Wheel Bug

The wheel bug is a most fascinating insect.  I just recently learned of this insect and had a chance to photograph one last week.  The bug is named for the wheel-like appendage on its back.  It is a member of the assassin bug family and as such eats other insects.  Note the piercing proboscis that delivers a venom to its victims.  Its bite is said to be more painful to humans than a bee sting.  It is considered to be a good bug to have in a garden in that it eats other insect pests.   

 

 

 

Wheel Bug

Identical Twins

Earlier this year I photographed a set of presumably identical twins (see blog post of March 29, 2013), starting what has sort of become the year of identical twin photography for me.  During the summer my wife and I got together with our son Ken and his family in Colorado.  Ken’s wife Roxie is an identical twin and her twin sister, Risa, lives in Colorado.  So while we were all there I took some pictures of the two of them.  Last week while in Virginia, our daughter coordinated a photo shoot with friends of hers that are also identical twins (Annie and Mesia). 

Risa & Roxie

 

Annie & Mesia

Hummingbirds

Using two flash units dialed down to 1/64^th power (to shorten the exposure time to around 1/50,000^th of a second) I was able to freeze the motion of these hummingbirds that I photographed on a recent trip to Utah.  The photos show a Rufous Hummingbird and a Black-chinned Hummingbird.  More details on how to photograph hummingbirds can be found in the bird photography book that I authored for National Geographic (National Geographic Photographing Birds).  

Portraits

Recently, I have made portraits of a number of delightful people.  These include the Bethany and Kari (twins), Mirko (Ukrainian), Keith, and darling little Annalisa. 

Dominican Republic, Guatemala, & Honduras

A trip to the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Honduras provided plenty of picture-taking opportunities.  In the DR, my wife and I stayed with my sister who is currently living in Santo Domingo.  We visited Lake Enriquillo, where I photographed crocodiles and iguanas.  On the other side of the island we went to Samaná to watch whales in an area where the whole North Atlantic population of Humpbacked Whales winters. 

On the second portion of our trip, we visited Mayan ruins in Tikal, Guatemala and Copan, Honduras.  We spent additional time in Guatemala’s old city of Antigua and on Lake Atitlán (which some scholars believe could be the Waters of Mormon).  Picture-taking opportunities included significant cultural spots, interesting flora and fauna, and the colorful people. 

Here is a sampling of photos from our trip.

Dominican Republic

Crocodile

Ricord Iguana

Humpbacked Whale

Coatimundi

Spider Monkey

Tikal

Copan

Guatemalan

Lake Atitlán

Helping Reach The Children Charity

I have teamed up with Reach the Children to help bring much-needed health and other humanitarian services to needy people in Africa.  The charity’s current programs include education (general skills, AIDS prevention, and health), micro-enterprise, orphan care, water & agriculture, and community empowerment initiatives to help people help themselves (http://reachthechildren.org/).  Through the end of the year, all of the proceeds from on-line Amazon sales of my book I Love Rochester New York book will go directly to the charity.  And a full 100% of donations to this Rochester-based charity go straight to the organization’s programs in 13 African countries.  Making a donation will never be sweeter.  Get some books for holiday gifts and help make life better for others.

To order the book go to: http://www.amazon.com/I-Love-Rochester-New-York/dp/0615505139/ref=?ie=UTF8&m=A2FVSQDGQBEV04.

Stony Brook State Park

Fall in New York is a delightful time as trees take on their often-brilliant red and yellow hues.  This year my wife and I returned to Stony Brook State Park, one of our favorite Fall destinations in New York State.  Again, we were not disappointed.

Stars and Stripes

I have taken note of how many products are either designed with a stars and stripes motif or are packaged with such a patriotic theme.  So I have begged, borrowed, and scrounged a variety of such products for a composite picture of some such items.  In the process I’ve learned that just because a product projects itself as an American product doesn’t mean that it is.  While I didn’t check the origin of every product in this picture, I can say that at least one was made in China and one came from Sweden.  Can you guess which ones these are?

Wedding Book

After seeing the book I created on Rochester, the bride whose wedding I recently photographed decided that she would like a book made of her wedding photos.  Using a different approach, I made one for her using one of the many on-line book publishing resources.  After considering both cost and quality, I settled on Shutterfly.com as a reasonably-priced alternative with very good quality.  By modifying pre-developed templates, I was able to build a very nice book with a variety of pages and embellishments.  I used a nice photo of the couple riding together in a carriage for the front of the hard cover. 

Wedding

On the banks of the Genesee River behind Staybridge Suites, Michael and Yaneek exchanged vows on Aug. 4.  A horse-drawn carriage added to the festivities.  I photographed their happy day.

Fourth of July

My wife and I had a very enjoyable Fourth of July vacation in the Wash. DC area.  We toured the White House, the U.S. Capitol Building, and watched fireworks from near the Iwo Jima monument.  Attached is a picture of the fireworks.

DanceWorks Photos

Just over a week ago, I took the annual photographs for the DanceWorks studio.  I took approximately 500 photographs of over 50 students.  Some students were in more than one class and therefore had multiple costumes.  From the resulting pictures I made up different packages according to each family’s order.  A sampling of photos from the photo shoot are attached below.  

More Book Publicity

Recently, I Love Rochester New York has received publicity in several venues.  The Greece Post published an article, which was also picked up by some of the other community newspapers. 

Lani Packard wrote a nice piece for examiner.com.  You can see her article at:  http://www.examiner.com/books-in-rochester/rulon-simmons-tells-the-story-of-rochester-ny.

The Democrat and Chronicle also ran an article about the book last Sunday under the section Spotlight on Authors.

Interview on WHAM

Last Friday, Bob Lonsberry was kind enough to give me about 10 minutes of time on his radio show to tell about my I Love Rochester New York book.  He had some nice words to say about the book.

Below is a photo of the University of Rochester that appears in the book.

Rochester Book now available on Amazon.com

I Love Rochester New York is now available on Amazon.com.  The book can also be obtained from local stores where books are sold, museum gift shops, or directly from me by e-mailing rulon.simmons@gmail.com. 

Below is a photo from the book depicting the 1991 ice storm.

USA Trip

A week ago Rebecca and I returned from a 5 ½ week, 10,000-mile tour of the United States.  We traveled through 25 different states, visiting family and of course taking pictures.  I targeted specific locations where I wanted to get photographs for a new book on the United States.  With this trip, I have been to every state in the Union at least twice—most of them many, many times.  I succeeded in getting the desired pictures.  One of our favorites is from the Seed Saver Exchange in Decorah, Iowa, the Golden Polish Chicken (shown below). 

New E-mail Address

My new e-mail address is rulon.simmons@gmail.com. 

Here is another picture from my book I Love Rochester New York.

Book Earns Over $600 for Charity

As an ITT Geospatial Systems’ fundraiser for the company’s ITT Watermark charity, sales of my book, I Love Rochester New York, earned over $600 ($5 for each book sold).  The amount is actually being doubled to $1200+ through a matching gift.  The charity helps provide clean water to poor areas of the world.  Overall sales of the book so far are in the neighborhood of 1000 copies.  The picture above is one from the book.

Book Printed

My book, I Love Rochester, NY, was printed on Tuesday at Mercury Print Productions, Inc. in Rochester, NY.  Two four-color Heidelberg off-set printing presses were used to produce the book.  It will take about another week for binding before the books are delivered.  I was impressed with the quality control process, where color, registration, density, etc. were continually monitored (on about one of every 100 sheets) as the presses were running.   One photo below shows a sheet being pulled for evaluation.  I am evaluating the cover pages in the other photo.   

Air Show

Last Saturday, I photographed a friend’s family reunion.  This person happens to live right at the end of a Rochester International Airport runway.  The reunion was scheduled to overlap with the ESL Air Show.  So I got to photograph the family, participate in a picnic, and enjoy the air show.  One of my favorite pictures shows two of the Navy’s Blue Angel jets, flying in mirror image (one right-side-up and the other up-side-down).  Photographic settings for these pictures were approximately ISO 800, f/8, and 1/4000 sec.