I spent a major part of my “Communication Time” today working with Eunie on a post for our Messersmith News site, which she has a very difficult time updating, mainly because her job is a lot more important than mine and she has a corner office with windows. I hide back in the IT dungeon, so my time is a little more, uh . . . flexible. As long as I keep things perking along, nobody seems to care much what I’m doing. Don’t ask, don’t tell.

Anyway, pop on over to Madang – My New Home Town for a little sweetness and love. The whole purpose of this post is to lure you over there, so don’t disappoint. The rest of this is a product of a mis-spent youth.

Since I was pressed for quality time to produce something that would blow your mind, I had time only to blow my own. I shot four image on the way to work this morning and that’s all that I had to work with. So, I decided to let what passes for my mind to wander to those forbidden places my ancestors used to visit while experimenting with pre-industrial chemistry. Five solid hours of Steely Dan have aided the process.

In case you’re puzzled, this one is titled Tripping Out at Coconut Point:I can easily imagine flying at supersonic speed to this very spot and landing on my bare feet on the mossy rocks like a droplet of water flicked from the tail of a passing mermaid. Am I getting through to you?

A violent wave of vertigo from my superglue-filled inner ears caused me to stumble and I was blessed with this vision of a tiny, glowing rock garden at my feet:I took its picture. It said, “Dacă-mi dai de apă, eu va iubesc.”, which is, of course, what any sweet little rock garden would say. Unfortunately, I had none available, so I had to sorrowfully decline.

Even before I left the house this morning I had the G11 out and was letting it exercise its muscles. This one is called Freaky Kar Kar:Some day that baby is going to blow. I just hope I’m looking straight at it with my camera in my hand when it does. I’ll be one of the most posthumously famous photographers in all of history if my camera survives. You can just see the top of it lurking over on the right side of the image.

I finally pulled out all of the stops and produced Funky Foreshore:It has been sublimely massaged with various filters, shadings and secret MadDog incantations to within an inch of its life. It’s panting from exhaustion.

It’s a victim of tough love.

I like to start off every day with a sunrise. Considering my proclivity for this, I must be the luckiest guy in the world. During most of the year, at least one day out of two will provide fodder for my famished camera. Some days are better than others, but every day is different.  This is part of my thinking time for the day. I usually get fifteen to thirty minutes to contemplate the newness of the day and what it might bring:

Then I have a little walk around my garden to see who’s awake and what they’re doing.

In the same bush in which I found a beautiful green lizard the other day, I spotted this tiny bug hiding under a leaf. The sun was shining through the leaf and making the little fellow glow. I tried to get the shot without flash, but there simply wasn’t enough light:

The little guy is only about a centimetre long.

Over at the Bird of Paradise plants I found a similar sized spider. It kept trying to move around on the other side of the curled-up leaf to hide, but finally tired of that and submitted to my photographic zeal:

The shot really appeals to me compositionally. Its simplicity is powerful. Getting one or two shots a day such as this one, which really pleases me, lifts me right off the ground. Photography is a powerful emotional stimulant for me. I must be neurotic. No, wait. Of course  I’m neurotic!

This spider is vainly attempting to hide from me. He nearly pulled it off, except that I saw it moving down from the flower on which it was waiting for a meal. You’ll see more of this little spider tomorrow:

I’ve featured this lovely green spider before here.

I never know which orchids in the garden are going to bloom next. The blooms last for an incredibly long time compared to most flowers, sometimes for a couple of weeks. I know absolutely nothing about orchids and I’m happy to allow them to be a mystery to me. I overanalyze the underwater world and pretend to be an expert. I think that it’s nice to appreciate some things without knowing everything about them. It leaves room for awe and wonder:

The sun was coming in from the back of these blossoms. I turned my flash on to give a little fill light in the dark areas to punch up the colour. I’m quite happy with the shot.

The best thing about walking around in my garden with my camera is that, if I wake up the next morning, I know that something like this will be waiting for me.

Lucky? Blessed?

You choose.

I love being in interesting places, but I hate getting there. Springfield, Illinois has its interesting spots, but it’s not Vienna. Anyway, we had a good time and visited family that I seldom see. But, I start to get very anxious when travel time draws near. For someone who has been around the world about a dozen times, I’m not a very good sojourner.

So, as my anxiety grows, I grab my trusty camera (I presently have three to choose from. I look like a Japanese tourist) and find a garden to calm myself. Fortunately, this morning all I had to do was walk out of the door of Jim and Mary Sexton’s house to find a pleasant spot to exercise my eyes. Mary is Eunie’s sister.

Heritage roses seem to be gaining popularity everywhere. At least I think that these are a heritage variety:

The pink is quite pretty, but I was more intrigued by these blue ones. I thought blue roses did not exist:

Well, as it turns out, they don’t exist. I faked the colour with Photoshop.

Red roses are beautiful and they smell nicer. Jim and Mary have some nice red ones in their garden:

I did notice that they lack yellow roses.

So, I made some for them:

Yes, they are also Photoshop fakes.

I captured some more images in Jim and Mary’s garden this morning. Here is a little gallery:

Would they arrest you when you took your shoes off if everybody fainted? Do they sell “Foot Stink” any place? I’m looking for trouble. I’ve never been arrested and I’m ready to try it. It would make a great war story.

UPDATE: Mary says that they are violas, not pansies. What do I know?

I’m experimenting doing a post from my house this morning. It’s Saturday, so I have some time to spare before we go diving.

We now have a VSAT at our office. I’ve set up one of our servers with a modem on it so that I can dial into my office to get on the internet. I only get 33.6KBS, but it’s rock-solid. So, for K0.30 I can connect for as long as I please.

Also, I’ve tried combing several photos into a ZIP file to upload to a gallery. It work nicely. I can ZIP them and then walk away while I load the boat.

Here are some shots that I took in My Garden this morning:

I’ve been trying to grow a willow tree in the garden for about three years now. It’s just starting to take off.