Earlier this evening but on a previous day, I was doing a bit of blog maintenance and checked the post count so far this year: 166 (not counting this one of course.) That not only beats out last year’s count already, by four posts, but places this year fourth out of eleven years so far, with six weeks to go. Am I gonna set a new record? Not likely, because that’s held
Author: Al Denelsbeck
On composition, part 29: Captive animals
An amusing (or maybe pathetic – I keep getting them confused) side note before I begin: damn near every time that I mention captive animal photography on the blog, I make some kind of defensive comment about it as if people are routinely, derisively pointing out that real nature photographers wouldn’t shoot captives, and all of their
From the lair of the Lion came the Fire
Boy, a couple of capital letters makes everything dramatic, doesn’t it? But all I’m referring to is the Leonids meteor shower, which should be peaking tomorrow night or thereabouts.
I have reminders set up on my calendar for about a week in advance, because you can start seeing activity well before a peak, and the Leonids has, at times, been a pretty damn good shower. And I’ve had
Cytotoxin & Euphoria
Let’s be honest: there aren’t any webcomics that I’ve come across that fit in with the theme of this blog, whatever that may be, and don’t ask me why because I’m sure this is a huge untapped market, judging from the visit stats and comments. But I still find the occasional conjunction, a chance tangency that gives me confidence that
Storytime 46
Today’s image comes from a few years back, on the trail leading towards one of my old photographic haunts. Like most of the US, trash can often be found anywhere, but especially so alongside roads, because the overbearing inconvenience of waiting until a garbage can is handy far outweighs any concern about environment, or appearance, or responsibility, and so on –
Just because, part 33
The weather across much of the continent has turned cold and ugly, and I think we need a reminder of the spring that will come, so here are some cherry blossoms on the ornamental tree in the front yard.
But to be honest, these are not from the spring to come, but this past spring, because I’ve never dumped the money on a camera that advanced. There’s no way to prove
Podcast: Motivation
It’s been a while since the last podcast, and in fact, this year has been notably thin on that front, this only being the fifth for the year – just haven’t had either the subjects or the time. So perhaps today’s topic is a little ironic, even if it’s timely with the season slowing down, because we’re going to talk about motivation.
Walkabout
On the trail of fall color
The season for getting good conditions for nature and wildlife photos in North Carolina is winding down, as it does every fall, and like every fall, I find no nice colorful landscapes within easy reach to do broad scenic images. Partially, this is because of the trees themselves this region of NC at least has far too many hateful longneedle pines, which are ugly
Storytime 45
It would be easy to miss a little detail in today’s image, and in fact I likely missed it when I was shooting the frame, three years ago, but there’s evidence of a curious effect to be found here. It’s subtle, and may be missed if your monitor’s gamma is set incorrectly, because we need the details in the shadows.
In my defense, I did see at least a portion of what I’m
“You paid money to do this”
I mentioned earlier that there was some potential content coming, and lo and behold, here it is! We had friends visit last weekend, mostly to help us with a major project (which they achieved in exemplary fashion,) but also to kick around a bit, and one of the activities that I’ve been itching to do again since the first time during the