And a crayfish, briefly

National Wildlife Day, which was yesterday, was actually a pretty nice day for February, nicer than February actually deserves because it’s in winter and also spelled stupidly. And since I had a photo outing scheduled, I succeeded in getting plenty of photos of wildlife, if by ‘wildlife’ you mean ‘birds,’ with one exception. A moderate variety of birds too, at least read more

Just once, part 8


So not only has this species only appeared once before here, I’ve only seen them once in my entire life (in the wild anyway,) despite the fact that they’re supposed to be quite common. So I was delighted to spot this eastern kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula) just snoozing out in the open in a heavily wooded spot alongside Jordan Lake, but it also was amazingly read more

These might work

Just so you know, Thursday (February 22nd) is National Wildlife Day, so call in sick that day and go find wildlife, even if it’s captive wildlife in a zoo or nature park or something, but preferably really and for true in the wild, which means outdoors. Now, c’mon – how many of your coworkers failed to show up the day after Super Bowl or some such rot? read more

Living in the past XXIX

Things are still slow on the nature photography end, and even I won’t post about hashing out designs for the 3D printer (there – we found a limit to what I’ll post happy now?) So I’m bringing up one of the entries I had in reserve, if needed, to bring the count up last year and make a meaningless anniversary, while we wait for more current items of interest.


2016 read more

Just once, part 7


This post has changed a bit. First, I had a subject that I realized would fit better later on in the year, and so I rescheduled it. Then I chose another subject, but as I was finalizing that draft, I noticed that it was going to post on a holiday, and thought I might be able to find something more appropriate, and pushed that one to next week. So at least we now have something read more

Wait, you’re not green


While grabbing something out of the yard tonight by the light of the headlamp, I happened to check out the backyard pond, because it’s reasonably warm and raining, which is usually enough to stir any resident frogs. And sure enough, at least one was sitting idly in the shallows, but another might have skipped into the water at my approach. So I went back inside and got the read more

Just once, part 6


It’s not particularly surprising that this critter has only been featured once here, since I stumbled across it at the beach along New Topsail Inlet, coastal North Carolina. I’ve been to the inlet itself several times, including one short snorkeling excursion, but it appears that vagaries of currents and conditions drove several examples of this species close to, and read more

Better to be prepared…

After realizing that I could use some enhancements to my shooting rig for a particular topic, I ended up designing and making them in record time. And to my own surprise, they work quite well, with fewer issues and modifications than I thought I’d need. I present to you the tactical special ops night stalker imaging rig, the Beav Team Six:


Actually, it’s missing the Vivitar read more

A trend?

I got out and did a little shooting today, by heading down to Jordan lake while the skies were clear and the temperatures reasonable (meaning about 15°c, but a stiff breeze down on the water.) I wasn’t expecting anything, though I was hoping, and as it was, things fell someplace in the middle. The skies were empty and quiet, but before too long I spotted a lone bald eagle (Haliaeetus read more

Just once, part 5


The age of this photo is not just displayed by the condition of the negative (which has even been cleaned up a bit from the original,) but by the perch of the bird here, my roommate’s rack for holding cassette tapes – those are not my music choices. Are there even some cassingles in there? Anyway, I peg this around 1994 or so, and I believe it represents the latest image read more

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