Dave Bullock / eecue : Programmer | Photographer | Admin | Human

I'm pretty sure this is an april fools joke from Nature.com, but it's pretty funny nonetheless: news @ nature.com - Apollo bacteria spur lunar erosion  - Images reveal worrying cracks in the face of the Moon.  

I think the Desert Globemallow is my favorite wildflower in the Mojave Desert. On my most recent excursion I didn't see any until we were driving back. I pulled over and took some photos. What a beautiful flower. 

While driving through the desert I spotted not one, but two desert tortoises. They are really cool creatures and are protected under the endangered species act. I slowly walked towards the tortoise making sure not to scare it. When I was about 10 feet away I stopped any laid down. The tortoise then approached me and I photographed it.  

So I just got back from the desert, and I took about 500 photos. The only problem with my new camera is that it takes photos so quickly. With bracketing it really adds up quick. I got some great photos including 2 separate run ins with desert tortoises. I am sorting through them now. 

This is one of the first really nice photographs I have taken with my new Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens. I took it in my backyard. The daffodils were provided by the illustrious and beautiful penelope. I am heading out tomorrow morning to the desert and I will be back with many photos of wildflowers! 

Take a look at all the crap I carry around in my bag. 

I just got back from Samy's Camera in Santa Ana. So far I have had two good experiences with Samy's and their salespeople. When I bought my camera, they sold it to me below the website cost. When I bought my lens and flash today they also gave me a good deal. I picked up the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens and the Canon Speedlite 580EX. I just played around with the lens for a few minutes handheld (I have work to do) and the results are really amazing. The lens is really quite a deal, as I thought it would be after reading nothing but good reviews about it. I will be heading out to the desert again this weekend in search of more wildflowers. 

I made some changes with the way that the gallery looks. I made the interface cleaner and changed the order of display of the image details. I also updated the tag creation in the images and log sections. I also fixed the way the comments are added in these sections. Finally I changed the RSS feed in the comments sections so that it only shows replies. 

I reorganized the photography archive on my site. You will find it much more intuitive and have an easier time locating galleries.  

There are some really beautiful flowers in the desert right now.

This weekend was my birthday and a group of my friends and I went camping in the Mojave Desert. The normally brown sandy desert, which receives and average 2" of rainfall a year is green and covered with flowers due to the 6" of rain that has fallen so far this year. I took some really wonderful photos with my new Canon EOS 20D. I can't wait to go back and take even more. I identified almost a dozen different species of wildflowers.