I got my car back last week from getting the top fixed in time for summer, and even though we’re going through a cold snap right now it’s really nice to get out in the fresh air.

Sarah and I went hiking in Edgewood County Park this morning. Absolutely beautiful, except for the biting wind. For most of the hike you’re sheltered in the trees, but once exposed on the hillside it could get cold. The wildflowers were out, but hard to photograph because of the wind.

Hanging around in the backyard, waiting for the coals to burn down for cooking dinner. All the chairs were calling to me – the close one won.

I’ve shot a lot of flowers at home, including quite a few orchids, so I wanted to see if I could do something new. For this shot I put my bare flash behind the flower and shot directly into it.

A relic souvenir from the early days at PDI. This is from around 1982, when we delivered animation on 2″ video tape. The project was for Rede Globo, the huge Brazilian TV network.

I know this is a video in a year long “picture a day” project, but I allowed myself that when I started. I love animation and thought I’d try out Flickr’s video with this piece. (Besides, it’s really 250 still images!)

Shot with a 100m lens on my Canon 10D, I stood there for 15 minutes counting 1, 2, 3, click, 1, 2, 3, click – 250 times. I then imported the images into Lightroom, processed them for the funky look, exported and imported into Premiere to make the video. The stuff that looks like dirt on film is actually birds flying by.

I think I’m going to start a new set on Flickr called “Things That Live At My House.” In addition to myself, my family and our dog, this cranefly and the cellar spider would be featured inhabitants.

We went hiking at sunrise on Russian Ridge this morning. Beautiful green rolling hills lit with the morning sun, and the wildflowers all in bloom. And great company.

I was shooting some macro shots this afternoon to take advantage of a Canon 40D that I was able to use for a couple days. This image is a macro shot of a small spider in our garage. His body is only about an 1/8 of an inch, so I didn’t see what he really looks like until after I took the shots.

Most stunning is his head looks exactly like a skull. Second most stunning is that his entire body looks like it’s made of glass.

I’m looking up what kind of spider it is and will post when I know. I’m sure it’s closely related to daddy long legs.

Spring has done its job; the Japanese Maples in our front yard are full again. There are even some leaves that just sprout out from the trunk. They have very big dreams.

This is the same tree that was losing its last leaves in January. As seen here.