The Reflection Dimension

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If you want to play The Twilight Zone opening music go ahead;-)

It all started out last evening with me wanting to take a cool picture of a beautiful snowflake ornament that my girlfriend Faith sent me for Christmas.  She loves to work with beads, and I have several lovely bracelets and ornaments that she's sent over the years.

This ornament has gorgeous cobalt blue and crimson red beads in it as well as some iridescent pearl ones.  She knows how I love blues and reds.  Somehow with me being so artistic I didn't get a shot of the whole ornament so insert pause here as I go to take one:-)

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I lit a few candles and decided to try to get my mood lights hanging off the entertainment center into the background.  Lights in my house aren't just for Christmas:-)  I didn't end up with any shots of the ornament that I really liked.  This was as close as I came:

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Candlelight was not enough to light the ornament.  I'd be better off trying to catch sunlight and bokeh out the kitchen window where it hangs now.

Pretty soon I was focusing on the candles themselves, and I started taking shots like this:

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and this:

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Note:  I was using my Canon Powershot S3 IS for these and not the new SX40 HS. I tried the SX40 HS too, and it does not have Super Macro Mode.  You also have to be farther away from subjects to begin with to get good focus (S3 is about 3'), so I wasn't getting the results that I wanted.  That's OK, around the house I can grab whatever camera suits me, right?

When I noticed that one of the flat areas on the candle holder took on a sharp looking alternate dimension feel to it (to me), I started taking lots of pics of it trying to get the bokeh, angle, and of course reflection just right.  That's the shot you get for my daily.  I was just really drawn to the pattern in that one flat panel thinking that maybe it was a portal into some alternate universe filled with life and color.  And, yes, Star Trek TNG did happen to be on for the kids while I was taking these!  Go figure:-)  We are up to season 7 now in our quest to watch the entire set of TNG episodes.  Which Star Trek series will we pick next?  Joey thinks DS9 and I'm thinking more like Voyager or Enterprise:-)  DS9 is such a guy thing.  Well, I digress now.  Let me know what you think of this candle study in red.

Today I start back to work trying to work half days.  I hope that goes OK.  I took the kids to Wal-Mart to get some groceries and have some fun yesterday and did pretty good.  I stopped to sit down and rest a few times during our walk of the entire store, and that's not something I ever thought I'd need to do.  But, it let us enjoy our shopping trip.  I keep telling myself these things are temporary and am glad that we are able to do as much as we are so far.