37°27′ 08.02″ N, 122°6′ 15.69″ W
Happy New Year!
We went for a walk in Byxbee Park in the Palo Alto Baylands this morning. This Anna’s Hummingbird perched patiently while I approached it and took pictures.

89°59′ 29″ N, 122°15′ 07″ W
See you next year!

Honey dripping off a spoon. Lit from the left with a strobe bounced off an umbrella.

I’m sure you can tell what it really is, but I had fun with my macro lens and Adobe Lightroom.

We visited Ano Nuevo State Park today to see the elephant seals. The Coast Guard used to operate this light house on Ano Nuevo Island, which is now deserted. Plenty of elephant seals on the foreground beach.

37°30’45.77″N 122°15’9.78″W
A cutaway turbine engine at the Hiller Aviation Museum. This section is the twelve stage compressor, handily color coded from cool to hot.

The section is behind plexiglass, which shows the reflection from the flash bounced off the ceiling.

Getting used to using the new macro lens. This pile of screws came from various computers and consumer electronics devices that we’ve disassembled over the past few years. The lens will go in another 50%, but I liked having a bigger variety of screws showing rather than focusing on just one. The sharpness is really astonishing if you look at the full res image. (BTW, this image is completely unprocessed.)

New photo toys! The camera has a new Canon 100mm Macro Lens on it. Amazing how much sharper it is than my regular zoom lens. Lit by my new off camera flash, recommended starter kit by strobist. I’m excited about learning how to use all these new tools.

The picture came out a little dark, but then it was almost midnight. I camped out with my camera waiting for Santa to come but, as always, fell asleep right before midnight. Rats!

I made this background for my desktop using real candy canes. Yum.