If you cracked open the top of a skull and looked straight down, this is what you'd see. The nasal cavity is right under all those holes (the "cribriform plate"--the holes are actually for olfactory nerves). The flat thing in the middle is a kind of spike (the "crista galli," or "cock's comb") that helps anchor one of the stronger membranes in the braincase. The red dot above it, which I considered cloning out, is actually a distinct anatomical landmark called the foramen cecum. And the area on the left, where the bone is thinner and the light is coming through, is actually the roof of the orbit.

There's your anatomy lesson for the day. :)




Date: April 2009
Where/What: inside a skull
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/50
Aperture: f 3.5
ISO: 200

Listening to: Mellow Yellow (Donovan)
Thankful for: having a nice protective skull--it's a little like having an exoskeleton for your brain. Speaking of which--in the words of my 10th-grade biology teacher, the difference between an exoskeleton and an endoskeleton is whether it goes "crack-squish" or "squish-crack," respectively. The more you know!...

What? What is this? An update? Can't be. That's just crazy.

1. This image is like 12 times more saturated in Photoshop. I even bumped up the saturation as far as I could without getting pixellated artifacts, and it's still too dull. Part of the reason I stopped editing photos in iPhoto and started editing them in GIMP was because the color was much more true-to-export; I find it ridiculous that Photoshop CS4 is lagging behind my 2005 version of GIMP in this respect. Maybe there's a setting somewhere that I need to tweak, but I shouldn't have to!

2. The image in the pill was SO SHARP to my myopic eyes. I tried every permutation and combination of shutter speed, distance between my lens and the subject, and macro settings that I could think of. Still no luck.

On the bright side, the Chicago weather is requiring coats less and less frequently!



Date: March 2009
Where/What: OMEGA-3'S ARE GOOD FOR YOU. Moreso in Chicago. omg.
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/60
Aperture: 5.0
ISO: 200

Listening to: Ladyboy (Chip Pope)
Thankful for: in-between seasons

I hate to post this so close to the opening of the movie of the same name (which is in absolutely no way related to this photo), but so it goes.



Date: December 2008
Where/What: a clementine
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/350
Aperture: f 6.3
ISO: 64

Listening to: Sleigh Ride (Leroy Anderson)
Thankful for: dogs that fit on your lap :)

I bought some raspberries yesterday. They demanded to have their photos taken. I humbly obliged.

When they started making other demands, I ate them.

(This image is also available as a desktop wallpaper.)



Date: November 2008
Where/What: a raspberry! In my hand.
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/50
Aperture: f 3.5
ISO: 100

Listening to: Clap Your Hands (Pale Young Gentlemen)
Thankful for: Soap.

Oh autumn! I do like you.

I wish I could spend more time enjoying your company, though. This whole "being crazy busy" thing--coupled with the whole "this isn't the most fun part of Chicago to wander around" thing--is not allowing me to take in your beauty as much as I'd like.

Plus--they don't sell anything pumpkin here. During a very in-depth survey of the local supermarket last week, the ONLY pumpkin-things I found were: whole pumpkins, canned pumpkin, a frozen Sara Lee pie, and ONE very sad-looking 3-day-old unrefrigerated pumpkin pie in the bakery section. I had to settle for a "pumpkin" donut from Dunkin Donuts; it wasn't very pumpkin-y.

BOO HISS. Whimper, pout.


P.S. This photo is my one photograph that's been published! I'm very proud of that.




Date: October 2007
Where/What: an oak leaf, in my hand, held up to the sun
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/240
Aperture: f 5.0
ISO: 100

Listening to: I'm Gonna Wash that Man Right Out-a My Hair (Rogers & Hammerstein, South Pacific)
Thankful for: Pretty colors in autumn! (and an extra hour of sleep tonight!)

I enjoy light shining through objects you wouldn't normally expect it to shine through.

On an unrelated subject, we're learning webstuff in one of my classes. This includes basically everything I've taught myself over the past couple years (i.e. to make this photoblog look like this and not, say, like my starting template), which is kind of awesome, because I've been doing a lot of it semi-wrong.

One thing that really surprised me:
<i> for (italics) and <b> (for bold) are deprecated, which is webspeak for "archaic and going out of style and you shouldn't use them anymore."

Instead, I'm supposed to be using <em> (for "emphasis") and <strong> (for... um... strong?).

This just made my head spin. <i> and <b> were the first two HTML commands I learned and--next to <a> and <img> tags--still some of my most frequently-used tags. I feel like my lifelong favorite oddities shop is going out of business.

...actually, according to w3schools, "they are not deprecated, but it is possible to achieve richer effects using style sheets."

That makes me feel marginally better.



Date: May 2008
Where/What: a strawberry with the top cut off, held up to light
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/50
Aperture: f 6.3
ISO: 200

Listening to: Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby (Alison Krauss, from O Brother, Where Art Thou?)
Thankful for: access to lab computers that work

I think this looks like Vulcan's forge.

It might look like a baked good with inexplicable holes in it.

It is, in reality, my desk lamp shining through some sacral foramina.

So really, this is a pretty cool photo no matter how you think of it.

(Why do I have a sacrum in my room, you may ask? Because I can, that's why.)



Date: September 2008
Where/What: holes in a sacrum
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/50
Aperture: f 5.6
ISO: 200

Listening to: I know an old lady who swallowed a fly
Thankful for: Not having swallowed a fly recently (to the best of my knowledge)

I opened the door
And left it standing
The door to my heart
Your love demanding
But you were not willing
To just step inside
Now the door to my heart
Is still open wide

-Buddy Holly, "Door to My Heart"



Date: January 2008
Where/What: dissected cow heart
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/50
Aperture: f 3.5
ISO: 200

Listening to: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (the Beatles)
Thankful for: not having any major medical maladies (at the moment, knock on wood)

"She looked at the colored panes.... She moved to the window.

"Through the pink pane the world was roseate below, and warm. The neighborhood, poised like a squalorous avalanche on the brink of a cliff, took on tones of the rose and a sunset.

"She looked through a yellow pane. And the world was the sun, all bright and luminous and fresh.

"She looked through a purple glass. The world was covered with cloud, the world was infected and sick, and people moving in that world were leprous, lost, and abandoned. The houses were black and monstrous. Everything seemed bruised.

"She returned to the yellow pane. The sun was back. The smallest dog looked clever and bright. The dirtiest child looked washed. The rusty houses were seemingly painted afresh."

-Ray Bradbury, "The House"

(This image is also available as a desktop wallpaper.)


Date: February 2008
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/160
Aperture: f 13.6
ISO: 100

Listening to: Orange-Colored Sky (Nat King Cole)
Thankful for: the marvels of the modern produce industry. Not only do modern shipping methods ensure that all corners of the country are able to eat fresh Florida oranges, California strawberries, and Georgia peaches... but we can eat these fruits out of season. Think about that.

Sometimes I choose my photos based on color. I'm posting this picture largely because I decided that my archive didn't have enough green. I'm not 100% in love with the image, but I'm always a fan of bright colors.



Date: February 2008
Where/What: dish soap
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/50
Aperture: f 3.5
ISO: 100

Listening to: You're Gonna Lose That Girl (the Beatles)
Thankful for: public libraries

This is pretty much my favorite color. (You'll note that this color appears in my post titles and across-the-top menubar, too!)

Of course, it's going to look a little different on your monitor.

But if you can see what I like to call "bright blazing teal," then you're pretty close.

(This image is also available as a desktop wallpaper.)


Date: May 2008
Where/What: Listerine bubbles
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/50
Aperture: f 3.5
ISO: 200

Listening to: My Way (Frank Sinatra)
Thankful for: the light at the end of the tunnel: I won't need to drive next year! Huzzah!

This is the, let's see, one, two, three, four, FIFTH time I have featured my hands on this photoblog. Out of 38 photos total. That's 13% of all my photos. Man. For having such ugly hands, I sure do seem to like 'em.

(This image is also available as a desktop wallpaper.)



Date: July 2008
Where/What: I have collected little bouncy balls for as long as I can remember. I usually end up getting those ugly multicolored swirl balls from the vending machines, but I keep trying. Sometimes I do get lucky and get a ball like this. (And sometimes I just find them. I found a green one in the street last week.)
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/80
Aperture: f 4.5
ISO: 200

Listening to: Lucky Ball and Chain (They Might Be Giants)
Thankful for: bouncy balls!

I haven't posted in a while! Not only have I not posted in a while, I've managed to hold off from posting a flower macro for, like, a week. WHOA.

And the archive is starting to look a little drab.

So.

FLOWA TIIIIIIME
(f'you an' me)

(This image is also available as a desktop wallpaper.)



Date: March 2008
Where/What: one of the first croci in the garden!
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/200
Aperture: f 3.5
ISO: 64

Listening to: Village Green Preservation Society (The Kinks)
Thankful for: not being colorblind

I remember when I first noticed this phenomenon of light + flesh= red glow.

I was about in first grade; my dad had some sort of an LED pulse monitor hooked up to his ear, so he could exercise properly. But the LED, which I knew was white when I looked at it on its own, shone RED through his earlobe. It baffled me for several years, I think. Someone eventually explained to me that your blood in all your capillaries is red and that's why that red glow happens (and oh yeah this doesn't just occur with your earlobe).

Submitted for Macroday: fingers.



Date: June 2008
Where/What: fingers held up to sun
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/50
Aperture: f 4.0
ISO: 200

Did you ever lean back in your seat at school and look at the ceiling... and wonder what it would be like if lights were on the floor and desks were stuck to the ceiling? I used to imagine walking on particleboard (being careful not to step on the long fluorescent lights) while wondering if the glue that secured the furniture to the ceiling was actually strong enough. I thought it would be neat to decorate a room like that--or at least make a walk-through art installation of it.

When I look at this photo, I see some sort of otherworldly scenario, with waist-high anemones sprouting from the floor, and an undulating cave of light formed by some incredible natural phenomenon. What do you see?



Date: May 2008
Where/What: an iris in somebody's yard, Ocean Township, NJ
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/160
Aperture: f 3.5
ISO: 200

Forgotten trash can be beautiful. This lovely pattern was created by condensation on the inside of a sports bottle that someone left on a tennis court bench.

(I do not condone littering, but I do understand absent-mindedness.)

(And see my corresponding wallpaper!)


Date: May 2008
Where/What: Water bottle in Thompson Park, Lincroft, NJ
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/250
Aperture: f 4.5
ISO: 100