Penjet - Pictures From ME

WHERE WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO VISIT ON YOUR PLANET?

Given the means--I'd spend time in every nation.

more iphone pics

experimenting with my iPhone again (and I have the older 4) to take closeup shots. I am really pleased overall with the iPhone's ability to shoot closeup. My wife uses her 4s regularly to shoot and gets really good results. I fully intend to continue using the iPhone in conjunction with my dslr.

Poster by Raquel Peixoto

Cinematheque suisse by Kenny Brandenberger

SELFIES 2 the project continues...for now.

How it's done

The backstory

Funny story about these orchids: I got one of the centerpieces from our student design show reception in April. It was the end of the night, and we were cleaning up the area, and there was a remaining orchid after all of the students and guests had theirs, so one of my colleagues said that I should take it home for my wife.

I know very little about flowers, but what I did know was that orchids were supposed to be finicky. It was a cold night, so I warmed the car. There was a support clip that the orchid stems were attached to a small rod on, to train them up. I set it carefully in the cup holder and began to drive home.

As I turned right at some point, my elbow hit the plant, snapping the stems almost in two in two different places. Aaagh! If not for bad luck I'd have no luck at all!

So I ran into the house, and grabbed some packing tape, wrapping it around the stems, propping them up. Yeah..that should work I thought to myself. Using the logic of a mischevious six year old, I brought the plant in and showed it to my wife.

She also was disappointed about my careless elbow, and slightly amused at my packing tape "cast." But we figured that we'd give it a go anyway. After about a week, one of the stems showed signs of dying, so I pulled it off and tossed it. The other seemed to be OK though, so I kept it in the sun and kept on watering it. 

It appears to have come through OK (knock-on-wood). You can see in the top pic the areas where both stems snapped, and the one surviving stem thriving with two flowers, and a new "bud" forming behind them. The tape is till in place (afraid to remove it for fear of breaking it again).

The photos

On a rainy Wednesday, I thought I'd photograph this survivor for kicks. Put a cheap poster board v-flat behind it, and propped it up on pizza boxes. Used only window light (which admittedly wasn't much on this very gray day).  

I also wanted to see under similar conditions what I could get out of the old iPhone 4 camera I have (5 mp). The bottom two shots are from the iPhone. They are a bit more contrasty, and have some noise in the bgnd, but look really good in average light conditions. There is also a bit of the flat and tape that got caught in the shot as the angle of approach is different with the phone (tried to smooth the tape on the flat out, and looks sad I know). The data on the iPhone shots is saying they are f2.8, and 1/120 to 1/60th of a sec? What that means on a lens that is a few mm is pretty relative, but still impressive. I imagine the Samsung and the iPhone 5 would look even better. 

Oh...and guess what happened next? The flimsy V-flat fell onto the plant. But alas— alive and well still. That thing is like ROCKY.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mco402Xx3D1rjfco4o3_1280.jpg

A great shot taken by a pretty great kid. He used a bridge camera to capture this spot  just feet away from busy traffic and city noise. The feeling of this lagoon-y area seems like the kind of secluded spot that you can refocus on life in.

Helsinki Design Week by Kokoro & Moi

Experiment Photos of small tin toy robots (spontaneous decision around 11pm). Trying out a very inexpensive LED work floodlight from the hardware store. Used wax paper for a slight diffusion, and a piece of letter-sized, white typing paper for the backdrop. No tripod–just laying on my stomach on the ground shooting. The super closeups are using the macro tubes. The rest are kit lens and nifty fifty using only the LED in the room with little ambient.