Mushrooms are actually closer to animals than plants, because they decompose organic matter for energy just like we do. The difference is they do it outside their bodies. The real action happens underground; the actual mushroom is just for decoration.

Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/30, F2.8, 5.8mm, ISO100, 2005-10-10T07:39:32-04, 2005-10-10_07h39m32

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Credit me as Richard X. Thripp and link here.

Tomatoes at Publix from September of 2005. This picture had motion blur so I sharpened it a lot.

Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/22, F2.8, 5.8mm, ISO100, 2005-09-15T09:47:04-04, 2005-09-15_09h47m04

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Credit me as Richard X. Thripp and link here.

A vivid pink sunset from September 2005, heavily edited. At the time I believed editing produced “fake” photos but now I know better.

Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/21, F2.8, 5.8mm, ISO100, 2005-09-09T19:50:41-04, 2005-09-09_19h50m41

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Delicious oranges on Grandma’s orange tree. Photo from 2005.

Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/30, F2.8, 5.8mm, ISO79, 2005-11-19T14:57:31-05, 2005-11-19_14h57m31

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A macro of pink flowers with water drops, using the flash. Photo from 2005.

Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/30, F2.8, 5.8mm, ISO100, 2005-10-10T07:33:41-04, 2005-10-10_07h33m41

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A swirl of clouds in a blue sky. This is from 2005. The only problems are the power lines and over-exposed clouds; otherwise I think it looks great.

Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/2000, F4.7, 5.8mm, ISO64, 2005-10-07T17:43:10-04, 2005-10-07_17h43m10

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These yellow orchids represent friendship only. I found these in someone’s front yard while going for a walk. I tried taking a picture from a high angle to just show grass in the background, but it wasn’t nearly as pretty as a flower-level shot.

There is a house behind the flowers, but it’s blurred out because I used a large aperture (F2.8). I changed the white balance to be less warm, added brightness, and sharpened on the computer, along with the standard darkening of the corners (vignetting).

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/250, F2.8, 50mm, ISO100, 2009-10-16T16:57:41-04, 20091016-205741rxt

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Credit me as Richard X. Thripp and link here.

Small blue flowers, sharply focused through a fence. The Canon EF 50mm F1.4 lens has good focus… you just have to close the aperture up a bit. I used F3.2. It’s hard to see if the image is sharp in the viewfinder. I zoom in afterward on the LCD screen and see if the subject looks sharp. The flowers weren’t extremely sharp because digital SLRs don’t sharpen much, but I sharpened this on the computer.

These flowers are behind a chain-link fence by someone’s sidewalk. If you just walk around with a camera you’ll find photo opportunities like this. There is no reason to spend thousands of dollars traveling if you’re just going to photograph nature and still life. You have plenty of still life around you.

I could have got down on the ground instead of shooting the flowers from above, but the house was painted bright white. I did not want it in the frame… just other flowers, bushes, and grass.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/125, F3.2, 50mm, ISO100, 2009-10-16T16:42:25-04, 20091016-204225rxt

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Credit me as Richard X. Thripp and link here.

On 2009-09-30 I shot some studio portraits for my friend Anita Cohen at Daytona State College, of her pregnant daughter Jacquelyn and her daughter’s husband Shoughn. Even though I’ve been a photographer since I was 13 (5 years), this was my first time working formally. Thanks to Prof. Joe Vance for letting me use the photography studio at Daytona State College even though I’m not in the photography program (I’m a computer science student).

Jacquelyn is due to have Shoughn Brady Jr. at the beginning of Nov. 2009. Sadly, Shoughn has to return to Iraq for his second tour in Apr. 2010, so he’ll miss his son’s growth from the age of five months to over a year. Here, he is wearing his camouflaged U.S. Army uniform. He’s a driver rather than front-line infantry. I hope he stays safe and doesn’t have to kill anyone.

We had a white background. Anita helped me figure out how to set up the hot lights and deflectors. I used one incandescent light (warm a.k.a. yellowish) on the left and one fluorescent light (cool a.k.a. bluish) on the right, which worked well. While some maternity photographers exaggerate the size …

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This is the sequel to Complicity, a photo of two roses I took two years ago. I’ve had the title “Duplicity” in mind for months but didn’t know what to apply it to. I chose this image.

While I’ve done many photos of roses, this is from a standing level with a rose completely out of focus. The depth of field is very shallow, so the rose in the foreground overpowers the rose just two inches behind (pictured right).

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/200, F2.5, 50mm, ISO400, 2009-05-05T06:47:21-04, 20090505-104721rxt

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Credit me as Richard X. Thripp and link here.