Hot, humid and very muggy outside. And it is 4:30 in the morning. Yuk!

The only thing keeping me going after no sleep is the upcoming lunar eclipse. It is said that we will only get a partial eclipse here in Florida because of the rising sun. Hey, that would be a cool song! ;-)

4:38 A.M. and the eclipse has started here. Yeah!

Lunar Eclipse - August 28, 2007

Sebring, Florida

6:08 A.M. the eclipse is still going, but I am giving out, quickly. Maybe next time I’ll take a nap before I try to image an early morning eclipse. But, I am very happy with what I captured and cannot wait to get the large image printed. The image here does not do it anywhere near justice!

This is a composite of 4 images. Total time: 3450 seconds. Canon 5D, Canon 100mm Macro, Wimberley Head II on Gitzo G1325 tripod. Black-out fabric used to cover lense during shooting, for mutliple exposure effect.

Well, we have a new visitor to the garden, this is the first time I’ve seen this thing here and I wasn’t sure about getting this close to him, or is that her?

I thought it was some kind of mutated dragonfly, you know, orange groves all around, pesticides… mutation? But after searching for about 3 hours for a name, I finally found it… Robber Fly!

I’m still going through tons of images and information so that I can narrow it down even further. I do know that it is a female though!

These things are, uhm, creepy. When they fly they sound like a giant mosquito, buzzing. One of the things that fascinated me though was, even though they may look big, this one was probably about an inch and half long. I hope it decides to come back so that I can capture better images, but what I got will have to satisfy my curiosity for now. :)

Robber Fly Asilidae

Sunflower Helianthus annuus

Sometimes mistakes can turn out better than what is originally planned.

I was taking images of some of my sunflowers that I grow for the birds to eat, I had cut them and brought them inside so that I could use my light tent (outside, the light was not that great). I set up the tent with a black velour background, thinking that it would be pretty with the brightness of the flower, nice contrast.

I took a few shots to see where I wanted the sunflower placed, then took 3 actual shots. On the fourth shot, I’m not sure what happened, but somehow my image came out with almost a haze/fog effect. I liked it, a lot. So I decided to keep it. And then when I had it in PhotoshopCS I was playing around, and by playing with just a level layer I brought out colors that to me are great. So, here is both versions, the yellow one is the original and the moodier browns is the leveled one.

Sunflower Helianthus annuus

Jelly Palm Butia capitata