Dyson Filter

100 Days of Macro - Day 48

This is an attempt to make something out of nothing. Long story short, I was cleaning out the filters from one of our vacuum cleaners. So I decided to photograph it. Because that's what I do.

Red Velvet

100 Days of Macro - Day 47

I was trying to avoid revisiting previous macro subjects, but these Red Velvet Tim Tams are just too delicious and colorful (or colourful as the case may be). In general, I think they've gone a bit crazy with the Tim Tam flavors. Give me the originals any day. These are good though.

Perilla Gim

100 Days of Macro - Day 46

Gim (김). Roasted seaweed. A staple of Korean Banchan, at least for many of our home-cooked meals. This particular variety is roasted with perilla oil and sprinkled with fine salt. Gim is supposedly high in protein and vitamins.

Farm To Bottle

100 Days of Macro - Day 45

I've had this photo idea ever since I discovered these delicious sours from Almanac. And since Yelp gave me a couple of tickets to the Boulder City Beer Festival this afternoon, I figured today's a good day to make it happen. My initial thought was to just photograph the bottle cap in some grass, but this bush works better. I like how the little pods remind me of hops.

Pollen Nation

100 Days of Macro - Day 44

Two days in a row! I admit to being completely apprehensive about getting this close to a bee, let alone a group of bees. But I got lucky and captured something decent among all the buzzing.

Is it me or are we having an incredible Spring? Obviously, I've been paying much more attention to plants lately. But it seems like shrubs that I never even knew produced flowers before are blooming like crazy right now. I definitely picked a great time to do this macro thing.

Ladybug's Life

100 Days of Macro - Day 43

I've been waiting to capture something like this since I began this project. I've had flowers and general plant life covered, but the little critters have been elusive until now. Luck be a ladybug tonight!

Deep Thought

100 Days of Macro - Day 42

42. The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. The answer that took Deep Thought, the second greatest computer in the Universe of Time and Space, a super computer the size of a small city, 7.5 million years to compute.

Deep Thought this is not. Not even an abacus in comparison.

Crackle Glass

100 Days of Macro - Day 41

My plan was to get a macro shot at Yummy Grill & Sushi tonight, but that idea failed as soon as I forgot to bring my memory card. I came up with plan B while enjoying Chef Eric's delicious creations. So here is a somewhat abstract image of Jieun's crackle glass dining table.

Purple Posies

100 Days of Macro - Day 40

I've been walking by these trees for the past few weeks, thinking I'll capture their flowers eventually. The thing is, I prefer the appearance of the still closed ones as opposed to the fully blossomed. They have a richer color and a more structured appearance. Good thing I decided to finally do it today because there were only a couple of unopened clusters remaining.

Urban Decay

100 Days of Macro - Day 39

I needed a change of pace, so I looked for more things around the house to photograph. In this case, one of Jieun's makeup kits provided nice color and texture.

Rose Doctor

100 Days of Macro - Day 38

When I first visited Doctor Harry B. Johnson Rose Garden in Southern Highlands a few weeks ago, there was nothing rosy about it. I decided to do a quick stop today and found that a few bushes have started to flower. This one is different to the roses I usually think about. At least, I assume these are roses because they have thorns.

Vernal Equinox

100 Days of Macro - Day 37

Spring has sprung! This photo comes courtesy of some shrubbery at Sunset Park and a piece of my pen. I mean, I found a rare, naturally occurring Spring flower.

Sheffield Spice

100 Days of Macro - Day 36

I was inspired by Makers & Finders Coffee to find some lavender and make my own lavender-infused simple syrup. I remembered that I had bookmarked Sheffield Spice & Tea Company on South Eastern. It's a nice little store that seems to pretty much have everything.

Yuzu Salmon

100 Days of Macro - Day 35

We made a last-second decision to have dinner at Kyara tonight. This is their Yuzu Chili Salmon Salad—thin sliced seared salmon topped with serrano pepper, cilantro, mayo and spicy sauce with a side of arugula. I could eat this all day long.

Peacock Paddock

100 Days of Macro - Day 34

We just got back from a wedding at Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs. Lots of great things to shoot up there. Probably the coolest were all the peafowl roaming around. Got some nice regular photos of them, but there's no way I'd get close enough nor would they stay still enough for any sort of macro action. Luckily someone found this detached feather. (They normally shed toward the end of summer).

Suede Porter

100 Days of Macro - Day 33

You knew I would sneak in a beer post at some point. This Suede Imperial Porter collaboration from Stone, 10 Barrel, and Blue Jacket was a lot better than I had expected. It's been in my fridge for a while. Actually, I have quite a few beers that have been squatting in my fridge for a while. Time to evict!

Calico Cactus

100 Days of Macro - Day 32

It felt nice to get out on a hike again. We did an easy 4-mile loop in the Calico Basin area—23 people and 2 dogs led by Norm K. It was certainly a great opportunity to capture some desert plant life.

Happy Pi Day!

100 Days of Macro - Day 31 (4159265359...)

Happy Pi Day! Granted, it's an antiquated date format. But geek out anyway and enjoy some pi(e) at approximately 9:26:54 this morning.

Poke Express

100 Days of Macro - Day 30

I had some Wasabi Poke from Poke Express for lunch today. I've had this on the macro list for a while. I'm never quite sure if an idea will work out. I'll file this in the "tastes better than it looks" folder. Then again, this is making me hungry.

Tim Tams

100 Days of Macro - Day 29

I don't miss Tim Tams as much as I used to. But if a cousin visits from Australia and brings me a packet, I certainly won't refuse. I could have taken a better photo, of course, but too late now—already in my belly.

Acacia Shrub

100 Days of Macro - Day 28

Yes, another flora photo. It's just a natural subject matter for macro photography. I'm no botanist, so I'm not sure if this is really an acacia. But it does seem related to one of my previous blog posts.

Giant Steps

100 Days of Macro - Day 27

First of all, I think it's apropos that I'm posting this from Grouchy John's Coffee Shop. Not planned. Completely serendipitous.

I snapped some images of my beans this morning. These are "Giant Steps" from Blue Bottle Coffee. Tasty and versatile bean. I've tried these with espresso, French press, and pour over.

Dish Soap

100 Days of Macro - Day 26

I feel like I might be getting sick, so I decided to take some Airborne. (Whether or not that stuff works is a different story). I had the idea of photographing the bubbles that form as the tablet dissolves. Of course, that didn't quite work out, so I tried dish soap next. I used a straw to blow some bubbles and ended up with some interesting patterns.

Spring Forward

100 Days of Macro - Day 25

Fun fact: There's only one 's' in Daylight Saving Time. DST is significant for this project because it will be nice to have the daylight available after work. I had planned to take this shot all along. Yesterday's cuckoo post was a bonus.

Standard Time

100 Days of Macro - Day 24

As we get ready to go from standard time to daylight saving, it was fortuitous that I visited the Crafthaus taproom. I had forgotten about their wall of cuckoo clocks—one for each employee's home time zone. The Crafthaus logo is actually the cuckoo clock.

Yelp Pencil

100 Days of Macro - Day 23

After yesterday's long session, I went simple today. This is a Yelp pencil I found lying around. It says, "I Nerdy Danced With @YelpLV!"

More Water Drops

100 Days of Macro - Day 22

Remind me to never do this again. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist and it took me a long time to get something I'm even remotely happy with.

This is a bit of a redo from a post during my original project. This image isn't quite 1:1. I learned that I needed to back up a little in order to get the kinds of shapes I wanted.

Unidentified Flower

100 Days of Macro - Day 21

I just got back from my uncle's interment at Forest Lawn in Glendale CA. I thought I could ID this flower pretty easily, but it's late and I'm tired. In any case, this is pretty good for handheld. I really should start using my tripod though. I just received my macro focusing rail and want to put it to the test.

Update: It's a freaking daisy. I had it on the tip of my tongue last night but fatigue prevailed.

Dandy Lion

100 Days of Macro - Day 20

Unlike last night's almost literal 11th hour photo, I got today's out of the way bright and early. I was walking Bawoo and noticed this lone dandelion in the grass.

I find it interesting and a bit distracting that the bokeh highlights have a strange, irregular shape. It seems like one of the nine aperture blades isn't closing as much as the others. This warrants further investigation.

LED Floor Lamp

100 Days of Macro - Day 19

I didn't have much time to shoot today. Luckily, I've built a list of quick things I can photograph in a pinch. This is an LED floor lamp from IKEA. I bunched up the nodes for this shot.

Ox Bone Soup

100 Days of Macro - Day 18

You know it had to happen sooner rather than later—a macro shot of my meal.

I finally got to try E-Jo Korean Restaurant this morning. I had the Seolleongtang, which is a milky white soup made by simmering ox bones for hours. Jieun's dad took us to his favorite Seolleongtang place in Seoul a couple of years ago. It's tough for any US place to top that, but E-Jo sated my appetite.