Fly Me To The Moon
Since Smallsteps was born, for years I sung her two songs every night; Summertime and Make You Feel My Love. A few years ago, I added Fly Me To The Moon into the mix, and rotate them through each time it is my turn to put her to sleep.
I have a shockingly bad singing voice.
I do not sing for anyone else, except for her. She has realised for a long time that I am not a good singer and even more so in the last couple years as her own voice has improved and she has picked up the piano, but she enjoys the familiarity, and has never said that it sounds bad. Occasionally at other times, she does mention how I could improve.
It was my wife's turn tonight, so I only said good night and asked her what she is going to dream about, knowing that the answer is always the same.
Dragons and Dinosaurs.
It is pouring down outside and there is no moon in the sky (or on Hive), but what I do have an abundance of at this time of year, are flies.
They come in through the window vents, trying to escape the cold, and while most get trapped between the panes of glass until they get vacuumed up, some somehow (no idea how) end up trapped inside. So, with no moon to speak of, nor dragons and dinosaurs to take pictures, of I decided to take a few shots using extension tubes, which I haven't used for years. An extension tube moves the lens further away from the sensor, which degrades the image and requires much more light, but gives a good enough result for taking pictures of flies.
I used a 60mm prime macro lens.
I put them on a piece of paper to give a white background and then edited in Lightroom Mobile on my phone, desaturating and then putting in a red blend on the darks, and an aqua on the lights. Just for a bit of fun, because after all, they are flies.
In about a month we will get our new puppy, so I want to get used to using the camera again, as unfortunately, I don't get out enough and my abilities remain limited from lack of practice. Not that I will likely be using extension tubes or a flash too often with a dog, but just having the camera in hand and playing about with the dials helps me get that vague sense of "I know what I am doing".
Which even vague, is rare for me.
I like macro photography though and one day will invest into some better equipment for it. I think it is a good way to make more interesting cover images for articles, and I also like that it is possible to take what is a pretty average subject, and see it from a different perspective. Insects are great, because for such small things, they are so incredibly detailed and have a great deal of weirdness. Though around my place, there isn't the level of weird that was available where I lived in the Australian tropics, but I also wasn't as into photography then either.
A little weirdness goes a long way.
Seeing flies, is still better than having to hear me sing.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Camera:
Olympus EM-1
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Such a touching story, the way you connect music, family, and photography feels heartfelt and real
Life overlaps. We should stop compartmentalizing every thing :)
This time of year we get stink bugs really bad. It drives my wife nuts, but it is only temporary and then they are usually gone. I've killed so many inside the house though!
How do you kill then without the smell?
You don't, but it really just smells like cilantro to me, so I don't mind too much.
I remember them as a kid. Definitely not cilantro. I wonder, does cilantro taste like soap to you? Apparently, that is a generic thing.
No, cilantro tastes like cilantro to me. I can kind of see how people might feel otherwise. Anything with artificial sweeteners all taste the same to me. I can't stand that stuff.
Yeah I'm with you. It is like my body is saying "don't swallow this poison"
Haha, yes!
That camera is amazing
I remember J using the "telescope" we have at the zoo (where we went partly as a homeschool excursion and partly to play with the camera). I don't know how long yours is, I thought his was a tad excessive XD
Youngest found a magnetic pet door flyscreen thing that we bought years ago, we never put that one up as the first one that we put up (we'd bought two thinking we could do one for the front and back doors) kept falling down every time my dog went through it. Youngest attached it to the actual flyscreen door rather than using it as a door/curtain but this morning it had fallen off which J was saying he thought was what would happen.
If youngest can be bothered I'll see if he wants to paperclip the top part of the door to the flyscreen as that's what he did at the bottom for some reason in addition to the double sided adhesive provided with the door (he was grouchy at me as I told him he wasn't allowed to use the tacks as I didn't want random holes in the wall).
He was so excited about being able to leave the door open in summer too ^_^; (part of the flyscreen on the actual flyscreen door keeps coming undone despite us attacking it with a tool that's meant to attach flyscreens to doors, I keep lobbying for a security door with those metal flyscreens that are attached to the actual door so they won't come off but keep getting knocked back because expensive)
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STOPLol Fly me to the Moon and pictures of dead flys is quite a combination 😀
We don't have any flys, but had a lady bug somehow get into our house and it launched a whole frenzy of my wife and daughter adopting it as a pet, with wet paper towels so it can drink and digging out a raisin out of an Italian panettone bread, building it a home out of cardboard, etc... lots of excitement 😄
Lol the singing voice cannot be that bad...
Thanks for the explanation, I didn't know about extension tubes but honestly, those are probably the ugliest shots I've seen in your posts 😂
Here in Portugal, they use a method quite ugly also to get rid of the flies, they are helicoidal strips of paper with glue you hang on the ceiling. It is not very fancy but very effective.
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The bond you have with your daughter through music is sweety :) It is nice how ideas can come to you in surprising ways, like taking pictures of flies on a rainy night.
Dear @tarazkp !
Are you buying a puppy for Smallsteps?
I wonder what effect dog hair will have on Smallsteps' asthma!
I also have asthma, so I don’t have dogs or cats!
I read somewhere that mosquitoes invaded Finland recently, for the first time in the county's history, and this ecological anomaly is attributed to climate change. I wonder if it's also responsible for bringing the flies through your windows. Good effort you made with the photos.
Turns out I hate all vermin, especially flies and cockroaches. I wouldn't photograph them if I saw them in my home, I would simply smash the hell out of them. These nauseating creatures carry deadly diseases.