Nail

In woodworking and construction, a nail is a pin-shaped, sharp object of hard metal or alloy used as a fastener. Formerly wrought iron, today's nails are typically made of steel, often dipped or coated to prevent corrosion in harsh conditions or improve adhesion. Ordinary nails for wood are usually of a soft, low-carbon or "mild" steel (about 0.1% carbon, the rest iron and perhaps a trace of silicon or manganese). Nails for concrete are harder, with 0.5-0.75% carbon.

Lupins

Bluebonnet lupins, notably the Texas Bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis) are the state flower ofTexas, USA. The species are mostly herbaceous perennial plants 0.3–1.5 m (0.98–4.9 ft) tall, but some are annual plants and a few are shrubs up to 3 m (10 ft) tall—see also bush lupin—with one species (Lupinus jaimehintoniana from the Mexican state of Oaxaca) a tree up to 8 m (26 ft) high with a trunk 20 cm (7.9 in) in diameter. They have a characteristic and easily recognised leaf shape, with soft green to grey-green leaves which in many species bear silvery hairs, often densely so. The leaf blades are usually palmately divided into 5–28 leaflets or reduced to a single leaflet in a few species of the southeastern United States. The flowers are produced in dense or open whorls on an erect spike, each flower 1–2 cm long, with a typical peaflower shape with an upper 'standard' or 'banner', two lateral 'wings' and two lower petalsfused as a 'keel'. Due to the flower shape, several species are known as bluebonnetsor quaker bonnets. The fruit is a pod containing several seeds.


Why not get some for your own garden today!

Photograph Details: Nikon D40, focal length 185mm, ISO-200, exp: 1/200, f4.8

Flower

Photograph Details: Nikon D40, focal length 18mm, ISO-200, exp: 30 sec, f3.5

Static Motion

I thought I'd post this photograph, despite its flaws. It was a 13 second exposure which shows the motion of the sky, with the landscape in the foreground being still. I think it has a quiet calm about it.

Buy the Moon film (2009) on DVD and Blu-Ray now:

Photograph Details: Nikon D40, focal length 18mm, ISO-200, exp: 30 sec, f3.5

Light Pollution

Photograph Details: Nikon D7000, focal length 18mm, ISO-100, exp: 30 sec, f7.1

Shot with my new baby, the Nikon D7000. I was really hoping to get some images of the Milky Way this evening now I've had a few hours to play with the D7000, but this was all I could get...