Posts Tagged ‘Photography’
Am I developing an obsession for my hands?
A couple of years ago, I had signed up for a video editing class. For fun. I had shot some footage of my hands and had hoped to convert the footage into a short 30s movie in honor of Agnès Varda. That footage has yet to come together. I suspect I had picked my hands for a class project theme because I see them in my peripheral view all the time, whether it is typing, or cooking or gardening. I find my hands interesting. Even when I was a young woman, my veins were prominent. They make my hands looks far more mature for their age. I now know the vein pattern to be like fingerprint, a biometric. The right and left hands are differently patterned and are unique to me.
And now, the joints in my hands have started to hurt. An acupuncture session brings temporary relief and then the hurt comes back. The right hand has been particularly irksome for the last year. I finally decided to go in for a doctor’s visit and surprise, surprise, he diagnosed me with basal thumb arthritis, same as the left hand. Btw, the left hand which is a lot more arthritic, hurts a lot less. The doctor says that is because I am right handed and I am overusing my right hand. The diagnosis came in the same week that I had signed up for my first kickboxing class – while most of the time one is kicking, at times, one is meant to be boxing. I attended the class with braces on my hands and punched air instead. I have also started drawing birds recently. The week of my x-rays, we were focusing on feathers. Bird feathers are attached to their arms. And their primaries are attached to what we call our hands. The primaries generate thrust, propel the bird forward, and facilitate maneuvering. Pretty darn important, won’t you say?
My hummingbirds
My backyard hummingbirds, Anna’s hummingbirds, have turned me into a bird lover. Yes, there are song birds in the garden, but they love to hide. There are migratory birds in the Bay, but they need me to leave my home. My hummingbirds are always there for me. The feeder is right outside my kitchen. I can see them when I want to, and hear them. They are not afraid to approach me. And this kind, Anna’s, don’t migrate away.
This year, I finally decided to take a plunge into bird photography. Unlike full moon (link), hummingbird photography needs a good amount of skill even to get started. I won’t deny that I find the camera infuriatingly complicated. There are so many buttons. And the menu is a mile long. But my hummingbirds are nudging me. I am also learning to draw birds from John Muir Laws (he likes to be called Jack), a learning trajectory that is a lot less steeper than learning to operate a modern DLSR camera.
Here are two shots, two months apart – late winter when the tree is bare and early spring with new leaves on the crepe myrtle. Both are taken during evening when the sun is low on the horizon. My regular feeder has feet for them to sit on, and they do like sitting. But sitting hummingbirds don’t make for good pictures. So this feeder comes out when I plan to shoot. I put the tripod in my kitchen and shoot in between cooking.
A rough draft of a horse and a flame
As far as deep sky photo goes, this is a rough draft of a future photo – the horsehead nebula and flame nebula in the Orion constellation. It is the photo I have been waiting for since we took the first photos of the Andromeda galaxy. When I started, and even now, there aren’t many deep sky objects I can name by sight. The horsehead has a characteristic shape etched in my mind by NASA Hubble images. It is also a beginner deep sky target that offers an opportunity to get infinitely better as skills progress.
A blue oak woodland in summer
Blue oaks are native to California and are endemic. Meaning, they should be everywhere in California and be nowhere else. They aren’t as easy to spot as their name would have you think. Blue oak aren’t blue. Describing oak leaves as blueish-green may help when the light is just right. Describing the leaves as leathery doesn’t help in California where most of the vegetation tends to have leathery leaves. I would have to walk around with an acorn+leaf chart to match them. Our most common oaks, are the coastal oak (bristly tips) and the valley oak (have lobes). The valley oak grows tall and has twisted branches and lends a queen like elegance to the landscape. The coastal oak often look like they have fought hard to survive, a sherpa who can keep climbing forever. Blue oaks have been elusive to me in Bay Area preserves and parks. Rangers tell me that most of the existing blue oaks are on private lands.
Last weekend we found ourselves on such a private land, the regenerative Paicines (Pai-seen-us) Ranch. We had gone looking for astrophotography opportunities. During our stay, we learned about their Blue Oak forest and I had to take a look. When you live in California long enough, oaks become as fascinating as the Redwoods. One year, we noticed the coastal oaks in our neighborhood masting (link). I want to find acorn flour so I can make flatbread but I don’t want to start with harvesting acorns even when the trees are masting. This trip, the cottage we stayed at, the Cheese Cottage, was next to a large Valley Oak specimen. The cottage’s patio was high up enough that I was practically sitting in a tree house. It allowed me to notice the oak galls up close.
Here are few photos of the blue oak woodland. I present them in black and white. By the time we explored the woodland, the sun was high up and the shadows were stark. It is the end of summer here and the grasses had turned into straw color. The leaves were covered in dust. If it were spring, the woodland floor would have been covered in blue lupines, and the blue dicks and my photographs would have wanted to reflect all that color.
Afternoon at Triveni Kala Sangam
Lunch at Triveni Kala Sangam
Triveni Kala Sangam hosts classes in art, photography, music and dance. Lunch here is popular among students and people of artistic temperament. Well known for its parathas, it is possibly the only proper restaurant in Delhi that serves home style north Indian food.
Locomotoring 