Just because, part 45

Al Denelsbeck

Some time back, I’d started noodling with a post idea and did a few slide scans to flesh it out, then never liked what I was producing and tossed it. But that gives us this slide, once again from a trip to Florida, representing the only image I think I have of ‘the Everglades.’

open channel in Everglades from airboat
I mean, I have plenty taken within, but no others of it – nothing that shows the broader landscape, as it were. This one was taken from an airboat ride, one of the many that you can find advertised as you go along Rt 41, otherwise known as the Tamiami Trail because 41 runs from Tampa, south along the west/gulf coast, that cuts across the northern edge of the Everglades over to Miami. It’s a local route rather than an interstate, so it’s dozens of times more interesting than I-75 further north. On a previous trip I’d gone out on a snorkeling excursion to the coral reef near Key Largo, and on this one I was debating whether I’d do so again or take an airboat ride. Key Largo was several hours away, and I’d never been on an airboat, so it won out, but I have to say it was unimpressive. I’m sure airboats are fun if you’re at the helm, but when you’re just a passenger and don’t come across anything interesting, well, I can’t be too enthusiastic about them.

Still, I liked the feel, the representative example of the vast swamp (even when it doesn’t look too big here,) and those stacked and layered clouds mimicking the treeline were cool. And then, interested in the subtleties of their textures, I converted it to greyscale.

open channel in Everglades from airboat, in greyscale
It took a little selectivity in the Curves function in GIMP to bring them out this way, but it’s making the most out of monochrome. Now, to me, it seems later in the day with a storm threatening, perhaps not the best time to follow any channels too far ahead. The clouds are no longer background but more dominant in the frame, almost palpable in their shapes, while the channel grasses are even more coarse-looking. This is not deceptive, either: we passed a little too close to some of the tall stands of grass on the airboat and they’re not good to encounter at speed.

By the way, if you’ve never done this, go check out the Everglades in Google Earth or Google Maps, just for the sake of it. The dearth of roads says a lot, but satellite view is plenty expressive.

Dittyday 6: The Motels

Al Denelsbeck

Just so you know, this one was brought to mind, and eventually found its way here, because of a lyrics quiz.*

The Motels are a band that barely escaped ‘one-hit wonder’ status in the early eighties, mostly by having two songs that became popular, but part of this was because these songs departed from their normal style; their other work, or at least everything that I found when I started checking them out more, just didn’t gel into the pop culture of the time. While they dropped into obscurity fairly quickly, just about everyone that listened to music in the eighties will recognize both songs, even if it’s with, “Oh, yeah – I haven’t heard this in a while.” Lead singer and guitarist Martha Davis has a strong, distinct voice, slightly haunting, and uses it to good effect in both of their hits. The members of the band are not what I would consider ‘accomplished’ musicians and their compositions are simplistic, but they use this very well to produce recognizable riffs and melodies, where the music stays with you just as much, if not more so, than the singing – it doesn’t take instrumental expertise to create a ‘hook.’ Both songs remain a bit formulaic, and brief, but they fill it out well and demonstrate a good knowledge of balanced instruments and counterpoint lyrics. Full credit to Davis: no transcript of lyrics is necessary to follow her. This is the better song, ‘Only the Lonely’ (from the album of the same name) released in 1982. And since this is the eighties, a saxophone serves as an integral part of the bridge, but as I’ve said before, this is many times better than the folk guitar trend that sprung up in the nineties. Meanwhile, since I’m the one bringing this to your attention, you know the bass forms a strong part of the melody.

Only the Lonely – The Motels

Their next hit isn’t as strong, and lyrically it’s vague and lackluster, though Davis still makes it work – you’re listening for the vocals, not really the story. It evokes the ‘end of summer’ vibe quite well, even when the reference to “last summer” seems to imply this was some time past rather than happening in the present. Again, fairly simple musically, and this time resorting to the over-sustained guitar riff that is used far too often, muddying up the actual notes and chords; this would have been much better with the effects toned down, but at least it only appears in the bridge. Given all that, it still has the ability to stay with you, the keyboard fills remaining behind in your head for a long time. This is ‘Suddenly Last Summer’ from 1983, off of the album Little Robbers.

Suddenly Last Summer – The Motels

Listening to some of their other work, you might find that the voice is recognizable, but not at all the style, and the broody and soulful lyricist has given way to someone a bit wilder, which is plainly visible in some of the videos of their work, especially live – Davis seems a little of a ham. I’d have to say I’m better with just the audio.

[A brief side note: While I’ve only included the audio in this post, the videos are easy to find if you’re so inclined, and the one for ‘Only the Lonely’ was directed by Russell Mulcahy, who’s been mentioned here before and, really, has done a shitload of music videos as well as several feature films. Once you’ve seen a few, you’ll start recognizing similarities and style. Music videos, especially in the early days, could be all over the place, but Mulcahy’s likely set a standard for those that followed, usually being quite elaborate productions with a great sense of place and mood.]

* “We kiss altogether wrong – no intention”

Visibly different, part 10

Al Denelsbeck

“So, Al,” you ask, eyeing me shrewdly, “why do so many of your initial Visibly Different images come from Florida? Is this, like, a thing with you?” But I scoff loudly, because it is no more a thing with me than holding imaginary conversations is. There are three reasons why comparison images start off from Florida, really. The first is, I took several annual trips to Florida in the early days of shooting slides, trying to build up my stock because publishers would not consider negative/print images, so a lot of early stuff reflects this. Second, Florida was (and remains) much, much better for producing subjects of interest than North Carolina, so by a significant margin, the ‘keepers’ that I have favor the state. And finally, I have a couple of binders full of negatives, but for obvious reasons these are harder to skim through and so I haven’t done it too often. But I hear you, and will remain aware of your concerns. Perhaps not responsive, but aware.

Anyway, this one, at least, is a negative, even when it’s from Florida:

small American alligator Alligator mississippiensis floating in hidden pool
This was my first wild alligator photo and dates from May, 1994. Friends and I were biking through JN ‘Ding’ Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island and, on a whim, I stopped to get a better look through some obscuring foliage at a small pool, delighted to find this American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) just chillin’ therein. It’s a notably small one, probably a little over a meter in length, so hazardous to guinea pigs but not a lot else. Still, our travels up to that point had given me no opportunities to see any, so I was pleased with the find and really, the photo didn’t turn out too badly, even with the leaves trying to block the photo.

But I’ve had a few more opportunities since then.

American alligator Alligator mississippiensis lazing in Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina
In fact, I possibly have a few hundred gator photos now, the vast majority of them wild subjects, but this one remains among my favorites. It dates from 2013 and isn’t a whole lot bigger than the specimen at top, but I was closer and using a longer lens. This was in the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge in South Carolina, but really, within spitting distance of Savannah, Georgia, and on the Savannah River that separates the two states anyway. The refuge can be brimming with alligators and remains the best place to see them in my experience, but on this date they weren’t quite as active. Still, this little guy allowed me to exploit an angle that made the most of the lighting and reflections from the water, and produced something more dramatic than a simple portrait (it actually serves as the background image on both of my tablets.) I was able to shoot from the other side of the head too, getting more direct sunlight on it, but for the mood and the contrast, this one wins easily. The largest difference in my knowledge and techniques between the two was simply working the subject, examining how may different ways it could be portrayed, and while the first didn’t really allow me the opportunity, I know I may not have taken it had it been present – it’s something that I picked up in the intervening years.

Something to note, however, is that in both images, hints of the submerged bodies can be made out under the surface if you look closely. They were both taken in swamps, but ones with significant water exchange so clearer than you might have imagined.

Meanwhile, North Carolina provides no such subjects, or at least, I’ve seen no evidence of them save for the two residents that hang out in the waters around the USS North Carolina out at Wilmington. This isn’t saying a lot, because giant prehistoric lizards don’t exist for most of the country, indeed most countries the world over, but the point is, I’m not finding anything even remotely compatible without serious traveling. NC does have hellbenders, surprisingly large salamanders out in the mountains, but they’re hard to find and have resisted my few attempts at spotting them, and locally, the largest lizards don’t even amount to the length of the heads of the two subjects above. The one below, an eastern fence lizard (Sceloporus undulatus,) is perhaps the largest that I’ve found and might be able to take a small mouse, measuring close to 5cm across the abdomen. Woo, scary.

eastern fence lizard Sceloporus undulatus in action pose

A brief comparison

Al Denelsbeck

Just a couple of pics while it’s still slow.

I finished up sorting the other day (which is going through the folder of recent images, discarding those that fail to pass muster, and then moving the keepers into appropriate folders to locate them again easily,) and as usual, I pulled out a couple as curiosities, these being both the same subject. We’ll start with January’s.

Chinese grape holly Mahonia lomariifolia flower spray bursting out from snow cover
Coming back from a brief visit to the neighborhood pond following the one snowstorm we received (so far) this year, I stopped to do a few frames of the ornamental Chinese grape holly (Mahonia lomariifolia) that decorates the sign for our housing development on the corner. The flowers had started early and their spikes were protruding from the snow cover rather fetchingly, I thought. This was already posted back then, and I’d forgotten that, so I’m just reposting it here again and not the slightly different version prepared just for this post. As I said, this is a comparison, and it dates from January 22nd.

Because here’s the same plant on February 3rd:

European honeybee Apis mellifera visiting flower of Chinese grape holly Mahonia lomariifolia in early February
During one of those warm spells, I’d gone up close in passing and realized that the European honeybees (Apis mellifera) had wasted no time in getting out and finding some nectar – quite impressive, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen them out so early. We’ve had several frosts since then, so they presumably went back in grumbling, and who knows if the flowers they pollinated would be viable through that? But hey – February honeybees, can’t knock that.

I’m not proud

Al Denelsbeck

The other day, I did finally get out to accomplish something, and successfully too, but I’m not really counting it as winter activity – I’ve definitely done better. The temperature got amazingly warm, and so I ventured out again in search of mantis egg cases (oothecas) to prime the property for spring. Of course, I had the camera equipment along, just in case, but subjects remained few and far between. I was out in some meadow/scrub land, looking for the tall stiff weeds or small saplings that the Chinese mantids prefer to place their eggs upon, which put me within hearing of a downy woodpecker, a red-shouldered hawk, a barred owl, and one of the accipiters – this was the only one that I caught a glimpse of, and it was only briefly as it flew deeper into the nearby forest, so I couldn’t tell if it was a sharp-shinned or Cooper’s hawk, but from the alarm call it was one of those.

The only thing that I did see, other than some boring sparrows, was a northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos,) which was spotted in a pile of pruned branches very close by and was disinclined to fly off, instead appearing very interested in the deeper shadows of the woodpile.

northern mockingbird Mimus polyglottos in woodpile
It did not appear to be an ideal spot for a nest, even if it’s the season, because the pile was too easily accessible to foxes and raccoons, but perhaps it was in search of materials, or I’d spooked it from a feeding spot. Either way, I did a few frames and let it be.

A little further on, examining the streambanks netted me this monster:

American bullfrog Lithobates catesbeianus basking on stream's edge
That’s an American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus,) and a big one – larger than my fist. Credit to my stalking skills in even getting the image, because I managed to get the camera out while standing fairly close in plain sight, snapping off this one frame before some other hiker passed behind me and spooked the frog into the water. Slow movements count for a lot.

egg case ootheca of Chinese mantis Tenodera sinensisAnnnnddd that was about it, really – still not much going on, and no scenery to speak of. But I said I was successful, and I was, finally locating a spot that had an entire cluster of egg cases in a very small radius. These were all Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) cases, and I’d been through quite a lot of territory before I found these curiously close together. I was also looking for Carolina mantis eggs, but saw none; they’re much smaller and more subtle, so much harder to spot at a distance, plus if I’m any judge, the populations locally are far lower. But the Chinese oothecas had me wondering, because I’d been in virtually identical areas and all I found were old examples, clearly at least a year old and in some cases much older. Then to find better than a half dozen all within spitting distance (my own – I don’t think mantids spit) had me considering, again, if adults return to the same location as they hatched to produce their new egg sacs. Mantids live out their entire life cycle within six to eight months, so there’s no chance of multiple egg cases, but is there an instinct to return to a successful site? I had the suspicion previously when a new ootheca appeared in almost the exact location as an old one here at home, and this cluster (in an area demonstrably devoid of other examples) strengthened that suspicion slightly.

I did a frame of this, by the way, because it illustrated something that I’ve never seen. Mantids are good about finding long-lasting weeds or small trees to place their sacs upon, something that won’t be knocked down in the winter storms, but this was the first I’d ever seen one use a cluster of thin reeds; there were plenty of other, better choices within a short distance too, but I won’t pretend to know the mind of a mantid. I collected six and brought them home, setting them up on natural ‘stakes’ in various prime locations to start watching in the next month – April to May seems to be the ideal time, but there’s a big spread in hatching dates. I’m suspicious that, as warm as it’s been this late winter, the hatchings will be early, but we’ll see what happens. This brings my total at Walkabout Estates to eight now, with only one being found here, though two of the recently collected ones are possibly old. And I’m on top of things with new seeds for the spring, including tomato seedlings already started and several things in the greenhouse, so I’m not being that lazy. Cardinal flowers are, as threatened, planned for this spring, and The Girlfriend and I will be going out to pick up some ginger lilies when the season is right – they seem to be a favorite of many species, not the least of which are the Carolina anoles. Getting there, getting there.

Down a notch

Al Denelsbeck

Man. I thought I was so slick…

So, one of the things that I’ve started doing again in my spare time is model kits. It’s something I used to do in my younger days and slowly got away from, then many of my materials dispersed. But I still had the interest, and a handful of kits awaiting my attention; part of the holdup was simply that I’ve gotten too particular about accuracy now, wanting to do it right and thus getting bogged down in detailing. Recently, though, I dug out a couple of kits (and purchased a couple of others) and started getting into it more as the photography subjects were scarce.

Presently, I’m working on a model of the ‘Special’ helicopter from Blue Thunder – don’t laugh, it’s a cool movie and a decent kit in a good scale (most aircraft are available in 1/48 and 1/72 scale, too small to do a lot with, but this one is 1/32.) And I tackled the cockpit with gusto, getting into the nitty-gritty of the instrument panels and even adding a video console that was missing from the kit, but visible in the ‘Behind the scenes’ stills from the movie – yes, this is the kind of thing avid builders do, hush. Pleased with how it came out, I did a few macro photos of the cockpit before final assembly, when it’d be much harder to see under the canopy glass. As I discovered before with one of my christmas projects, I really shouldn’t do this. Under the Mamiya macro lens and decent lighting, my detailing job leaves a lot to be desired.

detailed cockpit of Blue Thunder Monogram model kit
It may not look too bad here, but that’s because I’m not going in at full resolution. And won’t be. This is all you need to see. All the little spots where the paint overlapped the proper borders or the engraving looks shitty, they can remain indiscernible.

In my defense, this is pretty small – those blocks on the underlying mat are 1/2″ square (12mm,) making the entire cockpit just 7cm in length and the main instrument panel, top right, is 2.5cm (1″) wide – in other words, I could fit two of these on my smutphone face, and I have a smaller smutphone (I’m big enough to admit it.) Now you know why I don’t like smaller scales. And from an average viewing distance, it looks fine to me. That console towards the rear of the cockpit is entirely scratchbuilt, from sheet polystyrene, and so is the fire extinguisher.

But yeah, just… back behind the barriers, please.

Visibly different, part 9

Al Denelsbeck

I realized that, while many of the photos I have set aside for this topic are of birds and thus I was trying to space them out, so far I’ve only featured one bird for the topic, so I better start using some of them.

wood stork Mycteria americana shot through car window
This week, our opening image comes from Florida in September 1999, and is the first wood stork (Mycteria americana) photo that I obtained – I hadn’t even seen one on multiple earlier trips, except perhaps at too great a distance to identify. A little trivia: herons and egrets fly with neck retracted, all tucked in, so their shape in the air has a small point to the front with the legs trailing out behind, while wood storks fly with neck fully extended and appear as a cross – makes it easier to differentiate. That, and the black tips and trailing edges of the wings, very distinctive. I may not have known these at the time of this sighting though, so as I said, I might have seen one without being sure of it. Anyway, this one was near the roadside, and I pulled over and shot from the car out the passenger window, which is why there’s a dark grey blur across the bottom of the frame. I don’t recall trying to get out of the car and there are no further slides of it in the file pages, so either I never attempted, or I did and the bird flew off. I’ve known for decades that many species will ignore cars but immediately respond to someone getting out of one, and may simply not have tried. Or traffic might have prevented it. Or I was stupid. I don’t know.

Anyway, we now jump ahead nineteen years, to a trip to Jekyll Island, Georgia.

wood stork Mycteria americana in surf on Jekyll Island Georgia
Quite a bit closer now, and much more detailed, plus I have a whole gallery of images just of this individual alone. Little credit to the equipment; the first was probably shot with the Canon 75-300, the basic non-stabilized model, while the second was shot with the Canon 100-300 L, also unstabilized, but optically superior. The primary difference was just the opportunity: in Georgia, I was in an area where the stork knew it could snag easy meals from the surf conditions (and also possibly from the fisherfolk who were there for the same reason,) and so the birds were accustomed to closer encounters because of their greed, gluttony, sloth, and probably a few other deadly sins that nonetheless helped them survive quite well – funny that.

Yet, I like the color register of the first image far more, and I’m putting this down to the coloration of the individual rather than the difference between slide film and digital image. Just have to keep trying to get a combination of the detail of the latter and the colors of the former, I guess. And that means more trips south, because the species doesn’t appear here in central NC. But then again, I need little motivation to go further south – mostly just the opportunity.

I think we should see other months, February

Al Denelsbeck

“It’s not me, really, it’s you. I just… I just don’t see any future with you.”

And that means it’s time for the end of the month abstract. What have we got for that?

funky ass leaf
It’s a leaf. Where would you be without me to provide this kind of precise information to you?

Honestly, I don’t know what it is, because I’ve never seen it identified, though I’m pretty sure it’s not native, given as how I’ve only seen this in the butterfly house of the Museum of Life and Science. And I’ve done better before. But even this is ‘before,’ since February was such a loser that it didn’t even provide any decent abstracts, and I had to go archive for this one; it was taken six years ago, yesterday. Seriously, we’re much better off without February.

But we’ll keep its number in our phone, just in case…

Why is this still here?

Al Denelsbeck

Starting to catch up on a few tasks here and there, and went into the image stock folders on the magic meme box (what some stodgy people call a ‘computer’) to see how much needed to be cleaned up in there. And realized that I still have a ‘Facebook’ folder with a handful of images in there.

You may have noticed the anti-social media widget over there on the sidebar, and if that wasn’t enough, I’m not shy about disparaging it, all of it, when the subject comes up; I consider Facebook the worst. So why do I even have a Facebook folder?

Well, because at one time I did have an account. It was started primarily to research some stuff for the place that I worked for at the time, figuring out how to actually use an account and what affect it had. This was back in 2008 I believe, and so I created my own page and played with it for a while. I didn’t do a whole lot with it at all, partially because Facebook outright stated they could do what they wanted with any photos that I posted, to which I wasn’t agreeable in the least, and so I posted few images. And partially because I wasn’t finding anything to actually do with it. I had my site, I had started blogging, and social media added nothing to that (or indeed, to anything.) Once I left that place of employment, I deleted the account – that was twelve freaking years ago.

And yet, the folder with ten images within sits here still. But in a coincidence that stretches credulity to the breaking point, today is Delete Your Fucking Facebook Horseshit Day, which had previously escaped my attention. And so away it goes! Long overdue, but anyway…

California sea lions Zalophus californianus at NC Zoological Park in Asheboro, NCAll of the photos therein have appeared elsewhere, either in the blog or the main site, save for two. One of those is at right, a shot of a pair of California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) taken at the NC Zoological Park in Asheboro – I got lucky with the timing and poses while at the undersurface viewing window, and the muted colors complement one another pretty well. Nothing great, but for once the glass wasn’t half-obscured with smudges and ice cream and all that, one of the worst things about trying to shoot at zoos: they rarely clean the glass (especially on the far side.)

The other, bearing no copyright mark, may never have been posted at all – I’d just prepped it for eventual use. Taken January 1st, 2010, I did a lot of playing around with the light of the moon at various locations, and decided to compose this one when back home and looking up at the holiday lights strung along my balcony railing.

full moon and defocused holiday lights
Now, a variation of this has appeared for the first ‘On This Date’ post, two years ago, but I don’t think this version has been published anywhere else before. Does that make it an NFT? I don’t know, I’ve never understood the concept, but I’ll be happy to take large amounts of money from you and call it whatever you like – I’ll even delete this post afterward and avow never having seen it before if that helps. Once the check is cleared, of course – no, I do not accept cryptocurrency, or even dogshit; call me old-fashioned.

Anyway, enjoy celebrating the holiday! It goes without saying that this is not an annual holiday, because you already deleted it all today, so what’s the point of celebrating it again next year? Toss it all, stop worrying about what other people think, stop reading stupid and pointless horseshit, and enjoy yourself!

Happy Two’sday

Al Denelsbeck

It’s 02/22/22 (or perhaps 22/02/22 if you’re unAmerican) which makes it Two’s Day, or maybe only Twoday – who knows? – and so, to celebrate something totally meaningless, we have two versions of a photo for you to consider. To subvert the entire idea, you can only pick one as your favorite.

This one I’ve had sitting in the blog folder for, gosh, it’s been eight years! Except I decided twoday to use a bigger version in honor of the number 2. I also took two dumps this morning, so you know I’m into it (and fiber.)

pair of Canada geese Branta canadensis on ice
Just so you know, I titled this one, “My god I’m gorgeous,” when I created it, and it was back to back with the one seen here, originally titled, “My god I’m not.” Neither got used in posts around that time, but now they both have, so all is right with the world.

And so, the second version, playing with color channels again:

same image in Blue channel only, with contrast adjustment
This is only the Blue channel now, with Red and Green being deleted, but I also boosted contrast selectively, which brought out the textures much better. Normally the Blue channel is the worst choice when doing this, but in this case it was clearly the winner. I also got a little lucky with the setting, because the gap in the background trees meant both geese were faintly ‘highlighted’ in the reflection of the blue sky, which became enhanced here. The ice was smooth enough in the right location to provide a reasonably unobscured reflection of the foregoose too, so, yay.

Yeah, you know what? We have to do two photos with two versions twoday. And in like vein, we’ll stick to two colors.

pair of Caribbean flamingos Phoenicopterus ruber in greyscale
Yeah, I know, it seems sacrilegious to feature American/Caribbean flamingos (Phoenicopterus ruber) in greyscale, but we’ve seen them in color before (or at least I have) and RGB is three colors, which we’ll feature 11 years from now – or maybe not, because there is no March 33rd. But we’re not letting it go at that of course.

pair of Caribbean flamingos Phoenicopterus ruber in combined Green and Blue channels
We’re back to channel clipping, only this time it’s two channels, Green and Blue – Blue was a bit two dark, Green two low on contrast, so this is Green on top with 37% opacity to make it absolutely perfect – no buts, now. Though go ahead, pick your favorites without any influence from me.

And just now I realized that I should have posted this at 22:22. Maybe I’ll post it a second time tonight…

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