Depends on where you look

We are rapidly approaching ‘peak’ autumn color season here in this section of NC, which is slightly misleading in a couple of ways. First off, peak is different depending on latitude, humidity, and the conditions that the trees were in throughout the summer, so you never have to go very far to find different color conditions. Second, the trees all change at different times and different read more

I’ll have to do this in the front yard someday


Wouldn’t it be a great diorama, about a thousand times life size?

For Halloween this year, I feature a jumping spider, most likely an Habronattus pyrrithrix (what a great name,) peering out from around the edge of a dog fennel stalk. I captured this while in pursuit of another subject one evening a few years ago, and the flash angle was ideal to produce the ominous effect with the read more

Green day

Not today – today has been rain all day. These are all from a few days back, and noticeably had the green thing going on, so…

Over at the pond nearby, a pale green assassin (Zelus luridus) like the one seen a few posts back posed in shadow on the pod of a buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis.) While I’ve been seeing them from the start of the insect season this read more

On the negative side 6


For this escapee from the film negative vault, we go back, oh, about twelve years to a casual photo competition on the rec.photo.equipment.35mm newsgroup (c’mon, don’t make me explain that, it’s not that old.) While I was well into shooting on slide film at the time, I often did the competition shots on negative film and took them to the local drugstore read more

Real quick

First off, you do know Halloween is coming, right? This little lady seems to…

I know, after claiming I could completely blow off the blog in the last post, I pretty much completely blew off the blog, a demonstration of dependability from me that is entirely unprecedented – it just took the right motivation. More is coming shortly, since I have some recent pics to feature, but first is read more

Monday color 37+

So, the important stuff first: with this post I surpass all previous records for posting within a year, and we’re only in mid-October! Everything past this point is gravy, and even if I stop posting now, I’ve still got that accomplishment under my belt. It’s a warm fuzzy feeling, let me tell you.

A lot of this is due, naturally, to starting this whole “Monday color” read more

Monday color 37

Decisions, decisions…

We have an Euonymus americanus in the yard, more commonly known as a “hearts-a-bustin'” or even a strawberry bush, the latter by people with little imagination and no concept of being confusing as hell, since it has no relation to the plant that actually produces strawberries. As can be seen here, instead it has a remarkable display when the seeds read more

The nights get chilly


That’s the best reason I can think of for suddenly finding a grey treefrog sitting atop a fencepost two afternoons back, since the active season has passed and I haven’t even been hearing their calls for a while now. But I suspect that, with the temperature dropping to around 15°c (59°f) overnight, the ectothermic amphibian was aiming to warm up a bit and aid read more

Defying the rain

The nice thing about going long periods without rain is that scheduling photo outings isn’t difficult – provided you can cope with the heat. The recent rains have changed this quite a bit, and I’ve had to switch several student appointments around due to cruddy weather. This past Saturday, we watched the weather reports on practically an hourly basis and chanced a botanical garden read more

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