Blogging for Thor: So That's What That Is!

Hello spiders, how are we doing this week? Good, good. I'm feeling better too. I had a horrific case of Explosive Stomach Plague over the weekend, but have since mostly recovered. As an aside, why have we foregone cool names for diseases in the modern era? We used to have get lockjaw, come down with the consumption or catch a case of the Black Death. Now we have boring things like 'the flu' and "Somebody's Syndrome". Laaaaame. Which would you spend more money on, a vaccine for 'the flu' or a vaccine for 'Frigid Bones Fever"? Obviously.

Anyway. I finally figured out what this stuff is! It's a weed that grows everywhere in the Southeast. It springs up right around the end of winter and starts putting out these tiny, purple trumpets. It's actually very pretty. I've always loved it because of the bright color and weird shape. If you look close enough, there are bright orange dots inside the purple trumpets, meaning this plant displays a triadic color scheme! Sorry, I had to teach color theory this week. I've never bothered to check into what it's actually called though. Turns out that it's called ground ivy (among other things) and that it's an introduced plant, originally native to Europe. It's sometimes used as a salad green, can be made into tea and was used by the English to make beer before they got hops. So, overall, a pretty cool little plant!

To celebrate the return of (some) sunlight, I made a lumen today, but it wasn't that awesome. I also harvested some of the ground ivy and did a scanogram. I really do enjoy scanograms, and I don't do them often enough. I was working on some using a few dead poinsettias left over from Christmas, but haven't resolved them to my satisfaction yet. This one, though, I'm fairly happy with.

And that's all I have for today! Next week is Spring Break for my students and I'm heading up to Asheville. I hope to bring back some nice photos and things to share.

Blogging for Freya: Snow Daze

It's been snowing a lot lately, which is distressing because I live in the South. It's all Obama's fault. If NASA had funding, we'd be controlling the weather with magical satellite lasers or something. THANKS OBAMA.

Anyway, I actually did try to get out and do some art things in the snow. Taking pictures of it? BWAHAHA. No. It's cold outside, are you crazy? No. I put out two lumen prints to see if the snow would affect them at all. It didn't, and the bland, grey light (plus diffusion from the snow that quickly layered on top of them) resulted in pale, low contrast images that barely showed up. So, overall, it wasn't productive. I haven't even scanned the lumens because they're incredibly underwhelming.

However! I did scan something else! I scanned the dead poinsettia I used to make the lumens and I really enjoy the results. I think I'll be spending some time with the dead poinsettia to make some scanograms. I like the curled, veiny leaves and the long, withered stems. They're just appealing.

Also, as a result of the snow, I have two make-up days for my latest DSLR class from the Light Factory. The first of these make-up days is scheduled for tomorrow and, hopefully, we will be heading out to the local botanical garden to photograph in their greenhouse conservatory. It should be a ton of fun... if they're open. I tried calling for hours today and they were closed. Hopefully they open tomorrow. The roads are fine!