This hairy spider spent the day guarding my front door. I don’t know why it kept its rear leg up in the air anytime I got close to take a picture. During my daily walkabout I found a number of flowers (daisy, poppy, California poppy, Moth Mullen, yellow prickly pear cactus, etc). Still not as many as last year when I had the electric fence up. I see on my security video cameras the deer coming up every night and nibbling on the plants before they can bloom.
Hairy Spider at my Front Door. Image taken with a Leica TL2 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (David J Mathre)Daisy. Image taken with a Leica TL2 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (David J Mathre)Day Lily. Image taken with a Leica TL2 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (David J Mathre)
Violet Cosmos Flower. Image taken with a Leica TL2 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (David J Mathre)Yucca about to bloom. Image taken with a Leica TL2 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (David J Mathre)Black and White Cat trying to Hide Image taken with a Leica TL2 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (David J Mathre)
I am starting to see flowers, and wildflowers — but not the large numbers (or meadow) like last year. The plants in the grow tower are getting big. I actually had to cull (remove) the zucchini and cucumber plants because they were getting too big and blocking the sun from the other plants. I did see a frog hiding near the newly expanded pond. Also, one of the may apple plants still has its apple (seed pod).
Frog hiding just out of the pond. Image taken with a Leica TL2 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens (David J Mathre)May Apple Seeds. Image taken with a Leica TL2 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens (David J Mathre)Wild Blackberries (?). Image taken with a Leica TL2 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens (David J Mathre)
Dragonfly on a Twig. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (David J Mathre)Pink Icelandic Poppy Flower. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (David J Mathre)Red Icelandic Poppy Flower. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (David J Mathre)
Gone to See Japan. Street Photography Workshop with Steve Simon and Soichi Hayashi. Day 0: Tokyo.
Red Poppy Flower at Shinjuku Chuo Park in Tokyo Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 18 mm, f/5, 1/1000 sec). (David J Mathre)
I woke up early trying to adjust to the 13 hour time change and spent the morning doing a walkabout near the Keio Plaza hotel. One thing I noted on the map of the area was “Niagara Falls” in Shinjuku Chuo park. The waterfall is not as big as the one on the New York/Canada border. I found a woman walking her turtle (tortoise?) to the waterfall. On the way back to the hotel, I took a 360 degree series of images in Citizen Plaza. At 09:30 the two observatories on the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Building open. There is no admission fee, but a quick bag check before entering the elevator. I chose the south tower, since the line was a bit shorter. The elevator going up is really fast bringing you to a large room with viewing windows all the way around the building. There is a toy store in the center, and a cafeteria/bar along one side. I took a series of images from each of the windows (except the ones in the restaurant area with restricted access) to see if I could generate a 360 degree panorama and/or little planet view of Tokyo. I did not see Mt. Fuji which is visible from the observation towers on clear mornings.
In the afternoon, I returned to Shinjuku Chuo park and found some Poppy flowers. Which was good since I don’t think I will have many (or any) back home this year. I then did another series of images in Citizen’s Plaza and from the North Observation tower — this time with a wider angle lens.t
The images from Citizen’s Plaza and the Observation towers were processed with AutoPano Giga Pro to create composite 360 degree panorama, fisheye, mirror ball, little planet, and tunnel view images. Individual images from the slide-shows can be viewed here.
Walkabout in my backyard on the last day of spring. In addition to the poppies, a number of new flowers are starting to appear (Babies Breath, Bachelors Buttons, Coreopsis, Cosmos, various Daisies, Larkspur, and Black-eyed Susan). The yellow prickly pear cactus flowers only open for one day.
