Just Because I Can!

What are those? Apples? Tomatoes?

Guess again, they are berries from nandina domestica, otherwise known as Heavenly Bamboo, and they are in real life, only about 3/8 of an inch across. Now, besides the fact that I like Heavenly Bamboo, with its colorful foliage and graceful habit, what does the size of the berries have to do with anything?

The "anything" is my new camera, the Sony Cybershot DSC-H7, and its fascinating "macro" feature.

I can set the camera to "macro" mode, and put the lens as close as 1/2 inch away from the subject, and it will focus.

The trick is to keep my hands from shaking! I went through the Jitters Phase with my first digital camera, thinking that apparently I was better off with film than with digital because all my pictures were coming out blurred. Eventually I got a few to come out well, and my confidence returned.

It rained here a few days ago ... all right, I'll be honest, it rained for a week here a few days back, and on the first sunny morning, I went out and played with the camera. The droplets on the fern pine (not a fern, not a pine, but rather podocarpus gracilior) came out unexpectedly well, considering that the area is in shade at that time of day.

That's the kind of shot I've always wanted to be able to take since I got my first cheapie B/W plastic camera when I was seven. (And couldn't, of course.)

Cheerfully, in the wet backyard, I went around snapping photos not only close up, but also to catch one of my favorite phenomena in this part of the world: the mysterious smoking fence.

The first spring I lived in California, I saw the smoking fence and rushed out the gate to see what vandals had set fire to my side yard, only to find that it was steam from the heat of the sun on the wet boards of the fence.

Such is the power of the California sun, and oh, how I welcome it again!