Not quite over it yet


I know this is a poor showing for National Wildlife Week, but hey, I think every week is National Wildlife Week, so chill. I been busy.

Anyway, in poking around today after staging a few shots for a presentation, I came across this little lovely, in a very typical place for such: on a rock, in a cranny sheltered by a clump of leaves. This is a southern black widow (Lactrodectus read more

Macro photography, part three

I threatened earlier to return to this if you weren’t good, so you only have yourself to blame, but herewith, a quick tutorial on a method of macro photography called dark field photography.

Most times, this is used with microscopic subjects, which technically isn’t macro photography but photomicrography instead. The essence is, the visible background of the image is dark, yet the subject read more

My god! It’s full of snails!


When I was in Florida, I maintained a saltwater aquarium in the most casual way possible, by simply replenishing it with water from the nearby Indian River Lagoon routinely. The occupants were primarily porcelain crabs, tiny hermit crabs, and read more

Spoke too soon, perhaps

In yesterday’s ‘Too cool’ installment, I lamented not being able to illustrate the topic with my own images, and suspected I’d have no opportunity to do so. This was an abject ploy to make you feel sorry for me.

However, I soon became wracked with guilt over such blatant manipulations. Not to mention that, while searching through my images last night to illustrate a couple read more

Too cool, part 13: I’m a spider, raargh!

Since I have yet to obtain any images illustrating this (and because there may not even be examples of such within this country, I may not ever, sniff,) I refer you to Alex Wild of Myrmecos fame, guest-blogging on Scientific American’s site, for his post on “The fly that banks on arachnophobia.

If you wish, pause for a second and try to imagine how a fly might benefit from something read more

More classes

Now that the details are finalized, I can announce that I’m instructing another photography offering, sponsored by Youth Community Project in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area of North Carolina. This is a basic photography seminar, open to youths aged 12-18, and will run for six weeks on Thursday read more

I just do what I’m told


When going back through my files of images, I can get a rough idea of what time of year photos were taken by the apparent seasons displayed within. Sometimes.

Friday, after meeting with a student I went down to the North Carolina Botanical Garden to drop off some paperwork, and took the opportunity to check the potential of staging a few photos that read more

But how? Part six: Love and Beauty

Walkabout podcast – But how? Part 6

I probably should have tackled this one sooner, but I’d gone through a period with too few discussions on religion and this favored argument had simply slipped my mind. So for the next part of the “But How?” series read more

Mortal remains

My recent reading material sparked some older memories and led to an extended examination, which is how many of my posts come about, and while such topics aren’t tackled too often by those who promote critical thinking, there’s nothing that should limit the application of such. So, let’s talk about dead people.

Many years ago when I lived in central New York (you know, the few million read more

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