butterfly nose

I've been wanting to print this for a while, so I took a bit today to not work on my project and print this instead.

Common wood nymph butterfly (I think).

It might look a bit blown out on the lower left, but I'm pretty sure it's bound to look that way when you're wearing white.

B&W Portraits: Zoo People

I could have said "People at the Zoo" but "Zoo People" sounds better to me.

Also, it is really really hard to get people who say "Take a photo of us!!" to make any expression other than Deer In The Headlights. One of the subjects finally got slightly distracted, and the other just kept watching me.

I love his shirt, because it's a zombee. Get it? Zombie, bee, zombee? Hahahaha, I'm so clever.

B&W Portraits: Hands

The first (and so far only) time playing in a light room was fun, but rather awkward; there are teenagers in the class who are hard-pressed to smile or laugh or do anything other than give a Deer In The Headlights stare when they're being photographed. I did finally get some good photos out of them, though.

My favorite though was when I told one girl to hold out her hands-- she gave me the oddest look.

Anyways, this is the shot I got of her hands, and I am very pleased with it in general.

B&W Portraits: Viola 1

When I'm carrying this thing around or playing it, I frequently hear people refer to the beautiful instrument in the following photo as a violin. This is incorrect. This is not a violin, but its sibling the viola. What's the difference, if they look the same?

The viola has the same tuning as the cello: C, G, D, A; this is a fifth lower than the violin, which is tuned at G, D, A, E. Additionally, violins have a maximum size of 14"; violas have no maximum size that I know of. Mine is 16". As you might guess, the larger size of the viola makes for a greater depth of sound, more resonance. It doesn't mince and shriek unless you try, unlike the violin.

It is also, I have been told, the hardest string orchestra instrument to play, because it is heavy (try holding one under your chin, propped lightly up by your wrist, for twenty minutes minimum). The width of the neck is harder to deal with than that of the violin's when it comes to bowing as well.

Now why on earth did I post this photo when the title of the post says "portrait"? Portraits are not always of faces; they represent a subject (like Georgia O'Keeffe's hands, for example). This viola in some way represents me, so consider it a self portrait.

I have a slightly modified version of this, which I may or may not post later.

Marcelo

Somehow I manage to go to outdoor concerts in the summer and not expect hundreds of kids. But there they are, tumbling around on the grass and running all over the place, and some swinging their kites around. Marcelo was one of the kite-swinging kind.

Shake, good boy

Today's B&W photo is of my brother and his girlfriend's dog, Fawkes, who had found one of the cat toys-- the crocheted mouse filled with catnip. He was very excited about this. Naturally, he did whatever my brother told him to do if it involved the catnip mouse being thrown; this involved sitting and offering his paw to my brother.

There are a number of things to tweak in this photo, and multiple ways to do those, but here it is as it is now.

Model shots?

Here we are, three shots of someone who modeled for me the other day. The "model" part of it was entirely accidental, and I think the shots came out rather nicely so I'm posting them.