of the picture that is in sharp focus is so narrow.  You have to be very precise with your focus, and this makes the part in focus really pop out.  It also makes it harder to get the exact shot you want if you or your subject are moving.

I know some of you will find this post incredibly boring, but if you made it this far... sorry, you're a photo nerd -or- congratulations, you're a photo nerd in training!

Oh, wheat! Lots of wheat! Fields of wheat.

I recently took this portrait of a beautiful little girl named Petra.  Her family had a small patch of wheat growing in their front yard.  In Los Angeles.  Isn't that cool?

Dioramas

The dioramas in our Museum of Natural History are breathtaking.

If you stare at them long enough, you will see the animals move.

Other times, the taxidermy itself becomes an element in a two dimensional painting.

Before you leave the museum, they send you all over the world.

Although museum dioramas were conceived before photography and world travel were everyday occurences, they still have a magically transporting effect.  Is it because every leaf and grain of sand is scientifically accurate?  Because, like a photograph, they have captured a unique moment in a changing world?

Is it because the scale is 1:1, neither larger nor smaller than life, thereby making it easy to see yourself inside of it?

Bones and Bouzouki

I could not stop taking pictures yesterday at the Natural History Museum.  Bones make me giddy, and they had lots of them.  The old dioramas are stunning, and we were all so excited by them.  I had one of those perfect, happy moments watching my family appreciate the African Mammals while I laid on the floor in the middle of the hall so I could get my shot.

The brand new Age of Mammals exhibit has just opened, and it was spectacular.  Lots of these guys are older than forty-one.

After the museum, we went to Papa Cristo's, the best, best, best Greek restaurant, and we were treated to to some beautiful bouzouki with our gyros.

Tomorrow, I'll show you some more museum pictures and tell you more about Papa Cristo's, but for now, I'll just say thanks to my family for making this one of my best birthdays ever.

Soot Sprites

Julio has been busily playing with the dried fruit pods from a Liquid Amber tree.  I collected a big pile of them last winter, and he has been putting them into and taking them out of an old glass pickle jar, rolling them on the floor, and covering them up with a shoe box.  He might even love them more than his pine cone collection.

According to  Wikipedia, the Liquid Amber fruit is nick-named: "space bug", "monkey ball", "bommyknocker", "bir ball", "gumball", "conkleberry", "cukoo-bir" or "sticky ball."

Around here, we call them "soot sprites," after the creatures with that name in our favorite children's movie, "My Neighbor, Totoro."  When I noticed that Julio had spread them out under the couch, they looked so much like soot sprites, that I had to try adding some stick-on eyes.

If any of you Totoro fans want to make your own soot sprites, you could paint them black and then stick eyes on them.  I think they would make the best decorations!

Tipi

In spite of all of my dreaming, sketching and planning for this project, our tipi turned out to be so easy to make.

Someone gave me some free bamboo.  (Most people who grow bamboo would like to give you some free bamboo.)  Okay, the sawing, transporting, drying and hacking off leaves with a machete were not so easy, but they were fun.  Hopefully, you can get your hands on some clean, dry bamboo.  I just started experimenting with it today, and this easy version worked perfectly: 

Use five tall poles (mine are 12'), some twine and several blankets and sheets.  Lay the bamboo in a pile on the ground and tie it tightly together about 2' from the top.  Then, stand it up and just start spreading out the base until it is stable and feels like the right size.  One person can manage this easily.  This probably works best on grass or sand, because the poles will not slide open.  If you look up from the middle, it should look like this:

Finally, take your sheets or blankets and start draping them around the frame.  To secure them, use clothespins or clamps or just tie them together.  This whole thing takes less than ten minutes to build, and less than five to put it away.

You can play there all day, and then eat dinner!

This was the first, but hopefully not the last time I could say, "Come on, everyone!  Sushi in the tipi!"

I'm making a 6' version for inside the house, but I love the giant one.  You can see the small one draped in grey on the left.  The kids attached it to the side of the big one so that there would be another 'room.'