CIOPhoto

Take Time to Smell the Flowers - Sasha loves it when new flowers come into the house. We could all take a lesson from my little girl, Olympus OM-D E-M1, 1/8 sec at f/4, ISO 100.

A Saturday night ritual for us is a trip to Doumar's in Norfolk Virginia for curb service and the famous " Ringo " sundae. A blend of homemade Maola vanilla ice cream and crushed waffle cones, topped with hot fudge and a big red cherry. iPhone 5s.

Time to enjoy an evening caffè lungo and some quiet time. Canon 5D Mark II, 1/80 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 800, one LED Litepanel for illumination.

The magic button for opening the doors on Norfolk Virginia's light rail system "The Tide". You've got to be in the present and ready to press when it turns green or you'll find your self on the way to the next stop. iPhone 5s.

Some of my PPE . What's PPE you ask? Why its P ersonal P rotective E quipment (PPE) - Specialized clothing or equipment worn by employees for protection against health and safety hazards. Personal protective equipment is designed to protect many parts of the body, i.e., eyes, head, face, hands, feet, and ears. Missing from this photo are my steel toe safety boots and my safety glasses. Definitely dressed to impress. iPhone 5s.

A case of Bronchitis this week left me coughing my head off. A visit to the doctor, antibiotics and this cough syrup with codeine was good for my body and my soul. Canon 5D Mark II, 100mm macro, 1/40 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 800.

Tulips in monochrome. Canon 7D, 1/15 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 800, 100mm macro.

The price of freedom is high. So thankful for the men and women who paid it. Hampton National Cemetery. Olympus OM-D E-M1 1/250 sec @ f/13.0, ISO 200.

The Rubber Duck at Twilight. The Chrysler Museum of Art in the background. Olympus OM-D E-M1, 1/5 sec @ f/5.0, ISO 800.

A line of shopping carts making their way back into the store at the end of a busy shopping day. iPhone 5s, Camera + App

What's more "make believe" than a collection of antique decoys? iPhone 5s.

A rose in black and white, unexpected beauty. 1/400 sec @ f/5.0, ISO 800.

Zooming in on the "20" in the lower right corner of the 2003 redesigned U.S. twenty dollar currency note. Canon 7D, 1/400 sec @ f/11.0, ISO 400 65mm MPE macro lens at 1:1.

Today is Sherlock's fourth birthday. Yes he is named after the famous fictional detective because of his insatiable curiosity. He goes by many names around our house, Lock, Lockmeister, Lockinator, Trouble with a capital "T", and assorted other names when his curiosity is out of control. But he's my totally devoted little buddy. Join me in wishing him a happy birthday. Canon 5D Mark II, 1/13 sec @ f/5.0, ISO 1600, 100mm macro lens.

Today I stand on a shadow lying on what will soon be the public forum floor of the new Slover Memorial Library in Norfolk Virginia. The bottom half of this diptych is me looking down at a shadow on the bare concrete floor. The top half is looking up at the foliated space frame ornamental work by the Kent Bloomer Studio which is casting the shadow at my feet. Canon G15.

Flowers are a universal sign of hope. This Gerbera daisy is almost perfect. Canon G15, 1/250 sec @ f/7.1, ISO 400 in macro mode.

This rubber ducky grew and grew and grew and then grew some more. The Duck by artist Florentijn Hofman at Norfolk Virginia's Hague for the grand reopening of the Chrysler Museum of Art. Olympus OM-D E-M1, 1/5 sec @ f/5.0, ISO 800.

Self Discipline - NOT! My grandson Robert brings out the seven year old in both of us. There's no self discipline to be found when he visits Grandpa. iPhone 5s.

I often take a walk around downtown at lunchtime to get away from the pressures of work and think about something else. Today I walked one block to the Scope Arena Plaza to see a lunchtime performance by the amazing Cirque Mechanics on the Gantry Bike. Nothing like being a part of a vibrant downtown. Canon G15, 1/1250 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 1600. I should have knocked down the ISO setting to at least 800 if not 400 for this pic. I wanted maximum depth of field to keep things in focus and a high shutter speed to freeze the action, unfortunately the high ISO gave me a little more "grain" in the photo than I wanted. Otherwise, I was pretty happy with this shot, I hope you enjoy it.

Eating a healthy lunch at Chartreuse Bistro is a favorite of mine. Chef Chris Corrie worked up this wonderful dish: pan seared halibut, French lentils, spinach and chorizo butter sauce. It was almost too pretty to eat. What to do, take a picture of course, and then chow down. iPhone 5s using Instagram.

Activity - the treadmill at Fitness Together in Norfolk Virginia conveniently has a heart defibrillator located near by. Forty-five minutes of increased heart rate each day from activity, helps to keep the defibrillator away. Canon G15, 1/80 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 1600.

Today prompt - "Check Up", take care of yourself and make your next doctor's appointment. Well I already had one on the books, so I pulled up my trusty "Sentara My Chart" app to double check my appointment for next month. My Valentines Day orchids and my office helped to fill the frame. Canon G15, 1/250 sec @ f/2.2, ISO 200.

Me and my Mom, Jean Sullivan, celebrating Mother's Day at a family dinner tonight. iPhone 5s, Camera+ App.

Our grand-dog Digby expects a new toy every time we visit and we never disappoint. Here he is today playing with his new toy. Olympus OM-D E-M1, 1/40 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 1600. Converted to black and white using Silver Efex Pro.

Being resourceful, I put an old Hurst T-Handle from my 1973 Mustang Mach I to good use. Meet the ultimate in performance mice, the Logitech-Hurst Darkfield T-Handle. Canon 5D Mark II, 1/160 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 800 photographed in a light tent with two LED Litepanels for illumination.

Trust in your skills, learn to not rely on the "automatic" mode of your camera. Canon 5D Mark II, 1/320 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 800.

Canon 5D Mark II, 1/100 sec @ f/16.0, ISO 1600, 100mm macro lens, LED Ring Light.

My grandson Robert loves the pool table. The best part, getting the balls racked up in numerical order with the numbers all facing upward. Canon G15, 1/50 sec @ f/2.2, ISO 800.

Blades from a Gillette Fusion razor at 5x magnification. At this level of magnification you can clearly see the grinding marks from the placing of the edge on the blades. Canon, 13 seconds at f/16.0, ISO 100, MP-e 65mm macro lens, lit with a Litepanels Micro LED light, mounted on a tripod.

Behold " bookBot " at North Carolina State University's new Hunt Library. This robot-driven bookBot automated book delivery system holds up to 2 million volumes in 1/9 the space of conventional shelving, enabling the library to provide more space for learning and collaboration. The bookBot is 50 feet wide by 160 feet long by 50 feet tall and is excavated 20 feet below the first floor. You know your a geek when you drag your wife to see a high tech library on your wedding anniversary. Canon G15 1/40 sec @ f/3.5, ISO 800.

This was a tough prompt for me. I settled on this tightly cropped closeup of my right eye. Canon 5D Mark II, 1/60 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 800, 100mm macro lens and an LED Ring Light as reflected in my pupil.

Today's challenge was to photograph a flower from a different perspective. I saw these daisies in a pot outside of a bike shop in Raleigh North Carolina. Following Katrina's lead, I took my picture from below using the face cam on my iPhone. I liked the way it captured the sun's rays illuminating the daisy. iPhone 5s, Camera+ App.

May's #CY365 theme is about vision. While today's cameras are quite remarkable at capturing what we see, their "vision" is not at all equal to our own eyes. Our eyes eye can actually perceive a greater dynamic range than is ordinarily possible with a camera. If we were to consider situations where our pupil opens and closes for varying light, our eyes can see over a range of nearly 24 f-stops while 8-12 f-stops is generally all one can expect from a digital camera. This is most evident in low light photography especially when bright highlights are present, such as a stage performance. Tonight Cindy and I went to see Rob Thomas at the Durham Performing Arts Center. It was an intimate performance with just two musicians joining Rob Thomas on stage. The overall lighting was low but there was always a spotlight on the star. Even with spot metering enabled, my camera struggled to get the low light background exposed, resulting in an sharply overexposed star. Manua

I love watching the ferns come back to life in the Spring. They sprout new stems and uncurl the beautiful leaves from a tightly wound center, one of the many uplifting signs of Spring. Canon 5D Mark II, 1/160th sec @ f/11.0, ISO 1600, 100mm macro.

Creating a little "buzz" with the Lego man. iPhone, Camera+ App

The number four is represented in binary as 0100. I created a batch file to produce a " Matrix digital rain " like display on my computer screen and then captured it with my iPhone using the Camera+ app. I then applied a square crop, the Clarity effect and the So Elmo filter to get the final image. Anyone care to guess how many "fours" are in the photo?

Today's challenge was "Square", as in a square crop - a la Instagram, with a focus on the rule of thirds for composition. So a triangle inside a square crop seemed be the answer for me. iPhone 5s using Instagram with the Sutro filter applied.

Our Colorado Blue Columbine has a night visitor. The little spiders are everywhere tonight. Almost every bloom I looked at across the yard had the busy little spiders working away. Canon 5D Mark II 1/160 sec @ f/11, ISO 1600, two LED light panels.

Spring is here at last. Several weeks late this year but the strawberries are blooming, so ripe bright red berries can't be too far away. Canon G15, 1/500 sec @ f/3.2, ISO 200 in macro mode.

Nothing but sunshine in Norfolk Virginia today. This was a close as I could get to an April shower today, washing the pine pollen off my car at the automated carwash. iPhone 5s with the Camera+ app.

I often walk through the churchyard in Downtown Norfolk's St. Paul Episcopal Church. The oldest parts of the current building dates to 1737 but other church buildings occupied the site for years before. It is a peaceful oasis in an otherwise busy downtown, Canon G15, 1/30 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100.

A little "razor wire" brings a whole new meaning to barbed. I can see where it gets the moniker, "the mean stuff". Canon 7D, 1/800 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 200.

My multi-colored kite against a clear blue sky. Canon G15, 1/1250 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100.

We gathered at my Mom's today for Easter Lunch with the family. My brother Mark and his friend Vicki made these great Easter basket cupcakes for the occasion. They look almost too good to eat. iPhone 5s, Camera+ App.

Come on in to Lunar Golf for a little black light fun. We took our grandson Robert to his best friend's Jacob's birthday party today. The kids had a great time and it all looked very cool. iPhone 5s, Camera+ App.

Optimistic about Norfolk's new Slover Library opening early in 2015. This is the ceiling the restored first floor of Seaboard Building part of the library. The Seaboard Building was originally built 1899 as a Federal Courthouse and Post Office, a role it served until the 1930's. It then became Norfolk's City Hall for the next 30 years. iPhone 5s, Camera+ App.

B is for Bunny, or in this case a glow bunny. Chemical glow stick taken with an iPhone 5s using the Camera+ app.

Today I stand on one of two large bronze compass point maps of downtown Norfolk's historic sights. This one is located directly opposite of the Freemason Street Baptist Church . Gabriel's bright gold horn is atop the church's steeple which was the tallest point in the City in the later half of the 19th century. The Freemason Street Baptist Church is one of three buildings in Norfolk Virginia designed by Thomas U. Walter who was famous for his design of the dome for the U.S. Capital Building. The church was completed in May 1850 in a revival of the style known as "Perpendicular Gothic." This Victorian period revival style was characterized by its reliance on decoration and ornamentation rather than structure. iPhone 5s, Camera+ app two images combined in Photoshop Elements.

No opportunity for a siesta or a siesta photo today, so I pulled out an appropriate one from a trip to La Jolla Cove last year. This pelican was clearly enjoying the midday sun and an opportunity for a siesta. Canon 7D, 1/1250 sec @ f/10, ISO 200 telephoto zoom at 340mm. Just so you don't think I'm a 365 slacker, here's today's rainy day photo.