Keeping cool

I just got back from a week-long visit home to NorCal! It went by entirely too fast. It got pretty hot one day, so we escaped to the natural air-conditioning of the redwoods and the ice-cold Pacific Ocean! It is hard to get an original shot of really tall trees, especially when confined to the designated walkways, but the light was so pretty that afternoon. And it was definitely a good 12 degrees cooler among the redwoods!

I named them Falcor 1, Falcor 2, and Mercury.

Left brain right brain

I took these 1-2 years (!) ago while waiting for an experiment in lab. A series of ~25 have been in local exhibits and a couple reside in the administrative offices of my school. Another lab photoshoot is long overdue!

PS. The one with the crystals is just a close-up of some dirty glasswear that had been sitting out for weeks!

PPS. To any scientists out there, yes those are glass pipettes. We're the only lab I know of who washes and re-uses the glass ones instead of throwing away plastic ones. Biomedical research can be EXTREMELY unfriendly to the earth (it's incredible how much plastic and styrofoam gets thrown away every day), so this at the very least is something. Hmm maybe we should sell reviewers on our "green research style" to get an edge on funding.

Geez they're cute.

Here are a few more of the >300 photos from this weekend's engagement shoot with my friends:

I'm so happy that they loved the photos -- it's a lot of pressure to make something for someone that they will look at for the rest of their lives! I'm doing my first wedding for some friends in October, so the pressure will be EXTRA on for that (but I'm excited)!

I must say, I am not actively seeking out photography jobs/selling. I'm mainly focused (har har) on my day job. I don't take my (big) camera out that often, but when I go home at the end of August I will probably take enough photos to post Photo Mondays until I go to Europe in October! Then no doubt I will take enough photos to post Photo Mondays for the next year!

Even more flora (and a little fauna)

Mama bird hit the jackpot on the worms! And that is an out-of-focus bee in the upper right hand corner of the second-to-last picture -- I didn't notice it until it was on my computer! I love how alien some vegetation can look. In the third picture there is a solitary droplet of water in the middle of the cabbage, somehow not yet evaporated. Same garden as in the last post.

More Flora

I will never tire of photographing flowers! I think that everyone has an intrinsic urge to take pictures of pretty flowers (and that some have suppressed it more than others). I think the first image will be on all of my engagement/wedding cards to people from now on.

On a walk

Don't have much to say...took these on a walk last week, same as from the last post. Have a good Monday! I don't know about you but I'm ready for the weekend already.

Graffiti Series: Round 2

I finally got out and took some photos after work today, and I noticed some new decoration around town. Now, if your memory serves you, I've posted a pic of the yellow turtle before -- now it seems like there is a new "life" gang in town; it is scrawled everywhere. Perhaps some pro-life teenage hooligans? Who knows. And can I just say, I LOVE the parking garage gatekeeper! Boring objects should be anthropomorphized more often!

Bubblegum tree

I know, it seems like all I take pictures of these days are flowers -- It looks like I have a bubblegum tree in my front yard, though! Dooce recently posted about how a flower's natural colors can barely be replicated in photoshop, and when I went to play around with the levels on these photos, sure enough, the first three looked WORSE with any changes! Gotta love spring. The last three are definitely 'shopped, though.

Weekend in pictures