Trees, A Photo Quote

"The more often we see the things around us - even the beautiful and wonderful things - the more they become invisible to us. That is why we often take for granted the beauty of this world: the flowers, the trees, the birds, the clouds - even those we love. Because we see things so often, we see them less and less."

~ Joseph B. Wirthlin

"In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful."

~ Alice Walker

Full Blue Moon & Lunar Eclipse Photography - New Years Eve 2009

If you live in Americas, Europe and Africa the full moon falls on December 31, 2009, and is called Blue Moon. Blue Moon because it is a second full moon in December; thus the definition of the blue moon being two full moons in one month. The name has nothing to do with the color of the moon. This also will be a 13th full moon in 2009. The next full Blue Moon can be expected on December 31, 2028, 19 years from now. In other parts of the world like New Zealand, Australia and most of the Asia, this full moon falls on January 1st, 2010. In this case, those parts of the world will have two full moons in January 2010.


The lunar eclipse will be visible primarily from the Eastern Hemisphere.

Why not get your camera ready and get some nice pictures if the weather permits, otherwise, you will have to wait another 19 years.

Here are few of my posts on moon photography.

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 1: Moon Calendar & Weather Conditions
Tips and guides on lunar cycle and checking weather conditions.

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 2: Digital Equipment Required
Suggestions on what equipment you may need.

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 3: Digital Camera Settings
General settings to help you get nice close up pictures of the moon.

How to Take Picture of the Moon - Digital Camera Tips and Guides

Sometimes information can be buried between the blog posts, therefore here are summarized links to the three posts on how to take pictures of the moon, especially if you looking to take close up pictures. They focus on the environment around you, digital equipment requirements and settings.

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 1: Moon Calendar & Weather Conditions
Tips and guides on lunar cycle and checking weather conditions.

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 2: Digital Equipment Required
Suggestions on what equipment you may need.

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 3: Digital Camera Settings
General settings to help you get nice close up pictures of the moon.

Above moon photo courtesy of My Only Photo blog.

“I like to think that the moon is there even if I am not looking at it” ~ by Albert Einstein

Bloggers Social Networking Resources – More Traffic to Your Blog

Want more exposure for your blog, your website, or just you? Then here is my assembled list of social network places which you can join so you can find more friends, find your old friends, make friends, share stories, photos, videos, news or more. However, I am going to tell you now, pick few only. Definitely you will not be able to maintain them all. I think it can really become addictive and you can spend hours and hours without accomplishing anything or accomplishing everything. So here we go, all I could find is listed below, and if you have any I have not listed here please share. Not to offend anyone, I put this is list in the alphabetical order.

A
Advogato - is an online community site for developers of free.

B
Bebo – is a social network web site.
BlackPlanet – is an online social networking site targeted especially for the African American community, as the name speaks for itself.
BlinkList – is an online link manager.
BlogCatalog – is a blog networking platform.
Blogger – is a blog publishing platform from Google.
BlogLines – is a web based news aggregator for reading syndicated feeds using the RSS and Atom.
Buzz – is currently re-buzzing; check-in in the near future.

C
CafeMom - is an ad-supported social networking website for mothers.
ClassMates – is a social school networking platform.
CoolPhotoBlogs – is a social networking web site for blogging photographers.

D
Delicious – is the biggest database of bookmarks in the universe that can be shared among users. DesignFloat – is a social media web site for design industry.
Digg – is a social news website where content from anywhere on the Internet is shared by link submission; voting and commenting makes stories more popular.
Diigo – is a research tool and a knowledge-sharing community.
DZone – is a free link sharing community for developers.

E
Eons – is a social networking site for baby boomers.

F
FaceBook – is a social networking for friends, family, and co–workers, to stay connected and to communicate.
FreeWebs – is a free web hosting company hosting personal and business related.
Friendster – is a social network service.

G
Google Bookmarks – is a free online bookmark storage service which is available to Google accounts; this service allows bookmarking favorite websites, adding labels, tags and notes.

H
Hi5 – is a social networking web site.

I
InterNations - is an international social network service.

J
Jaiku - is a social networking, micro-blogging and life streaming platform from Google.

L
LibraryThing - is a social cataloging web application for storing and sharing personal library catalogs and book lists.
LinkedIn – is a business oriented social networking platform mainly used by professionals.
LiveJournal – is a blog publishing platform from Microsoft.
Loaded Web – is a social networking platform for bloggers by geographical location.

M
MiGente – is an online social networking site targeting Latino community.
Mixx – is a social media web site for submitting or finding content based on interest and location; a combination of social networking and bookmarking.
Multiply – is a social networking service which allows the users to share media such as photos, videos and blog entries.
MyChurch - is a Christian social network.
MySpace – is an international social interactive networking website where users gather with network of friends, share their personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos for teenagers and adults.
myYearbook – is a social networking site.

N
Nasza Klasa – is an online social school networking web site for Polish community.
Nature Blog Network – is a network of bloggers associated with nature.
Netvouz – is an online social bookmark manager.
Newsvine – is a social news website.
Nexopia.com - is a Canadian social networking website.

O
Orkut – is a social network service from Google.

P
Propeller – is a social news aggregator operated by AOL-Netscape.

R
Reddit – is a social news website where users can post links to content on the Internet.

S
StumbleUpon – is a social news website where users can post links to content on the Internet.
SlashDot – is a technology related news website which features user-submitted and editor-evaluated current affairs news with a touch of ‘nerdy’ slant.
SquiDoo – is a topic sharing web site.

T
Tagged – is a social networking web site.
Technorati – is a blog related search engine tracking popular stories and link relationships.
ThisNext – is a social portal of great product recommendations and personalized shopping suggestions.
Twitter – is a social networking for friends, family, and co–workers, mainly to stay connected and to communicate.
TypePad – is a blog publishing platform for professionals and small businesses.

W
WordPress – is a blog publishing platform from WordPress.

X
Xanga – is a website that hosts weblogs, photo blogs, and social networking profiles.

Document Release: 0; Document Last Modified: April 27, 2009

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 2: Digital Equipment Required

Now that you have scheduled an appointment with the moon and checked with the weatherman for sky conditions, you are ready to take photos. However, do you know what digital equipment is required to take photos of the moon. As a matter of fact, you have to realize that to take close up pictures of the moon you will require certain level of digital equipment.



What Equipment is the Best for Taking Pictures of the Moon?
Depending what results you are looking for, close up picture of the moon or moon part of the landscape – this will determine what equipment you will need. For landscape results you can try shooting with simple point-and-shoot digital camera. However, for close up picture of the moon you will need digital camera with a zoom lens. Best results you can achieve with 75-300mm or 100-400mm telephoto lens with your SLR* or DSLR* camera. It is also possible to get some photos with point-and-shoot camera that has at least 12x optical zoom [Canon PowerShot S5IS 8.0MP with 12x Optical Zoom], and in addition you can incorporate a digital zoom. Remember, digital zoom is not actual zooming; it is done by camera’s software - interpolation and cropping of the image.

*SLR & DSLR – Single-Lens Reflex & Digital Single-Lens Reflex

Interesting reading on the photographer’s dream lens: The World's Largest Telephoto Lens

Another piece of equipment may be necessary is the tripod. If possible get a well structured one to eliminate vibrations. Usually with larger lenses vibration is not avoidable. The vibration usually occurs on each camera click – it is the pushing force with your finger on the camera that will cause this vibration. Then you probably need a trigger. There are wireless triggers on the market that may be available for your digital camera. However, if you are cheap and do not want to spend anymore money on your equipment, simply try to rest your camera on something stable, or if you get good at, you can rest your elbows on something, hold on to the lens and click. Something I got good at, and eliminated lengthy preparation and set up for the moon photography. I just take my camera, find comfortable resting place and shoot.

Moon Photography Equipment Summary
[1] Digital SLR Camera or Digital Point-and-Shoot Camera with at least 12x optical zoom
[2] Lenses with at least 75-300mm or 100-400mm, or more focal length [Canon, Nikon, Sigma]

[3] Tripod or other stable support




REFERENCES
[1] Moon Photography: How To Take Photos of the Moon - Handy Tip
[2] A Bit of Knowledge: How To Take Photos of the Moon - Handy Tip For SLR Digital Cameras
[3] How to Take a Picture of the Full, Half or Crescent Moon? – Part 1: Moon Calendar & Weather Conditions
Document Release: 0; Document Last Modified: February 19, 2009

How to Take Photos of the Moon? – Part 1: Moon Calendar & Weather Conditions

Soon as the skies are clear and the moon is very clear, full moon, half moon or crescent moon, people around the world get their digital or conventional cameras to take pictures. However, they yet to find out at the time of developing that all you can see is just a bright round object on the black sky. This is in fact a good start. The fact that you took your camera and wanted to take a picture of the moon is an excellent first step. Now let see, what you can do better.

What Weather is the Best for Taking a Photo of the Moon?
It does not take a genius to figure out that you need clear skies in order to take pictures of the moon. However, don’t be disappointed when there are clouds, because sometimes the wind does a little help. In a matter of time, wind can move clouds out of the way, and there is the moon you want to snap a photograph of. It happened to me many times, and sometimes with clouds being on the way, the photo can be even more spectacular. But if there is no wind then you are in bad shape and you will have to wait for the next time.

When you are looking for taking pictures of the moon, it is a good idea to get yourself ready ahead. Check out the lunar cycle for the moon phases, and check out the weather forecast. Then you need to find out where on the sky the moon is going to be and when. Yes location is important, last thing you need is that you cannot see the moon because it is behind the buildings, and when it emerges out of them, the clouds show up – yes some times bad luck can follow us.

Let’s repeat then, you will need lunar cycle calendar, local weather forecast, location on the sky, location from the ground and the time. Don’t be surprised if you see sometimes moon during the day, as I was. I thought that moon was only for the nights.

Excellent resources to start: Kalendar 365 and Sky View Cafe
For weather you can always drop by The Weather Network or in the Google search type ‘weather your location’.

Read Part II: How to Take a Picture of the Full, Half or Crescent Moon? – Part 2: Digital Equipment Required

REFERENCES
[1] Moon Photography: How To Take Photos of the Moon - Handy Tip
[2] A Bit of Knowledge: How To Take Photos of the Moon - Handy Tip For SLR Digital Cameras
Document Release: 1; Document Last Modified: February 25, 2009

Nutritious Bananas Not Just for Adults But For Babies Especially

Bananas, a world’s most popular fruit is a very nutritious fruit full of vitamins and minerals, and let’s not forget it is also a very tasty fruit on its own or in baking or cooking. Everyone, adults, toddlers, babies enjoy it, and let’s not forget the monkeys.

What Do We Know about Banana’s?
I am not going to give you everything here about bananas, but you should know that bananas likely came from Malaysia. It is hard to believe, because I always thought they came from South America. However, since it is a very popular fruit consumed, it is also highly cultivated fruit in most tropical areas around the world.

Nutritional Value of the Bananas
Bananas are high in potassium, and are obviously recommended to patients who are low on potassium. Go figure. However, if you are pregnant then most likely your baby is consuming all your nutrients during pregnancy; potassium is one of them that will deplete and you will know it by getting sometimes a charley horse in your legs. Therefore, you have that one banana or two. However, watch out in some cases bananas can cause constipation – moderation is the key. Let us not forget the fiber, protein, carbohydrates and sodium. Now, you can see how this can be an excellent fruit for malnourished children. In addition to make this fruit even more nutritious, it contains vitamin A, B, C and few minerals like Calcium, Magnesium along with small traces of Zinc and Iron.

What Is a Connection between Bananas and Monkeys?
This for a life of me I couldn' answer, and here is one answer I found on the ezine: Monkeys and Bananas. I hope it is true, and if it is I have nothing to do with it.

How to Eat Banana?
Yes you are probably saying, who doesn't know how to eat bananas. Well, if you already know, here are few tricks I did learn over the years. First, in order for the banana to ripe nicely keep them in one bunch, if you you want to preserve them longer, take them apart. But remember when you pick them avoid bruised ones. Another interesting trick someone told me one day is to peel banana from the bottom, and all the strings will go away with it. So much for fun peeling my banana, they had to ruined it. So not you know how to eat banana, so go banana.

How to Feed your Baby Banana?
Finally, something related to the title of this post. I started to give banana to my baby at age of 4 months. Just a little bit, not even a full baby spoon. This was for my baby to learn how to eat with the spoon. I did some research, and I found that you don't have to cook bananas before giving them to babies. However, I am one of those paranoid mothers, so I would always steam them in the steam of the boiling water. When feeding baby I would lightly scrape surface of the banana to generate mashed banana. It works very well, you don't really need any equipment to do that.

Important Note: 'Nitrates and vegetables. Some types of strained vegetables and fruits - including spinach, beets, turnips, carrots, green beans, mixed vegetables and bananas - contain nitrates, and should therefore not be given to infants younger than 4 months...In sufficient concentrations, nitrates can cause these children to develop methemoglobinemia, a condition in which blood cells do not transport oxygen efficiently.' [1]

Things People Say about Bananas

‘On a traffic light green means go and yellow means yield, but on a banana it's just the opposite. Green means hold on, yellow means go ahead, and red means where the hell did you get that banana at...’ once said by Mitch Hedberg, an American Comedian, 1968-2005.

‘Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana’ once said by Groucho Marx, an American Comedian, Actor and Singer, 1890-1977.

‘Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana’ once said by Bill Gates, an American Entrepreneur and Founder of Microsoft Co., b.1955.

And the last one, ‘Monkeys throwing bananas at keyboard could have written a better post’, the best one I have seen and you can read it about yourself.

Time to Frame the Banana
No I am not talking about putting a banana to jail. I am talking putting a nice picture of a banana on your wall. Hopefully you have learn something new here about bananas, therefore we should feel like we own something to bananas so why not framing nice banana picture on your kitchen wall? Here are some of the best photos of the bananas I have seen on Internet, some free and some for purchase.

Fotosearch.com
Crestock.com

Time to Go Banana
Here you can find banana humor. I am sure some of them are composed images, but they are darn funny. Read more...

REFERENCES
[1] 'Better Baby Food', 2nd Edition, Your Essential Guide to Nutrition, Feeding & Cooking for All Babies & Toddlers, by Diana Kalnins, MSc, RD, and Joanne Saab, RD, The Hospital for Sick Children, pg 46.
Document Release: 1; Document Last Modified: March 16, 2009