No insects were harmed..

In the production of this photograph.. 

as it was already dead when we found it in our driveway!

Still Jr. and the little one were worried it was alive after I showed them the quick preview shots on my camera display..

The canon 50mm macro can make it looks like it brings dead things back to life!

Macromania..

We were visiting close friends who recently relocated from our neighborhood to Irvine before our return from Disney. Saw this beautiful rose in their backyard and took out the macro lens..

we went back to the house and saw a small peacock with real fine detail. (the head of this peacock is smaller than a dime, the whole thing fits within the palm of your hand)..

Irvine was nice. The same $ seems to buy better things in Irvine than in the bay area. Did not see many desis or an international population mix though.. maybe it was the area we visited?!

Did not even know that having an international crowd is now part of a built in pre-requisite for us to live anywhere! Strange how the bay area changes you in ways you did not imagine!

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Busy bees...

It has been a very hectic work week with not much time for family, leave alone updating the blog.

This morning while standing in the backyard trying to catch an AT&T signal on the iPhone to call work, a dead bee was spotted on the concrete!

Having made several unsuccessful attempts to catch the bee live on the rosemary and sage bushes, this was an indirect blessing (for me , not for the bee) to capture this using the macro.

So put a drop of hand sanitizer on a piece of paper, plopped the bee on that drop and took pictures with the macro..

Then saw my own busy bees sitting in a dark room with dark glasses and clicked away..

Here are the big busy bees, up close and personal

When things get tough, you can always be happy that a chance encounter with a dead bee or catching your kids at play can put a bright spot in an otherwise hectic day.

We had friends and relatives over for dinner and that was really refreshing. Have to do this more often.

The economy rant needs a post in itself..

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Ikebana show - Wow!

Did not know much about Ikebana till today. Still don't, but at least got introduced to the concept at the Flower show at the local community center.

It was awesome!

The arrangements looked picture perfect to the point where Jr. and the little one kept asking "Are they real flowers or fake?" over and over again.

Are these real daddy?

how about these ones. are they real?

I learned something new today. My kids are uncomfortable around "perfection" or the notion of "perfection"..

Was taking pictures of the arrangements and the flowers in the arrangements and in the process learnt a lot about changing zoom lenses fast. Finally decided to do multiple rounds of the show...

with wide angle
with telephoto
with macro!

see results..

this one is with the sigma lens maxed out at 200mm taken at ISO 1600, f6.0, 1/60 sec.
Autofocus makes a big difference..

this one with the 50mm macro lens at ISO 1600, f5.6, 1/60 sec. The macro lens was on manual focus and it has a real small depth of field but where it focusses, it is unbelievably sharp and detailed. Should have taken a tripod with me and it would have been better..

The next bunch of pictures are taken with different lenses..

The bud and the flowers are either zoomed in or magnified with macro. You can see the image differences..

For those local readers, it is open tomorrow also. Definitely worth a visit.

A big thanks to the organizers and participants in the events for this visual treat.

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Intricate detail

In nature.. (a chrysanthemum bud)

and man made (a hand crafted Indian doll - the head is as small as a dime)

the world is just different when you got nice glasses....

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