March 21 2009 Hang There

The onset of warm weather has brought the hatching of bugs aside the open doors and windows. The unexpected place to find a bug, however, is hanging from a spider's strand from my ceiling in the middle of the walk way. The photograph does not do justice to the oddity and the beauty of this creature suspended three feet from my ceiling.



I took this photo on macro with and without flash. Without flash highlighted the iridescence of the wings more. The lens-to-subject distance was only about two or three inches, and the insect was in motion, free spinning. It was a lucky shot.

March 20 2009 Spring Up

Woke up this morning and let the dog out, and breathed in the first breath of fresh spring air. Sent the monsters out in the early morning, but it was too cold for them. They went out as soon as the sun baked in, though. When I got to walk to work, I passed under the budding trees and when I came back I noticed my neighbors' bulbs were sprouting actual color. Happy first day of Spring.


Macro, no flash. Took me about six tries, then I decided I didn't want that flower anyway so I moved to this one. Only had to shoot it twice before I was happy.

March 19 2009 Run Quick

The field trip to the Dinosaur Journey Museum of Western Colorado was phenomenally fun. The three young ones had curiosities satisfied with the abundance of hands-on exhibits: a bone-dig pit, an earthquake machine, animatronic dinosaurs that move at the push of a button, exposed animatronics that respond to joystick controls, an animatronic dinosaur that spits water at you, a water sluice for damming and bypassing with rocks and bamboo and little foam dinosaurs, a box of sand for stamping your own dino-shaped footprints, and a place to sit and read children's books about dinosaurs. There were paleontologists delicately carving away rock from bone in the glass room and a Discovery Channel special on the Dinosaur National Monument here in Colorado. There were bones galore, and casts, and other petrified creatures, living prehistoric fish and not-so-prehistoric fish as fish food.


I took 218 photos today. I had to choose one. Every time I turned the camera back on, the auto setting would auto-on the flash, which I couldn't figure out why the place needed it, being as well lit as it was. I forgot to turn it off a couple times, but this one came out really incredible. Seriously, if this thing weren't in a glass box, I'd be running.

March 18 2009 Swap Things

Today at knit night we brought all the craft stuff we'd like to see disappear from our collections and offered it to the other people. I went home with a handspun wool, two sewing patterns (which I will not use for sewing, stay tuned for an update) and some plastic rocks. I don't know what I'm going to do with the plastic rocks. They were enticing though.


Those aren't English Muffins, it's a bag of glass marbles. People were rummaging and I had to shoot quickly to get a shot without any hands or browsing heads. No special settings. Just a photo.

March 17 2009 Smoke It

Beef corned and smoked is pastrami. Of all the wonderful amazingness of today--we had guests from 10:45 to 8:45 without a break--that which permeated every moment was this beef last to finish, the smoke on our clothes, in our hair, through the open doors and into every room of my house. The process of smoking meat is much more than to taste great smoked meats. It's an all-day experience.

I aimed into the open slots on the grill, and because "auto" includes "auto flash" and the sunshine negated the flash, which I needed, I changed the setting to portrait and turned the flash on. Sometimes the obvious conclusion requires a little thinking to arrive at.

March 16 2009 Move It

I have had this set of magnetic poetry for nearly 8 years. I know every word intimately, and the associations I have built has kind of made my poetry mundane. As a result I have decided to revert to the roots of magnetic poetry: Dada. A random conflagration of words and an artist who arranges them without bias. Also, tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, and people will rearrange the words yet again. I love to keep the poetry, but its essence is that it is transient. So, I photograph it.


No flash, lots of sunlight. Regular focus, dense quality, large size, so you can zoom in and read it.

March 15 2009 Shop Now

Several years in a row we have had to hunt down cabbage for St. Patrick's Day because we waited to go shopping. Today I went and there was an abundance to choose from. I stuffed six into my bag, to go with the 20lbs of beef my husband is corning, and the 10lbs of potatoes. That should feed people for twelve hours, no?

Cabbage all cozied up in my fridge, just waiting for a boiling bath. Nothing special about the shot here, just had to keep my fingers holding the bag open out of the frame.