Archive for the ‘blogging’ Category

Those of you who are more knowledgeable than I can help me identify these flowers. The closest I can come are Mayhaws or wild plums of some kind. They were blooming in Jackson in March. I loved the way they cluster. Each flower has five petals, which would make it fit into the Fibonacci book, but I had some others that I thought were stronger photographs of 5-petal flowers for Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature.

The book still hasn’t arrived. I am about to break down and ask my editor when. When? When? The romantic in me wants to wait and have its appearance be a surprise. I wish I were more patient.

This seems crazy when I look at it now, but for some reason last year, I took pictures of pine cones and pineapples on a red, white, and blue tablecloth. The photographs in the book show the pinecone in the grass and the pineapple against a black cloth.

My copy of Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature did not come today, but I got other good news. The Mississippi Arts Commission funded my minigrant application for marketing materials for Growing Patterns. Thank you, Mississippi Arts Commission! Your funding will help me publicize my book and turn a whole new generation of readers on to the fascinating ways math and nature are intertwined.

Sigh. Still no copy of Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature. This dandelion caught our eye on one of our first forays into the yard and neighborhood for Fibonacci examples. We didn’t find the dandelion on any of the reference lists for spirals, but it is in the same family as the sunflower, which is on all the lists and is in the book.

Though this is not sharp, I love the angle. See the curly shapes.

I guess it is no surprise that Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature did not arrive today — given that it is Sunday. But I am continuing the countdown, nonetheless. Here is another photograph we took because of the beautiful spiral, but it is not clear to me how or if this is a sprial that relates to Fibonacci numbers. I do like red.

I have been adding resources to my website that relate to Fibonacci numbers. If you go to the Books section and select Growing Patterns, you will have the option of clicking on a menu for Fibonacci links. It includes 10 links that I found while researching my book. Some include classroom activities.

These leaves were too pretty to pass up. I collected them while on my morning walk. I put in my Tamron macro lens and placed the leaves on a chunk of a tree. I was having trouble with my auto focus and I’m not sure why. I had hoped for crisper images. I’ll be checking the fine print on these and dipping back into my camera’s manual for a focus tutorial. In the meantime, I’ll just enjoy the shapes, colors, and textures.


I noticed the pink oxalis so I decided to take a shot of the flowers. When I got down there, I noticed the wayward dandelion puff.

Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature didn’t arrive today. Here is a pansy I took in March of 2008. It has five petals. I liked the colors here, but I decided I wanted for the book a five-petal flower with petals of all the same color. On the same photo shoot, I took pictures of a flowering quince and a vinca (both five petal flowers) that did make it into the book.

We have friends down the block with lots of these saw palmettos in their backyard. They also have a trampoline that I used to spend 20 minutes a day bouncing on. I loved looking at the saw palmettos and when I was obsessed with counting everything I saw outside, I noticed that they seemed to have eight fronds coming from the base of the fan. I got very excited and took a bunch of photos, thinking they might fit into the Fibonacci book. But, as I counted more and more, I realized the numbers weren’t consistent. It got dropped from the book, but I still like to look at saw palmettos.

I am always trying to improve my system. I have known since the beginning of blogging that I should be embedding watermarks into my photographs. But there’s often a gap between what I know I should do and what I have the time, energy, and knowledge to do. In this case, the process is fairly simple — once I got around to it.

In Lightroom, which is the program I use to process and catalog my photographs, there is a function for exporting photographs. I have to run the export function in order to transform my photographs from raw images into jpgs for posting on the blog. In the right hand column, in the metadata menu, there is a copyright option. I typed Sarah & Richard Campbell in that field. Then, with the photo selected, I clicked on the file menu and clicked on export. In the export dialogue box I checked a box next to the Add Copyright Watermark field. Apparently, it is not possible with Lightroom to customize the placement of the watermark. If you know different, please comment and let me know. How do you other bloggers handle watermarking?

Continuing with the website updates, you can look at the photographs from our recent Tuscon trip in the gallery section of my website.

This may be the last of the Tuscon photographs. Richard converted it to black and white. We have been updating and upgrading around here. You may notice some new things on the blog. To the left I have added more links to the blogs of fellow Southern Breezers. If I have left someone out, please comment to let me know. I am still building my list. Richard converted the Tuscon sunrise photograph to a wallpaper file. It is very nice!

I now work with a webcam attached to my monitor. It’s a little disconcerting to have this eyeball like thing staring back at me. I am practicing using Skype (which I hope to use to do virtual school visits soon) by calling Richard’s parents in England. Unfortunately, right now the news from there involves major surgery and lots of anxiety about its outcome. But it is nice to be able to see Silvana and Tony while we talk. They enjoy seeing their grandsons.

We got some nice quiet rain today and we have been having a nice day in our basement lair. Two of the boys are helping blog/website maintenance. Richard and D are playing ping-pong. It is a good start to a much-needed week off.

At the recent Writing and Illustrating for Kids (WIK) conference, I asked other writers with blogs to find me and give me a card. I wanted to collect posts about the conference in one place. In the end, not all of the writers/bloggers put up posts about the conference, but I thought I’d put together a post showing the diversity of blogs in our region. If you look to the left on my blog, you’ll see that I already list other Southern Breezers in my blog roll. When I get more time at home, I’ll add these new ones to that list. In the meantime, feel free to explore:

Pat Brannon, a writer in Amory, Mississippi, blogs here.

Rita Farin, a creativity coach, blogs here.

Heather Kolich, an author and photographer in Cumming, Georgia, blogs here.

Deborah Kauffman Miller, an author in Decatur, Georgia, blogs here.

Melissa Thomas-Dubois and Dana Konop, two authors in the Atlanta-area, blog at Writing Snacks.com.

Toni Rhodes, an author and iPhone app publisher in Stone Mountain, Georgia, blogs at RhodeSoft.

Kathleen Thompson, an author in Birmingham, Alabama, blogs here.

Al Waller blogs at Varmint Bytes.

If you are a writer in Alabama, Mississippi, or Georgia, and you write a blog, please post a comment letting me know about you.