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Amarillis stamen

So I bought myself a Raynox macro lens and a extension tube for my Panasonic FZ18. The lens and the tube cost 95€.

I have always been impressed with those macros of flies compound eyes and bristly spiders bodies and was panting to give a macro lens a go.

The set up is easy, screw on the extension tube and since the macro lens comes with a neat spring loaded attachment it just snaps onto the extension tube.

Amarillis Pollen

Then the difficulties begin. First of all you need very good light and secondly you need a very steady hand or a tripod, otherwise you just get badly blurred out of focus photos.

To get reasonable photos I used the FZ18 joystick to set the focus to infinity and zoomed in to about x10.

I held the camera about 25cm from the subject and then moved it either backwards or forwards until the stamen or the pollen grains came into focus.

Stamen and pollen head

Camera shake or just vibrations to the table causes the photos to be blurred so what I did was set the shutter release to 10sec to overcome this problem.

When I consider all the effort that goes into taking macro photos I have come to realize that all of those insect photos must have been staged. The poor bugs most likely were chloroformed and strategically placed on a leaf so the photographer had all the time in the world to snap the insects at their leisure.

I just can not imagine a housefly waiting around long enough for me to do all the adjustments necessary to capture the gleam in their quick little compound eyes

So from the Ukulele Underground I came across the "Bring the Song" Challenge which is to write a new song every month for a year and Ukulele players from around the world have risen to the challenge.

Two of the songs that I have really enjoyed are "When I grow up I'm gonna wear a bikini" and the other one is "Sour milk smelling lady" which has a great Johnathan Richman feel about it.

Get yourself a Ukulele and have fun

In these hard times, we all need a hero
Someone to kick ass Chuck Norris style
Someone to cook and fight just like Mr. Segal
To hit those Barclay Bankers like a guided missile.

Chorus

Obama is the man, and he's got a plan
He ain't gonna go with the flow
He'll put girls in bikinis on every street corner
There'll be bikinis whereever you go

Obama don't believe in economic forecasts
Got no faith in Gore's graphs and charts
Statistics is like a girl in a bikini
Reveals so much, but hides the interesting parts

Chorus

Obama is the man, and he's got a plan
He ain't gonna go with the flow
He'll put girls in bikinis on every street corner
There'll be bikinis whereever you go

Girls in bikinis are a great distraction
Gecko would gaup and forget to hedge his bets
Every girl in a bikini would be sure to get a mortgage
While Gecko checked out her toxic assets.

Chorus

Obama is the man, and he's got a plan
He ain't gonna go with the flow
He'll put girls in bikinis on every street corner
There'll be bikinis whereever you go

Video response to (When I grow up I want to wear a bikini)

Haukilahti Espoo

Richard Mirach is perhaps most famous for his landscapes, and the most noticible thing about the views is that they are big and usually devoid of people.

If people do occur in the landscape then they are often indistinct and miniscule. The fact that they are tiny seems to emphasis the vastness of the sky or the sea.

It has been said that in many of his photos he tries to show how man has intruded apon nature.

Haukilahti Espoo

He seems to be saying that nature that is pristine and pure is somehow worthy, but once man puts a footprint apon it then it is somehow degraded and spoiled.

With nature being so vast and expansive and man so small and insignificant by comparison, one wonders at the havoc we can reek on the environment.

I suppose it is OK when man is alone and isolated. Then there is a limit to the damage he can do.

Haukilahti Espoo

But the troubles begin when you get huge groups of men living in densely packed areas.

The environment is then modified to meet their living requirements, their need for transport and heating, their need for food, and the disposal of their waste.

The question has often been asked if the earth can survive the demands put apon it by mankind. In the long run the earth will survive, which is more that can be said for mankind.

The earth will remain as vast and beautiful as ever.