It’s slow of course, and I have little to post about – some lens tests, if I can get motivated to do them – but it’s also approaching that time of year, and so I’m once again reposting something that originally fell into the ‘Amateur Naturalist’ category, but now with a new name while lacking any actual new content (thus, like most product upgrades anymore,
Author: Al Denelsbeck
Visibly different, part 7
Our opening image comes from the heady, halcyon days of slide film, 1999 to be precise, and depicts a southern unstriped scorpion (Vaejovis carolinianus.) I was in no danger when obtaining this photo, since scorpions in North America have relatively weak venom, little more than bee stings, and anyway this one was
First of the year!
Well, okay, no, this doesn’t actually count. I guess I need more qualifiers.
I’ve long had a standard that spring has finally arrived when I saw the first treefrogs, as I have tonight, but we’re not going to count this one. First off, it’s in the greenhouse, which is of course remaining unnaturally warmer than the surrounding climate, and while it got up to a lovely 21°c
A little discipline
“Alright, you mooks, close into formation, and let’s keep it tight!”
“What is this? If I wanted to command a bunch of grandmammas, I’d open a bingo parlor! I said tight!”
.
.
“That’s better!”
[Just a couple of pics from today, down at Jordan Lake, as I get more of a post in order. These are double-crested cormorants, by the way, and I need to note
Midnight blue
A few years back now, I received a very appropriate gift from The Girlfriend’s Sprog, in the form of a ‘Bio Orb‘* – a self-sustaining aquarium containing bioluminescent dinoflagellates. These are nearly microscopic phytoplankton that, at night, glow briefly brilliant blue when
Will it work?
Ah, that’s the question, isn’t it? It’s taken a lot of prep work so far, and initial experiments have proven that the concept is sound, but will it pay off? We won’t know until at least tonight, possibly later.
At least none of the prep work will be wasted if the experiment fails, since it can all be used elsewhere. And it hasn’t cost me anything, except reducing my
Visibly different, part 6
We open with a shot from 2005, of Looking Glass Falls in Brevard, in the top two of familiar waterfalls in North Carolina. But this one isn’t the ‘best’ that I got while there, because I certainly got a lot closer, and did longer exposures to make the water all blurred and cottony, and all that. Instead, this was to illustrate the public access areas, as well
Proof of concept
Did a quick pass around the nearby pond today, more to get out while the weather was actually pleasant than to chase photo subjects because the light was far from ideal, but I wasn’t so pathetic that I failed to take the camera. So when the little buff female mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) cruised by, I snagged a few frames, including a lovely portrait.
Of all the various summer
But how? Part 30: Responsibility
[As a throwback to the early days, I did this one as a podcast too, so you can hear the audio of it immediately below. But if sounds like a long-overdue brake job bother you, you can simply read the text version.]
Walkabout podcast – But How? part 30: Responsibility
This is one that I’ve touched on here and there before, but I was reminded of it while watching Julia Sweeney’s
Visibly different, part 5
We’re going to go a little backwards on this one. We start off with a time exposure from August 17th, 1989, and despite it being on a negative with no date stamp, I can be this precise because it was taken following a total lunar eclipse, and I already knew the year and season. If I was really slick, I could give you a decent time too, because I know the precise