If you’ve been checking out that sidebar for past posts, you knew this was coming: Thursday, October 15th, is National Grouch Day, an honest-injun American holiday that, if we’re being faithful, we can’t really celebrate,
Author: Al Denelsbeck
Mason Farm 1: Fartsy
I got enough photos from a recent outing to Mason Farm Biological Reserve to separate them into two broader categories, so we start off with the fartsy ones, since I don’t do art.
Actually, we’ll start off starting off with a setting one.
We couldn’t quite call this ‘fog,’ (or at least, I couldn’t, but Buggato had no problem with it) –
More random stuff from the pond
Just a handful of photos, other stuff that I collected on the same days that I was shooting the great egret and the turtles. More or less, anyway – I actually returned to capture the above shot of newborn six-spotted fishing spiders (Dolomedes triton) because I didn’t have the macro flash rig along when I first spotted them. Unfortunately, the nice composition
Not the bluest
On a sunset outing to Jordan lake almost a week ago, we had clear skies – not ideal for sunset – except for some haze down on the horizon – not ideal for birds, which were pretty much the only thing that we saw. The majority of those were more distant, which put them down lower and thus against the haze, so most of the backgrounds for this post are going to be
Intermission, part 1
I find it interesting that I’ve never used this blog title before (I keep a list,) and expect to want to again, so, part one it is. These are some of the semi-random images that were obtained between bigger or more thematic sessions that will appear here shortly.
While ambling around the nearby pond, I spotted these yellow-bellied sliders (Trachemys scripta scripta)
Yeah, that’s, uh, timing
So, a few minutes back, I’d been editing photos for an upcoming post and had taken a break, skimming though some nonsense posts from theChive.com. The particular one was about the scariest sounds anyone has ever heard. Just to set the scene, it’s
On this date 41
It would appear that we’ve entered the slow season now, at least if the numbers of the images in my date spreadsheet are any indication, so not a lot to offer this week – next week will be worse, because I’ve already peeked. For now, we hearken back ten years, to the first little Copes grey treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis) to take up residency with me, alongside
More luck than normal
It had been a while since I’d spent any time at all at the nearby pond, so the other afternoon I wandered over to see what could be found. Right off the bat, I could see a great egret (Ardea alba) hanging out at the nearest edge, about where the green herons had been hunting earlier. Pausing well back where I wouldn’t spook it, I affixed the long lens and began
Because Tuesday follows Monday
Back indeed, with the animated gif (pronounced, “GAL-eh-fray”) that I wanted to include, because it shows better this way. I tweaked the colors to come close to matching, and while it might seem that I didn’t line them up well enough, I think we’re actually seeing the libration between the two shooting sessions, the wobble that the moon performs as it orbits the Earth and
Because it’s Monday (part two, fer sure)
As threatened, I have the next phase of the moon, appearing on the same day as the previous phase, being shot at a little after 11 pm. You can compare it to the previous post to see the reduced amount of light, but, given that it was lower on the horizon and the atmospheric conditions were different, there’s a different color cast. Plus I think I may have had saturation settings



















































