To the best of my knowledge (and searches through old negatives,) this is my first successful lightning capture, dating back from 1996 I believe. Moreover, it was captured in a non-standard way, because the storm rolled through at dusk and the sky wasn’t fully dark, so a long exposure was out of the question. Thus, as the wicked activity rolled around me, I held my Olympus
Author: Al Denelsbeck
Topspin
In table tennis (at least,) there’s a common technique where, when you return a volley, you snap the paddle laterally and introduce spin to the ball, which causes it to bounce erratically when it hits the table on your opponent’s side, hopefully causing them to miss the return. Topspin generally means the bounce will be very low and the ball even accelerates usually,
Mostly typical
I did a student outing to Jordan Lake three days back, now concentrating on more species than just the woodpeckers, but mostly seeing what I normally do, with a couple of exceptions. But first, an observation that I meant to post earlier and forgot. This sunset shot dates from the 14th – nothing exciting, just an illustration, because the next one is from the 18th.
In between,
None. None more cyan
I was thinking I’d used a variation of this title before, but not according to my title list. It was probably one of the images…
Regardless, a little break before we get back to more birds.
This is one of those sorting finds that I just thought you needed to see the details of, a tiny damselfly from the yard. It’s likely a skimming bluet (Enallagma geminatum,)
Nature photographer’s lottery
Given the success of previous efforts and the fact that I had the opportunity to pursue such actions, I’ve been making more trips down to Jordan Lake to try and keep an eye on the red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) nest. It hasn’t been daily, nor for more than a couple hours at a time (mostly,) due to storms and heat and, you know, having a life.
Visibly different, part 25
A little bit different approach this week, sparked by stumbling across this in my folders. I have no idea who this is, because the image was uploaded to a newsgroup dedicated to Photoshop as a challenge: to see who could restore it to an acceptable state. I wasn’t actively participating, but I downloaded it anyway to see what I could do with it, and according
Extraneous
I have a lot of video editing to do, which you will see the evidence of shortly – probably not tonight, but it should be within 24 hours anyway. Right now, I’m just throwing up a quick moon pic, taken early this morning as I was setting up the tripod – the detail came out nicely, and I didn’t even bother boosting contrast or anything. Just wanted
So far, so good
A week ago now, I posted about finding the nest of a red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus,) including being able to see the opening clearly enough that I should be able to spot the nestlings as they got bigger and closer to fledging out and leaving the
Visibly different, part 24
What were you up to 35 years ago?
I was a bit surprised to find this one while reviewing my old negatives, because I don’t remember it at all. Nonetheless, I can pin it down to central New York in 1987, and even better, it most likely was taken on August 13th. Naturally, this is a long night exposure anchored on Polaris, the north star, and shows a long-trail meteor
Slightly more exotic
On Wednesday, I made a trip out to a coastal region of North Carolina, specifically the Wilmington/Fort Fisher area – not my first choice of beachy areas, but I had a reason to be out there that wasn’t photo-related. Nonetheless, I left early and managed to be out at Fort Fisher shortly after 7 AM, seeing what the morning held.
I took a little opportunity to be fartsy