My First Explore Entry

Explored #241/500
Dec 28, 2010

I've finally stopped jumping up and down and screaming and sat down long enough to share the good news with you!  I just found out today that yesterday was my first entry on Flickr's Explore Page.  I was #241 out of 500 photos Flickr decided had interestingness based on the Flickr community. So without further ado, here is the photo that I am extremely proud of.

The Golden Globe

Blue Gold

I remember when I was a kid, I jokingly said to a friend one day, "Man, one day we're going to have to pay for water!"  It was a joke then because as a kid with all the innocence in the world, I just knew that we'd never have to pay for water, at least not outrageous prices, for a basic human necessity.  I had just learned from my elementary school teacher that water was a basic need for life.  Growing up I drank the tap water all the time.  I went to college and had to buy a filter to drink the water.  I even started purchasing sodas instead of juice and water because the sodas were a lot cheaper and to a poor college student, every penny matters.  I moved to Santa Barbara and was immediately told by the people who lived here, "Don't drink the water!"  I wash in water everyday that is extremely hard and damaging to my skin and hair and it destroys my appliances.  As you reflect on what you knew as a kid and what you know as an adult, you ask lots of questions so I asked myself this question, "What is happening to our water?"

I watched a documentary called Blue Gold: World Water Wars the other night and was engaged in what has happened to our water from the beginning to the end.

This film was the inspiration for the name of my blue water drop photo.

Getting close to everything

This past weekend I made my first lens rental! I rented a Nikkor 105mm macro lens and I was in heaven! I especially wanted to try water drop photography and photograph insects and bugs. First, I had to do refresh myself on the research I had already done so I revisited David Hobby's Strobist blog to check out his post on How to Photograph Water Drops with One Speedlight and I went on Youtube to rewatch Gavin Hoey's (a.k.a. PhotoGavin) video called How to photograph a splash of water which you can find also embedded on the Strobist article. I made my setup pretty much just like Gavin's. I took hundreds of photos and then sat down to review them all and this is one of my favorites from this weekend.

This shot was created using my Nikon D40 with the SB-600 flash fired off camera at 1/16 power using the SC-29 TTL remote cord, left of the water drop, onto the background.

I spent the enitre weekend taking advantage of the lens.  I was looking for anything that I thought would look good close up.  I've also created a Flick set called Macro.  I'm crossing my fingers that I'll make it a part of my arsenal in the near future. I've found a new love in macro photography. ♥♥

Happy Holidays

Happy holidays to everyone! I hope you have a wonderful, safe holiday. Look forward to seeing you next year.

Closeup of Color

I recently bought a Lensbaby Scout from Samy's Camera. The Lensbaby Scout comes with the fisheye optic and a few aperture disks. & I couldn't wait to try it out so I looked around my room for anything that might look very interesting close up and I found some markers that I haven't used in years.  I noticed that the top of the markers had a really nice star tip and I chose them as my subject.  I piled several of the markers in a small box and stood them all up straight.  The Lensbaby does not autofocus on the Nikon D40 so I got really close and focused on the two markers in the middle and took the photo.

Love and eggs are best when they are fresh

Santa Barbara Courthouse Tower

I love to spend a day every once in a while exploring or rediscovering things things in the town I live in. Since, I've had my camera it's been much more fun. Recently, I took a trip to the Santa Barbara courthouse and I have to tell you that, it's beautiful! The SB Courthouse is the only courthouse I know of where people actually hang out. In other towns/cities, I've been in, most people try to avoid the courthouse. A trip to the courthouse would not be complete without going up to the tower. I was alone when I got up there and it was great to take in the view and the fresh air and just be at peace above Santa Barbara by myself. While I was there, I composed to photo to always remember the view.