Day 141: Banana Bread and Milk

Pretty self-explanatory, isn’t it? I made this bread last night and it served as a nice morning snack.

35mm f/8     ISO-100     1/160 second     single strobe w/ umbrella

Day 140: 120,313 Paper Cranes

There is an exhibit on campus right now called the Paper Crane Peace Memorial Project.

55mm f/5.6     ISO-1600     1/15 second

“120,313 origami cranes–each folded in honor of a Japanese American who was incarcerated in an internment camp during World War II, 1942-1945.”

55mm f/5.6     ISO-1600     1/20 second

23mm f/3.5     ISO-1600     1/250 second

The framed text is copied below:

Sadako: A Young Girl’s Death

Sadako Sasaki was two years old at the time of the bombing. She grew up strong and healthy, but ten years later (1955), when she was in the sixth grade in elementary school, she was hospitalized with leukemia.

Sadako believed that folding 1,000 paper cranes would cure her illness. While in the hospital she folded cranes whenever she could, but her hope was in vain. She died after fighting the disease for eight months. Her death reveals the great horror of radiation–its ability to injure and kill many ears after exposure.

Sadako’s classmates were terribly shocked by her death and the story of her paper cranes, so they started collecting money to build a monument to comfort her soul and the souls of the many children killed by the A-bomb and to express their hope that there would never be another war. This campaign spread to schools around the nation and around the world. In 1958, the Children’s Peace Monument was erected in Hiroshima Peace Memorial park, depicting a young girl lifting a paper crane high over her head.

Beneath the monument, carved in black granite, are the words, ‘This is our cry. This is our prayer. For peace in this world.” The area around this statue is always full of paper cranes sent by peace-loving people throughout the world.

34mm f/4.5     ISO-1600     1/30 second

Day 139: Keys

I was late shooting this one… it was taken well after midnight, but I had to shoot something before going to bed. I set up a single light w/ umbrella, held out my keys and took this:

50mm f/8     ISO-100     1/160 second

Day 138: Tides of Anatolia

On their second performance (see Day 137), I filmed from the balcony for their archival purposes. I realized part of the way through the show that I could get a few pictures with my 50mm f/1.8 (a sharper lens than my zoom much of the time) to help compensate for the poor images I got the night before. It also provided a different point of view, shooting from above where I could see all the dance formations. The following picture is during their Black Sea Turkish dance, ‘Tides of Anatolia’ (this is also the image straight out of the camera)…

50mm f/4     ISO-1600     1/160 second

Day 137: Mandolin

I shot the the Brigham Young University International Folk Dance Ensemble performance at the Covey Center last weekend. Unfortunately, my zoom lens gives poorer results than I would like, so almost 40% of the pictures I took weren’t usable just because of technical problems (it focuses very slowly when you’re trying to lock on to moving dancers). I can’t wait until I can afford an L zoom… I’m saving up for the 70-200 f/2.8L USM. I’m tempted to just get the f/4 version now (half the price), but I know I need the extra stop for the kinds of things I shoot. This wasn’t a paying gig or I would have rented the necessary lens (I shoot for them because I love folk dance and have a lot of close connections to the group… it’s like shooting for a family birthday party or something). Someday…

Anyway, this is one of my favorite shots that did turn out (taken during a band number):

300mm f/5.6     ISO-1600     1/100 second

Day 136: Light

Thursday Theme: Light

168mm f/14     ISO-100     1/1600 second

I decided to go with something abstract. I was playing with the droplets of condensation on my window when I threw it all out of focus… and I liked it!

Manual: 152, Setting Custom Functions

Images: More from Jasmine Star

Day 135: Flag

Continuing my outdoor theme…

18mm f/8     ISO-400     1/2000 second

Manual: 147, Transferring Images to a Personal Computer

Images: Fashion photographer Jason Christopher