2006 Encyclopedia Tempranillo

Here's my second look at the new Coppola Encyclopedia wines in the odd-shaped bottles. The 2006 Encyclopedia Tempranillo is from Yecla in Southeast Spain. $14, 13.5% abv. The nose has a little stewed fruit with a touch of herbs, medium tannins, and a black cherry finish. It's a solid but uncomplicated wine that's food friendly in the grand tradition of Spanish wines. The tannins are probably a little strong for Thanksgiving but keep this in mind for stews and braises over the winter months. I thought it was a great burger wine.

The screwcap is large, 1⅝" (42mm) across, ample room for printing a quote. (The silver swirl destroys the contrast necessary for legibility! Elementary design concepts!) The bottles are designed to be reused as decanters or containers for olive oil, vinegar, etc.

I suppose I should take this opportunity to mention that I've got a new camera. For the past three years almost every photo on this blog has been taken with a Fujifilm FinePix s5000. The Fuji was a great camera and I was able to coax some amazing shots out of it, but for a bridge camera (between standard point-and-shoot and DSLR), I started running into limitations with it regarding low light conditions and chromatic aberration when using macro lenses. I recently upgraded to a Nikon D40, a true digital SLR with the ability to swap out lenses.

I normally don't repeat photos, but take this recent shot. Very low light conditions, yet I shot it without a tripod and without any special setup. I just put the camera in full auto and snapped a picture. Due to the lenses, with a DSLR it's very easy to get that low depth of field look. Without going into all the math, it just means that what you want people to pay attention to is in focus and everything else in front of or behind the object is blurry. In the top photo of the wine bottle, the screwcap is in sharp focus but you can barely discern any details about the background other than colors. (This method can be increased or decreased through various methods, but I'm not teaching a photography class here.)

Will the Nikon D40 give you outstanding photos? Only if you take a lot of terrible ones first. Like anything else, practice makes perfect. But out of the different cameras I've used throughout the years, this is simultaneously the easiest and, if I want to explore all the different settings and adjustments, the most powerful camera I've owned. If you're interested, check out the review linked above, and if you decide to get one for Christmas, you can purchase it from my Amazon store, where you'll find customer reviews, accessories, and other detailed information.

Bee Movie

Long before the Seinfeld animated film of the same name, I shot a short video of a bee grooming itself. In 2004 I spent a lot of time with microphotography and while taking some really detailed closeup photos of this honeybee, I switched to video mode and managed to capture the bee sticking out its tongue and grooming itself like a cat.

Enjoy!

Blog Challenge

Two weekends ago I got to meet the fine folks from Edible Therapy
and Squirrel Squad Squeeks. Papa Squirrel decided to tag me for one of those little blog challenges that go around the web now and then. I'll happily answer the tag, but I'll pass on forwarding it along.

The challenge: seven random facts about yourself. Here goes...

• The only piece of original art I have hanging in my house is shown at right. Untitled by Vicki Loines, ca. 1999, 18"x24". Chalk on some sort of textured black artboard. I used to work with Vicki, and she gave it to me as a gift. Ever since, it has terrified guests. Despite the dark theme, she was was one of the happiest and friendliest people I've ever known, and it actually cheers me up.
  
• My first experience with food-based gardening was picking strawberries at my grandparents' house in Nashville back when I was six. Needless to say, I had strawberry juice running down my chin the whole time.
  
• I'm fond of photography, but primarily of non-human subjects. Reference the photo at right of a honeybee perched on a clover blossom. Granted, I had to pop him in the fridge to calm him down before the shoot, but he was released unharmed into my backyard.
  
• I've been to 29 states in the US and to Europe twice, but I've never been to New York or Los Angeles. I'll get around to them eventually.
  
• I also love astronomy, and have my own little reflecting telescope. The attached image wasn't taken through the scope, but rather using my beloved Fujifilm S5000 digital camera. This picture of the moon was taken on January 27, 2004.
  
• I'm a certified operator of the HP Indigo 5000 digital press, even though I haven't touched one in quite a while.
  
• At the age of 8, I sat on Santa's lap for the last time when I froze up and asked for a smoke detector because it seemed like a sensible request. At the age of 17, I wore a Santa suit for the first time as part of a charity function at a nursing home. I've worn it a few times since.
  

Stargazing

Wednesday night, I stayed up to watch the Geminid meteor shower. We had a good cold crisp and clear sky, but unfortunately, the meteor activity visible from Memphis was not spectacular. I spent a couple of hours in the backyard with a few mugs of hot tea and saw maybe a dozen meteors. I wasn't able to get any photos of shooting stars, but while I was out there I caught a couple of famous constellations (as always, click for full-size):

Pleiades

Orion

And a couple of years ago, I shot this photo of the moon: