Smithers-Greene

Lunch @ Chicago Hamburger Co.

Originally uploaded by danielgreene.

Today on the way to work, I finally tried a restaurant I’ve driven by over a thousand times: Chicago Hamburger Co. It has always looked a bit seedy to me, like the lunchtime equivalent of a “greasy spoon.” But, you know what? It was great. It was bustling and very popular. I had the Western Burger, a hot, juicy charbroiled 1/3 pound burger with grilled onions, BBQ sauce, crispy bacon and crunchy fried onion rings. I also had a side of crispy golden french fries. I was so hungry, and enjoyed my meal so much (AND was in a hurry to get to work on time) that I forgot to take a photo of my food. I hope I did a good enough job of painting a mouth-watering picture with my words. Oh, and don’t let the one space in front fool you: when I first drove past, every space in the lot was taken, and I had to park around the corner in front of someone’s house. Oh, and would it be too naughty to mention that there was no shortage of sexy working-class men eating lunch there, too?

First Ocotillo Leaves (a closer view), originally uploaded by danielgreene.

Here is the very first sprig of leaves on our front yard ocotillo this year. Andy pointed it out to me at dusk last night when he was watering the yard. I took one look and ran inside to get my camera, macro lens, and tripod. This is the first time we’ve had a sprig of leaves grow off the tip of one of the stalks, so I think this means we will have a flowering ocotillo this spring! I can’t wait to post photos of our first red-orange blooms.

This is a follow-up to the last of the ocotillo leaves, which I posted in November. Now in March, I have the joy of posting “the first of the ocotillo leaves”! It’s more than that, though: it’s the first time we’ve had leaves come out of the very top of a stalk. I believe this means we will have our first orange blooms this year.

Tech notes: I took this at dusk, while rapidly losing daylight. I could never have done this without a tripod, for two reasons: 1) the plane of focus on a macro lens with a wide-open aperture is very small, so the slightest movement would have thrown the subject completely out of focus; 2) I could never have held still long enough to get the amount of light I needed (shutter) for a decent exposure. I cropped this only slightly for a balanced composition; I was already photographing at about a 1:1 magnification ratio. About the aperture: I know I could have gotten greater depth of field with a smaller aperture, but I was afraid I might lose the shot if I used too long an exposure and the wind blew the stalk, causing the subject to blur.