Here’s something a bit different – just a little teasing sample of a photograph.

This is another of the ones from the Albuquerque trip.  I’m not entirely sure what plant this set of desiccated seed pods comes from; it’s very much like the ones on the Rose of Sharon here in my front yard, though.

This is a clipped out portion of the original.  You can see the full thing at RedBubble or CafePress.

Closeup of the seed pod closeup

Why yes, this is a soft launch of my photography on CafePress, thanks for noticing.

It definitely does seem to be coming around to springtime here.  It’s been warm enough to have the windows open several days in the last week or two, and the forsythia’s had a mad explosion of yellow blooms which are not pictured because the giant bumblebees have been all over it all the time.

This is a convenient time of year to have finally figured out how the manual focus on my camera works.  Yes, on the camera I’ve had for about 5 years now.  The autofocus is good enough that I’ve mostly gotten away with it for this long, but it only has so much it can do.

In any case, it’s a good time of year to be outside and practicing my focusing skills.  This has brought me right back to some of what fascinated me with macro photography in the first place – the ability to see details and textures through the magnified lens of the camera that my eyes just can’t.

These lovelies were in my yard (until they got mowed down a day or two later).

Not posted anywhere but here, though there’s a somewhat larger version if you click on it.

As some may recall, I posted last week about going to the Albuquerque Botanical Garden and paying for a professional photography permit.  For reference, it was $25, just $5 more than the regular combination ticket to the Botanical Garden, Aquarium, and Zoo.    Given that I didn’t make it over to the other two, it might be a more accurate comparison to say that it was $12.50 more than the Botanical Garden ticket alone … twice as much!

Someone out there is gonna say I paid twice as much for my ticket as I had to.  After all, I’m entirely small-time as a professional photographer, if they’d even call me that, since the photography sales didn’t even bring in enough to report to the IRS last year.  [The bulk of my sales come from these two designs, for what it's worth]  I’m not even doing portrait or bridal photography, which is where the big money is.  So, who would care if I just got a regular ticket, took photos, and sold them anyway?

Well, I would.

For one, if I want to be a professional photographer, I should act like one.  I’m not suggesting that going all cargo cult is a good idea, mind you, but the way we act influences the things we do (not just the way others perceive us).  Going in with the expectation that I’m here to take photographs to sell reminds me that I should do the things that professional photographers do – take my time with framing and angles, take multiple shots,  think about whether I’m taking the shot because it’s a cool thing or because it makes a good photograph, and not hurry.

For two, if I do someday start making good money on my photographs, the last thing I want is for someone to come along later and say “but she used to sell ones she didn’t have the rights to sell!”  Perception and reputation are important.  I’d rather start as I mean to go on – everything on the up and up, as they say.  I’ll never make the money on these shots that negative publicity (or lawsuits, fines, etc.) could cost me.

For three, in the long run, permits and licenses are simply a cost of doing business.  In the grand scheme of things, they’re not even really large costs.  That $25 may be twice as much as the regular ticket, but $12.50 is pretty much an indian-buffet-with-chai-and-tip lunch.  Even the $150 permit for the Portland Japanese Garden, which is way more than I could afford then or now, is well less than what I’d be spending on the equipment I’d want to have before I did that shoot and it’s also for a year-long permit, as I recall.

I’m not the only one who would care … more on that in a later post.

This week, the first of the photographs I took in Albuquerque.  Unlike most of the others, this was taken at my parents’ house.

Even this weedy brush looks pretty interesting, silhouetted against a deep blue sky.

It’s up on RedBubble as well: http://www.redbubble.com/people/ninthcircle/works/10238263-brush-and-sky

Speaking of RedBubble … free shipping today and Friday with code FREESHIPS .  There’s lots of really nice art out there to be had, folks.

Despite having moved back to the part of the world I came from, there’s still some part of me that remembers Albuquerque as the place that was “home”.  I suppose that happens when you live somewhere for sixteen years.

Ironically, this made it a bit more difficult to figure out how to occupy myself during the days on my visit there last week.  I’ve seen most of the touristy things that might interest me there. As tempting as it might be to make a pilgrimage to all my favorite food places (and I did make it to several), I couldn’t eat all the time.

Thus, I found myself for a couple days sitting within feet of where my desk used to be, in what is now the Ideas and Coffee coworking space (I recommend it to anyone in/visiting ABQ who needs work space).  It was a good, productive time. The Friday lecture there on themes for WordPress finally got me to stop waffling about setting up a child theme for this site, I drafted some posts, I got some coding done on some other projects, and more.

It’s a sad sort of voyage, however, that is all work and no getting the hell off the computer.

Which is why I found myself on Monday morning calling the Albuquerque Botanical Gardens to check on a detail in their photography policy and then plunking down the money and signing the forms for a professional photography permit.  Unlike some other places, it’s not that much more expensive than the combination botanical gardens-aquarium-zoo admission and includes admission to them all.

In the end, I didn’t make it to the zoo or the aquarium – just ran out of time – but I don’t care a bit.  I got some good photos out of it; probably five or six out of the ~200 I took are worth posting places, but as far as I can tell, that’s not unreasonable (particularly for a windy day outdoors).  Best of all, I can do whatever I want with these photos without even the slightest qualm about whether or not it’s proper and ethical and legal for me to do so.

I’m still culling through them all to be sure which are the keepers, but in the meantime, here’s one that won’t be a “post-for-sale” … that I took for no reasons other than “it amuses me” and “posting it on the site to amuse my readers”.  Click on it to get a bigger image where you can actually read the sign:

One can see why boojums are the most dangerous form of snarks … this thing is spindly, spiky, and spiny all at once!

This week, I’m sharing with you all one of the fifty-three in my screensaver slideshow; it’s one of my favorite photographs (obviously).  I took it in the Portland Japanese Garden in Portland, OR, which is beautiful and I encourage you to visit if you can.

This one was tricky to get in focus properly, with a brightly lit waterfall in the background and working without a tripod.  It’s a beautifully and carefully arranged location, though, and it was worth the effort.  Every time it comes up in my screensaver, I am momentarily brought back to sitting in the shade by the pool this waterfall drops into, enjoying the coolness of a September afternoon and the sounds of water and nature.

Let’s not talk about how many shots I took of this that didn’t come out well.

No RedBubble or Zazzle link for this – I love it, but don’t have license to sell it.  Enjoy this one just for itself.

This week, another round of practice with repeating patterns in Illustrator.  It seems like it can be a bit fussy, but the biggest challenge at the moment is getting color combinations that aren’t completely eye-blinding, like this one is:

A rather eye-blinding red on deep pinkish repeating background

This one is slightly better:

A kind of green and grey houndstooth-ish background … not so eyeblinding, is it?

Finally, this one seems to be nicely subtle and suitable for backgrounds:

A nice subtle wallpaper or background

I got started on one that’s made of vines, but like the trees, that one takes a bit longer.

Click on the images for larger versions. These are all, like last week’s, released for anyone to use, totally free.  Enjoy them if you find a use for them.

Today’s art is a quick sketch I did of a squidkraken:

Just a little cartoon doodle of a squid

About six months ago, RedBubble‘s weekly newsletter included a link to a tutorial about making repeating patterns in Illustrator.  It sounded interesting, so I kept it in my inbox to look at “someday”.   Last week, I found myself doodling tetris shapes and thought that perhaps they might make an interesting repeating background.

Today, I dug the link back up and gave it a whirl using a semi-random image from my favorite free/royalty-free clip art site.  Even before I got my first repeating pattern done, I had picked up two awesome tricks with Illustrator: ctrl-f instead of ctrl-v to make the copy appear exactly on top of the original; locking objects so they can’t accidentally get moved or deleted or anything (ctrl-2 with it selected).

Eventually, I’ll make some ones I really like lots and aren’t so simplistic and put them up on the POD sites.  In the meantime, I’m sharing these ones with everyone, for free.  Just click on the image to get to the full size.  Enjoy and sorry about the, er, eyeblinding. ;)

A first attempt at a repeating pattern. Suitable for wallpaper and other tiling applications.

Another early attempt at making wallpaper with a repeating swatch in Illustrator. Ended up being a bit … eyeblinding. Sorry about that.

Next attempt at the rainbow love repeating wallpaper … slightly less eyeblinding. Might want to practice this concept a bit more.

This week’s million-dollar idea: set up a website in the style of Cute Overload or baaaaabyanimals, but with baby plants.

Would that not be so awesome?

And I’m just giving this idea away!  (Ignore that it’s because I have neither time nor resources to do it.  You might have the time and resources!  Go for it!)

Here’s a starter image … this baaaaaaaby pineapple!

Baby pineapple! Taken in a botanical garden near Monrovia, CA.

Or you could just get it on stuff and things at Zazzle (even on stamps!) or RedBubble.