Very Tiny Blues

 
Very teeny tiny blue flowers. 

I Like Blue

 
Definitely my favorite color. 

The Promised Pineapple

 
A dwarf pineapple plant at the Botanical Gardens. Definitely Mas Macho. 

Spiderweb at Botanic Gardens

 
I see these spider webs all over the main greenhouse of the Denver Botanic Gardens -- they stand out because of humidity and sunlight. The spider that made this web is a member of the cobweb spider family, I believe the American House Spider Achaearanea tepidariorum or if not, closely related. 

Paul Newman's Balsamic Vinegarette

 
Oil is pretty neat.

Tomorrow I'm going with my high school buddy and the boys (who are on Spring Break this week) to the Natural History Museum to see Body Works. 

Plant Flame

 
It's a dusting of... pollen? I need to go back for names of these plants. 

Orchids

 
While visiting my buddy Anna Sher at the Denver Botanic Gardens, I got in a few shots. "Few" is the important word here. Somehow, I only brought my 16MB memory card. :( 

Shooting Kids

 
My boys' school is holding a silent auction to raise funds for materials so I put together this flyer and then offered a two hour sitting fee as an auctionable item. This isn't really a Macro post, but more on the photography side than family (the subject of my other photoblog).

In my little blurb, I wrote "I'm a wildlife photographer and that means I take pictures of kids (and bugs, animals, and flowers)."

I definitely have a different approach to taking pictures of kids -- I don't have a studio. I don't want to do that kind of photography right now either. I like grabbing images while the kids do what they do. Terms terms... not quite candid, but it is candid... lifestyle... ? Hm.

Of all my pictures of children (who are not my own), the most popular has been of the beautiful girl on the right and center. The main voter is my son Kai. He adores A---A---- and carried around that picture as a 4x6 and wedged it into his bedroom mirror. They share a birthday and her mom and I were only a few miles away from each other at the time of their births.

I do have a tip gleaned from my last session of some young ballet dancers. I think the biggest challenge in getting a group of kids in a photo, is making sure that the majority do not have their fingers up their noses. 

I Miss Bugs

 
This picture is from last August. I did see a few spiders out a couple days ago and even a bee, but we've since dropped again in temperature and our springtime snow is beginning to fall in earnest. It made me wonder if I had the fortitude to take the boys out for a day of skiing. It would be their first time up. I miss skiing too.

Fun news, I received Macro Day's Editor's choice for my previous post Money. I put a notice on a Post Script there but I was just so tickled, I thought I'd write more about it. It's odd that's my first Challenge recognition and yet that one has no comments. I suppose comments (or lack thereof) don't really give one a good idea of a picture's impact. That or Carlos is the only one (besides me) who liked it! ;) 

Feminine: Tribute to Smoke Rings

 
Friday Photo's themes have been Masculine and Feminine -- things which I arguably know nothing about. Therefore, I went back to my androgynous mentor, Laurie Anderson for guidance. In the song Smoke Rings, she addresses the issue in a sort of Zen Koan style with knife and lightbulb. I added the rocket launch tube -- my own personal enlightenment. Had I thought of this during the Masculine challenge, I would have gotten out my pineapple and school bus to photograph. Don't think I don't have them. 

Opinions

For those of you who just want the pictures, skip this post.

To Do List:

• Get rid of the oxymoron-ic Patriot Act.
  
• Criminally prosecute government agents that spy on Americans without warrants and give medals to those who leaked the program.
  
• Inform the Intelligent Design goofballs that to be scientific, a hypothesis has to be able to be disproved and it must be predictive. This means that an Intelligent Design proponent must have a method for disproving the existence of a creator AND the ability to predict the actions of such a creator. Do they REALLY want to be part of the scientific community or are they really asking for some kind of untouchable privileged kibitzing? It stuns me that Bush says, "I think we should put Intelligent Design in our schools," and then says we need to promote scientific education. Scientific Education? Scientific Education? You couldn't handle Scientific Education.
  
• Legalize drugs, let the pharmaceutical companies pay the high prices for poppies and coca for useful drugs and get rid of the black market. Now that would be a blow to terrorists who use the drug trade to finance their operations. It would also open up prisons people who are committing crimes against people and property.
  
• Reform tax code to a list of multiple choice options: Here's my tax dollars, but this is what you have to spend it on. Even better: Here's how much of my money you get AND this is what you have to spend it on. That would be a democracy and make those that use the money accountable -- or else they won't get money the next year.
  
• Remove the the McCarthy Era "One nation under God" line from the Pledge of Allegance and never ask those who are under the age of consent to make such a pledge.
  
• Let reporters keep their sources private without having to go to jail to do so.
  
• Let the government know that we as people have no more basic right than to control our own bodies, in life, creating life, enjoying life, planning our deaths.
  
• Legalize gay marriage and gay adoption-- the stupidest argument I heard opposing gay adoption was that the partnerships break up more often. How many demographic groups could be excluded from adopting using this kind of logic? Here's one: There are more divorces in Nevada than anywhere else. Conclusion: don't let Nevadans adopt children.
  
• Make all offices (local, state, and national) have a one-term lifetime limit. Honest (well, no less honest) government through high turnover. At least it would spread the wealth and power and corruption around. Or maybe political service could be kind of like jury duty, "Yeah, Bob, I just got called up for the Senate."
  
• Re-institute public stocks, floggings and red letters for spammers, pop-up advertisers and spywear peddlers.
  
• Sign up any politician who says something like, "And we've had a 360-degree turn around on this," for a mandatory geometry class before speaking again in public.
  
• Make all military campaigns voluntary. Okay, you need to have a policy of, "You signed up for this mission for X months, gotta hang in there until then," as well as an immediate response clause, but let your standing army decide to be a part of, just for example, "Iraqi Freedom" or not. If none of your citizens or soldiers sign up, or not enough to carry out the campaign, hey, that might be a clue. Hm... wait that might already be happening -- not quite as quickly as I would have liked.
  
• Tax all churches as businesses.
  
• If a religion claims:
  1. to be the only way to salvation
     
  2. to trump freedom of speech and freedom of association
     
  3. that violence is acceptable in its cause
     
  4. that other religions are inferior, diabolical, and therefore their followers must be converted and/or saved and/or killed
     
  5. that harassment of the rest of the population is "godly"
     
  6. that one gender, class or race is superior to another
     
  7. that maintaining the reputation of the church is more important than the well-being of the members of the church
     
  8. that all people live by their rules
     
  9. that "killing babies" is wrong but "executing criminals" is right
     
  10. discourages questions or freedom of thought
      
  11. that a literal interpretation is the only interpretation
      
  12. that they know who is going to hell or heaven
      
  
  then give it the "What a Bunch of Stupid Goobers" seal.
  
• This wasn't my idea, but it's so good I'll repeat it: Allow the opposition party to name all new laws. The Patriot Act might then be the "The Republicans Use Fear Mongering to Control the Population through Spying".
  

Did I mention I was pretty far in the Taoist-Atheist-Libertarian camp?

Remains of the Day III

 
With film grain. Isn't digital camera technology funny? 

Remains of the Day II

  

Remains of the Day I

 
There is an up side to keeping cut flowers well past their prime. These petals reminded me of the paper scrollwork crafts.