Lemon Macro

During our regular Monday Night Meetup a couple weeks ago, we were all fooling around with macro photography at the Safety Harbor Grille after dinner.

One of our members, Lyman, made a macro using the bottom of a glass. That started the ball rolling. We were photographing everything left on the table. I got out my Tamron 90mm macro lens and joined in on the fun.

This lemon is one of my favorite shots from the evening. It was garnishing a glass of water, so I had to be careful not to include the glass.

This shot was made hand held inside the restaurant patio at ISO 800, because of the low light and the lack of a tripod to steady the camera, 1/250 at F8 for better depth of field in aperture priority mode with partial metering on the lemon and used the on-camera flash at -1 stop so it wouldn't wash out. I'm thrilled at how well it came out considering the circumstances.

The great thing about digital is that it costs nothing to experiment. This is one shot, I'd have probably passed up because of the low lighting conditions and the lack of tripod.

Banana Trees

When I moved into this house a year ago September, there was 1 small banana tree near the bank at the edge of the property. The tree kept sending little shoots and before I knew it, there were 5 trees.

The first one flowered about 6 months ago, and produced close to 40 lbs. of bananas. I ate so many, I threw my Potassium levels out of whack. It couldn't be helped, they were soooo good.

Bananas aren't really trees. They're herbaceous perennials that grow from corms (or pseudobulbs). Thick, fleshy stalks (pseudostems) emerge from the large corms and can increase in height anywhere from 1-30 ft. in a year, depending on the selection and location. Each stalk carries spectacular broad, 5-9 ft. long leaves. Each also produces a single flower cluster, which develops fruit; the stalk dies after fruiting, and new stalks then grow from the corm.

There are now 5 stalks. This photo is the latest harvest--it, too, is close to 40 lbs. There are two more bunches of bananas coming out. These bananas taste a bit more sweet than the ones found in the grocery stores, and they have a slight bite to them, but they're 100% organic. Once removed from the stalk, they take about a week to ripen, then they all ripen within a few days of one another.

If you've enjoyed my blog and photos, please visit my website at http://loycehoodphoto.com.