Hello, is there anybody in there?

Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone at home?



There is a very obscure reference in there.

My apologies to the person who actually tried clicking on my chat button last night and received no reply from me; I think either my virus scan or my on-line backup activated my "Available" status while I was soundly sleeping and dreaming of new ideas. I'm really disappointed that someone finally clicked the link and I didn't get to test it out.

But that gives me a reason to beg and plead for people to post some comments. I know that I have subscribers, and many of you tell me that you read my blog, but hardly anyone is leaving any comments. I think a lot of it is because most people in my generation didn't grow up in this on-line world, but this whole Web 2.0 thing is all about user participation. I had to laugh when I received an e-mail from a friend and he said that he was too old and left all the techie stuff to the kids. The irony was that he was actually the person who got me hooked on computers in the first place way back in the early 80's. Anyway, tell me my photos suck, tell me I'm boring, ask me a question, send me a link to your blog or website, tell me what you want to hear and see more or less of, or just say hello; let's start a dialogue.

Hit the jump if you want to know how I made the photo.

This is the second image I made for dGrin Assignment #74 Catching the Rainbow, in which Nikolai challenged us to create a rainbow by either refraction or reflection (I posted the first image I created for this assignment here. The first one is my favorite of all so far.) I used a fairly complicated (although homemade) setup for this one. I created a "shadow tent" using black fleece (think light tent/macro studio, but in reverse - it keeps light out rather than letting it in) and used white posterboard for the sweep. This was set up in the backyard where it would catch full sun. I set up using my Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens on a tripod and then positioned a blank optical disk right at the very front edge of the box where it would catch the sun. The tricky part was keeping the optical disk in the sun, but keeping the front of my lens in the shade and it took a bit of maneuvering before I got it just right. As I changed the angle of the optical disk the shape and intensity of the reflected rainbow changed; my favorites were a rainbow in the shape of a flame and this one, which reminds me of a vase with liquid light pouring in. The reflected light was extremely intense, and by properly exposing for the rainbow (f/22 @ 1/60) the white sweep was rendered almost black. Yes almost, and for this final version I did have to do a little cleanup in PS to further darken the background and clean up some stray light.

I had so much fun thinking of creative ways to make rainbows that I'm thinking about continuing the series.

We're heading to the mountains this weekend, and although we will spend some time on the trails, this trip I plan to spend a lot of time photographing things other than jeeps on rocks! I have a friend with a brand new Canon G9 (I'm so jealous that I warned him he'd better sleep with it) who is looking forward to seeing what that baby can do. And I'm bringing my light kit and plan to be in camp early enough every day to try out some really cool stuff. I have so many ideas!