roof top views

Roof Top Views

June 5, 2013

This week we're looking for "Roof Top Views."  The theme was chosen by Lew.  Check out my  pals for their interpretations on  this theme: Fishing Guy, Katney, Imac and Lew.

The Bolingbrook area has a few spots that could be useful for photos from a rooftop or photos of a rooftop.  But I have been swamped with work and haven't been able to look around much for those views.  This little cluster of Maple leaves is from my garage.  I need to clean that gutter.

Why so busy?  The workload at the office has been challenging, and I am like a swimmer who is barely treading water.  That's job security though, right?  I'm glad to have a job, even when the workload is overwhelming.
  
Besides that, I was working on sermon preparation.  My pastor asked the elders to fill the pulpit while he's on vacation these next two weeks, and I was assigned to give the sermon for June 9th.  It took me two months to prepare!  It was well-received, and I have an increased appreciation for the work my pastor does every single week.

Well, that's it.  I don't have a slew of pics from the archives this week.  Just the one header.  And now my break is over and I need to get back to work.  See you soon!

jumping to conclusions

These are unidentified grasshoppers. If anyone knows more specifics, I would be happy to add that information.

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I like grasshoppers. Usually. This is the first time that I have seen one with a face like what you see on the lighter green hopper. It was singing from a bush, and it let me get very, very close for a nice, macro shot. The chirping sound was pretty, but this character has a face for radio, if you know what I mean.

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The grasshopper in the wood chips looks more like what I have come to expect, but the detailed photo suggests that this one is a slob. Look at all that dirt on him. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

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Both grasshoppers were seen at the Morton Arboretum last Friday.

itsy bitsy spider

...down came the rain and washed the spider out...

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Lots of rain overnight. The sun eventually broke through, but between the extremes, I found an unhappy arachnid surveying the damage to its house.

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Sorry, Little Buddy. I wish I could help.

scores of spores

I like them in my salad, on pizza, with steak... but not in my lawn.

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Wanting to get a good view of the underside, I pulled one out and held it upside down for the photo. Then, I flipped the image back around to post it. This was a few feet away from the grass, which is why we got that nice bokeh around the 'shroom. Now that's putting the "fun" in fungus, eh? But now that I look at it, I wish I had done it differently...

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What if I mounted a remote controlled flash on a tripod, softened the harsh light (from the flash) with tissue paper, and angled the shot (with the mushroom above the flash) so that the sky was in the background instead of the lawn? Woulda, coulda, shoulda...

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After snapping this photo, I raked up all the mushrooms, but I'll try to remember the idea for that other shot next time.

ant rant

Today's post is (ahem) "a contribution from a guest blogger." Enjoy.

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The day began like any other day. All I wanted, was to do my work, and mind my own business... and be left alone. Believe me; I am no adventurer. About mid-day, after a long climb up the peonies, we went right to work, trying to open up the big buds. Everything was right as rain until this frightening thing grabbed the stem and shook me off of my work station.

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Placing me on the sidewalk, he barked instructions to an equally horrific, but smaller creature. This smaller one pressed a long copper strand across my back, so that I could not run away. Oh, I dodged it a few times at first, but it was persistent, and eventually trapped me. The original beast fashioned a loop with that same type of strand, and fixed that between my thorax and abdomen. Curse those opposable thumbs!! I tried to wrestle out of the copper shackle, but all my effort was in vain.

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Next, it constructed a laboratory where I feared it might perform all manner of sadistic experiments on me. I have heard of these things from scout ants passing through from other colonies. We dismissed them as fables, but they tell of a glass disc that focuses the sun's energy into a destructive beam that causes the victims to burn and explode. I kid you not; that's what they said! Now, I found myself immobilized under what I could only presume to be one of these disc blasters.

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Faced with imminent annihilation, I was determined to go out boldly. Mustering up all of my intestinal fortitude, I would look this opponent straight on. Fixing all my eyes straight ahead, I would deny him the gratification of seeing any fear whatsoever. Then... there was a light, but it did not come from the glass disc. Instead, it came from a smaller device that was only slightly warm. While at first, I thought I was to be experimented on by an evil mastermind, now I realized that I was the prisoner of a witless moron. The poor thing evidently did not know how to operate the infamous disc blaster.

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At this point, you are probably wondering how I got away. That is the strangest component to my story, as I fully expected that my captor would squish me underfoot, or cover me with chocolate and eat me. More fables?? No, I truly believe these creatures are capable of such atrocities. But no... instead, it carried me from his laboratory, back atop the peonies, and loosed the wire from my midsection. I was free!! I was on the wrong flower bud, but I was free!

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I appreciate the opportunity to tell my story. Good day to you all.

susie snowflake

Yes!! Brother Greg and I took S1 bowling on Friday night, and then we hung out for a while. Light flurries came down as my son and I returned home. Instead of backing into the driveway, the way I usually do, I drove straight in, aiming the headlights at the Caravan. These flakes were big, and everything was cold enough that the snowflakes wouldn't melt when they hit the car. I went up close for a look, and there it was, my treasure!! There were lots of opportunities to capture a single snowflake!! As it turns out, these would be the best conditions all weekend, so I'm glad I didn't wait until later.

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Granted, this is not National Geographic quality. Nevertheless, I am beside myself, that I could capture such a thing with my old 2.1 megapixel camera.

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The darker pic looks like I caught a flake midair, but it was actually sitting on the minivan's fender. The little white speckles are probably just a mixture of dirt and salt. Notice the shadow to the left of the bigger snowflake?

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The super closeup was taken at the minivan's headlight. I think the beads of condensation were from my breath. Sorry; I tried to turn away, but I was freezing out there.

microbursts

For those who are tired of the snow, maybe this will be a nice change of pace. How about these fun little florets from Mrs. C's daisies? This one especially good to click on the image and supersize it!!

one drop tells a story

There is a new weekly assignment that I want to try. It is called storyboards. You tell a story in three photographs. I like the idea. I chose to tell the story of a drop. Today's administrator offered a tip about using a tool called Mosaic Maker. I tried it. I like it.

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About our subject: It was not easy to get the right models for this project. Unfortunately, I do not have continuous shooting with my old camera, so we had to interview dozens of prospects before finding just the right ones. What's that you say? All drops look the same to you? Please, that's not a very sensitive remark... a drop might take offense to that!

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(The guy from Steve's Digicams is not me. Back in the year 2000, he did a nice job reviewing the kind of camera that I now own.)

grasshopper

Yumpin' yimminee! Look at how this little grasshopper is content to sun himself in a patch of mulch. He was only about an inch (2 cm) long. I took another macro of him, where I tried to get a detailed look at his face. I wanted to show you his simple eyes (ocelli). The facial macro did not come out as clear as I had hoped, but I'll add it below anyway. You'll need to enlarge the photo to see the details.

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Since I wanted to zoom in on a still shot of the face, I asked if I could pick him up, and he did not say no. ;-) Then, I held him close to my mailbox, which has a blue post. That's why the background is a funny shade of blue. He didn't seem to mind being held, which is weird. The picture in the mulch was only a few short hops after the closeup at the mailbox.

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I really like Picasa's option to add text. It is handy for naming species of bug or flowers and identifying sites and landmarks.

fuzzy face

What a sloppy snout! I was under the impression that bugs were better at grooming than this cricket. His muzzle is messy with lint or something, and it even looks like he's drooling! Maybe they usually are, but when I found it, this one was already dead. I scooped it up from the floor, put it on a paperweight (rock), placed a blue sheet of paper in the copyholder, lowered the desk lamp and snapped the photo from approximately two inches away -- no flash. The filthy face is probably lint from the floor that got there when I scooped it up. I'll see if I can clean them up better next time.

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S2 dressed up as Wolverine for trick-or-treating. Big sister drew the hair on his face, and I constructed the adamantium claws from plasticware and tinfoil. Later, browsing through the pics, I touched up the facial hair for some wicked mutton chops. (I also thickened the brows and lengthened the canine.) What do you think? Pretty tough, eh?

arachno-vision

I DO believe I can see her eyes better now, than I did through the viewfinder. You know what? She's staring right at me. Hey Spider! Take a picture; it lasts longer!

starbursts on red velvet

Red is such an attention grabber. For that reason, it's not a frequently used background color. No, red belongs in the foreground... usually.

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Even when I drew near to take a close look at this flower, the main thing I noticed is that it is basically a red flower. It was not until I zoomed waaay in to crop out the previous background, did I begin to really appreciate the tiny yellow florets, generously pollinated. Notice the tiny whisps of yellow fingers which undergird the flowers. An unscientific guess at their function is that they are there to tickle bumblebees and garden fairies. That is nonsense, of course, since bees have an outer skeleton and aren't ticklish. But playtime for pixies, that's a different story. ;-)

catching bugs

[click image for a bigger bug]

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A gas man walks hurriedly past our hero's front lawn.

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Unexpectedly, Sam's watch beeps. He looks carefully at the timepiece. His wife's expression is concerned, and she asks if he absolutely has to go right this minute. "Be right back." He smiles, kisses her goodbye, and grabs his sunglasses and car keys.

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This is Secret Agent Man. The watch indicated that a bug was planted by an evil Canadian mastermind named Alan, who tries to steal Sam's jokes. As Sam's eyes are shielded by the sunglasses, he glances up and down the street, careful not to turn his head. It looks clear; maybe the watch malfunctioned. He checks again it indicates a device ten feet away at 'twelve o-clock.' He walks. Six, four, two... "Aha!! Found it" he thinks.

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There is a big, juicy-looking cicada clinging to the buds of his juniper bush. Nonchalantly, he removes the bug, and squishes it underfoot, pretending not to notice that its exoskeleton houses transistors instead of slimy goo.

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From the very end of the block, an engine cranks and tires peel a little as the driver hastily splits the scene. Yup... black hummer. He probably has his goofy cat with him. Blast that pesky evil punster! Just for show, Secret Agent Man takes his car to the corner store and back. When he returns, the cicada is gone-- vanished without a trace. His jokes are safe... for now.

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No folks, I haven't suddenly decided to switch to writing corny fiction. (I can imagine the big sighs of relief from that.) It's just that I had this macro shot and didn't know what words to put with it. (There really is a Canadian Alan who tells puns; that part is true.) As for the rest of this fabrication... well, I had to say something...

shoo fly!

Hey fly, don't I know you from somewhere? Your face looks familiar. Did you used to wear a bee uniform?

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Flies. Hmph! They're so annoying! Sometimes I wish I had Superman's laser vision, so I could zap these pesky bugs in midair. Mwaaa-ha-ha-haaaa! Could you imagine the disastrous results if I missed? There would be burn marks on everything... and everyone.

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Bzzz... Zap! Sorry.

Zap! Sorry again. Try not to stand in the way.

Zap! Okay okay, I'll go get a rolled-up newspaper!

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Bzzzz...

big and little

They call this strange little character a bee fly. It is approximately the size of a grain of rice. It was very interested in my bluegreen camera bag. Perhaps it was the color of the canvas tote that worked as a beacon to this cerulean striped fly. Yes, it's actually a fly; it only looks like a bee. The mimicry was designed so that we would think it's a bee and not take its lunch money.

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Hey, do you perchance use Picasa for your photos? The August issue of Popular Photography suggests a shortcut on page 108. To flip an image horizontally, press Ctrl + Shift + H. That nifty little trick should come in handy when attempting to decipher Russian signage.

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Anyhow, that made me wonder what other hidden secrets I might want to learn, so I googled "picasa shortcuts." Here are a couple more that I expect to find useful:

Ctrl + Shift + V flips it vertically

Hovering over a photo, Ctrl + Alt is a full-screen preview.

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Enjoy!

Rocky Bal-butterfly

This must be the Rocky Balboa of butterflies. Ouch... It looks like a bird tried to have it for breakfast. There will be no modeling contracts or beauty pageants in its future, but I think it will survive to the ripe old age of whatever it is that they usually live to be.

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The butterfly remained stoic during the portrait sitting, acting as if it didn't even notice me. I said something about how it is a brave little survivor, and then, as I began humming the Rocky theme song, it cracked a smile and flew away.

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No, I don't have any witnesses that saw it smile. You'll just have to trust me on that.

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Here below is another attempt at photographing the stars. It was a small cluster that I zoomed into. I have no idea what constellation it is a part of. (I misplaced my star chart.) Look closely, and you will see the oblong effect from the earth's rotation. They make a device that attaches to a tripod to match the earth's spin for taking clearer photos... I don't have one yet. (sigh) Maybe some day.

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Addendum: Thanks Shoe and Fishing Guy! You're right. That star cluster is known as the Pleiades, a.k.a. Seven Sisters.