Another brief look, in daylight

I’m quite pleased to have gotten this. I was up yesterday at first light, not exactly intentionally, but used the opportunity to watch for duck and geese raids on the pond edge. Instead, I realized I was hearing the juvie barred owl (Strix varia) calls from right in the backyard again, so I gathered the long lens and tripod and went out looking.

While two were in evidence from the calls, I read more

Even though he’s a handsome devil…

Wonder of wonders, I can actually put together a short video! Don’t get too used to it, though…

Total display/dispute lasted just a couple of minutes, and probably only occurred because the anole scampered across the door when the sun was right. We’ll see more of that reflective film (primarily in place so we can observe the wood ducks without spooking them) in a little bit.

By the read more

Tip Jar 26: Perspective tool

We’re halfway through now, and I regret picking this kind of topic a little, because many of these posts take a fair amount of work and I’m often pushing the deadline, like I am now. It’s not like there’s a firm deadline anyway, just the one I arbitrarily chose, and you probably couldn’t even tell me the one I blew by several hours. Still, I’m trying to be conscientious, read more

Right on top of it

Ha! More puns on multiple levels!

So sometime last year, when out early, I observed a northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) on top of a Leyland cypress tree, venting forth with a varied and seemingly neverending barrage of calls, many of them lifted from other birds I vowed then to return with the long lens and tripod and capture video of it. This finally happened, oh, read more

Can’t ask for more

I mentioned in the previous post that, after seeing the barred owl (Strix varia) family without a camera in hand, we may try to remedy that with another kayak excursion down there. However, yesterday I got busy on modifying the dock, and then the rains rolled in, so we never actually took the kayaks out.

Right around midnight, I was in the kitchen and heard the juvie call, and it sounded close read more

Tip Jar 25: Using the Clone or Rubber Stamp tool

Another entry in the GIMP tutorials, this one in patching grunge and unwanted doodads within your image. Generally a pretty straightforward process – until it isn’t, and this is intended to head off some of those stumbling blocks that can make things frustrating. Don’t get me wrong you will still have a lot of trial-and-error, back-and-forth attempts, especially read more

Tip Jar 24: Dodging and burning

Another post on digital editing, this one for (as it says,) dodging and burning, which is lightening or darkening selected portions of an image. This used to be a common darkroom technique, though it’s probably a bit less-so now, but it’s still handy to know how to accomplish. This is definitely one where practice and experimentation will improve the results. So herewith, a quick video read more

(Off) Estate Find 63

Poking around at night by the headlamp again, endeavoring not to get eaten by a bear, I realized there was a faint sound that kept repeating, and I didn’t recognize it as anything ‘typical’ – the frogs were making a racket down at the pond, but this wasn’t a frog. So I started following read more

Send nutes

I’ve stalled on this video compilation for too long, especially since I have another waiting in the wings that now has far too many clips to add to it, but here it is, anyway: more of what goes on at the pond edge, mostly at night, but there are a couple day clips in there.

Now, I’m well aware that a video this length will cause a certain percentage of people to simply skip it, unable read more

Now and then


Well, it’s now “Then and then,” since I didn’t quite get things done while it was still World Turtle Day, but I got to recognize the holiday a little, anyway. The photos are all from WTD, which was yesterday now, though the video from a week ago. I did a patrol of the Estates while it wasn’t raining, but found nothing to do any closeups read more

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