art lover, reader of books, capturer of light, manipulator of pixels, teller of stories.
There were some clear winners of yesterday April Fools festivites. My favorites: Lulu Leather here, and Chris Hadfield’s UFO hoax here.
Very funny stuff! Also notable was the replacement of the .ca domain with .eh and Scope’s bacon flavoured mouthwash. Funny stuff here!
I was surprised that bacon mouthwash didn’t already exist! 🙂
Here are a few shots from the neighbourhood and some of the things that I have eaten over the past few days! All of these shots are done with my new Olympus 60mm.
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remember that pie that I mentioned?
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… and coffee!
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and at 1:1!
A very relaxing weekend! I have enjoyed puttering around and doing nothing. Well, I ate a lot of food. Lots. Brownies. Red Meat. Bacon. Did I mention the multi-berry pie?
So not much to update. Hot yoga was great. Quiet class. I’m going to do a Game of Thrones mini-marathon in anticipation of episode 1 of season 3. After I finish watching this video of the Whistled Language of Oaxaca, Mexico. Interesting that some believe that language evolved from an earlier form of vocal communication: mimicking bird song.
Here is a great article on the re-opening of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. It was closed last year when I went so I will have to go back and spend hours there as well as the van Gogh, across the street.
Here is Simon Schama writing about it here.
The museum opens April 13.
Beautiful macro shots of glass wing butterflies here! Wow! These are spectacular! This is why I am quickly falling in love with macro!
I love this lens! and no, these are not crops! It’s the lens set at 1:1. The dial on the lens is a little clumsy! It will take some getting used to!
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I’m having a really nice and quiet day so I decided to take some photos of a Japanese ceramic. I love the colorations and the texture!
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Nice morning to take photos! Thankfully my neighbourhood has quieted with the egress of the student hoards for the holiday. I put my shoes on, grabbed my sunglasses, and went out for some shots. No nature or anything to really use the macro, and the flower cart that I was depending on in the Market was not yet open! It was really nice to be outside with the sun and although cool out, it is shaping up to be a nice spring-like day! Not many cars either, so you can actually hear the birds!
These were fully automatic shots since I was lazy, I did look for lots of range in the images but the light was quite harsh. It has been a while since the sun has been out! This 60mm is really nice! I really cannot wait for the opportunity to really use the macro and also use this as a portrait lens… I think that is where this lens really shines… for architecture, I’ll stick with my Tokina 11-16mm.
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I’m not sure if I have linked to that page showing Ottawa Now and Then photos that allow you to “slide” the old and new images, taken from the same vantage point. I tried googling it but I didn’t find it right away so I’ll do that later!
Here is one from Paris with photos from 1900-2013! Sometimes the only difference is the fashion!
So I was wondering whether or not I was going to be as impressed as many reviewers are about the Olympus 60mm. It is a tiny, long lens that struck me as rather steampunk when attached to my GH2. It was late and I was tired but attached it and took a few shots. Due to light limitations (it was dark outside too) I realized that handheld may not work if I wanted to shoot at, say, f22. So I just mounted it on my tripod and took some shots. Really sharp. Great lens, I really cannot wait until this long four day weekend down to the park. The weather looks promising!!!!!
This is f2.8
cork….
And again… 
close up of my singing bowl!
And even sharper at higher F.
The F22 is nice 🙂
I purchased the Olympus 60mm 2.8 yesterday and spent the evening taking both macro and standard images. I haven’t imported any of those images but with the upcoming four day weekend, I am going to put this lens through its paces.
Spoiler alert: wicked sharp, awesome lens! more to come!