pic & poem

Pic n Poem

May 27, 2013

Imac chose "pic n poem" for this week's Headbanger's theme.  Check out my  pals for their interpretations on this theme: Fishing  Guy, Katney, Imac and Lew.

Don't you just love the manner in which King David spoke of God's glory in creation?  Here, the Psalmist is looking at the sky, but gives special attention to the sun.  I selected this image for my header because it allowed me to draw the focus indirectly towards the sun and still leave lots of room for the text.  I hope you can see the text there, but if you cannot, I will repeat it here below.

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

  The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
² Day to day pours out speech,
    and night to night reveals knowledge.
³ There is no speech, nor are there words,
    whose voice is not heard.
⁴ Their voice goes out through all the earth,
    and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
⁵     which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
    and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
⁶ Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
    and its circuit to the end of them,
    and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

Psalm 19:1-6 (ESV)

transit of venus

[click on image to enlarge]

Bob and Carol are friends of mine.  They teamed up to create an excellent photograph of Tuesday night's Venus Transit.  Bob is our local science guru, and he used this technique to cast the image of the sun onto a piece of white cardboard.  Carol snapped the pic with her compact point & shoot.  Theirs is the largest globe in this collage of four sun pics.  See the dot at the very bottom?  That's not the sun's bellybutton; that's Venus!

I stumbled onto the other three images while fiddling with the camera as I tried to snap a pic of the sun with my Pentax K-x, a 55mm lens, and a #850 Infrared filter.  I shot the pics in raw, cropped aggressively, and then used Picasa to try to correct the color balance.  That first picture, the magenta ring with psychedelic focal zoom is actually closer to the original, unedited pics than my yellower suns.  Again, special thanks to Carol for letting me download her photograph!

The Transit of Venus happened eight years ago in 2004 and then again just this week, but won't appear again for another 105 years.  That's because Venus' orbit has a slightly different tilt than the earth's.

Friends, I couldn't capture the kind of image I had hoped for, but it was fun to try.  I hope to fiddle around again with sun pictures and see what develops.

it'll be dark soon

After we change the clocks each fall, it gets so dark! There are a lot of windows at work, and it starts to feel like I’m working night shift. That brings new challenges for taking pictures. There will likely be a change of emphasis toward indoor opportunities, but I don’t want to miss out on night photography.

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I hope I didn't obfuscate the post with a misleading title, but this is going to be more about the sun in general than sunsets in particular. Right now, I'm thinking about the setting sun. You know, in the summer, it goes down ever so slowly, and sunsets are stretched out over a longer period of time. But as the seasons change, and the sun sets quicker, I am concerned that it might descend too rapidly and break something. Easy does it, Sunny boy!

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Another random thought: if the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, why is the longitudinal reference point in England? Shouldn't it be somewhere in the Pacific? One more blurb, then I'll stop. John Denver's song "Sunshine." I've been listening to (and singing along with) that song in my car. Play song from iLike.com... wow, that guy was brilliant!

on the morrow

The sun sets on one day, promising to return in a few hours. Its yielding of the sky to twinkling stars is only temporary, because he will return soon to rule the day again.

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Leafless trees are barren for a season. A frosty breeze strips them bare to reveal another form of glory in their creative lines, their shape, their originality.

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A noisy escapee from the recycle bin performs its random and noisy dance in the gusty breezes. It rushes here, then there, crashing occasionally, and then suddenly stopping - as if out of breath.

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Standing there, I soak it all in. Someone steps outside, chin tucked, and begins the hasty charge to the calm inside their car. "What are you so happy about?" they ask. I smile and say, "no mosquitoes."

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But I know they will return. And so will the leaves. And so will the sun. Lord willing, I will be here to enjoy them all again.

m is for...

[click on photo for larger image]

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You would find my little cubicle deep in the heart of the building, far from any hope of direct sunlight. Our spirits had been repeatedly trampled by unseasonable cold and snow and the dismal dripping of freezing rain, almost to the point where we began to get accustomed to it. So sometimes it is advantageous that I cannot see what it looks like outside.

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But this day, people were all abuzz with excitement. It was one of those days where everybody can't help talking about the weather. At my first break, I raced away from the inner caverns of our carpeted walls and artificial light, and made my way to the front entrance.

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Two full magnolia trees keep their sentry posts on either side of the main entrance. The heavy fragrance of these ivory guards has arrested me several times at the front door. As I approached, I could see the sky was so blue, it was surreal! I pushed open the door and squinting a little bit, filled my lungs with a deep breath of sweet air. I had almost forgotten what I was going to do, but the camera in my hands jogged my memory. I put a polarizing filter on the lens and began snapping pics.

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This one is my favorite from the set. If you look carefully, you will notice that my magnolia comes with a little surprise just behind the blossom. It is a mosquito.

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Funny thing. As I said, this turned out to be my favorite shot, but guess what... it was the only capture taken with the flash. Foolishly, I decided from looking at the preview screen, that I didn't like the flash. Now, I'll probably start bracketing sunny outdoor shots with and without flash.

Today's Flowers

bésame mucho

My first thought, when I saw this flower was that it looks like it's whistling.

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midday garden walk

where does the music come from?

it is the flower

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Still thinking about this puckering posture... Could it be kissing the sunlight? Yup, I think so. Hey look! And here, the sun smooched on an apple, too!!

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Click on the flower badge to participate in Today's Flowers.

morning has broken

Yeah, "morning has broken" ...split right down the middle, and daylight is in complete disrepair!

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I misplaced my sunglasses on Friday and squinted through this whole weekend. The shades finally turned up, but not until late Sunday afternoon. Usually, I wear them on the drive to and from work, because I drive East in the morning and West at night.

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[I know that it is foolish to multitask while driving, but I got ready at a red light, and by the time my camera was ready to shoot, the light had changed, so I just did a no-look "shoot from the hip" --cowboy-style. There was NO post-editing to those shots. They turned out fair... considering, don't you think?]

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This morning, the sunlight struggled to break through the atmosphere, and from the looks of the Northern sky's dark reinforcements, the light did not have a real chance of winning this battle. By the time I got to the office, the sun's rays had retreated, yielding to an ominous shroud that poured mercilessly as if we were standing under the deluge of a waterfall, and by now, not even the coolest dudes were wearing their sunglasses.

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Speaking of darkness, I saw the new Batman movie on Saturday with Mrs. Craver. We went for the Imax experience. My recommendation? Go now; don't wait for the DVD, but don't do Imax, either. The cityscapes were splendid, but too brief. The action was hard to follow on such a huge viewing area. We can't say too much about the movie without spoiling the story for anyone who hasn't seen it; but I liked it. This flic was packed with action and intensity without gore, immodesty or pervasive language. The Batman suit has a new cowl that allows him to turn his head. He breaks out a new bat-cycle in this movie and when I saw him do this one turn... a 180 off of a wall, I just about fell out of my chair! This movie will probably be useful for launching discussions about the morality of using force and where to draw the line between justice and wickedness.

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Photos 2 & 3 were taken at 7:36 AM and 7:54 AM respectively.

astronomical anomaly

aka celestial snafu

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Are the moon and sun appearing at the correct times around the world? The reason I ask, is because sometimes they get snagged in trees on their ascent or descent over my town.

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I overheard someone talking about whether the sun was "bright" on a particular day. That's silly; the sun is ALWAYS bright! The sun is always "out," too. You see, the sun only appears to run a circuit across your sky, but in truth, the earth rotates. Shocking, right? Thus, it is never "in;" it's always out. And about the brightness, sometimes clouds...