clementines

when I was a kid, I thought there's nothing more beautiful than a mandarin that still has a branch and a little leaf attached. or an apple with the same features, but not so much, because there were more apples around than mandarins.

oh, and also seed beads, but that's a different category, I guess :)

full moon collage (again)

whenever there is full moon/clear sky combination I feel compelled to take a picture. They are all very similar to each other - well, the moon is the same and my biggest telephoto lens remains 300. This doesn't really give a big picture of the moon itself - it comes out about 300 pixels across, so to use in collages I blow it up, overlay with different texture (paper in this case), increase contrast, sharpen etc. Occasionally I throw the results away - they are very similar to full moon pictures I already accumulated.

This full moon was very bright and pictures came out nice and sharp, so I am keeping them. And this was that rare occasion were I had to agree that a planet could be colored. Usually I see starts and planets as white with blue tint. This time Mars really was reddish, I could see it. and it came out as a (completely useless, of course), red dot on the picture I took

spinning top

I occasionally ask kids to throw away or give to me to give to charity or recycle a certain amount or objects from their rooms, just to decrease the clutter.

As in "find and bring here any N objects that are broken, useless or not needed any more".

Timur brought downstairs this spinning top, and said that he doesn't want it. I couldn't bring myself to give it away without taking a few pictures first.

Side note : I's much more difficult to spin it when somebody is watching, camera at the ready

sunflower tree

this pic - all glorious 6 mpix* of it - were sold today by lori.ru photobank for "external ad". dunno what exactly they are going to advertise with it, but it is one more completely unexpected large-ish sales of my pictures there - first being a very old picture of leaning tower of Pisa of all things. Needless to say, I am pleased :)

picture at lori.ru


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* - well, it was over two years back, 6 mpix seemed plenty at that point

poppy planet