Too cool, part 56

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

I’ve said before that there’s only so far I get into ‘art,’ both in my own work and with appreciating the work of others. Aesthetically, I’m all for it, and am far more entranced by anyone that can handle realism than I am over particular styles and genres, and in line with that, I’m not terribly captivated by impressionism, expressionism, post-modernism, or indeed any of the various and countless ways of describing art, and couldn’t tell you what most of them are. As for meaning and spiritualism? Go away.

So when it comes to Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, one of the more recognized and replicated works of ‘recent’ art, well, it’s cute, and I like the colors, but it’s also harsh to me, tracing bold lines in the sky during conditions where little should show at all, much less that distinctly. I understand that Van Gogh was trying for particular ideas, as do all artists, but they’re not ideas that I find any connection with.

The Starry Night, painting by Vincent Van Gogh
The Starry Night, by Vincent Van Gogh
Universe Today, however, recently featured an article on it that I can get into – not about styles or moods or underlying metaphors, but instead using the elements within to pin down exactly what night Van Gogh was making his preliminary sketches. It’s long been known that he spent some time in an asylum near St-Rémy-de-Provence, France, struggling with seizures, and produced several works during this time, the most well-known of them being The Starry Night, (which he did not personally consider a good piece of work.) The stylized representations of the moon and stars along a cypress and over a small village had long been believed to be representational rather than directly observed – inspired by real life, but placed in the frame as Van Gogh desired. The village, especially, does not match anything that he could have observed from St-Rémy.

Then in the 1980s, a pair of researchers introduced the idea that the sky directly represented, with a degree of accuracy, what Van Gogh had observed on a particular night, identifying the stars as those of Aries, along with the moon and Venus, and combined more with the details Van Gogh related in letters to his brother, proposed that the painting was at least laid out on June 19th, 1889. This became a widely-accepted hypothesis, even featured prominently in Wikipedia’s entry on the painting.

According to astronomy student Elijah Jeong-hyun Kim at the Kyung Hee University School of Space Research, however, the arrangement of stars in the sky was not a very close match for Aries, instead being a far more accurate depiction of the Hyades asterism (‘constellation,’ if that’s easier though technically incorrect,) plus the moon was the wrong phase for that date in June. Along with co-authors Suna Kang, Jungwoo Song, & Ho Jin, Kim makes a very strong case that the actual date was instead July 22, 1889, supporting this with extensive comparisons of astronomical conditions, field of view, weather conditions, and the fact that the details elaborated through Van Gogh’s letters were far from specific. On that date, the moon was indeed a crescent phase as depicted, Venus was visible in the pre-dawn hours, and all aligned with the Hyades cluster within the field of view that Van Gogh appeared to be using, to a fairly high degree of accuracy. Other sketches of Van Gogh’s are actually more accurate, indicating that he likely did these while observing the actual sky, rather than stylistically or from memory.

This is what I find the most interesting, because they forensically determined what the artist was doing on a particular night over a century ago, based on what the actual conditions were and supporting details. Is this a closed case? Not necessarily, because as previously noted, portions of the painting were clearly created by Van Gogh through artistic license, so the idea that it was an observational study – painting from what he was seeing at the time – is not supported. They make a strong case that it was partially observational though, and even apply this to Café Terrace at Night, another of Van Gogh’s more well-known works and appearing to also depict an actual night sky, albeit with more license this time.

Immediately upon reading this, I started wondering if The Starry Night wasn’t based on a hazy or, more likely, foggy morning, since the celestial objects are all shrouded in glow, exactly the kind that would be produced by faintly-obscuring humidity, and the curls in the sky as well as the glow along the horizon further suggest this, especially the reflection of village lights – though, again, since there was no real village there, the best we can say is that Van Gogh depicted this from memory of other times or places. The weather records cited in that paper also only indicate a clear night during an extended hot period, no mention of fog, but I’d like to see what was actually recorded, and whether such things would have been noted.

Still, it’s very cool when someone can take clues presented or recorded at various times in the past and reconstruct more background from them than was ever consciously, purposefully noted. Does it mean anything, or do we gain a greater understanding of the work, or Van Gogh himself, or even what was happening in St-Rémy? Not really – this is far more trivia than anything else, though it may help pin down when his seizures actually began. At the same time, it provides more background for the painting than most interpretations, with far more supporting evidence, so take from that what you wish.


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So much important news

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

And by, “important,” I mean, “ridiculously and trivially personal,” which is exactly what a blog is for, right?

Anyway, a few days back I lamented being unable to capture images of a frog while it was ensconced within the grooves of the elephant ear stalks, which was enough to stir Fate and all that jazz, because the next day I accomplished it. I put it down to my lucky underwear (which was upstairs in a bureau, but that doesn’t mean it can’t work its magic.) Behold.

juvenile green treefrog Dryophytes cinereus tucked within curved stalk of elephant ear plant during daytime
Not exactly the best of shots, because I had to turn off autofocus due to it being unable to lock on, perhaps because of the very narrow angle that showed both eyes. At least this time the frog didn’t get alarmed and start backing hurriedly deeper into the nook, as it had twice before.

Part two of the news is that this is the 30,000th frame taken with the Canon 7D, the replacement body after the previous one ran afoul of dihydrogen-monoxide incorporation. Since that purchase took place in early June of 2024, this pegs my rate in the vicinity of 1,000 images/month, average of course, because occasionally I might shoot more than that in an hour. And then we have last month, when it topped out at… well, I was thinking October was a fairly slow month, photography-wise, but the tally comes to over 1,200 images, so not half as slow as I’d believed. Mind you, that’s taken – what will be kept from that (I’m in the middle of sorting right now) will be significantly fewer.

I also must say, there’s a second camera in the mix, the Canon 70D, mostly dedicated to shooting the pond from the upstairs bathroom, so what I actually shoot per month is even higher – more so if I dig out the Canon Pro90 to plat around with infra-red. But neither of those is celebrating their meaningless milestone, so…

new design of macro photography softbox
Speaking of those, today is another ultra-special day, in that it marks four years since I purchased my workhorse 3D printer, the Voxelab Aquila – this model followed a much more basic printer I’d obtained in March of 2022, which got me hooked. Just taking a look at the ol’ printer stats-a-roonie (retained by the printer itself,) we find that this amounts to extruding 5,823 meters of filament over better than 2,800 print hours, for a total of 2,085 jobs completed (and a little better than ten percent more incomplete, though most of those are jobs stopped early on to change settings.) That’s… really much more than I would have envisioned, and a decent amount of dross within there, knick-knacks and giveaways, to say nothing of failed attempts and designs, but this is underscored by the number of immensely useful designs and tools and accessories that have been produced, many of which are still in routine use. It’s serving its purpose, is what I’m saying. It also looks very little like it originally had, due to countless upgrades.

[I am aware of the arguments over the proliferation of plastics, given the large amount of microplastics in the environment, and agree with them as well. Most of what I (and the majority of hobbyists) print, however, is in PLA, poly-lactic acid, which is corn-based and biodegradable. It also, despite the volume, doesn’t hold a candle to the plastic bags distributed by virtually every retailer in the country, which doesn’t excuse it, but does serve as a perspective. I’m happy to argue environmental impact with anyone that’s so inclined – it’ll start with how old your smutphone and car are and go from there…]

Anyway, much to celebrate tonight, so I have to get back to the party – I think we’re running low on queso…


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Tip Jar 42: Retention and cataloging

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

screenshot from XNView thumbnail program during sorting
I will admit, this is the boring end of photography, and indeed, any kind of potentially money-making venture, but it’s necessary nonetheless, and perhaps I can assist in making it a little easier and less time-consuming, so it’s less boring for that. So let’s look at the seedy underside of such pursuits, which is the administration. While this is geared towards photography, some of it will translate into other genres.

First, retention. We’ve already gone over maintaining secure backups, but this deals with what we’re backing up. You’ll have to season to taste, of course, but the primary takeaway is, don’t save anything you don’t absolutely have to. It’s easy to believe that we’ll need a selection of any given subject with subtle differences in angle or lighting or expression or whatever, and so keep seven out of nine frames, but this generally only takes up storage space – usually on a harddrive, but I have two file drawers full of slides and several binders of negatives from my film days, so it naturally depends on the media. And I’m the kind of person that retains things on the odd chance that they’ll be useful at some point in the future, not at all helped by those rare occasions when they actually prove so. Yet the vast bulk of what I have will never see any use whatsoever, even less so with esoteric or specific topics or behaviors. This blog itself has caused me to retain images that I normally would not have, since I use them to illustrate posts, but the chance of some scientific or academic publisher contacting me for detailed images of jagged ambush bugs is slim, and even if they did, they’d either only need the absolute best image that I have, or some specific trait that I never captured anyway (which has indeed happened.)

So here’s the suggestion, a rather firm one: keep the absolute best, and let the others go. Don’t get hung up on potential, and don’t believe you’ll win the photographer’s lottery by being the only one having a clear frame of pollen from a four-o’clock flower. Be lean, be mean, and use that storage space for future good images. In the long run, it will save you time and effort in finding said images again, and in the other aspect which we’ll come to soon enough, that of cataloging.

The other suggestion is, clean house from time to time, and this is a good winter project, especially when we have a little free time with holidays. There will be images that we were happy to get, five or ten years ago when first taken, that we’ve now surpassed and find not half as impressive as something we’ve captured since then, and this is when we bid them adieu. It’s a little like we’re seeing them as if we just completed a shooting session and are doing that initial cull – if we can say, Nah, I’ve got better, then toss them.

slide file pages in drawer
Each of these is a vertical slide page holding 20 slides, perhaps a third of which could be discarded now since I’ve captured far better images in digital
Since this can play havoc with our previous cataloging, however, it’s not a bad idea to put them into a separate folder temporarily, instead of simply deleting them. This way we have a complete list of what should be pulled from our records as well, so we don’t waste time looking for an image long-deleted. Once this part is done, then we can delete the entire folder.

Now we come to cataloging. This will vary significantly depending on what kind of subjects we pursue and what uses they have, but it’s always a good idea to keep a searchable record of our images with necessary attendant info, because it’s a damn sight easier to go through a spreadsheet than it is image folders or slide sleeves. I’ve found this especially true with video clips, which don’t have handy little thumbnails to show us everything regardless of the program used to sort them. Admittedly, I have a background with spreadsheets and so I’m comfortable with the necessary info and how to search it, and it’s not a bad idea to become at least passingly familiar with what they can do. As an example, the primary info that I retain is species of course, both common and scientific names, date taken, location taken, and where they can be found now (e.g., what folder or slide page.) And then anything in addition that may assist in specific pursuits or marketing – for a long time, I was maintaining both orientation (horizontal or vertical) and overall base color with the idea that this might assist in usage as a magazine cover – ask your grandparents what those were. With video now, it’s specific interactions or behavior, especially that which I was pleased to capture since it’s not commonly seen.

video catalog spreadsheet image
A small section of the current video catalog and the info recorded
Your version will vary, partially depending on genre or subjects, partially on your potential (or realized) uses. For instance, knowing exactly where to find the model release can be paramount, or how to contact models, owners, or other legal requirements. For photojournalism or paid gigs, specific dates, locations, and events are important details and will help you many times over. Unlike the images themselves, here having more detail than immediately-deemed necessary only takes a few kilobytes of additional space, but can prove enormously useful later on.

[A brief side note from when I was shooting weddings. I soon developed a habit of finding the wedding program and getting a good image of that, preferably at the beginning of a roll of film, aiming for something both artistic and evocative of the venue if possible. This could serve as a nice frontispiece for the album, but also served to pin down whose wedding it was (and when it took place) in the bundle of negatives, of which I kept a single small print of this program attached. This made finding things again many times easier.]

Listen, I get it: sitting down and typing all these details up is incredibly tedious, and I personally can find many other things that ‘take precedent,’ like trimming my toenails. I’m way behind where I should be, but there’s no time like the present (except that I have a post to finish.) My advice is, set aside a particular time per week to do this, put on a little soothing music or a podcast, and just treat it as a chore like laundry or cleaning the litter box. Once you establish it as a routine habit, it’s easier to maintain and provides a sense of accomplishment (and even alleviation of guilt) when it’s done. The more often that it’s scheduled, the less that has to be done at any given time.

Now, here are a couple of things I’m hashing out but haven’t yet solved. The first is, easily matching the common names to the scientific, because I use both in my writing, but also because more scientific or technical applications for said images rely on the scientific names instead, because there may be multiple common names, or regional variations, to say nothing of colloquial misinterpretations. I will have both names in the tags for posts from previous uses, but they’re not linked nor have any way of doing so, and so I often have to do a web search, thus I’m considering another small spreadsheet that retains both, linked. However, too often I have to do a web search anyway because the scientific names change far too often, which I’ve ranted about before.

The other is, I use the thumbnail program to manage images most times anyway, but of course this only has image numbers and camera settings, not species names. There are tags that can be appended, so I’m considering adding common and species name tags to the system and attaching these as I sort – this way, I can easily find all of the images I’ve captured of, for instance, basilica orbweavers, or alternately determine if I actually have photographed them before without relying on memory, and without cross-conferencing with a spreadsheet. More tedious recordkeeping, but I’ve already found several instances where it would have been handy, and that’s how one determines what methods and systems would work best for personal needs.

On the cataloging topic overall, though, just do it – it will prove useful in the future, I guarantee.


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Frog closeout sale!

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

I’ve collected a few too many frogs, so I’m slashing prices and passing the savings on to you. Let’s see if I can complete this before October really and truly has left.

juvenile Copes grey treefrog Dryophytes chrysoscelis perched on decorative sweet potato leaf
Back on the 10th, I found this little spud sitting on the decorative sweet potato plants alongside the front door, slightly larger than a thumbnail. It behaved well enough to allow me to come in close and do some detail images, but first, the view as originally found.

dorsal view of juvenile Copes grey treefrog Dryophytes chrysoscelis perched on decorative sweet potato leaf
It would be easy to say, “That’s a green treefrog,” and you’d be technically correct, while at the same time completely misleading. A close crop of the former image helps us with a particular telltale trait, though.

close crop of juvenile Copes grey treefrog Dryophytes chrysoscelis showing light patch under eye
What we’re looking for here is that pale patch under the eye, delineated by a darker stripe behind it, but also the striped patches along the hind legs give a good indication too. Those, especially the eye patch, are all traits of the Copes grey treefrog (Dryophytes chrysoscelis,) so while you were correct in saying it was a green treefrog, seeing that it’s a treefrog and it’s mostly green, it’s not the species commonly known as the green treefrog, and thus you’d also be wrong. The juvies sport a lot of green skin until they reach a certain age, though I don’t know exactly what that age is, but it’s been a source of uncertainty before.

Now, the common grey treefrog also looks exactly like this, and they’re next to impossible to tell apart from the Copes, except for the call, but it also seems we have nothing but the Copes in the area (in fact, all of NC according to sources,) so I’m comfortable with this identification.

Several of the true green treefrogs (Dryophytes cinereus) have been using the windows in the kitchen and the breakfast nook as their hunting grounds at night, so we often leave the lights on for them – not that they’re afraid of the dark, but the moths apparently are, when by all rights they should be much more afraid of the treefrogs. When the overnight temperatures dropped, the frogs disappeared, but came back very quickly as soon as it wasn’t that cold, especially when rain was threatening. I took the opportunity to snag one the other night.

juvenile green treefrog Dryophytes cinereus perched on kitchen window overnight
They will sit like this, practically suction-cupped to the glass, but should a moth appear nearby (which happens frequently,) they demonstrate that they were paying close attention and start stalking them – we’ve witnessed several captures, which one day I will get on video, but arranging that with adequate lighting will be tricky. This, of course, is done with a flash, and I even backed off to create more of a tableau.

juvenile green treefrog Dryophytes cinereus on kitchen window with reflection of photographer faintly visible
There- we even have a ghost for Halloween. A double one. With the gold rings of its headlamp faintly visible too – talk about a detailed apparition!

I have been unsuccessful in snagging a daytime photo of one of the greens sleeping deep in the crook of the elephant ear stalks, which vaguely resemble the way palm fronds grow, but I did capture one after nightfall when it had ventured back out again. This was quite chilly and I was a little surprised to see an active frog, but here we are.

juvenile green treefrog Dryophytes cinereus perched on stalk of elephant ear plant
I had to play around with the perspective and do something with it, since I had (so far) failed to snag it tucked deep into the grooves of the stalk. You can’t tell from this angle, but the stalks grow in more of a “U” cross-section, funneling rain down into the base of the plant where it can pool for days, and so the treefrogs consider this a nice moist clubhouse, well protected from even nature photographers.

Meanwhile, the ginger lilies (Hedychium coronarium) have been re-blooming, a little surprising considering that many plants are dropping leaves or at least turning autumn colors, and last night when we distributed corn, I found frogs on two of the plants, right alongside the blossoms; apparently they also know that moths are attracted to the scent of the flowers, which really is quite pleasant. Naturally, I returned with the camera in hand a little later on.

juvenile green treefrog Dryophytes cinereus perched on leaf of blooming ginger lily Hedychium coronarium
The flowers don’t last long and droop, wilted, after only a day or so, which didn’t help the aesthetics of the shot very much. Nor did the frog turd this little guy had deposited right behind it on the leaf, but at least that, I could carefully snake my pocket knife blade in and scoop it out of the frame. I made the attempt on that tan thing too, but it was tangled with some webbing and I was already in danger of spooking off the frog. Better luck next time.

At least I got this one – the other frog on a neighboring plant had scampered off in the interim, so I simply concentrated on the better-looking flowers instead.

ginger lily Hedychium coronarium in full bloom at night
They really are blooming enthusiastically, which is good to see – perhaps we’ll have a small grove of them in a few years. This is alongside the midyard pond we call the Puddle, a good place for them.

I returned the next night, which is actually tonight, and had better luck on this same one, at least.

juvenile green treefrog Dryophytes cinereus perched on base of ginger lily Hedychium coronarium blooms at night
It’s there – look closely. Definitely relying on its camouflage this time, which works quite well – just a tad too yellow. They need to work on this. But we’ll go in for a better look.

closer view of green treefrog Dryophytes cinereus at base of ginger lily Hedychium coronarium blossoms
All of these were juveniles, by the way, these last two being roughly half of full adult size. Can’t imagine they were finding a lot to eat, but they seemed to know what temperatures would work and what wouldn’t, so we’ll trust their judgement.

There – squeezed them out. All typos that this produced were intended and should be considered artistic license. And now into November – remember to reset your camera clocks too, if you’re in an area that still participates in this asinine Daylight Saving Horseshit…


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Nebraska is stepping up production

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

large collection of wood ducks Aix sponsa with a pair of mallards Anas platyrhynchos preparing for the dawn raid on the distributed corn
Another quiet week, so we’ll make up for it with a video – how’s that sound?

While the wood ducks (Aix sponsa) had thinned throughout the summer, they were still making appearances, albeit mostly the juveniles. Abruptly, the Canada geese (Branta canadensis) joined them, a couple weeks ago I believe, and then a very large number of adult wood ducks. And now, a pair of mallards (Anas platyrhynchos,) which we believe are the same pair that had been visiting together in the spring, even when others were scarce. We don’t pretend to understand what motivates the waterfowl and their schedules, but we do have to provide updates from time to time.

The numbers have simply exploded, and we’re going through corn like gangbusters. It’s impossible to get a decent count, but I can tell you that, in the top image, there are 41 wood ducks, four geese, and the pair of mallards. What’s most interesting is seeing the change in how bold the wood ducks have become, since until very recently, they would wait a little anxiously for the geese and nutrias to clear out before beginning their raid, which would last somewhere between one and four minutes before something would spook them and they’d fly in a mad panic down to safer areas in The Bayou. At best, it wouldn’t be a full panic, and most would simply make it to midpond to reassess the situation. I haven’t seen a full panic now for days, and as the video shows, at least a couple (I realized after narration that a female was participating too) were being quite forward with one of the geese. We also used to witness the nutrias having their fun when the ducks were feeding nearby, by popping up in a brief feint to watch the ducks scatter, either just trying to maintain a little personal space or, we suspect, actually doing this in a playful manner – we’ve seen other examples, and it really doesn’t look territorial at all. But now, it’s fallen flat for them, since the wood ducks just dodge a little but don’t bother flying off or even running for the water.

active morning raid on corn by wood ducks Aix sponsa
Curiously, too, last year it was virtually always the females that led the raids, being the first onshore before everyone else followed suit – perhaps it was only the same one or two, we have no way of knowing. This year it’s certainly the males, and there does appear to be a noticeably larger male that often stands lookout on a cypress knee. This might, in fact, be the difference in their behavior, if they really do have one specific ‘lookout’ that they all pay attention to, and the one for this year is a lot less spooky.

For a short while, most of them were confining their raids, especially in the afternoon, to a spot semi-shielded from view in the house, especially from the upstairs window that the video is shot from, permitting only a peek through the gaps between trees that we call the keyholes.

Canada goose Branta canadensis visible through gap in trees, standing guard while others eat
The geese quite often come along much later in the morning and are far more casual about eating, usually staying for a few hours and just hanging out, even waiting as we distributed the morning corn. The Girlfriend was quite pleased one morning when one not only came onshore while she stood there, but sidled up within two meters to eat; after a few minutes, the territoriality of others caused her friend to come so close it brushed against her legs. I’d woken up a little later than The Girlfriend, spotted her out the window, and watched her standing motionless with the goose in front of her, snacking on corn and even taking a brief nap. It’s a hoot.

wood ducks Aix sponsa and Canada goose Branta canadensis seen through gap in trees
By the time the sun is hitting the water in the morning, most of the wood ducks have left, though there may be a handful of stragglers that hang out with the geese, who may remain until close to midday, and occasionally return in mid-afternoon. By late afternoon the ducks start appearing, gathering quite slowly, but early enough that the late afternoon sun can illuminate their plumage nicely.

trio of adult male wood ducks Aix sponsa catching afternoon sun through gap in trees
The activity visible through the keyholes is often almost frantic, and the timing of portraits like this is very crucial, since they’ll be in and out of view in less than a second. These afternoon raids are a lot more variable than the morning ones, sometimes vigorous, sometimes very thin and casual, sometimes never taking place at all. Generally, if I have gotten my timing down and have opened the bathroom window beforehand, they don’t perform well, only doing so when I’ve neglected to be prepared and can’t possibly chance opening the window because they’ll spook and fly off – it’s a new vinyl window, it has no reason to make so much noise opening, but so it goes.

I’m in the process of planning a duck blind to go on the deck, which will be slightly closer but have a better overall view then the upstairs window – as long as I’m in it before the ducks start to arrive. We’ll see how that goes. In the meantime, corn donations are appreciated…


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Well, we’ll let you go, October

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot – before we go…

[That’s how far too many conversations go, isn’t it? Aliens would probably consider it a human ritual…]

Yes indeed, October has to go pick up the kids, so it’s dropping a couple of abstracts by the pool in a hurry before anyone can ask any questions. They look a little something like this:

backlit leaves in shadowy area showing overlapping shadows
One of those times when a narrow patch of sunlight lances through and highlights a few leaves to produce bright contrast and color, but here’s what I like about this: despite the appearance of the cluster to the right, there are no smaller leaves at all, and they’re all roughly the same size. The dark silhouettes of the ‘smaller’ leaves in there is only where the large ones cast shadows on those below. I need to keep an eye out for more effects along these lines.

And another. Both of these, by the way, were known to be up for the month-end status when I took them – I was actually prepared this month. Not so much for other posts, but you take what you’re given and be thankful. There are aesthetically-starved children in Africa that would appreciate these…

thin twilight colors reflected in dark waters after sunset
When chasing the sunset on the waterfront a few weeks back, I noticed that the bare hint of color in the sky was reflecting from the water, seemingly out of proportion to its appearance directly. Part of this may be due to the angle being just right to be catching those particular spots, and part of this might possibly even be from the polarization that occurs when light reflects from water. I also just realized this is essentially a five-color palette, and could be reproduced with little visible difference using nothing further. It’s easy to tell what this is, but the varied colors seem to add a lot more depth and contours to it.

If you want to buy a print, I’ll be happy to expound a bit more so you can captivate your visitors in a knowledgeable and erudite manner, perhaps about how our five basic emotions define and accentuate the landscape of our existence. No charge.


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Tip Jar 41: Check them!

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

Okay, this is one that I do not have mastered well enough yet, and still get caught on – not often, but more often than I should, given how long I’ve been doing this. And it’s simple: Check your settings!

As in, each time you take the camera out of the bag, and each time you put it back (either one would be enough, if done consistently, but both is a safety margin.) It’s not a bad idea to ‘normalize’ your settings routinely, either, but pick something and make a habit of it.

What I mean is, know exactly what mode your camera is in, what options, what exposure, what compensation, and so on, before you start snapping frames. It’s easy to have a situation where you want to get the picture as fast as possible, just switching on and focusing before the opportunity is gone, but this does you no good at all if the settings are such that the images won’t come out decently. I suspect I get caught because I have a fairly routine collection of settings, especially for macro work, but enough situations where I deviate for particular reasons. So at the very least, give the LCD the once-over, paying attention to those little details that can trip you up – I’ll provide a short list, but this is geared more towards my own shooting style and demands, and your priorities might be different, so adjust as needed.

settings screen on back LCD of Canon 7D
They’re all right there, easy to check, and you should know what each of these mean. There’s a sneaky little indicator of condition in there, too – can you spot it?

Mode: I’m usually in one of two modes for 90% of my shooting: Aperture Priority, and Manual. Virtually never in Program Auto, and I don’t think I’ve ever used the touristy modes depicted by little icons/emojis, what I call the Ducky-Horsey modes. On occasion when I switch to Shutter Priority or Bulb, however, these will mess me up unless I’m checking.

ISO: Again, most often at 250 for detail, and switching usually means I’m doing more low-light stuff. I don’t forget this often, but on occasion…

White Balance: I almost went past this one, since I virtually never change it, not liking how the camera manages it most times, but it can really shift your images if it’s wrong for conditions.

Exposure Compensation: Probably the most common one missed, both because I switch it so often and because the indicator is subtle. For many situations I’m trying to recognize what effect the subject and background are going to have on the camera’s automatic exposure setting (in Aperture Priority of course,) and will be tweaking this to try and produce the best results. Usually, it’s not more than 2/3 of a stop, which isn’t too bad, until the subject/setting really calls for going in the opposite direction. Most times when I’m caught on this, however, is when I’m switching back and forth between birds in the sky and against a darker background, like deep in the foliage or against the dark foliage reflecting off of the water. I’m usually in Canon’s Evaluative Metering, which does indeed compare the focus point against the surrounding frame and should automatically compensate for this, but too often, the subject in the focus point is much smaller than the area around it that Canon reads from, so it’s usually setting exposure for the background, i.e., the bright sky.

Custom Modes: On Canons this is ‘Picture Style,’ of which I’m usually using one of three, all set for specific lighting conditions: Normal, Low Contrast/Saturation, and High Contrast/Saturation. The latter two are set to oppose existing conditions to keep things under control, i.e., in high contrast conditions like bright sunlight, I switch to Low Contrast/Saturation to help prevent blowouts or inky-dark shadows, but will use the opposite when the light is overcast or muted.

settings on Sigma 180mm f3.5 macroLens settings: This is an insidious one, because it usually doesn’t show unless you turn the camera body to look at the lens barrel. Autofocus may be switched on or off, stabilization on or off, or the focus limiter set for something other than what you want. Stabilization is the trickiest, because you may not discover until you unload the images that it was switched off…

By the way, I will insert something here as a bonus tip. If you’re in an area where you’re switching back and forth between a general-purpose wider-angle lens, and a telephoto, it’s often a good idea to revert to the telephoto as a default, switching lenses even when the situation doesn’t immediately call for it. Here’s the reasoning: telephoto subjects like birds, deer, bears, etc. may pop up suddenly and present only a fleeting chance, not waiting around you for to do the lens change, while the wider-angle subjects, and even the macro ones, are typically less demanding that you get the shot within a few seconds or they’re gone, and will give you time to switch. It may mean more lens changes than is absolutely necessary, which does increase the odds of introducing dust into the interiors of both lens and camera body, but this habit has stood me well many times over. Ideally of course, you’d have two camera bodies and so both lenses are mounted, and you’ve at least seen photographers with two or more cameras at the ready. This is heavy and awkward, however, and I have yet to do a full session like this, especially since I can’t stand camera straps and hanging the damn things around my neck; when the long lens is mounted, camera and lens usually remain in hand, and then, where would I put them when I need the wide-angle camera? When the lens is detached, though, it gets stowed in a long lens case.

Other things to be aware of:

Metering Modes: Especially switching to Spot Metering, which is very easy to forget is in use, and it usually requires a certain presence of mind to be using in the first place.

Focus Modes: I don’t switch these often at all, but you might, and if you do, keep an eye on them.

Auto-Bracketing: There’s nothing more annoying than firing off three or more frames when you’re trying for candid or specifically-timed shots.

Menu and Custom Function Settings: In my own cases, this is most often Mirror Lock-up or higher frame rates, but things like Flash Sync mode, Flash Compensation, Noise Reduction, button assignments, and so on. Going from Mirror Lock-up to trying to track a bird flying past is seriously annoying, not to mention next to impossible as the viewfinder blacks out on the first shutter press, and while a second press will trip it as intended, you’ll have no idea where the bird is.

Arca-Swiss style quick-release plate and screwdriver on keyringQuick-release plates: This is a sneaky one if you’ve gotten used to them, and there’s nothing worse than getting someplace remote to set up on a tripod and finding out you removed the mounting plate earlier when you were using a flash bracket – this has made me not only carry an extra plate or two in the camera bag, the flash bracket now attaches to the quick release plate.

By the way, I now have a custom ‘screwdriver’ blade attached to my keyring specifically to tighten and loosen QR plates, because I rarely carry coins anymore and those little loops provided on the mounting screws are nowhere near enough to tighten a plate properly – they need to be cranked down.

What’s in the bag: If there’s something that you normally carry and you remove it for whatever reason, impress it upon your mind fiercely to put it back as soon as possible. This could be the QR plates previously mentioned, batteries, rain ponchos, your remote release, flash cords – whatever. if you’re almost anxious that you took it out in the first place, this is not a bad frame of mind to have, since such things are easy to forget and never notice until you’re on location and need them.

The Gig Check: Hoo boy, if you’re heading out on a paid assignment or a specific shooting situation, sit down and go over everything – have a list if it helps. Batteries charged, extra memory cards (or plenty of film,) all lenses in place, all accessories you might need handy, camera(s) and lenses clean and easy to access, special items added. This should also include backup equipment and contingencies for any failures, so yes, at least a second body and lenses to cover all likely focal lengths. Also, clothing you might need – I even carry spare sandals in the car when on student outings, since I had a blowout once and had to have The Girlfriend bring me another pair. Hat, sunscreen, water, parka, bear repellent, flare gun, portable helicopter – it’s easy to become overloaded, but bad if you need it and don’t have it, and if you’re under contract, this can have legal ramifications.

So, I reiterate: check those settings, and develop good habits to make it automatic. Even keep some of those frames where you didn’t, and the shot was ruined because of it, to remind yourself – it really does help. Good luck!

Did you spot that key element? It’s the aperture setting, reading “F00,” meaning a lens isn’t attached – or, in this case, a manual-focus lens not even intended for this camera, the Mamiya 80mm macro on an adapter.


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Icky ones

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

A handful of the pics that have been accumulating over the past couple of weeks; I decided to go with the creepy ones this time around.

First, if you recall when I tackled the jagged ambush bug some time back, I placed it on a healthy cluster of butterfly bush blossoms so it could continue capturing food, since they’re reluctant (for unknown reasons) to switch away from the dead heads. That one remained on the cluster I’d relegated it to, long after it should still have been useful.

jagged ambush bug Phymata still inhabiting long-dead cluster of butterfly bush Buddleja davidii blossoms
I mean, they’re well past the sell-by date, not to mention serving as absolutely no concealment whatsoever, but there it sits, visible even from a distance. Or at least, then – this was eleven days after placing it on this same cluster, which was healthy then, but eventually the ambush bug could no longer be found there, and that particular butterfly bush seems to have given up producing blossoms for the season now. Well, except for this:

sparse flower clusters of butterfly bush Buddleja davidii late in the season
For a bush that’s now notably taller than I am, and considerably wider (yeah, really,) it’s funny to see that it has but three pathetic little flower clusters like this, especially when the paler variety by the driveway, probably 1/10th the size, is still blooming enthusiastically. Ah well.

While out at night with the headlamp, it’s not uncommon to see little blue-green sparkles reflecting back at me from the eyes of spiders, but this is usually on the lawn or out on the pond surface – only occasionally do they come from plants more than a handful of centimeters off of the ground. The primary culprits are wolf spiders and fishing spiders, both wandering hunters and so spending most of their time where they can explore for their prey. Thus, when I got that little twinkle from about a meter up on a plant on the water’s edge, I had to take a look.

adult female six-spotted fishing spider Dolomedes triton suspended on outside of web nest near new hatchlings
That’s a six-spotted fishing spider (Dolomedes triton,) but don’t bother telling me there’s ten spots, because it refers to the spots on the belly which I admit I’ve never seen nor photographed, simply because they never show their bellies willingly and I’ve never sat down to tickle one. I know, right? Slack. This was a medium-sized one, large enough to give many people the heebies but much smaller than some I’ve seen, and yes, missing a leg. They don’t, however, make a cluster of weblines suspended on plants unless they’re up to one particular thing, which you might have spotted if you’re paying attention. Here’s a better look:

adult female six-spotted fishing spider Dolomedes triton suspended on outside of web nest guarding huge cluster of newly-hatched spiderlings
Yep, that’s a brood of newborns back there, all umpteen thousand of them (I counted,) remaining safe within this tent of webbing while mom remains alert for anything disturbing it, which I endeavored not to do. And yes, I focused on the bebbies for a few frames, specifically to satisfy all those doting mothers reading.

closeup of six-spotted fishing spider Dolomedes triton brood within protective web nest
So you know, in order to get this close, I had to be sitting on the ground right alongside the plant, which was right alongside the water, so I threw down a nylon ground cloth to try and keep my hiney dry. Except that this was right by a cluster of bald cypress knees, so doing this without pegging myself was challenging. And since the little adorables were deep within this tent, the flash was reflecting off of web strands throughout the frame, mostly defocused but still enough to throw light back and thus soften the pic. All while mom is sitting almost right underneath the tip of the lens. While I considered trying to capture an individual specimen for detailed closeups, I knew I could never get into the tent effectively without both earning the protective wrath of mom and scattering the bebbies, so I left that idea alone. I had intended to come back when daylight was striking the nest and see if I could get an angle that illuminated the young while producing as few reflections form the webbing as possible, but never tried, mostly because I strongly suspected sunlight would never actually hit the nest – mom’s smarter than that. So we have a tighter crop instead.

full-resolution crop of cluster of six-spotted fishing spider Dolomedes triton spiderlings in web nest
Still suffering from too much light scatter off of the webbing, but at least we have that one looking deep into the camera with those dreamy black eyes. No way to get an effective measurement, but I would say no more than 3mm across the leg spread.

I have no idea how long they remain in the protective nest, nor whether it’s mom or the young themselves that decide when it’s time to leave – I just checked (15 days after these pics were taken) and the nest is abandoned so, within two weeks? While individual strands of web could be found in several places on the same plant, I spotted no bebbies anywhere, and the web strands mean little – every plant in the yard likely has them, since spiders are everywhere.

Like under the kitchen window.

web of black-and-yellow argiope Argiope aurantia showing presence of adult by shadow on wall
The telltale white scribbles in the center of the web (as well as its size, close to a meter across,) indicates that this is the web of a black-and-yellow argiope (Argiope aurantia,) commonly known by a variety of other names though I knew them by ‘garden spider.’ The shadow give more of an indication that it’s occupied, even though her legs are visible if you look closely. She moved this web to several locations in this immediate area, disappearing at least twice, which seemed odd. And eventually, we found this:

egg sac of black-and-yellow argiope Argiope aurantia tucked under eaves alongside downspout
That’s her egg sac, well-separated from the main web and also well above my head under the eaves. I’ve been eyeballing it semi-regularly, and have seen no sign of hatchlings even though it now has a distinctly deflated look; whether this is from the bebbies springing forth or the bare fact that she produced it in the steaminess of summer and now it’s considerably cooler, I don’t know. I should probably examine the bush nearby to see if I can find any sprogs – I don’t think I’ve ever photographed newborn argiopes…

Okay, that’s the creepy ones out of the way. More pleasant ones to come.


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No living with me

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

For the last Tip Jar where I talked about making your own photographic accessories, I uploaded the design of the custom macro softbox to Thingiverse, a 3D design hosting site – I’d been meaning to do for a while but avoided it because, well, the softbox only works for one type of flash unit, long discontinued (though it’s possible the head shape is quite close to others from Canon.) I had uploaded it a few weeks previously to another hosting site, Printables, because they were having a design contest on photographic accessories – c’mon, they finally have a contest I can enter? Of course I’m there! As I type this, the contest (which ended September 14th) is still awaiting the jury…

Anyway, within 20 minutes of uploading the softbox to Thingiverse, it received a “Like,” surprising me a little because it was late at night – damn near everything I do online is late at night, because I like pretending I’m a teenager or, you know, one of those basement-dwellers. We won’t talk about where Walkabout Studios/Deep 13 is actually located…

Then a few days later, a message from the Community Relationship Manager at Thingiverse, saying I was “on the radar” for an upcoming feature and I should update my profile and bio if needed. I kind of treated this as form mail due to the new upload, and didn’t think much about it.

It was serious though, and I just got notice that the softbox is indeed featured on the Thingiverse front page. Well, cool!

screenshot from Thingiverse.com showing featured macro softbox of the author's design
Let me put this into perspective: Thingiverse has thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of users and uploaders, many of which far surpass my meager 15 designs, of which half are remixed versions of others’ work. Some of the designs are incredible, and nothing I would even remotely attempt to emulate. While I’m personally pleased with the softbox, it’s a niche design even if it was adaptable to multiple flash units, which it isn’t. So, I’m honored and a little surprised that it attracted this attention, but I’m not arguing.

Does it mean anything? Not really – more downloads of the design, perhaps some bleed over towards a few of the others, and perhaps one in 1,000 users might click through to the site here, which is indeed linked in the bio (and if you’re one of them, welcome, and thanks! There are snacks over on the aside table.) Otherwise, just a small boost to my ego, which you could determine because I’m posting about it.

Nonetheless, many thanks to the Thingiverse staff, especially Luis Cordoba, Community Relationship Manager, and to anyone and everyone who downloads any of my designs or remixes. If someone gets any benefit from them in any way, I’m pleased, and happy to help.

Anyway, back to the regular content, if anything here could be considered, “regular”…


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Estate Find 66

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

Quite surprised to see this little spud hanging out on one of the rainbarrels this morning.

juvenile treefrog likely squirrel treefrog Dryophytes squirellus alongside rainbarrel overflow pipe
The temperatures have dropped significantly after the brutal heat of the summer, and we went to late fall quickly, especially overnight, meaning the treefrogs we’d been seeing for months vanished abruptly, and even the anoles only venture out in midday. I found this one just a little after one AM alongside the overflow pipe for the rainbarrel nearest Deep 13, while it was a whopping 5° C out there (reminding me that the Brugmansia plants should have been transferred into the greenhouse by now.) You’ll notice a dearth of markings, but I’m fairly certain this is a juvenile from the size, especially since the species that are adult at this size have distinct traits and coloration. I run into this way too often: sure, the adults have such-and-such lines or spots or whatever, but not only is there often a lot of variation among amphibian patterns and colors, they don’t fully develop these until adulthood, and no one ever seems to catalog the juvenile variations. Their calls might be listed, which only helps if they’re calling in the first place, which ever-so-rarely happens when I’m close enough to see one. Usually, the calls stop as soon as I approach.

Given all that, however, the best match that I’m finding seems to be a squirrel treefrog (Dryophytes squirellus) – if you notice, the spelling of the common name of ‘squirrel’ doesn’t match the species squirellus, just to be confusing and because, I believe I’ve said before, taxonomists are a weird bunch (and yes, I’ve double-checked the spellings.) This species should be fairly common in the area, yet I’ve only found them twice before, if that – again, variations in markings. But while I was at it, I made sure to get a clear image of the back with what could be seen of the hindlegs.

back of juvenile treefrog, likely squirrel treefrog Dryophytes squirellus, on rainbarrel
No traits there that would seem to indicate other possibilities like the pinewoods treefrog, spring peeper, or any of the chorus frogs, so I’m staying with this one. I considered setting up a terrarium to keep it within for a day or two, especially to get more detailed pics of the sides, undersides, and legs, but had largely decided against it when I found that my model here had already moved on. On the neighboring rainbarrel, however, was a juvie green treefrog of near-identical size, so either a couple of species were braving these temperatures, or my model is a master of quick-change disguises.

Anyway, a little later on I’ll get back to the stuff I’ve had waiting, before I find even more stuff to feature and/or cut in line.


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