6-30-12 Daisy, Daisy, daisy

Not counting the parts of daisies on edges of this photo, there really are three daisies in this photo. "Really?!" you say. Really. This is a layered HDR photo that I made (not took) with my Canon 5D Mark III. It has HDR capacity built in. The things you can do with the new-fangled cameras. . .Incidentally, the title of this post pays homage to the famous scene in Stanley Kubrick's fiLm "2001: A Space Odyssey," where an astronaut "kills" HAL, the on-board computer. (HAL, by the way, is an acronym that is only one letter away from IBM. Coincidence?).When that film came out in 1968, 2001 seemed so far away. And now it's 2012 and we have cameras that are smarter than those who use them. Like me and my 5DIII. . .

A Simple Flower

There were at least two dozen flowers in the bouquet my wife put out in our dining room, including the noble red rose. But I was attracted to the soft pastels of this orange relative of the common daisy. The light was diffused window light and, as you can see, I focused on the green "button" in the center.This flower is another simple thing that might have been ignored if not for the great macro lens I own.

Summer's Reminder

You may not know this but it isn't the cool weather that causes the first leaves to turn color and fall. It's the diminishing hours of sunlight. Photosynthesis - literally making something out of light - needs the fuel that sunlight offers and at some point in our part of the world, the leaves say, "I'm out of here!" and give up.It also part of the cycle of life. But because I am leaf-like in my need for sun, I'm not all that excited about fall and the winter that will soon follow. What do I get from the sun? Warmth. Melatonin. No need to wear socks.And daisies.