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Los Angeles Twilight

Filed Under local travel, photography

A lot of sweat went into the following photos. I huffed it up the Sam Merrill Trail in Altadena only to find out that I forgot to pack a memory card. Realizing that I had them in the car, I hurried down and back up again in time to catch the last of the evening twilight.

I created a panoramic image using ten photos. Click on the image below to go to the page where you can zoom in and check out the details.

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Shootin’ Up Los Angeles II

Filed Under local travel, photography, urban-explorers.com

How often can you say that you do something “once in a blue moon” and really mean it? I was going to start this blog by saying “Once in a blue moon…” but I stopped and went to Wikipedia on a hunch and whatdoyaknow - it really is a blue moon this month (May 5th - June 2nd).

So, once in a blue moon, I organize a photography outing with my friends to share photography techniques and to explore our home turf. I invite anyone and everyone to join me, even if they own just a camera phone. I find that photographing with other people inspires more creativity and sharing of photographic ideas.

This time out (our second), we kept it green: only public transportation and our feet were used to get around. The five of us started in Pasadena and ended in Chinatown. Here’s some of my photos:

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22nd Annual Los Angeles Bug Fair

Filed Under Uncategorized, YouTube, entomology, graphic design, international travel, kahunna.net, local travel, photography, retrotravels.net

Who gets excited for bugs? I do! Who has been wanting to go to the annual Bug Fair? I have! Who spent seven hours walking around the Natural History Museum like a kid in a candy store? I did! Who’s the biggest geek? I am!! I’m really starting to concentrate on being a better macro photographer - specifically an insect photographer. The details that small creatures have can make is seem you’re looking at an alien. I brought my Macro Ring Lite (MR-14EX) and used it on most of my shots. They had added extra lighting in the dark halls of the NHMLAC, but not enough to really light up the displays of insects well enough. In this shot, I held the ring light behind and to the left of this Rose Haired Tarantula (which was alive and for sale).

This Cobalt Blue Tarantula had a gaze like Dirty Hairy… I mean, Dirty Harry.

I tried to write down info of each insect/arachnid I photographed, but I missed writing down the names of these guys, so I’ll make up names for them until someone posts a comment and gives me their real names. This first one is called the Kryptonite Bug, only found in the Arctic Circle on the underbellies of polar bears.

Below is the famous Cross-Eyed Skipping Beetle from Zimbabwe:

Next up is the Bunza Wunza found in the jungles of Tazmania. it was named after the sound its wings make while attacking small (very small) villages.

The Goldminer Beetle from Niger actually eats gold, which seeps onto its back to form a hard shell.

Little known fact: Pea Soup is actually made using the Pea Soup Beetles, pictured here:

Ok, I’ll stop with the fake names. Here are some photos of creatures and their real names: Silkworms eating lunch:

Phil Mays’ famous collection of beetles. One girl asked “were these painted?” Natural colors can be so beautiful, some find it hard to believe they exist without some help from us.

Morpho Butterflies:

Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches really are beautiful when you look at them closely.

Scorpion:

Phil Mays’ Butterfly Collection

They had a beehive on display:

Despite the photos so far, there were some humans at the bug fair. While waiting in line, I spotted Huell Howser interviewing a staff member. Huell is the host of California Gold, the longest running television series about California. You’re in the right place if Huell is around.

This girl looked so much like Dora The Explorer, it was uncanny. Her hair was just a bit longer but in the same style and she wore a Dora backpack, evidence to me that she has been a fan of the children’s animated character for a while.

By the time I left around 4pm, this guy had filled two boxes with his butterfly purchases!

While I was at the Natural History Museum I decided to visit the Pavilion of Wings, an seasonal exhibit of live butterflies. Although the butterflies were everywhere, the helpful docents were excited to point out butterfly eggs and incredibly small caterpillars. I’m really glad I brought my macro lens! Eggs: Caterpillar: Butterfly:

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Blue Bee & Barcodes

Filed Under entomology, photography

One of my photos is featured on the social news site NowPublic.com. I found the article intriguing. More after this…

How do you tell bees apart?

International bee experts have converged on Toronto to develop a plan to catalogue all species of the insect across the planet.

According to York biology professor Laurence Packer, who’s leading the group’s efforts, precisely 19,231 different kinds of bees have been identified. But he thinks there might be another 5,000 or more species out there waiting.

Sadly, he said, some will likely become extinct before researchers can catch them, stick a pin through their bellies and test their DNA.

The bee gang clustering at York is trying to launch a DNA bar-coding campaign to more easily track all the bees in the world. Once their DNA is mapped, the little critters would carry a unique identifier that scientists could access from anywhere in the world.

“The barcode in a grocery store tells you that you’re getting Cadbury’s milk chocolate rather than some other company’s,” Packer said. “The barcode on a specimen tells you that this is an important pollinator for blueberries, rather than an important pollinator for apples or canola.”

The group is hoping to get funding of $700,000 to complete the task.

He said giving each species a name – and a barcode – would help those developing the technology to use wild bees for specific pollination tasks, especially since so many bees look alike.

“There are places on the planet where people aren’t getting enough to eat as a result of insufficient pollination of the crops that they grow,” Packer said. “In these places, the knowledge about what bees do is abysmal.

“There are places where farmers think bees that visit their crop are damaging it, rather than actually making the crop possible in the first place.”

source: thestar.com

Will there be a day soon where we can add satellite tracking devices to insects and track them on Google Maps or Google Earth? They’ve been tracking larger subjects (like sharks and whales) for years, so if the nano technology is here, why not? Tell me what you think in the comments below.

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Don’t Upset Mother!

Filed Under Uncategorized, local travel, photography

My Parents and I had fun making this shot at Badwater in Death Valley National Park on Christmas Day, 2005. Keep in mind that my Mom is about 5′2″, my Dad (center) is 6′ and I’m 6′4″.

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Video Page Created

Filed Under YouTube, graphic design, local travel, photography

I created a page for posting my videos. I’ll be adding more as I create them, but for now you’ll find a high-resolution video of my Joshua Tree National Park trip. If you’re bored, you can read that trip’s report here.

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Mother’s Day Macro Photography

Filed Under Uncategorized, local travel, photography

Happy Mother’s Day, all you moms out there! And Happy Mother’s Day to you, Mom (when you read this). I didn’t spend time with Mom today because my Sister kidnapped her and forced her to go down to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. What a bummer for her.

Instead of spending time with Mom, I spent the afternoon photogging at The Huntington, where I’m an annual member. I brought along my Canon 40D with just my 100mm lens so I could concentrate on improving my macro photography skills.

I shouldn’t have been surprised by how crowded it was at The Huntington, but I was. I had never seen it so packed! I had to circle the lot for ten minutes before finding a parking spot (which is about how long it takes me to drive to The Huntington from my apartment). Many people parked outside of the main gates and walked the quarter mile into the property.

Anyway, here are some photos:

Click here to see this photo larger and check out the small bug at the bottom left. I love how it makes the butterfly look like giant Mothra.

I’m going to try to get into the habit of adding a watermark to all of my photos. I’ve been reading too many stories about photographers finding their work on commercial sites that didn’t ask permission nor provide compensation. If YOU would like to use my photos on your site, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

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Shell Collection

Filed Under local travel, photography

I was cleaning out a closet and found a shell collection I made when I was a teenager. Now that I have a good camera, I thought I’d capture the beauty and exquisite details of some of the shells. I found many of these shells while beach combing or snorkeling in Orange County in the early 1990’s.

For more photos from this collection, check out my flickr gallery.

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Fog Slideshow

Filed Under graphic design, local travel, photography, retrotravels.net, urban-explorers.com

A little slideshow I made for my Flash class…

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Joshua Tree Spring Colors 2008

Filed Under graphic design, local travel, photography

I put together a collage incorporating all of the different blooming wildflowers and cacti that I photographed last weekend:

I made it so you can use it as your desktop background image as long as you have a resolution of 1280×1024 or 1920×1200. Refer to this page to find out which flowers/cacti are pictured.

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