Photoblog 2.0

Artichoke Flower 3, photo by Harold Davis.

This is an extreme close-up of an artichoke flower. The artichoke plant grows in our vegitable garden, and is a perennial. There is hope next year for eating artichokes, not just photographing their flowers.

I used my macro lens on the D70 along with 6X worth of extension tubes to get this close.

For some reason, extreme macros always seem to have artifacts that need cleaning up. Besides get ridding of these stray pixels, I did the normal RAW processing stuff: adjusting levels and sharpening.

I wanted to keep the effect natural, but I also wanted to add some punch to it, so I added a small amount of vignetting to the edges, and a slight lens flare to the area that was already bright.

Wedding Rings, photo by Harold Davis.

Our wedding rings - nestling. What better way on Father’s Day to say “Thank you” to my wife, the mother of my children, who makes it all possible. Phyllis, I love you!

Hearts on Fire in the Sky, originally uploaded by Harold Davis.

I like photographing hearts. (Here’s a photo of a heart on ice I recently blogged.) Hearts are shorthand for passion. As I’ve said, I like them. Here’s a link to a very wonderful flickr group of heart photos (the photos are taken by group members, of course, not just little ole me).

My Hearts on Fire in the Sky is, of course, a photocomposition of several images. Oh, the things one can do in the digital era, and the second time around! Not all post-editing is as obvious as Hearts on Fire in the Sky; some just enhances an existing image and tries to appear natural, like my photo of Mirror Lake.

heart on ice, originally uploaded by Harold Davis.

If the T-Rex had this heart, would he be happy?

Rusty T-Rex, originally uploaded by Harold Davis.

I found this rusty T-Rex near a rock shop off Route 140 outside Yosemite. (You can see the tumble down rock shop in the background.) I was looking for a nice rock for Julian, who is into rocks these days with all the passion that an-almost-eight-year-old can have.

A T-Rex in real life would be fierce to meet, but I think this one is more forlorn. He’s sitting in the weeds, rusting, abandoned, waiting for his Dorothy to come along to oil him and help him realize his inner heart.