Arboretum Insects

These images are posted in higher resolution so you can see more of the detail. Insects are fascinating little monsters.
今回写真のしつを高くしました、細かい所を見えれるように。昆虫は怪物だよね。

Abstract

Today's photos are more abstract, primarily color and composition. The top two are my favorites. I took these at the Arboretum where my mom works. Next time I'll put up some insects.
今日は美術的な写真です。色と構図を考えながら撮りました。お母さんの公園の仕事で撮って今度あそこで撮った虫の写真を載せます。

The New Macro

I finally got my very own macro lens. You'll have to open the pics to see all the good detail.
やっとマクロレンズが来た！写真を拡大したら細かいところを見える。楽しい。

Squirrel

Llama

A Llama spotting in Northern Idaho.

Maddeline's, a cute French style cafe in Spokane.

Bob makes pickles.

Cacti

Swimming in the fountain at Manato Park.

Flowers for Tomoko.
Macro lens comes tomorrow

Garden

This is my mom's cat Kumori. He's super sweet and still young enough to be Genki.

Some peppers at a market in Spokane.

My mom's back yard.

Ann's garden.




Peaches in the garden

Seoul

Tomorrow

This is my last post from Japan. I'm flying out tomorrow. I've spent the last few weeks with friends in Kagoshima. I visited castles, aquariums, concerts and beaches.

It's been a great two years but I have to say that I'm ready to go home. I can't wait to see everyone back in the States.

The Knife

My friend Mr. Oka makes many things, boats, houses, delicious Thai curry and knives. He offered to show me how to make one and over the last 4 months I've been working on my first hand made knife.

I had a lot of fun sketching interesting designs. This was my favorite.

After drawing the outline on a piece of steal I drilled out holes to make cutting out the shape with a hack saw easier.



I further refined the shape with various files. I also used a belt sander for some of the larger areas.



After filing it into shape and then sanding it into a thinner piece of steal I worked on the edge, carefully.



Once the shape was more or less perfected I used sand paper to polish it. I started at around 300 and worked all the way down to 2000 which feels smoother than notebook paper.



I made the handle out of ebony, cut it into shape and screwed it into place. From here I used a hacksaw to cut off the metal bits, a file to get the shape and a belt sander to get a smooth surface.




This is the final product except for a few tweaks here and there. I still need to put the edge on and sand down the wood in a few places. It turned out pretty nicely for my first and possibly only hand made knife. If I ever do make another I've got lots of new ideas.

Headlines

A few thousand people came to Yakushima from the mainland and even from overseas to see the total solar eclipse that intersected the island. Unfortunately it rained that day and all we saw was the sky darken and then turn back to its smokey gray. This girl wasn't as upset as she looks but there were definitely a lot of gloomy faces that day.






I had the idea that we should show some of our photos at a restaurant or some other public place and Tomoko made it happen. We chose six prints each and a cute pasta place not far from where I live gave us the okay. They said they wanted even more prints and asked if we could make postcards to sell. Its pretty exciting to have our own public showcase.





The Board of Education threw me a going away dinner last week at a nice Japanese restaurant. My boss who is directly above me is on the far right, bottom row.





I went around the island again last weekend and got a few more shots of the wildlife. If I got too close the baby would squeak and and run to have her mother hold her.












This little guy was pulling bugs out of the dirt and eating them.