Dust and Rust

Leslie’s hands with henna

I attended a great wedding on Sunday. My friend Leslie had her hands painted with henna as part of the pre-wedding festivities. I asked her if I could take a photo of them, so she held them out in front of her black dress in the sunlight. I took one snap, and I got really, really lucky.

My older brother is building a plane in his garage. He has been working on it for over 4 years now, and it is nearing completion. As a kid, he was always building model planes, modifying cars and anything else he could try. His dedication, skill and attention to detail are quite inspiring… I would love to have even a small bit of each. Over the years he has documented every step of the build with photographs, including the set up of his workshop. He has put up the site to help other builders (and let them know what they are in for). For a taste of the work he is doing, check out the “instrument panel” section.

Check out his site here : http://701builder.com/

The remnants of his popsicle still evident in his hand, Evan contemplates his strategy for obtaining a second one. He knows it won’t be easy, but he will not rest until he gets a red one. Modern Ice pops are much better than the ones I grew up with. How do they squeeze all of that artificial flavor and color into them?

I don’t usually like to have my own picture taken. Something seems to go wrong in every shot, and I look older and more out of shape than my own self-image leads me to believe. The one exception is when my son picks up his camera. He shoots with a Fisher Price instamatic. It’s an older model with a flash cube and a fixed focal length lens. The images appear in the viewfinder for instant review just like modern digitals… the difference being that it only has a four image memory, and the images can’t be deleted. With the price of budget digital cameras being as low as they are, I really need to get him a real one. He likes to hide behind the camera, and avoid having his picture taken just like his daddy. Unlike his daddy, when someone gets a shot of him, he usually looks as cute as a button.

I took this shot with a Nikon D100 at ISO 800, 1/8 sec - f/4 . The image is pretty sharp considering the shutter speed, although you can see some motion blur in his hair. The lens used is a Nikon 24mm f2.8 prime. I really like the lens alot. On a D100 it gives an angle of view similar to that of a 35mm lens on a film camera. It’s also a fairly small lens, which is the main reason it stays on my camera alot.