Manzanita Shadows
2010-02-24 My wife and I picked up this piece of a manzanita bush outside Yosemite, near a burn area. They're fun plants, even when they're dead. The piece we have feels like it's reaching out to grab you, in a semi-creepy way, so I wanted to try and take an interesting photo with that in mind. It turned into more of a shadow study. setup photo [last year]
![<span id="date">_06/03/10_</span> <span id="title">Acme Thunderer</span>
It's a whistle! This particular one was found in my wife's late grandfather's WWII stuff - pretty cool! It's very tarnished, but still has a nice piece of cork on the inside. I had planned on doing a focus stacked shot but decided against it because of that whole "time and effort" thing. Instead I went for a single shot with a fairly small aperture. See my <a href="http://jawsnap.smugmug.com/gallery/8246339_SpVpq#889291650_EznwG">setup</a>!
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/7157835_BfJPF#588255403_iPSvs">[last year]</a> <em>awesome-est sunrise...</em>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Black-and-white/i-h63BRSd/3/2d095e98/Ti/2010-06-03%20Acme%20Thunderer-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_05/13/10_</span> <span id="title">White Chair</span>
This chair can be found outside the Annenberg Space for Photography where I went for a lecture this evening. The speaker was Dennis Dimick, one of the executive editors at National Geographic. He gave a talk on environmental photojournalism that was really interesting.
In other news, I got my <a href="http://www.moo.com/">moo.com</a> business cards today! They look great! I highly recommend them.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/7157835_BfJPF#537979599_SLvGR">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Black-and-white/i-SMJJfKp/3/cf560cfa/Ti/2010-05-13%20White%20Chair-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_06/24/10_</span> <span id="title">Skull in a Jar</span>
It's not really a jar - it's a special skull-sized glass container. Yes, it's real - it lives at the library where I work. My librarian friend Russell wasn't too sure about it's history (ie. who's skull is this?), but it's pretty neat on it's own. Many of the bones have little hinges on them so it can be taken apart - a good teaching tool, I suppose.
I set the container on some boxes that were stacked up and lit it from the side with a snoot-ed flash.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#573435821_xea8E">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Black-and-white/i-wNBkG8R/3/dd122553/Ti/2010-06-24%20Skull%20in%20a%20Jar-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_07/18/10_</span> <span id="title">Revere Eight</span>
This 8mm camera belonged to my dad's family, and I faintly remember hooking up an equally antique projector around 10 years ago and watching some films that were shot on it. It's pretty cool, and it seems to be in great condition - the build quality is impressive. From what I can tell, you'd buy up to 3 different lenses and be able to quickly rotate between them, but we only have the one - 13mm, f/1.9. The camera is a Model 99.
I used an off camera flash to blow out the background (a wall) and used the smallest aperture I could to bring focus to the lens. I've been meaning to do a daily photo of this subject for a while, and this might not be the last...
In other news, I wrote a <a href="http://blog.jawsnap.net/2010/07/4th-of-july-trip-to-ventura/">blog post</a> on our recent <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Travel/Ventura/12863408_qQw6m">Ventura trip</a>.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#595002643_6LZM3">[last year]</a> <em>Rest in peace, Grandad...</em>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Black-and-white/i-jgk6rkG/3/edc780f8/Ti/2010-07-18%20Revere%20Eight-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_09/05/10_</span> <span id="title">Balls</span>
These big, shiny balls are at the newly opened Santa Monica Place. They adorn the Northeast side of the parking garage, and you can't miss them. I purposely took this shot so you couldn't really tell what you're looking at, but each ball is about the size of a basketball, and they're reflecting the sidewalk and street below.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#640613301_GXtEv">[last year]</a> <em>hail Mary...</em>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Black-and-white/i-z8wN9bk/3/70821ffb/Ti/2010-09-05%20Balls-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_07/13/10_</span> <span id="title">Vaulted</span>
Walkway in Kerckhoff Hall, the cathedral-esque building that was <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year3/11272102_ACXDJ#929394325_pnPpq">last Friday's daily</a>. I greatly increased the clarity in Lightroom. I'm impressed with how centered I was able to get everything - this shot is not cropped.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#590583664_xPuqm">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Black-and-white/i-pzS3K4N/3/d5bbfac7/Ti/2010-07-13%20Vaulted%20Ceiling-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_11/04/10_</span> <span id="title">Melty Death</span>
Pictured here are two chocolate-covered gummi bears. Can you tell which one spent 10 seconds in the microwave?
After I was satisfied with the result I ate the subject, but I must warn you: gummi bears don't revert back to the same consistency after they've cooled. It was like eating rubber cement and spiderwebs.
Also, thanks for the kind comments on yesterday's shot - isn't it funny how the spontaneous ones are always the best?
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#703630904_AgaRA">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Black-and-white/i-7RNhtwV/2/045885fe/Ti/2010-11-04%20Melty%20Death-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_10/09/10_</span> <span id="title">Eva and Amy</span>
Eva has made a <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year3/11272102_ACXDJ#884884373_Qgc9N">previous appearance</a> in my One/Day Project, back when I was in Tucson for my 10 year reunion. I was back again today for my wife's 10 year reunion, and I did a photo shoot with Eva's parents, grandmother and great-grandmother. Four generations! Very cool.
It was a lot of fun, and this is my favorite photo of the bunch. I was torn between color and B&W at first, but this version really grew on me. Now I just need to go through the rest of them...
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#675645712_HfDQh">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Black-and-white/i-RVVj3Tt/2/da4b7c9d/Ti/2010-10-09%20Eva%20and%20Amy-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_05/17/10_</span> <span id="title">Glowing Balls</span>
Of cotton, that is!
I was searching for some sort of shot tonight, and I ended up with this - a jar holding cotton balls, placed on the edge of the sink. The faucet handles are what you see in the background, and I taped a black cloth against our mirror to hide our patterned tile. My SB-800 is in the sink, pointed up at the cotton balls.
It came out pretty close to what I envisioned, although now that I've put everything away I wish I'd cleaned off the water spots a little better.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/7157835_BfJPF#539268303_Rptjs">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Black-and-white/i-JLcRBHM/4/181b1fc8/Ti/2010-05-17%20Glowing%20Balls-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_07/15/10_</span> <span id="title">Study Break</span>
I was walking through the library today and I couldn't pass up a photo of this. There are plenty of comfy chairs and benches... I guess this guy prefers the floor.
This is one of many iPhone photos I shot today. I've been shooting groups of three using the 3G, 3Gs and 4 to compare the cameras. Obviously the 4 has the best camera, but I thought it'd be nice to see some side-by-side comparison. Stay tuned for the results!
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#592374620_Vd9Ed">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Black-and-white/i-G2bmKcr/3/dd658a24/Ti/2010-07-15%20Study%20Break-Ti.jpg)
Chuck Beehner
on February 25, 2010very cool shot...like these kind of images...well done
paula
dakotacowboy
on February 25, 2010very nice
fotomom
on February 25, 2010The shadow part of the shot did turn out quite mysterious. I like the study.