On composition, part 17: Point of focus


This probably should have been one of the earliest composition posts that I tackled, except that I think I always assumed it to be rather obvious. As I’ve examined numerous photos, including some of my own, I realize that its importance may need to be emphasized more, so let’s highlight point of focus.

This doesn’t simply mean choosing what the camera locks its autofocus onto. What read more

You know…

I was thinking about the animated feature Ratatouille earlier. The head chef, Skinner, was the villain in the movie, but I’m not sure why. His primary action throughout was trying to prove that Linguini was harboring a rat in the kitchen, which was true it even turned out that Linguini was a fraud and the rat was guiding his actions. Other than that, Skinner read more

It’s like a metaphor

Walkabout podcast – It’s like a metaphor

I realized I haven’t been trying hard enough to earn my Shrill and Strident merit badge, which is funny, because there are certainly enough subjects that reinforce my atheism which could be lambasted. So let’s delve into the use of metaphors in scripture. While this will largely apply to the abrahamic scriptures (meaning read more

Too cool, part 18: Hubble turns 23

Twenty-three years ago today, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into low-earth orbit (meaning about 555 km, or 345 mi, above the surface of the Earth.) Since that time, it has produced perhaps the largest body of work of any single telescope, and certainly some of the most detailed. And just recently, NASA released a sweetheart.

Let’s start with some perspective. Everyone (who matters) read more

Earth 2: Earth Harder


So, I did indeed brave the sunny, warm weather (which did not tax my sinuses half as much as yesterday) to chase a few shots, mostly by heading down to the river for a short while. I was primarily aiming to do some infra-red experiments, and did, but I took advantage of other conditions while I was there. Above, a common clearwing moth, also called a hummingbird moth (Hemaris read more

Earth rules!

It’s Earth Day, the day we celebrate our planet’s independence from the Barren Hegemony of the Solar System! It was a hard fought battle, especially since there was no one to fight it, but we (well, not specifically us the planet, anyway) persevered!

We typically celebrate our defiant animus by going outside and gloating. Admittedly, some people (you know, them) do things like read more

Don’t mess with a nature photographer

Just had to post this.

I came in this evening from being outside shirtless, horrifying the neighbors, and felt something walking on my chest. Looked down and found a little winged aphid – just the perfect size, to my way of thinking. Grasping it by the wings and scampering outside, I carefully placed it on the azalea bush in front of one of the newborn mantises. This was touchy – they’re read more

Call ’em as they lie

Maurice Williamson, a member of New Zealand’s Parliament, addresses the floor yesterday on a bill that would amend the state of marriage to apply to same-sex couples as well:

Initially, I really liked his statements. There’s still (despite my efforts) a lot of emphasis in this country on not speaking sarcastically, especially in something as official as government assemblies. It was refreshing read more

Pizza boy

This is probably the best photo I’m ever going to get of this, so I have to share. This is what spider sex looks like.


The female is the larger one, which is very typical of spiders. The little ‘legs’ seen here extending out to the front are pedipalps, and one of the ways you can easily (well, more or less) tell the gender of a spider, because the male’s are read more

Bugfest

One of those items on my mental list of images to capture is the emergence of newborn mantises from their egg sac. I’ve gotten recently hatched nymphs a couple of times, but none ever emerging.


On spotting an egg sac near the pond in the park close by a few days ago, I found dangling debris, the shredded structure of the sac, that indicates the hatching has already occurred. read more

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