Mostly trivia here, with a closing bit of amusement, but at least I’m posting some more. Now, if we could only get it to be something good…
Despite the up-and-down nature of the temperatures, actually requiring us to move a few things back into the greenhouse, many of the plants around Walkabout Estates are kicking it this spring. The largest butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii,)
I actually have some other things that I was about to post, but while down distributing critter corn I noticed the moon was looking pleasant, and quickly got set up before it disappeared behind the house. So it’s bumping the other things temporarily.
Ehhhh, not bad, and at 7.4% illuminated, hardly the smallest crescent that I’ve captured, but we can do better.
This is
Learning how to manage light is an important part of getting the images that you want, and improving those subtle little nuances that can affect your images negatively. Yes, you can spend beaucoup bucks on lighting units and modifiers and reflectors and diffusers, and these will certainly make your life easier if you’re doing portraiture in a studio – but not so much
For the past two weeks, the desire and motivation to post simply hasn’t been there, nor have I even been getting many pics, which is weird, because this is the best season to be pursuing such things. Not only that, but I blew off World Migratory Bird Day (last Saturday) and Endangered Species Day (yesterday.) Part of this is, I’ve been a little under the weather, part is, I’ve
From the title, some people may think I mean going ‘off-grid,’ disconnecting from social media and internet and so on, or even disconnecting from a regular job or routine pursuits. But I mean something much subtler instead, and that is, thinking in terms of the strictly visual and not the ‘object’ and ‘location’ aspects in our heads.
To illustrate
Looked out the garage window at the driveway yesterday afternoon and saw an odd shape that, as I watched, moved a little. I immediately hit the button to open the overhead door and scampered out to snag it, confirming my suspicions as I did so. With the exception of a glimpse of one out on Topsail Island, this is the first I’ve ever seen, certainly the first I’ve done pics of and handled
If you’re pursuing anything even remotely ‘serious,’ much less as a profession or sideline income, some (a lot) of what you do won’t be the actual pursuit, but all of the supporting tasks that are required, and for photographers, one of those is ensuring that you always have backups of your work. Hard drives fail, sometimes without warning, and of course
So, checking out the ISS Transit Finder site, I had warning that early this morning (like, 4:21 AM) the Chinese Tiangong space station would transit (pass in front of) the nearly-full moon. The weather looked like it was going to be right, so I set my alarm and made sure I was up and ready, camera focus locked in, exposure
Yep, that would be April, ducking out too quickly hoping to escape the end-of-month abstract toll. And while I was going to do some pun about the other meaning of “toll” since I was completely unprepared less than two hours ago, I don’t think our features this month are all that bad, really. A little too much the same, perhaps, but passable, especially for all having been shot
… it was just a matter of time.
The first reappearance (after a long hiatus) of the wood ducklings (Aix sponsa) came just as we were running out the door, because of course. Then the barest of video clips that evening, before it rained for about 16 hours. Once it cleared, however, things picked up, and by this past Monday, we were seeing them just about every hour, cycling through.
A little
