Author Archives: Bob Venezia

Four from Don Lopp

by Bob Venezia
Kubota Garden Moon Bridge

Kubota Garden Moon Bridge

Kubota Garden Moon Bridge
I assume all four images were taken with Don’s home-made camera with the 47mm Super Angulon lenses. The one of the Moon Bridge is shot on Velvia 100.

Kubota Garden View

Kubota Garden View

Kubota Garden View
I titled it thus because I’m almost certain this was also taken at Kubota Garden, a Japanese Garden in South Seattle. Shot with Fuji Astia 100F

Japanese Garden Waterfall

Japanese Garden Waterfall

Japanese Garden Waterfall
I had originally assumed these last two images were taken in Seattle, either at the Japanese Garden in the Arboretum or at Kubota Gardens. But I confess that my knowledge of the Japanese Gardens is wanting. It could have been Portland. Shot with Velvia 50

Japanese Garden Waterfall #2

Japanese Garden Waterfall #2

Japanese Garden Waterfall #2
Again unclear as to the location. Shot with Velvia 50

Nut Thief

by Bob Venezia

Nut Thief

Squirrel in Lincoln Park, West Seattle

I’m spending more time in Lincoln Park, across the street from my house in West Seattle. Decided to try for some close-ups of the squirrels that constantly hound you there. I brought the twin rig Hasselblads but that was a lot of work and something went wrong with the exposures. Operator error no doubt. The TL-120 images were more successful. Yes, there are problems with the background, but the flash isolates the subject in a way to make the background easier to ignore.

Come, Fly, With Me

by Bob Venezia

I like the look of this bee a lot, but this is one of the very few times I was able to also capture an insect other than a bee. One of the things I love about these echinacea is the colorful spikes in those danger colors—yellow, orange, and red—like a collection of nuclear warheads arranged by Fibonacci.

Honeybee and green fly join forces in the inspection of nuclear warheads

Honeybee and green fly join forces in the inspection of nuclear warheads

Tom & Small Cube

by Bob Venezia

My friend Tom Noddy displays one of his more renowned bubble creations. The cube is constructed by blowing a bubble and catching it so it is hanging from his bubble wand. A second bubble of equal size is blown beneath, so it is attached and suspended below the top bubble. It looks like an hourglass, with a flat membrane between the two bubbles. Next four more equal sized bubbles are blown around the “waist” of the hourglass, so they connect. And finally a smoke-filled bubble is blown into the middle of it all.

This was shot with several flash units scattered around the room, and black velvet draped behind to isolate Tom and the Bubble.

Tom Noddy displays a bubble cube

Tom Noddy displays a bubble cube

Emerald City Angels – 2016

by Bob Venezia

Seattle Skyline with Blue Angels

Hyper view of downtown Seattle from Alki, with the Blue Angels overhead

This is a hyper view of downtown Seattle from Alki in West Seattle. The Blue Angels were performing as part of the SeaFair Celebration. I haven’t recorded the camera base but it wasn’t excessive — the cameras were wired together and I couldn’t risk having someone trip over one of them! The cartoon-y tourist boat in the foreground was a bonus.

I must have been trying to squeeze out some extra sharpness by setting a hyperlocal distance instead of just CRANKING the lenses to infinity. Lesson learned.