Sunday slide 51


So some years back, Jim Kramer (the Official Other Blog Image Contributor) drove us out to a small island in the middle of the Haw River outside of Burlington. At one point well in the past, the island had been occupied, with the remains of a house thereon, and at the time of this image access was still available on foot, though the road up to this bridge was closed to any vehicles. read more

Blogging conditions: 2

Yeah, sorry, I really haven’t been posting much at all, and while I’m aware of it and trying, there really hasn’t been a lot to say. Photography has dropped down to almost nil, and I’ve been busy with countless projects (one of which, at least, will eventually be evident,) and also recovering from some walking difficulty which makes me understandably reluctant to go out looking read more

Sunday slide 50


Many years back I sometimes hired myself out for various photographic jobs, and one of them was for the museum. They had an ancient parchment map delineating the borders during an unknown period in European history, and wanted some detailed photos of it so they could make measurements without chancing damage to the fragile original.

I’m lying again – the real story is almost as interesting, read more

Tell me what you think

Among the other things that I’ve been up to, when I’m not posting as regularly as I should be, has been studying art in an effort to improve my photography. It’s led to some interesting speculation about how we interpret some particular pieces, and made me want to throw it out there to my myriad (3) readers to see if you had similar reactions. So here are a couple of images for read more

Sunday slide 49


So to begin with, this is another where I can’t quite remember where it was taken, but since there are no big hills in the area and I hadn’t been to the mountains when this was shot back in 1998, I have reasonable certainty that it was taken overlooking a lake. I don’t think I’d yet discovered Falls Lake, so I’m going with Jordan. I’m sorry I read more

I still love this lens

Or, The Ballad of an Equipment Experimenter.

Yesterday while the Irascible Mr Bugg and I were out in the woods arguing over lens changes, I spotted a flash of pale wings in the sun and followed them. Turned out to be a variety of grasshopper (one of the big ones, that I tend to call a locust) that had spooked at our approach but landed read more

On composition, part 27: Seeing ghosts


There appears to be, at least to me, a fundamental difference between how we view photographs and how we view ‘real life.’ It might say something interesting about our perceptions, but that’s a philosophical post for another time. When out someplace photogenic, for instance, we tend to notice certain things and yet entirely miss others, even when they fall within read more

Too cool, part 36: Better than a lava lamp

And I like lava lamps.

This video comes courtesy of NASA, and the Astronomy Picture of the Day. It’s an elaborate computer simulation based on satellite and weather data, and shows the wind activity in the north Atlantic just a few months ago, during the peak of hurricane season.

It’s surprising to see such detail so soon after the season occurred, but it gives us a good view of how the read more

Sunday slide 48


I’m fairly certain the dragonfly is an eastern pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis.) But that’s not the only species visible in the shot. Take as much time as you need to find the other, before you check out Sunday slide 13, which should visually clue you in. Yes, they were read more

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