Returning to the teeny-weenie circuit board components, I found a line of resistors, each labelled with their own number.

I made this image with my Canon 7D and Canon MP-E 65mm/2.8 lens at 5x life size. The image was tweaked in Photoshop CS4E and Nik Viveza.

Despite the beautiful weather today, I found myself once again playing with my macro lens. The subject today was a circuit board extracted from an old XM Radio receiver. Specifically, this is the area on the circuit board where the little rubber buttons contact it to signal user selections. To me, this looked like a crop circle dropped in a field of green.

This image was made with my Canon 7D and Canon MP-E 65mm 1x-5x macro lens. I worked over the image in Photoshop CS4E, using the Bleach Bypass filter in Nik Color Efex Pro, with a touch of Nik Viveza thrown in for good measure. Realizing I forgot to whiten the whites, I bleached them in Lightroom using the Adjustment Brush.

This morning was the first glorious morning of springlike weather, so I decided to go for a hike. I took a two-mile hike on the Woodbine Trail at Babler Memorial SP, not too far from the house. It was a beautiful hike, with plenty to look at in the early morning sun. Part of the hiking trail parallels one of the horse trails, which this bridge rides over. I looked back, and saw this beautiful sight.

This image is actually made up of six images, each shot one stop apart, combined in Photomatix, imported into Lightroom, and then tweaked just a smidge.

After a change of plans left my evening free, I decided to return once again to my goldmine VCR, and pan for gold. What I instead found was a corral of open-air coils that, with the right lighting, looked to be mired in a tar pit.

Once again, my Canon 7D and Canon MP-E 65mm/2.8 were used for this image. No post-processing though — these coils were drowning without any help!

Tonight’s dive into macroland is a tight shot of my unused iPhone earbuds. Once again, I captured the image with my Canon 7D and my Canon MP-E 65mm/2.8, this time at about 2x life size. I lit this with a desk lamp, and then processed the image in Adobe Photoshop CS4E, with a touch of Nik Color Efex Pro thrown in.

Back to the VCR tonight, and more macro madness. This particular circuit board has some nice lines of resistors and other components, and they drew my attention.

This image was made with my Canon 7D and Canon MP-E 65mm/2.8 (at about 3x life size), and finished in Lightroom.

After missing a couple of days on my Project 365, I got back to it tonight. Having shredded a VCR a few weeks ago, I stored off a bunch of mechanical parts and circuit boards to photograph later — like tonight!

This is a macro image of a spindle that was part of the tape travel mechanism. I really like the patterns on the metal, and thought they deserved some focus tonight. This image was made with my Canon 7D and Canon MP-E 65mm/2.8 lens, and then processed with Photoshop CS4E and Nik Color Efex Pro.

Sio’s birthday just passed, and we’ve been hiding a secret toy surprise for her — her own Mac! She’s ecstatic about it, and from all appearances, loves her iMac.

Happy Birthday, Sio!

In the copy room at work today, I found these rubber overshoes, with a pleading note atop them:

“Please! Take me home before someone throws me away!”

It’s my bet that somebody nabbed them from someone else’s office as a prank. But think of the plight of these lonely rubber overshoes, soulless and lonely. Afraid for their very existence. It’s terrifying!

After Bailey’s sock-swallowing incident this weekend, and the subsequent emergency surgery, today Bailey came home. She’s sporting a better than six-inch incision as a permanent reminder of this rough weekend.

However, as bad as I’m sure she felt, she gave us a reminder of the important things. Darla tells this story from her trip home with Bailey:

After I picked Bailey today I was given clearance from the Emergency Hospital to take Bailey to the pet store to size and buy a collar to keep her from licking wounds (special collar, called an E-Collar or Elizabethan Collar). After we selected our right size, we went to check out.

At the counter, a young girl with Downs Syndrome was in line and ran up to Bailey and gave her a big hug. Realizing what was going to happen, and knowing the pup had just been through a rough day, I reached down to hold her collar. I wasn’t sure how she’d feel after all the work she had done on her. In the background, the Mother was saying, “That’s a Strange Dog honey, ask permission.”

Well, none needed. Bailey just let her hug on her and pet her head and her back like it was her long lost friend. The little girl looked right into Bail’s eyes and Bailey replied with a well orchestrated gentle, almost slow motion, lick on her nose. The girl smiled ear to ear and giggled and clapped with pure joy.

I asked the gal if she would like to give her a treat — and she shook her head violently. So I reached into the buy-it-by-the-pound-loose-treats and took a small one and asked the girl to put her hand out flat and open. She did as requested. I placed the kibble on her little trusting hand and Bailey, with no solid food in two days, slurped it right off. The girl giggled. So we did the exercise again, and again, Bailey slurped and the girl giggled into laughter. The young girl reached up to get a kibble and brought back a full sized dog biscuit, which was a bit much. So we directed her to ‘little puppy sizes’ and did it one more time, giggling and laughing the entire time.

Treat – pet pet pet – Treat – Pet Pet Pet (a little harder) – Treat, smile, laugh, PET PET PET

Momma was ready to go and called her daughter, with full sweeping motion the girl hugged our pups neck and buried her face and nuzzled. Bailey nuzzled back. They hugged for a good 10 or 15 seconds. Almost out the door, the girl swung back, ran inside for one more encompassing hug and Bailey soaked it up as she hugged back.

Such sweetness!