Fun with the Olloclip

I recently acquired an Olloclip.  This is a nifty little iPhone attachment that contains 3 different camera lens - fisheye, macro, and wide angle.  The macro is limited...but insane; you have to get uber close (within an inch for it to focus on your subject).  The fisheye is fun.  I haven't really found a whole lot of use for the wide-angle, but I'm sure it'll be useful.

I first tried it out at John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez.

Here are a couple from that day, but you can check out more of them at this link.

Yesterday, I played around with the Olloclip some more; this time at the Clayton Valley Pumpkin Farm.  They were busy setting up for Christmas season.  Lincoln and Chester (the resident dog) wandered around...finding things to pee on...while I searched for a subject to shoot.  They have an impressive patch of sunflowers which were basically done blooming and I was going to continue walking by but then I noticed a bee working on one of the flowers and just like that I settled on my photo subject.  The combination of the moving bees and the swaying plants made getting a clear macro shot nearly impossible.  To get the 15 photos I posted, I probably took near 50 photos.

Here's a sample, but check out all of them at this link.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the impressive compact camera on the iPhone.  I continue to be surprised by the quality and detail I can capture with this camera.

Olloclip's website

Dirty and Loving It!

Weekly "rescue runs" to overcrowded Central Valley shelters are definitely a highlight of my job.

Inevitably, the days are long (6+ hours of driving), hot (summers in the Central Valley are ridiculous...how do people live there), and dirty (see photo of my dirt covered hand). But we are changing lives! Not just the lives of the 20 or so dogs that we rescue, but the lives of the guardians that eventually adopt the rescued dogs and give them a "forever home".

Read more about ARF, their mission, and their foster and volunteer programs here: www.arf.net