I had to go back through my images to peg down this time frame, but ten weeks ago, a green lynx spider (Peucetia viridans) created an egg case on one of the flowering fronds of the pampas grass in the yard. I kept checking on progress, looking for spiderlings, but never saw anything,
Category: Nature
Amateur naturalism, part five
While I’ve covered some details about specific types of animals in the previous posts, I’ve been slow in getting back to some overall tips that apply to all of them, so with that in mind, let’s talk about behavior.
Years ago I worked at a humane society that, among many other things, offered obedience classes and sport training for dogs, as well as some counseling on behavior problems.
Muttering darkly behind winter’s back
North Carolina winters are usually not too dire, and we can count on some good outdoor weather pretty much throughout, but this doesn’t mean that good photo subjects will be as readily available, so I’m resigned (albeit reluctantly) to the arrival of the slow season. This little gallery is my minor act of defiance.
Above, a photo that’s harder to capture than you might imagine.
On composition, part 15: The background
We all have experience with missing something right under our noses, or someone speaking to us who remains totally unheard because we’re concentrating on something else. The proper term for this is inattention blindness, and lots of videos and examples can be found online (Richard Wiseman, over there in the sidebar links, deals with this trait from time to time.) It is something that
Autumn colors?
Well, that’s what I was initially after, but the conditions weren’t right at the nearby river, so I chased other images instead. They look better at higher resolution, so here’s me making the page very long.
No, I’m not on a water droplet kick, but if it looks cool, Ima take a pitcher of it…
Not quite
Yes, being a northern hemispheran, autumn is encroaching here, which means the availability of subjects is waning rapidly and I’m going to be grumpy and irritable for a few months (not helped at all by sinuses that react badly to the conditions.) Yet, there are still some last holdouts defying the season, like an aster flower that abruptly came into bloom under the dog fennel
Odd memories, part eight
When living in Florida in 2004, I was in an apartment complex with a central pond, which was only six meters from the back side of the apartment. This was a sliding glass door leading onto a screened patio, and during the warmer months, this door remained open while I was home (during the hotter months, however, the air-conditioning was on so the door stayed closed.)
At about three AM one morning,
Just because, part six
As the weather turned rather chilly, and more than a smidgen damp, I decided to play with the squishy conditions.
Did you know that those paranormal ‘orbs’ have a tendency to hide behind drops of water? Strange but true…
This is how it goes
So, are you considering becoming a nature and wildlife photographer? Then let me tell you a little story, but I’ll caution you not to consider this typical.
Last night, while examining the dog fennel plants for photo subjects, I came across a few dead ants and a
But it’s not a bug
I know, I know, I go from bugs to snakes – more of a lateral move instead of an improvement, but chill something else may be coming soon.
I see about one of these a year, and it seems to be about this time, too. I’m not aware of anything that would make rough green snakes (Opheodrys aestivus) appear in early autumn, so I’m going to guess this is only coincidental. I found