Still at it

May 29, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

It’s another attempt to get that elusive green flash on video, doing it at sunrise because sunset wouldn’t provide the view needed. The bad weather had cleared, but the temperature hadn’t risen yet, and it was far from comfortable on the beach; this just goes to show how dedicated and hardcore I am.

By the way, there’s a balance point when placing the tripod, because you want stable sand, which is generally the wet stuff near the point where the waves have come in, but you don’t want to be in the water at any point. Since it was nearing high tide, there also wasn’t a lot of beach to work with, and only a couple of meters away was the ‘cliff edge’ of the dune, the eroded high water mark in the sand not far from the steps down off of the primary dune; the moon was almost new, close to the sun, so their combined gravity was created the highest tides. It had an effect, as you’ll see.

Immediately after the video, I did just a handful of photos on the beach to take advantage of conditions.

This is the debris that you heard in the video, directly underfoot and a bit hard on the soles. While I’m in water sandals all summer long, they’ll get completely filled with sand in the softer area between the primary dune and the wet sand near the waterline, so I generally take them off before hitting the beach and hang them from my belt with a carabiner, only re-donning them after hitting the courtesy footwash on the opposite side of the dune (which I also use on the tripod legs.)

I went a bit lower too.

Buggato would have been sorry to miss this, because I didn’t sprawl on the beach to get this frame, but simply held the camera down near my ankles and fired off some shots blind; this required ‘chimping,’ examining the LCD afterwards to see what I got, only necessary because I couldn’t use the viewfinder in the first place (thus, one of the few legitimate reasons to do so.) Try as he might, he still hasn’t caught me doing this, simply because I rarely ever do it. Ah well.

I got another frame that I like even more – that’ll be along soon. We’re almost done with the beach trip now.

As always, I’m on it

May 29, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

May 29th is Blurred Bird Day, which requires that you say it fast and never clarify it to anyone, because that’s half the fun. It should come as no surprise that, even as obscure as this holiday is, I’m fully prepared.

Kindly note that blurring the bird by failing to focus tightly does not count – it must be motion blur, preferably the bird’s.

Some birds are quite adept at it, of course.

This one probably shouldn’t count, because it’s more like an anti “Nail The Pan Day.”

It’s also not the best form for the image stabilizing function in the lens to produce the effect from its own movement during exposure.

One trick is to shoot in reduced light, but you can also close down the aperture pretty far to help lengthen that shutter speed. Too far, of course, and you’ll be moving the camera, so it takes a careful balance.

Bonus points are garnered, naturally, if you can produce something truly bizarre and just a bit unsettling.

Have fun!

Profiles of Nature 21

May 27, 2021May 26, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

Yes, it really has been an entire week, and so we return to our Profiles, featuring Chollum Bargarnthupi. Chollum was kidnapped and sold on the market of color as a slave model, forced to pout, look haughty, or even exuberantly ecstatic about kitchen storage (seen here) for much less than minimum going rates, required to even buy his own upper lip bleach. He escaped with the aid of a trusty scaup named Shubedu and vowed revenge, endeavoring to undercut the fees of his former captors until they folded in bankruptcy; since he’d been a slave, this meant that he now had to pay agencies for his services – there are some issues with this plan, true. Despite this (or perhaps because of it,) he has become one of the most sought-after chimp models in the business, and has pulled down countless contracts for toothpaste and dental services, becoming the de facto standard in the biz – those are stunning teeth, for a chimp. He is very sensitive about his camel-toe tongue, though, so we promised not to mention it. Chollum’s revenge plan actually started to work and was hurting the bottom-line of his former captors, resulting in the redoubling of their slave trade efforts to compete, branding him a pariah within ethical and amnesty circles; he’s now considering the rather trite multi-weaponed infiltration and destruction plan instead and has started a GoArmMe page. In his spare time he likes researching activities for his spare time. Chollum reluctantly admits that his favorite character on a standard keyboard is the one no one knows the name of.

Relations with Russian and China seem pretty mellow right now and the threat of Armageddon is slight, so we’ll be back next week! There’s a mixed blessing…

Awkward teen years

May 26, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

I went over to the neighborhood pond earlier today, just to see what was happening, aiming for before it got too hot; I missed. I’d seen a couple of broods of Canada geese (Branta canadensis) over there, this years goslings (three of which you’ve already seen as last week’s Profiles of Nature entry,) but this morning made it clear how many there were, and I had to call The Girlfriend over.

Moreover, they noticed me and approached purposefully, announcing by their behavior that they’ve been getting hand-fed and are far from overprotective of their young. I was able to do a few closeups as they cruised past, capturing their interim coloration between the dirty yellow of the younger goslings and the distinctive pattern of the adults. I have too many Canada goose photos, but none of this stage, until now.

Not the most prepossessing of birds at this age, are they? I should probably use this for another Profiles entry – it can’t be worse than tomorrow’s.

By the time The Girlfriend made it over there, I was standing within a few meters of two broods, with two others close, all having come ashore nearby. They quickly came right up to us, not outright begging, but making it clear that we were not upholding out duties, even though we have never been the ones feeding them (The Girlfriend was so delighted at their approach that this is likely to change very soon.) We had nothing to give them, and eventually they wandered slowly off, not going too far in case we wised up and changed our minds about the food offerings. One gosling, however, chose a handy patch of shade to plop down and take a short rest in the growing heat of the day.

It really couldn’t stay there long, both because the parents and siblings had decided to move on, and because the shade itself couldn’t remain there either; I’m never sure how obvious these things are, but that’s my own shadow that it settled down within, wide-brimmed hat and all.

None of these geese are domesticated, by the way; it’s just that Canadas don’t fear a lot and have become acclimated to humans anyway, and will quickly abandon any remaining misgivings if food is involved. In other areas, they can be aggressively protective of nests and young, but we’ve never gotten anything more than warning hisses from them.

Reality aves

May 26, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

On one of the cloudier days out at North Topsail, before the rains came, I was walking out the walkway/deck towards the gazebo when I saw movement in the reeds nearby, and had the long lens in hand (with a camera attached, too!) so I could take advantage of it. Unlike the green herons in the area, this one was pretty blasé about my presence.

This is a willet (Tringa semipalmata,) a medium-small wader much like a sandpiper, though larger than most of those while a little smaller than a green heron. I would see them examining the edges of the oyster beds or the small tidal pool nearby while we were there, but never quite this close. Males and females have the same plumage so they’re difficult to distinguish, but the behavior lent weight towards it being a male, slightly. I’ll explain.

This one was quite intent on its preening, having a difficult time with a little misplaced tuft of feathers above the tail, and largely ignored me even though I was only a handful of meters away. I fired off a significant number of frames with lots of poses over the course of roughly two minutes.

Then, it started calling, receiving an answering call from not too far off, and flew off in that direction. It was easy to follow, providing a nice view of the distinctive wing markings as it did so.

I tracked it until it landed again, eventually realizing that there was another there, the originator of the answering call, but with the muddy background I’d lost track of who was who. The light conditions and the clutter of the landscape there made it a little hard to discern details, even with the long lens (this is cropped a bit.) But the one on the left, who may or may not be the model from the first images, began a series of rapid, almost chuckling quiet calls to the other. Normally birds in close proximity don’t ‘talk’ to one another unless there’s a reason, and this reason was soon confirmed.

The one on the left was soon revealed to be a male in courtship, as he raised his trembling wings and did a little dance, still talking up a storm, most likely mentioning his pending promotion to divisional manager with a company expense account. The female, as usual, showed no reaction to this.

I couldn’t tell you how the species communicates, really, but without anything outwardly visible, the female signaled acquiescence, anyway, and the male soon made his move, showing off the form he learned from Mr. Miyagi.

I’m pretty sure the technical term for this is ‘wheelbarrowing.’ That’s what I’ve been told, anyway.

And then, perhaps, the mistake. The female turned the other way, and the male grabbed her entire head in his beak. Maybe this is normal. Maybe this was a protest. Maybe it was a signal. I just know, you should always be sure it’s cool first.

In the same second (literally – I checked the EXIF info,) she took flight. You can read whatever you want into the male’s expression; you don’t need my help.

I know what you’re thinking: “Why weren’t you shooting video, Al?” (Maybe not.) And the primary reason is, I went out there for another task, without the tripod, and shooting video at long focal lengths handheld is just bad news, unless you’re partial to seasickness. Even if I’d had the tripod, the chances of setting it up for the initial shots were about nil; the willet was too close and it would have involved too much movement and noise. Once it had flown further off this wasn’t a factor, but then the process would have meant missing some of the action. I’m still pondering the wisdom of hauling the tripod (and microphones, and perhaps video light and external monitor) around a lot more often to be prepared for such opportunities, or if I’ll simply resign myself to shooting video mostly on dedicated outings and only carrying the accoutrements then.

By the way, I figured I’d show you the full frame of the above shot, so you know what I was working with, and yes, this was at 600mm.

diagram of willet Tringa semipalmata range in North America, from The Cornell Lab — From and copyright by The Cornell Lab

What video would have provided, if nothing else, were the calls, but there’s a good recording to be found at this page from The Cornell Lab, which is also the source of the map at right showing the species’ ranges – you’ll notice that they’re not listed for North Carolina at all, much less for breeding, but other sources indicate otherwise, so they probably need their map updated. I’m not perfectly confident about some species ID, but I’m 95% sure about this one, given the plumage, calls, and habits; The Sibley Guide to Birds, my go-to source for bird info, lists them year-round along the southern Atlantic coast, including NC. It illustrates something that I’ve long known: using multiple sources of info is often more useful for accuracy than trusting any one, and contradictions are frequent. Updating info is necessary, too, since species names and classifications change way too often.

Within a few days, I was seeing a pair of willets foraging together in the same area, lending a very small amount of weight to this being a successful mating; willets are semi-gregarious, easily found in small groups as well as individually, so this isn’t conclusive evidence by a long shot.

And no, that’s not that same difficult tuft of feathers sticking up, but a background oyster beyond the willet. I thought that too for a second…

And yet, ‘snot art

May 25, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

Yet another entry that couldn’t possibly be art, because I don’t do that.

Yeah, it’s almost the same as a frame from the first trip (a metal print of which adorns a door of my desk hutch at Walkabout Studios,) but you know, with the beach running in this direction, and at this time of year, there really isn’t a lot of variation available. And the pelicans weren’t being cooperative.

By the way, this was the last morning there, but I ended up doing a lot of shooting before heading back in to load the car – they’re still coming.

Podcast: Need a do-over

May 25, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

Did you ever wonder about the site title, “Wading-In Photography,” and the emphasis on sandals and water and all that?

It’s because I like things shallow.

On an unrelated note, here’s a podcast:

Walkabout podcast – Not A Vacation

Yeah, it could definitely have been better, but it wasn’t all blerk and haeerruummerruummph, which you’ll see shortly. I just come from a long family history of muttering irritably, and traditions must be upheld, you know? Can’t let such things die out…

People that run their lives around social media, though? They can all die horribly, and no one else will be bothered at all.

Magnanimous

May 24, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

Some experts tend to keep mum about their experience, their ‘secrets of the trade,’ and not reveal any information that may give an edge to their ‘competition,’ as if there’s something to be won with that. And some, of course, are fine with imparting information, but at a fee, and charge for everything; I teach photography, so yes, I do follow this concept to an extent, but I also give advice freely, and there are more than a couple of posts here that contain useful tidbits, despite the accompanying dross. And with some topics, I’m generous in sharing the experience that I’ve gained over the years, allowing others to benefit from the trials and lessons that have been hard-won in the field.

For instance, when you discover a treefrog in, say, a newly-constructed greenhouse, and already know that they’re notoriously bad about finding their way out the same way they got in – like an open roof vent – and you scoop it up to take it someplace safer, you should know that, no matter how inviting and appropriate the location you try to introduce them to, treefrogs tend to act much like teenagers, and will reject your proposal solely because you’re proposing it to them. As such, they will leap away from the inviting branch directly under their nose and land, oh, someplace not nearly as inviting, safe, or hospitable.

Usually, they won’t be so cooperative as to remain there while someone goes and gets their smutphone, but on occasion, you may get lucky. In very rare circumstances, you may even be able to do some point-of-view closeups while the frog resolutely remains in place, still out in full sunlight as the temperature rises rapidly. I wouldn’t count on it necessarily, but it’s been known to happen.

It’s almost unprecedented that, on trying again, you can convince a treefrog to accept your initial proposal and clamber onto a spot boasting plenty of shade and hidey-holes, safely out of the way, and not require a comical chase into even more inhospitable territory as you mutter irritably about only trying to help, which treefrogs, again, believe not in the slightest.

Should this remarkable event occur, however, there’s no way in hell that you’ll get a decent frame of them afterward. Treefrogs are far too stubborn to let something like that happen.

Just a wafer thin one

May 24, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

[We’re back out at the beach again.] After the day of rain, we got a little better weather and a nice sunset, still with some high clouds to catch the colors, which in hindsight explains why I didn’t find something sooner – I’d been chiding myself for not paying attention, because I was aware of the moon phases for the trip and the new (dark) moon had fallen just two days before. So when taking the set of photos like the one here, I never looked around for the crescent moon like I thought I should’ve, but on reviewing the photos by date I realized I never would have seen it anyway, following behind the sun by roughly an hour. On stepping out a bit later as the last of the twilight was fading over the sound, I found the deep orange crescent, colored by the same conditions that made the sunset, riding low on the horizon, less than 15 minutes from disappearing behind the trees. I quickly got the tripod and the long lens and set about capturing the sharpest image that I could.

This was tricky. The crescent was so thin that lunar details could barely be discerned, already dimmed significantly by the humidity and thicker atmospheric angle. Autofocus was out; there was too little light to generate decent contrast. And the exposure time was also tricky, being long enough to suffer from camera shake, even with the tripod and boosting the ISO to 1600 (which definitely increases the schmutz that’s gonna appear.) I had the remote release in hand and had already set the custom functions for a mirror-lock-up, meaning the mirror slapped out of the way with the first press of the shutter release, and a second was necessary to actually open the shutter – after an adequate delay to let the mirror vibrations die down.

That’s… okay; I’ve definitely gotten sharper, but I can’t tell if the softness was from imperfect focus, vibration from the shutter, the distortion of the atmosphere (we’ll see distinct examples of this later on,) or the movement of the moon during the exposure. Yet, some lunar features can still be made out, and you can’t beat the color.

That wasn’t the biggest challenge, though, because with a crescent this thin, the earthshine was visible too, and I wanted that. I needed a lot more light coming in to show the darker portion of the moon, and the ISO was already as high as I dared, so I was courting motion from the moon itself with the slow shutter speed, but so be it. The frame above was 1/8 second; the one below is 3.2 seconds.

Had I seen it when it was higher, the light might have been enough to minimize the motion blur, but then we wouldn’t have the orange color. You can definitely see a little smear from the moon’s motion in this one, but lunar mares are faintly discernible, and even evidence of Tycho’s rim and rays. I consider this a keeper.

The next night was clearer, and while the moon was higher, it was easy to see.

Not much coloration to the moon, besides the normal hues, but I knew I’d get more details this time, and could use a shorter shutter speed. Thus:

That’s Mare Crisium on the right, but I’m most pleased with capturing some south pole mountain over on the left, a little dot peeking in while apparently separated from the crescent itself. And then, of course, we have the earthshine:

This exposure was half a second – the blur from the crescent is more overexposure than motion blur – especially since, if you look closely, you can see some of the background stars in the frame. Jpeg compression wasn’t kind; there are actually five or six stars visible in the full-res version (not noise, either – I checked,) but only two came out in the blog-size version, with perhaps two more faintly visible if you’re trying. Look down towards the lower border.

I even did a little video, but it wasn’t terribly interesting and I would have had to cut out the audio anyway, since the neighbors were singing along to Hootie and the Blowfish. This one’s much better (and Duran Duran.) It even shows the earthshine portions from these images illuminated fully, a nice counterpoint. Or at least I think so.

Almost went by me

May 23, 2021July 1, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

Today is World Turtle Day, which I only discovered by reading Why Evolution Is True just a few minutes ago. As such, I am ill-prepared, and can only resort to a photo from a few days back for something current.

Curiously, these might be Florida cooters (Pseudemys floridana) based on the habitat and their faint markings, but I wouldn’t confidently inform any investors of that – I’m more confident that they’re one of the cooter family (genus Pseudemys) anyway. This is a crop for better focus on our holiday subject, part of a lager frame that included more, like this:

It’s only midday, so I may still get out and get some super-current turtles, especially since these were found down at a spot with an active osprey nest that did not appear to have hatched earlier this week, so I need to check on them anyway. Plus there are turtles near Walkabout Studios anyway, so all I have to do is get some frames worthy of the holiday. Shouldn’t be too hard, right? I should never say things like that…

Anyway, enjoy World Turtle Day! I’m not sure how you celebrate it, really – maybe read some Aeschylus…

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