Eno River State Park

Today, I took my parents, who are visiting from Illinois, to Eno River State Park west of Durham. We went for a nice walk along the park's beautiful, rocky namesake. After spending 30 minutes taking pictures of a sunning turtle, I turned to this dragonfly for about 3 quick shots. As it turned out, the turtle pictures were nothing special, but I thought that this one turned out pretty well.

A little lesson for a little mind

Today, Riley learned something about our new place. There's a balcony-area overlooking our living room. Since we moved in three weeks ago, he had failed to make the connection that he could look over the balcony and see the room below.

Today, he finally made the connection, and I was able to catch his post-discovery excitement with a photograph. It's amazing how proud he can be of himself over such a simple thing.

In fairness to Riley, we have had the balcony blocked with boxes until recently, so although Mensa isn't likely to send Riley an invitation anytime soon, he hasn't exactly had daily opportunities to figure this puzzle out before now.

The End of an Era

I took this shot in the Fall of 2001 when I was a first year graduate student rotating in Dr. Bob Duronio's fruit fly genetics lab. These are chromosome spreads from larval brains. Whereas humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, fruit flies have only 4. In this image, the chromosomes from two cells are shown. From the cell at the top, you can make out all 8 chromosomes. The pair of X chromosomes are "v" shaped, whereas both chromosomes 2 and 3 are "x" shaped. Chromosome 4 is very small and looks like a dot (in the cell in the lower right, only one Chromosome 4 is visible. The other is likely hidden below one of the larger chromosomes).

I came across these and similar images as I was sorting through a stack of CDs on my desk at work. After almost six years as a research scientist at UNC, I'm hanging up my pipetteman for the last time today. As I've been sorting through six years worth of accumulated belongings, I've found myself being reminded of many things I'd long ago forgotten. As such, it seemed fitting to use today's blog entry to take a trip down memory lane to the beginning of my graduate career. These have been six wonderful years.

Moving forward, it's possible that I may never again be a scientist by title or by trade, but I hope that I am always a scientist by mindset.

Name that plant...

I took this shot at Raleigh's Ralston Arboretum last month, but I failed to note what this plant is called. For somebody who majored in biology and did graduate work in a biological science, I'm a pretty miserable botanist. Consequently, I could use some help. Does anybody know what this thing is called?

Old Well II

This shot of UNC's Old Well was taken from the vantage point I've historically favored, across Cameron Avenue, just west of South Building.

For those who have not visited Chapel Hill, the Old Well is one of the two most recognizable landmarks on the UNC campus. Tradition says that freshmen should drink from the well the night before classes begin for good luck. Unfortunately, just down the road at NC State, tradition says that students should drive drive down I-40 to Chapel Hill in order to urinate in the the same well. As a result, I favor hygiene over history and photograph the well without drinking from it.

Old Well I

I took this picture of the Old Well in April when the azaleas were in bloom. Many azaleas were hit hard by a late freeze this year, and although the flowers at the well maybe weren't as spectacular as they sometimes are, they were still pretty impressive.

This particular shot is interesting because I didn't love it immediately. Honestly, I didn't pay it much attention at all. But in recent weeks, it's become one of my favorite Old Well shots that I've ever taken (and I've taken hundreds). As you'll see later in this series, usually my preferred view of the well is from a distance (for those familiar with Chapel Hill, I'm normally standing across Cameron in front of or beside South Building). This is a rare photo that I took from a different perspective. I like how the well emerges from the flowers.

Those who visit our home in Durham may recognize it as one of the two framed photos I put in our office. However, those who visit from Illinois are perhaps less likely to notice my shots, instead distracted by the adjacent wall with three framed newspapers, two of which celebrate UNC's victory over Illinois in the 2005 NCAA Mens Basketball Championship game.

No new shots in a month

Yesterday, I got out with my camera for the first time since early June. Unfortunately, I only took about five shots and none were keepers. It's been a hectic stretch, and something has needed to give. That something has been photography.

We're headed to Canada in two weeks, and I'm certain that we'll get some great shots up there. In the meantime, I think I'm going to spend the next two weeks putting up a series of shots of the Old Well at the University of North Carolina. In the unlikely event that I take some decent new shots between now and then, I'll preempt the series.

Waxing gibbous

As I'm still having trouble finding time to get out to take new shots, here's another older shot. I took this picture on the evening of New Year's Day in 2007.

Moon shots are more difficult than I ever would have expected. I fully utilized my camera's optical zoom for these shots in order to capture as much detail as possible. However, even with a tripod, it becomes difficult to keep the moon in the view at that magnification.

Additionally, the fuller the moon, the brighter the reflection off of the moon. As a result, I was using extremely fast shutter speeds for these shots, typically at least 1/500 second. On a full moon, even my maximum shutter speed of 1/1000 second is often too long to capture any detail, in which case the moon comes out looking like a big white ball without discernible features.