Grey and green

May 17, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

So let’s see, what to tackle with the first of the beach posts? How about a familiar subject?

We’ll start with sunrise on the first two days. We’d driven out Saturday and met friends out there, so it turned out to be a late night, and I did a little poking around in the dark to see if the marsh crabs were active (they were, a little) but without any intention of doing photography or video. So Sunday morning, the first opportunity that I had, I didn’t even set the alarm, but woke up near that time anyway. Didn’t matter; the skies were near overcast, and our friends, always early risers, said that the sun appeared only briefly before ascending into clouds. Monday morning, however, I set the alarm and was out on the beach ready, to have even worse conditions.

And that pretty much spelled the tone for the day, remaining semi-overcast and not providing a lot of opportunities. That light quality, however, can be good for colorful subjects, and I took momentary advantage of this when passing some wildflowers near the sound.

But to get back on topic, we soon realized that a green heron (Butorides virescens) was hanging around, quite close. It was exceptionally shy and provided few opportunities for detail shots, and from the frequency of appearance and the calls that I kept hearing, I was suspicious that it had a nest in the thicket right off the back of the property, bordering the sound. This was a stretch only a few meters wide before giving way to the marsh grasses in peat too waterlogged to walk in, and yet it was impenetrably thick, offering no visibility or entry to anything larger than a vole. I tried, several times, to determine if there really was a nest in there, but achieved nothing. Seeing it from the sound side with the long lens might have helped, but there was no way I was bringing the regular camera equipment along in a kayak, and the waterproof Ricoh didn’t have the focal length. Eventually, I got lucky enough to see the heron perch on the railing when I was just out of sight behind the marsh reeds, and could slowly lean out and snag a few frames.

One of our friends got a bit luckier though, catching it when it perched on a tree in the thicket while she was on the deck, and snagged a much nicer portrait while I was pretty much exactly where the heron above was, no camera in hand.

With as much luck as I’ve had with the local green herons this spring, this one was much more in line with my previous experiences, remaining distant and aloof. Or maybe I shouldn’t say “one,” because another evening it became evident there were more, and I suspect we were watching courting behavior. On the neighboring dock, we could see two flitting around in close proximity, taking perches only a few meters apart, soon joined by a third. All three did not deign to get into the frame at the same time, though.

They were joined by a pair of willets, I think only because it was near dusk and the active time for birds before settling in for the night. Both species are pretty much impossible to determine the gender of on sight, but the two herons on the dock soon revealed themselves to be males, since a territorial dispute followed quickly.

The one on the left fluffed out his feathers, dropped his beak to his chest, and trotted purposefully towards the other, who quickly chose not to dispute the claim and flew off a short distance, seen here at the edge of the dock if you look closely – distance, angle, and lighting all could have been better of course. I never understand why so many species choose to do their distinctive behavior where it’s hard to see them. The dominant male soon returned his attentions to what must have been the female, but as you can see, the marsh reeds were obscuring a lot and we never saw if they consummated this courtship or not. And I only say this because we were more successful, later on with another species, but I’m keeping my promise to do shorter posts this time, so we’ll wrap up with a brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) that cooperatively did a closer pass over the sound while the light was still decent. This remained the best photo of pelicans that I got for the trip, though.

More to come – there’s only, oh, forty-some photos in the folder awaiting their turns…

Hmmm, what to do?

May 17, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

Friday, May 21st is Endangered Species Day, which to a wildlife photographer almost amounts to a challenge, and generally, a pretty tough one: get photos of at least one endangered species. Of course, they’re endangered because there aren’t many of them, and thus they’re hard to find, so it usually takes a special effort to locate any, a targeted expedition of sorts. Which leads to the issue that anyone doing so may be disturbing their habitat, and thus increasing the risk, however small the impact from one snooping person might be. It’s unlikely to get as out of hand as, like, people wanting to go to the Galápagos, but the ethical question remains over whether the attempt should even be made, and benefits outweighing risks and all that.

On top of that, there’s the species that can be found in any given area, and for us here, it’s a short list: a couple of birds, several fish, three plants, and a handful of mussels. Oh, and a snake, the southern hognose (Heterodon simus,) one of the few that I’ve actually photographed before and one of the potentials on my list, even though technically it’s an ‘At Risk Species’ and not Endangered. I know exactly where I found that one, but I have suspicions that it’s not still hanging around at that road crossing after two decades…

Mussels are not even in consideration, mostly because I can’t tell one from another, and the fish are close behind, partially because I’d have to capture one to get any kind of decent images from an aquarium. But something like the Neuse river waterdog (Necturus lewisi) remains a possibility, being large enough, distinctive enough, and semi-close enough (maybe) to warrant the attempt. Perhaps the plant species, provided I can get enough details to distinguish them from their non-endangered brethren.

Bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) are no longer on the Endangered list, but remain critically protected, so at least we may see more pics of them (including real soon.) The red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis) would be a challenge, given the habitat, but perhaps easier than the waterdog.

But ignoring the photography angle, which really involves more ego-gratification than anything else, there’s the chief intention of the holiday, which is to raise awareness of the species and why they’re endangered, primarily habitat loss. Development, repurposing, and pollution are the leading culprits, all fostered by humans, the most impactful species that has likely ever walked the planet. Most of us arrived in this country (ancestrally, anyway) with the idea that it was all free land, do as we will, and eventually found that this attitude was detrimental in a large variety of ways, and we’re still discovering the ripple effects of this behavior. It’s easy to think, on the face of it, that losing a species of mussel wouldn’t mean jack shit to us, but an ecosystem depends on countless species and their own impacts and effects. Mussels are filter-feeders, capable of cleaning water sources from harmful particles and bacteria, but also (like so many species) indicators of how viable the water is in the first place. Their loss might seem trivial, but it could indicate that the water is getting pretty wretched, which is going to impact everything downstream, including those of us that use those rivers as a fresh water source. Not to mention the wetlands, which provide breeding areas for countless aquatic species, many of which we eat ourselves. And the impact on the plants in the wetlands may mean encroachment of salt-laden seawater further inland, through storm surges, which results in the loss of viable farmland and, yes, even housing developments. Nothing sits alone and separate from the ecosystem, including us, and willy-nilly changes to this can have huge impacts down the line, foreseen and unforeseen.

All too often, we think that it’s somebody else that’s creating the worst effects, which is usually correct, but the overall attitude towards environmentalism is a culture, which we can change at will. In a country that’s proud of the hours we work, that revels in the sports and outdoor accomplishments, that’s always ready to stand up for something important, we can be ridiculously lazy when it comes to simple things like recycling and being mindful of resources. How hard is it to dispose of things properly, and when did hard even become this thing that we couldn’t handle? I’m ranting, I know, but seriously, we’re pretty selective about the efforts we choose to put in, to no one’s benefit. And most of it is simply the attitudes we hold. Those aren’t even slightly difficult to change.

So maybe that’s the challenge for Friday, or any day: find those things that we can change, including how others see it all. Pics are fine, but progress is undoubtedly better.

Little bites. Maybe

May 16, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

As intimated in the previous post, we just got back from a week’s stay at the beach, and of course this will be covered in excruciating detail. However, I think I may take a different approach this time, doing shorter posts of singular topics – which means more posts, but of fewer words at a time. Or at least I’ll try; this is me we’re talking about, so who knows whether I’m even capable of that.

Right now this is just a teaser, mostly because I don’t feel like writing much at the moment. This trip wasn’t the best we’ve had, marred by bad weather, cold temperatures, and some idiotic gas situation, which illustrates one of the reasons that I don’t like pre-planned trips: you’re stuck with the conditions that you couldn’t foresee weeks or months ahead, and seriously, this has to be the coldest May I’ve experienced since moving south.

But I’ve still got plenty of photos to feature, so brace yourself.

Ugly truths

May 15, 2021May 5, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

I’ve known this for a long time, and would like to deny it because it’s a quality that I’d rather not have, but at the same time, I can see nothing to do about it, and simply have to face the music: but damn, I can pack a lot of shit for a trip.

Not clothes, oh no – I can get by with the minimum, and don’t care how I look so that’s just enough to cover the number of days I’ll be away – often less, really. Not sundries or snacks or whatever; I keep my overnight bag of toiletries packed and simply add an electric razor as needed, and snacks are purchased for the day of travel, if it’s by car. Not even emergency weather items so much, though I usually try to come at least a little prepared, but I’ll layer on shirts rather than pack a jacket.

But the photography equipment.

I hate being unprepared for a rare opportunity, and most times, it’s not a situation where I could ‘make do’ with some shortcut or repurposing or something of that nature. It’s the same reason why I can’t carry a light bag with ‘just the essentials’ in it, because these are all essentials. Possibility of macro work (and that’s virtually always a possibility)? That means a couple of lens, the macro flash and softbox, the flash bracket and arm, and spare batteries. Video work? That’s a cage with an arm for the video light, and if I’m the least bit serious, another arm holds the external monitor (because using the LCD on the back of the camera is stupid and annoying,) at least one mic but usually two because the shotgun mic picks up wildlife sounds a hell of a lot better, and at least one tripod, possibly the custom macro tripod. That part is a little amusing, because I’ll eschew it for most macro photo work, counting on brief exposure durations and the output of the flash to ‘freeze’ things – the flexibility of freedom greatly outweighs the benefits of a tripod – but for video work, a tripod is almost essential, and much of my video is of macro subjects.

female marsh crab Sesarma cinereum showing clutch of eggs within pleopods — We wouldn’t have this if I wasn’t loaded for bear

The large, heavy long lens virtually always comes along. The waterproof camera now of course, and this often means the snorkeling equipment too (no small bag, this.) The quadcopter, sometimes. Usually a laptop, only it’s not a laptop but a giant tablet, with memory card reader, and the ability to check e-mail and occasionally work on a post if it seems warranted. The headlamp, naturally, and often a UV flashlight for those esoteric subjects. Batteries and chargers for all of these. A spare set of water sandals because I’ve had them fail before and it’s not fun. Spare glasses now, too.

About the only plus to all this (aside from being able to get damn near all of the photographs and video that might provide an opportunity,) is that I can pack efficiently – all of this will be in the smallest possible space, organized and with ease of access dependent on its importance. But I still feel like a teenage girl when going on trips, though I’m probably much worse.

There’s a particular reason that I bring this up, and you’ve likely already determined what it is – you’ll see soon enough. Even sooner than you might think, because I don’t admit on the blog when I’ll be away, only when I’m back again. Sit tight.

Profiles of Nature 19

May 13, 2021May 6, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

The appeal is still pending, so we’re still going! This week we meet Eulalia, here in her scene from Baywatch performing mouth-to-mouth on her co-star, sure to keep the ratings high. Born with a silver spoon in her mouth and a set of hemostats in her duodenum, the malpractice settlement allowed Eulalia’s family to move away to Chicago, where she was eventually discovered, packed away with the cleaning supplies. Even later, she was discovered by a casting agent and got her big break in the Broadway production of Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins when she played Forgettable Token Ingenue. From there, the parts and the fame just kept rolling in – mostly to other people, but hey, she enjoyed the spectacle of it anyway. She boasts of having an Entourage, the Blu-Ray version, and tries to work Versace into the conversation every chance she gets, only she thinks it’s a type of caviar; this has led to some pretty horrified looks from others at parties. She’s a fitness buff, but what else is new? Eulalia is still single, and admits that she’s looking for a man that’s not afraid to cry when he takes a hard hit to the nuts after wrecking his bike, which makes us wonder about past dates – and the future ones as well. Her favorite manufacturer of slip-joint pliers is Knipex, despite the public shaming this earns her.

Yup, next week. Be strong.

* * *

I have to add this, and even worse, be serious for a moment here. I’d featured this image back in 2014 and credited it (and another) as a fishing spider, because they both were hanging out in a bucket of water, diving underneath the surface to escape attention, and capturing prey while skating atop. And just now, while preparing this post, I looked at the eyes and said, Wait a second. In the intervening seven years, I’d discovered the method of determining spider families by eye arrangements, and now knew these weren’t fishing spiders, but wolf spiders instead. That were acting like fishing spiders. This is not unknown to entomologists, but it was news to me, and something that I’d never seen before or since. It’s not like they were forced to use the water through that being the only available habitat; the spiders had an entire yard at their disposal, and like I said, this was only a bucket, not exactly a teeming metropolis of arthropoda. But hey, you do you, little spiders.

Dittyday 3: Gotta have the funk

May 11, 2021May 5, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

I’ll be featuring three songs this fine day, and will estimate that the majority of readers, should any such creature exist, will be familiar with only one – but that particular one might be different among different readers, and I’ll explain shortly. Yet they all have their appeal and should certainly be better known. Let’s do this in reverse order, with the most recent first.

‘Most recent’ does not qualify as ‘recent’ however, in that strange quality of the English language (well, possibly a lot are like that, but I only speak English) – we’re going back to 1992 for this one, from a new album by Peter Gabriel. It had been a decade since So, which was okay because that was a damn good album, but Us had its own strengths even though it didn’t have quite as much that made for appeal on the pop charts – there was a lot more subtlety, more moodiness from Us, and I was about to say a bit more experimentation, but that’s silly – Gabriel has always been one for experimentation, genre-skipping, and cultural inclusions. And among the slower, background-heavy tracks thereon leapt out ‘Kiss That Frog,’ one of the best songs to test out the bass response of your system, barging around kicking empty drums in the sub-basement. Attached to that we have a wonderfully compressed, ’70s electric guitar, some soul harmonica (is there any other kind, come to think of it?) and eventually an electric piano from the same era. R&B background singers round out the ensemble, though they’re hardly a new factor among Gabriel’s songs. And of course, paying attention to the lyrics is important:

Kiss That Frog – Peter Gabriel

Now, I’ve never heard for sure what the song is supposed to be about, but I know what I think, and it fits in line with the lasciviousness that tends to occur more often than not with Gabriel. I get the impression that he really wanted to sing more as a bass than a tenor for this song, though, but it’s good that he didn’t try too hard to accomplish this, because that often just sounds wrong.

By the way, Gabriel’s live performances are definitely something to see – I passed on the chance back in the early 80s when he did the So tour, not knowing enough of his music then and regretting it within the year, and finally managed to catch a concert in 2003 for the Up tour, but Secret World Live (following the Us album) is available on DVD and well worth the money if you have even the faintest interest in his music. The Girlfriend prefers the live version of ‘Kiss That Frog’ from this video while I’m a fan of the album version, but ‘Across The River’ from that concert, although brief, has drive.

Our next exit on the Wayback Highway is 1976, with the soul/R&B group of Rose Royce. The song does this phenomenal build, new instruments stepping in like multi-part choral harmonies, introducing yet another nuance as the song works its way up to the main riff, and even afterward, the different sounds slotting into place provide a slick feel; listen to the bass carry the chorus sections out. This was produced while disco was still dominant and has the horns section to prove it, but it lacks the ‘glam’ feel that a lot of that music possessed (and ultimately carried it out of popularity.) Here we have, ‘Car Wash.’

Car Wash – Rose Royce

Lead singer Gwen Dickey (identified at the time of this release as Rose Norwalt) did not learn to sing in her church choir, for which I am grateful, since there is a definite trend in that style among black female singers and I personally cannot stand wailing (Whitney Houston is a pox on the ears.) The song itself was created for the soundtrack of the movie by the same name, a ‘day in the life of’ story that I saw many, many years ago – the song is far more memorable and entertaining. If anyone asks you what “groove” is, play them this song.

Now we get to the part of the post where I confess to corrections. First off, I would have sworn that the next song was at least a couple of years before the one above, but on doing a modicum of research, it appears that they came out the same year, all part of our nations’ bicentennial celebration (no they weren’t.) Second, I was all set to claim this was so obscure that most people had never heard it, only to discover that it had been used in the soundtrack of Avengers: Infinity War (which I’ve never seen.) So a lot more people have heard it, or at the very least parts of it, than just a few years ago, but I can pull my hipster cred in saying that it’s been within my music collection since shortly after it could be found on YouTube. This is another one that builds, not quite as distinctly as ‘Car Wash,’ but more triumphantly – I will, one day, be able to play that keyboard riff. So let’s get to ‘Rubberband Man’ by the Spinners:

Rubberband Man – The Spinners

The very compressed, clipped sound of the bass and percussion, no sustain at all, is counteracted by the keys and horns holding their notes for many beats, nicely mixed. Much of the melody comes from the vocals, and lead singer Philippé Wynne gives the impression that, after the song was written, he was still too excited to stick to the penned lyrics and had to embellish, which carried the idea quite well, but good luck trying to accurately sing along. Even as the last chord crashes into silence, you’re kind of waiting for him to still interject something (which would have fit right in with Avengers.) Numerous people have covered this song at one time or another, mostly back during its popularity, and this should never have been done – no one can come close to the original, including other lead singers in the Spinners themselves after Wynne left. It’s not exactly dance-able, which is funny because it has enormous energy, but hey, I don’t dance anyway (white boy here) so I’m not bothered by it. And if you want a great example of the era, look for any live performance of it; you’ll see the gaudy jumpsuit line-dancing that was popular at the time (you can also look up The Osmonds for the same, without anywhere near the funk.) And curiously, both of the latter two songs work quite well for relaxing, just mellow sound even with the tempo, so keep them handy. It’s cheaper and far less stupid than alcohol.

Odd memories, part 25

May 9, 2021May 5, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

Wow, it’s been over a year since the last – that’s disturbing, because I have odd memories, like, a lot; I’ll leave it to you to determine if this lapse is deplorable or welcome. This one goes way back, to before I left New York, and before I had a decent camera. And it falls right around this time of year, so it’s, hmmm, 31-33 years old? We can call this its anniversary, just between us, and no one will be the wiser.

Not too far away from our house back then were two glacial drumlins, longitudinal hills running parallel to Cayuga Lake nearby, which had been great fun to drive over when we first moved there in the 70s, but soon after they excavated and dynamited a flatter path through them, spoiling all the fun but creating four hills instead of two, and one was forested and a nice place close by to explore. One morning, I was venturing within along the wildlife paths and saw a fox scamper off for cover, a very rare sighting for me. I paused to see where it had gone and if it had stopped not far away, but saw nothing. Turning back to where I’d first spotted it, I saw a hint of movement and looked carefully.

It took me a moment to realize that I was seeing a fox kit; in fact, four of them. They were very small, deep brown and snub-nosed, and it seemed that I might have stumbled across them on their first day out of the den. They were unsteady on their feet and peering around without recognition of anything. Without venturing any closer (wary of momma’s return,) I quietly sat down, then stretched out on my back, propped on my elbows to watch their behavior. Like puppies, they were determined and curious, but lacking any dexterity at all; one decided to chew on a nearby weed in case it turned out to be meat, following it along its length until the kit tumbled over on its side, off-balance, while I stifled a chuckle.

After a short period of time, a couple of them started wondering where mamma had gotten off to, looking around with that air of growing concern that you see in newborns sometimes. The mother might well have been not far off, watching me carefully, and I was planning to leave them be in a minute or so. Then the woodchuck happened along.

The area was laden with them, fat, waddling blobs with barely any legs at all, but massing as much as a medium-sized dog, in the vicinity of 10 kilos, give or take. I saw it approaching along a trail that almost intersected the den and the exploring kits, initially thinking it was the mother but soon being corrected in that regard, and it was ambling along purposefully, intent on its own thoughts. A few meters from the kits it stopped dead, staring at these unexpected and clumsy oafs. It massed many times what they did of course, even all four together, and possessed the teeth and jaw power to render any threat from them nonexistent, but not according to its own behavior. It stared, frozen, at them for a few moments while they carried on oblivious to its presence, then decided on discretion and departed the path almost directly away from the den.

This, however, carried it on a direct line towards me, lying supine in the leaf little about ten meters away. Not that it noticed at all, and the woodchuck had doubled its pace to leave the dastardly little foxes behind, though I surmise it was thinking more of dealing with an angry parent. I watched in delight mixed with some trepidation as the woodchuck approached, not quite directly towards my feet. Woodchucks typically choose flight, but they can be scrappy fighters when provoked, and more than capable of doing some serious damage.

Less than three meters from my feet it realized there was another interloper in its quiet little forest and stopped dead, staring at me with no expression (of course,) but what I imagine to be shock and distrust. For my part, I didn’t move a millimeter, wondering what it might do, already the intrepid (or something) wildlife observer. After a couple of seconds, the woodchuck vented out a low, guttural growl, like someone clearing their throat for attention. I still did not move, though I was considering just what my options were if it charged, lying back in a poor position to leap up and dodge away. The woodchuck growled again, a little louder, still unsure if I was mobile, and I watched in fascination.

Finally, with a distinct air of, “fuck all this,” the woodchuck turned again and hurtled away at high speed, obviously very displeased with what its happy little forest had become. I took that as my clue to vacate myself, allowing the mother to return. But I went back a few days later, this time with camera in hand, to attempt some photos of the kits, and still have those negatives – one of the few sets from New York that I retained. Not that it matters a lot.

What I had at the time was the old Wittnauer Challenger, a 35mm rangefinder with a fixed 50mm lens – not the kind of camera to shoot wildlife (or indeed anything) with. What you’re looking for is the dark blob in the light spot, just left of center. Oh, hell, we can go in closer for, you know, that detail…

Yeah, this is full resolution and as good as it’s gonna get. Remember: rangefinder, with its shitty focus mechanism, 50mm lens, and old negative film. But proof of the fox kits, as much as of the Loch Ness Monster, so there!

More mouths to feed

May 6, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

Luckily, I’m not the one to do it.

I was busy with other tasks this morning and neglected to do my morning check of the mantis egg sacs, but judging from how many were swarming around when I finally did notice this one, they’d probably gotten started in the very early morning hours. Only a couple were still displaying a slight forehead bump that’s the last vestige of the bullet-head they have for hatching, while most were scampering around freely with little display of stiffness or clumsiness that indicates recent emergence. Ah well.

No masks, no distancing – must be Fox News viewers. Here you can see the string that I used to attach the collected ootheca/sac to a larger, stronger branch for placement around the yard, while the background leaves are the day lilies that aren’t yet in bloom. Actually, most things aren’t – it’s been a slow spring, but we’re getting there.

They were just as spooky as the last batch, starting to disperse as I leaned in for closer photos, but I managed to snag a couple of decent frames anyway – and a lot of indecent ones. Well, no, not in the way that sounds – let’s just say crappy frames; English is weird. Here are a couple up at the tip of the branch having that tense movie moment before the big showdown in the third act.

I lie; they weren’t in any movie, even my own. And they weren’t tense or even facing off, but just happened to get in each other’s way as they explored their environs. There was a lot of that going on, really, but luck allowed me to be in close enough with decent focus to catch one.

I went in even closer, but was working without the focus assist light, because I’m lazy/stupid, so using the reversed 28-105 for high magnification meant a little guessing in the dark because of the aperture fixed at f16. This was as sharp as I got – I know I can get sharper, but it also requires subjects that don’t leap away as the lens looms close.

The facets of the eyes are almost discernible here, though they might also not be too distinct yet because the eyes have only been ‘inflated’ to proper shape within the past couple of hours. And sorry, but I had to go for the long vertical framing on this one, to show the little ‘thorns’ on the forelegs too.

But this very shot prompted me to go out again and pursue another, specifically for you readers (and, well, anyone that might want to pay me for such things – don’t let your ego get too carried away.) It’s one thing to have detail, but another to know just how small those details are, so I went out with the paper millimeter scale in hand to try and illustrate this. All I had to do was place it somewhere near the gathered mantids and wait for one to amble across it.

Well, no. First off, most of the lily leaves they were now occupying were vertical, so the scale wouldn’t stay put (and would drop down into the dense middle of the emerging leaves when it slipped.) Second, the mantids didn’t like my hand, or even the tweezers, coming into their territory like that, and mostly dropped away into the denser undergrowth as I did so. Placing it at an acceptable distance and then trying to coax one closer, given that they now opted to freeze in place with my own activity visible, resulted in mostly the mantids heading in some other direction, but on the rare occasions when I got one close to the scale, they quickly dodged off of it, seemingly aware that it was foreign and wanting nothing to do with it (again, Fox New viewers.) On two occasions, I actually coaxed one onto the open tweezers, but then trying to introduce them onto the scale failed. Eventually, I managed a faint success; not what I was after, but perhaps just sufficient enough.

As shown, they’re roughly 10mm in overall length when hatched, so the entire width of the head falls around 2mm, so you can scroll back up and judge for yourself how small the details that I did capture were.

This one was almost cooperative.

Seeing it perched on the edge of a large planter nearby, I placed the scale well ahead of it and then attempted to shoo the mantis in that direction, figuring that it would stick to the upper edge without too much difficulty. Ehhhhh, kinda. It tried going in other directions, and climbed a nearby leaf before I coaxed it back down to the rim again, and finally headed in the direction of the scale. Getting the camera in hand, I leaned into focus, and the mantis dodged down the side of the planter and soon disappeared. I spent far more time in trying to get a scale shot than with all the other photos combined, with far less success.

While this was going on, I glanced down into a planter behind me and noticed a much-larger fly sitting complacently on the side, and fired off a few frames of that one. This was much easier.

I don’t know what this is and am not doing the legwork on it right now; I’m leaning towards it being a syrphid fly of some kind. Not quite twice the body length of the mantids and a hell of a lot more cooperative, it shows the detail that can arise if your subject holds still. And proof that I don’t suck too bad.

Profiles of Nature 18

May 6, 2021May 4, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

Welcome back – it’s good to see you again! [I told you they hadn’t gotten any brighter – pay up, dawg!] Our model this week is Osmar (one syllable,) a recent arrival in the states from New Mexico – which is still in the states, but it’s disturbing how many people don’t know that (mostly Republicans, we’re betting.) Osmar, as might be obvious, specializes in dual roles, multiple personalities, and of course, modeling for that boy-band, ‘what-the-fuck-is-a-comb?’ look. He doesn’t actually have a midsection at all – there’s just a void, due to a mishap on the dynamic range when he was in the military, but he’s turned that to his advantage because it’s easier to Photoshop in whatever waistline is desired. Osmar has trust issues, though, due to few people maintaining eye-contact with him for more than a second or so but, seriously, can you blame them? Damn. He was pushed into modeling on the failed aspirations of his father, who had attempted to become clay but couldn’t pass the regionals. He’s really tired of being asked to go mountain-climbing, nothing to do with stereotyping, he just despises the type of people and has been known to mutter, “‘Because it’s there!‘ Vapid dingwalladers.” Osmar hopes to make his first million by the time he’s thirty, but he didn’t specify the “what” for either number, which would have pissed off our 9th-grade science teacher no end, but so did everything else so who cares? His favorite symbol to mispronounce and misuse is §.

Next week. Thing. Be there and be square.

In comparison

May 4, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

Just a sunset shot from last night. The passing storm had left some clouds in the sky, which haven’t been there at sunset for literally weeks; even when we had them in the late afternoon, they’d magically cleared by sunset. Without clouds of some kind, you get no colors and nothing to show the light strata as the sun disappears. It wasn’t a remarkable display by any stretch (saturation has been boosted in-camera here, and a slight tweak to contrast,) but compared to what we’d been seeing over the past month or so, it was notable. Could have posted it yesterday, but we already had enough posts for yesterday.

1 … 76 77 78 79 80 … 282