05-18-12 E Pluribus

I am getting ready to teach a short seminar in macro photography and so I thought I should try to photograph a few objects with my macro lens. This photo is a detail from the obverse side of a coin my aunt Betty owned. It is about the size of a silver dollar, though I don't think that this coin was minted by the US government.I'm not into numbers but in a moment of boredom (or curiosity) I started to count things on the US dollar bill several years ago and found that the number 13 seems to prevail. That's true of this coin, too, which uses many of the same symbols that are on the dollar. There are thirteen stars above the eagle. There are thirteen stripes on the shield in front of him/her. There are thirteen feathers above the e pluribus unum banner. And there are thirteen letters in e pluribus unum.Why 13? Well my pot smoking friends from the 70s would say that "m" is the 13th letter in the alphabet and that "m" really stands for marijuana. Thus, this silver coin (and the dollar bill) are subversive and subtle promotions of the use of pot. But you'd have to be high to think that. More likely, 13 is the number of original US colonies.All of this from a macro photo of a silver coin. . . .Canon 5DII 1/125s f/5.6 ISO250 100mm 2.8L

An Abandoned World

This piece of coral was lying on a beach in Mexico that was covered with pieces of coral. I'm not sure what causes coral to wash up, or even what coral like this looked like when it was thriving in it's undersea world. But I do know that the many small structure make for good macro subjects - especially in low, angular light.

The Other Half

One half ended up diced for our clam chowder soup. The other half ended up on the blog. I hadn't planned on taking a food photo but the symmetrical design struck me as worth of a closer look.This was shot with a 100mm macro lens in light that filtered in through our patio doors. I put the onion on a dark red cushion from a nearby bench and I think it provides a pretty good backdrop.

11-22-09 Parallel Universe

These furry objects are part of the reproductive system of a tropical flower. I call this photo "Parallel Universe" because the casual observer often misses the minute and often fascinating details of things like the not-so-private parts of flowers.

06-11-09 Zubke's Buns

By Scott Shephard

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I'm sorry to use such a lurid title. This is actually a macro photo of one of Bill Zubke's famous dinner rolls. Notice the seeds and cracks? Delicious!