Woman appearing to be praying before the Richard Serra sculpture in the garden at MOMA. Or she could be – in fact is – looking at the shot she had just taken with her camera. The surface of the huge iron sculpture is pitted with rust.

There are more of his sculptures in the building and some are so big I had to ask how they got them in there. The answer is that the wall rolls back and a crane hoists them in.

MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, is a beautiful building and it that grabs the light streaming in and diffuses it wonderfully.

My wife found this little guy in a pail in our third floor apartment in Jerusalem. He is an Mediterranean Gecko. Geckos (I have to ask myself whether I am completely sure of the plural of Gecko) have the ability to climb surfaces without the use of any adhesive secretions or liquids on their feet. Rather they use the elecromagnetic attraction that exists between molecules.

I took this at 1/50second at f5.6 at ISO 800 with a Nikon D40 with the 18-55mm kit lens, held with my free hand while the gecko showed me his better side. The make-up artist was away, so we had to shoot without makeup.

Technically, it illustrates that at very short subject-to-camera distances, the depth of field is very small. The gecko’s face is probably in focus. It is hard to tell because he was moving and any lack of sharpness may be doing to subject movement, but he is not far off being as sharp as my knuckle. But everything back from that is falling rapidly out of focus.

If I has shot him with a long lens at a greater distance but with the same focal length, more of him/her would be in focus.

No geckos were harmed in the making of this shot.

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And here is a thumnail of a larger version of the shot, Click it to see the larger view.

The level of detail in the camera held in the woman’s hand is amazing. This is especially so considering the shot was taken hand-held in poor lighting.

D200 with 12-24mm lens 1/20 second at f4. 800 ISO.

Crop showing the camera in the woman’s hands.