Schlumbergera

Schlumbergera, a.k.a. the Christmas Cactus. These cacti are species found in the coastal mountains of south-eastern Brazil. Plants grow on trees or rocks in habitats which are generally shady with high humidity and can be quite different in appearance from their desert-dwelling cousins. Hybrids like this one are popular house plants.Canon 7D, 1/80 sec @ f/16.0, ISO 800, 100mm macro lens, two LED Litepanels used for illumination.

Too Much Email

Opened my Gmail account today and what do you know, my unopened email counter was sitting at exactly 10,000. Many of these are email lists, ads, automatic notifications and such. I had this down to zero this past summer. So if I took 5 seconds each to delete these emails it would take 14 hours of continuos deleting to get rid of them all. If I actually took a minute to look at each one, that would take 21 - 8 hour work days or a little more than one man month. And this is just my personal email account, my work account has much more volume. Canon 7D, 1/40 sec @ f/16.0, ISO 800, 100mm macro, photographed directly off my computer screen.

Twilight Steeple

Yesterday's photo featured the morning sky and the shiloutte of Norfolk's First Baptist Church. Tonight it's the nearby Freemason Street Baptist Church against a twilight sky. Grabriel's Horn is the weather vane at the top the steeple. Thomas U. Walter, the architect for the U.S. Capital dome designed the Gothic Revival building, which is now on the National Historical Register. Canon G15, 1/5 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 400.

Morning Contrails

A beautiful Norfolk Virginia morning with contrails from the east coast air corridor high above the shiloutte of First Baptist Church. This church is one of my all time favorite Norfolk buildings with its highly ornamented Romanesque Revival style. While you can't tell from this picture the pink granite ashlar and limestone trim are spectacular. This 1906 architectural masterpiece is the work of Chattanooga architect Rueben Harrison Hunt. iPhone 5, Camera+ App.

Frosty the Sandman

Of course any self respecting snowman in Virginia Beach Virginia is going to the beach. Canon 7D, 1/8 sec @ f/5.0, ISO 800, 100mm macro.

Core Sound Christmas Trees

Crab Pot Christmas Trees, the latest addition to our holiday decorations. Created by Nicky Harvey founder of Harvey & Sons Net & Twine a Davis North Carolina commercial fishing industry supplier as way to expand his family owned business. Using triangles of the same coated wire mesh used in crab pots, he created a tree strung with lights that could be stored flat and then opened for display with the light strings remaining in place. As a result the Core Sound Christmas Tree was born and today is manufactured and distributed by Fisherman Creations, Inc. in Smyrna, NC.

Canon G15, 1/6 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 400.

Got a Green Light

Norfolk's new Consolidated Courthouse goes up against the evening twilight sky. Phase one is estimated to be completed by this time next year with the entire project to be completed by the end of 2015. Canon G15, 1/30 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 800.