Token cooperation

April 14, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

During a recent outing to Jordan Lake, Buggato and I received the barest cooperation from our subjects – enough for them to claim they were doing their part, but not enough to earn any tips over it, you know what I mean?

The animal subjects this spring seem to be slow in getting active, though maybe this is only perception, but I’m more than happy to put the blame solely on them. We saw a handful of osprey (Pandion haliaetus,) including one that circled for several minutes within easy sight, but it did not deign to even try for any fish, despite the fact that numerous fish were jumping from the water right in its immediate vicinity. Well, kinda – the fish were in the water, the bird in the air, but horizontally, mapwise, they were very close.

It’s not like it wasn’t paying attention, either.

It was exactly the kind of conditions we were hoping for: clear skies and good light, later in the afternoon so the light could get underneath the bird instead of silhouetting it, the osprey sticking very close to us and reasonably low – what more could you ask for? Well, at least beginning a stoop for a fish, to be honest, or alternately, some courtship behavior. But no. We got circling as if it was bored.

I managed to snag a point when it checked us out momentarily.

There was no alarm, no change in behavior, just the quick glance in our direction before resuming its scrutiny of the water, perhaps nearsightedly because, as I said, I could see the fish therein. I guess just not the right fish – perhaps none of them had their “GMO/Gluten Free” stickers visible.

Naturally, one engaged in a little bit of action, when we couldn’t see it at all, and then flaunted this by flying directly overhead, very low, and passing smack in front of the sun as we stated tracking it. The glare effect was actually pretty cool, and shows remarkable flare control from the Tamron 150-600. And for reasons unfathomable, it was actually the sharpest frame too.

I was, of course, blind at this point, stumbling around screaming and clawing at my eyes though I never really lost my professional composure, and simply tracked the osprey by sound while this was happening. Doubt it not.

The next one I’m a bit proud of, because it shows that becoming familiar with traits of different species can help out a lot. There were countless turkey vultures riding the thermals that day, mostly higher altitude and largely ignored by me because I have far too many photos of turkey vultures. But as we were walking back to the car to change locations for sunset, I looked over a flight of vultures overhead carefully, more out of curiosity than anything. And noticed a different one. Turkey vultures fly with a faint dihedral, a minor V-shape when seen from in front or back, which can often be made out as they wheel in circles. They also have a little ‘droop’ to their wings when seen from below, the front edges of the wings canting backwards very slightly. So when you see something without these, flying with flat wings that have more of a straighter leading edge, you get a closer look.

That’s a juvenile bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephaus) that was cruising around in the same thermals, almost indistinguishable from the vultures at a distance. From the color pattern I would almost say it was this year’s brood, but it seems far too early for that; it isn’t any older than last year’s, though.

We saw two or three adults as well (meaning older than three years, when their classic coloration appears) – again, maintaining distance and not doing any fishing at all, but worth a handful of frames at least. One of them was eventually seen wheeling around in the same flight of vultures.

We should be in the middle of nesting season now, but I’ve seen no evidence of any yet, though this doesn’t mean much; it’s unlikely that they would choose a spot close to the busy boat ramps that serve as our primary lake access, and as yet, The Girlfriend and I haven’t taken the kayaks out for a look at any potential nest sites away from human activity. And even if we spotted one, seeing anything from such a perspective would be nigh impossible, at least until the young were fledging out and preparing to fly.

One of the reasons we were at the lake at that time was sunset, which didn’t look terribly promising because the sky was far too clear;

[Okay, I just have to insert this here. At this exact point in typing this up, The Girlfriend wanted to go down to a neighboring city to pick up some stuff for a project, and on the return, we elected to do a quick stop by Jordan Lake just to see what was happening – she hasn’t been since the conjunction, I believe. Anyway, I have more pics, and Buggato’s probably gonna be mad, but they’re going to wait until I get through the backlog of other photos/posts that I have – I’ll try to make it quick. We now return to our story…]

One of the reasons we were at the lake at that time was sunset, which didn’t look terribly promising because the sky was far too clear; the impressive sunsets require some scattered clouds at different levels and decent amounts of humidity. But they’re also unpredictable, so we stayed for the whole show. As it was, we got a couple of useful images.

This is actually a demonstration that bracketing the exposure, and changing the contrast and saturation settings, is often better done with the camera than with an editing program afterward. I’d only used one choice of settings for this frame, and back home realized that it needed some contrast and exposure tweaking. But what this ended up doing is making the bright part of the sky too blotchy, not blended enough, almost oil-painting quality rather than airbrush, if you know what I mean. I find it acceptable, but far from ideal, and even when I’m not that impressed with what sunset produces, I’ve resolved to do more camera adjustments while on site.

And one more, a partial illustration.

That little ripple ring at lower left is the aftermath of a fish jumping, in pretty much a perfect position in the frame – it would have been an excellent composition had I captured the fish in mid air. Doing this, however, would either involve a lot of luck or the reflexes of a CGI hero. Fish jumps are brief, and if you’re not directly expecting it, the fish is likely gone before what happened even registers, but even if you are expecting it and have the shutter half-pressed in readiness, capturing it still requires exacting timing; I’ve tried this with flickering snake tongues and it’s a damn site harder than imagined. I have actually managed it, but it was with a fish that was semi-predictably jumping in a faint pattern, and of course without any kind of compositional merit. Still working on it.

Pining away

April 12, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

I was asked if I was going to do a post regarding the pine pollen this year, and I considered this kind of redundant and basically said, Only if I get something remarkable. And now, I’ll let you decide, because damn, it’s been a heavy year. North Carolina is virtually overrun with longneedle pines – they’re ugly, they can take over any wooded area within a couple of decades, and they produce copious, choking amounts of pollen right around this time of year. Seriously.

Out at Jordan Lake, the water’s edge was typically stained that curious greenish-yellow, and large patches of the pollen could be found getting blown across the surface; with enough sight distance, a yellow haze could easily be seen in the air, and in a headlamp’s beam at night, it actually looks like fine mist. Gradually, it turns brown, and eventually either sinks or gets washed away. But until that time, it looks like a sulfur mine exploded.

This little six-spotted fishing spider (Dolomedes triton) was not likely to catch anything in this muck which, as stagnant and polluted as it looks, is simply what occurs in the leeward portion of any body of water. And yes, you can see the dusting of pollen over the entire spider. It gets more noticeable, though.

This Copes grey treefrog had only been out of its daytime shelter for an hour or so, but was easily showing the effects, and this was right here in the yard at Walkabout Studios, also the location of the next.

These are more of the flowers seen earlier, and The Girlfriend has identified these as viburnum. It’s a good thing that most species can’t hybridize, because every plant (and more than a few animals) in North Carolina would soon be a pine mule. While over at the nearby pond, it showed far better.

The damselflies are becoming more visible, and several were sleeping on some fine reeds at the water’s edge. The one, only about 30mm long, may be a female eastern forktail (Ischnura verticalis,) but don’t bet the GameStop portfolio on it. And this isn’t close enough for the full effect, so closer we go.

I really do wonder what pollen does to compound vision, but I’m quite sure, once awake, the damselflies would clean their orbs before flight.

Now that you’ve seen those, this fartsier one will probably be easier to figure out.

This could be a male and female of the same species above, but I didn’t do any side shots and the markings are too obscured to be seen clearly enough anyway. They’re damselflies – that’s enough.

And they weren’t too far from this guy.

This American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) had apparently surfaced through a cloying layer of pollen, which had then dried onto its skin, getting additionally dusted by the airborne particles. On the plus side, it could easily blend in with a butter-and-pickle salad. Mmm, now I’m hungry.

All of this was last week, however. Just after peak production, the rains rolled in, and most open surfaces got washed free of the pollen with little to return, at least for another year. The stuff still remains in cracks and crevices, and cars need to be meticulously cleaned to eradicate all that which seeps into the seams, but at least things are looking a bit more normal. Here’s a trio of happy rosemary flowers just after the rains, showing off.

And more will be along in another little bit. Take your anxiety meds – it won’t be long.

Now it’s been 60

April 12, 2021April 11, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

That’s right – sixty years ago today, Yuri Gagarin from the Soviet Union became the first human in space, and the first to orbit the Earth, and the first to scare the hell out of some Russian farmers when he landed, mostly due to the secrecy that the Soviet space program maintained. I’ve covered my thoughts on this accomplishment, and the space race in general, on both the fiftieth and the fifty-ninth anniversary (which happened to be easter,) and in the latter, I lamented that despite a couple of small shelves full of space program stuff, I had nothing that commemorated Gagarin’s milestone (but was acting on it.) I did indeed correct this oversight, in two ways, and the first was a model of the Vostok 1 rocket booster which carried Gagarin’s capsule (Vostok 3KA) into orbit.

Despite getting this by the end of April last year, this lounged around on my shelves until the anniversary was approaching again, and I got off my ass to complete it in time – with less than a day to spare. I used to be an avid model builder, but that was years ago and the practice had largely lapsed, so I had to get back into the swing of it, and I’ve certainly done better, but for a commemorative it works just fine.

I had to do a bit of searching for photos of the real thing, of which there are few (as in, just one of the launch itself) to try and get some details correct, and at 1/100 scale, it stands 38cm tall. This particular kit featured a semi-detailed orbital capsule, which also took a few searches to get the details of – this is what modellers do. I didn’t go nuts with it, because if I wanted to do fine detail it wouldn’t be for something so small, but I did end up adding some stuff to the capsule beyond what the kit provided.

Inside, the only thing provided was the seat and Gagarin’s figure itself (seen from the top down here, orange suit with white helmet,) so everything else was added, though the detail on the exterior ‘waist’ of the orbital vehicle was in the kit. The spherical re-entry capsule itself was (in the model) only 20mm across, so not a lot of opportunity to add stuff unless I felt like working under heavy magnifiers, which I didn’t. Plus the kit was sparse on other details so not worth the effort. However, it included a clear half of the nose cone, so the capsule could be seen in place, or you can rotate that around (like the photo above) to make it look a bit more realistic.

I was going to add some stuff about the launch, flight, and re-entry, but it’s been a long day as I’m typing this, with a major unplanned project taking over, so I’ll just refer you to better sources anyway. The most notable thing is that, unlike the US space program, the Soviet/Russian programs brought their capsules in over land. Gagarin’s flight was slowed by parachute and then he ejected to land outside the capsule, but later Soyuz capsules descended all the way on parachutes, but had/have a long probe extending out the bottom; when it touches earth, it triggers the retro rockets that slow the capsule a bit more and make the landing gentler. Because these might come down well out of immediate reach of recovery teams, out in the Russian barrens, cosmonauts were given survival training, including foraging, and even carried a gun in the capsule for protection against bears.

There was another thing that I ordered, from Ukraine, and that was a Vostok 1 commemorative pin – near as I can tell, this is an authentic issue from that time period, but I could be wrong since I didn’t spend a lot for it. Regardless, I’ll be wearing it all day today, which probably wouldn’t have garnered any notice even if I was out ‘in public,’ but now about the only people who might see it are The Girlfriend and possibly a delivery person. If they remark about it, however, I’ll be sure to provide plenty of information.

And again, this posted at 06:07 Universal Coordinated Time, the time when Gagarin launched, because.

Soon, soon

April 11, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

I’ve been trying to get to a couple of posts, but there have been numerous outside projects to be tackled (which are coming along fine, and some even completed) and so the time just hasn’t been there. And I’m exhausted right now, so I’m sneaking in a little very late Sunday color, largely because it doesn’t fit with any other topic in the works, and promising that more will be along soon. Maybe later Monday; there’s an early Monday post lined up, but more plans for the morning, and who knows what’ll happen after that?

So, color, and promises. Open promises, no timeframes or deadlines, no specific promises of what, so easy to keep. But they’re coming.

Profiles of Nature 14

April 8, 2021April 8, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

Our nature photography model this week is Balthazaar, also a drama coach, philosopher, father, and nativity display evaluator, here obviously disappointed at this disorganized mess. Balthazaar has been in the biz for over a decade and is highly sought-after by discerning art directors because of his chiseled features and extensive repertoire of legume trivia, which makes more sense if you’re familiar with art directors. He used to be incredibly shy, but got past this on the kindly advice of his ninth-grade teacher, who said, “Don’t.” [Amusingly, she had actually said, “Dolt,” which wasn’t discovered for years, but upon finally finding this out, Balthazaar thanked her anyway and then reported her to the school board for calling names.] Balthazaar collects the paper floor mats that mechanics put in your car, and often creates minor issues with his vehicle just to obtain more; as you might imagine, this has cost him quite a lot of money and has resulted in him having the transmission replaced seven times. Not that we’re saying anything. At some point in the future he would like to run for office because he really hates to see bare, uncluttered medians. He once said, “There’s a fine line between a reprimand and jail.” Balthazaar’s preferred dipthong is aʊ.

You don’t have to join us next week if you never leave!

Not even trying

April 7, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

Had an outing with Buggato, and as we parted, he vowed that he was going to post something before I did. And yet, it’s after 10:30 PM, I’ve already had dinner, and still no post from him. Ah well. Here’s a great blue heron (Ardea herodias) hanging out on a dead tree near sunset; he didn’t stick around for the real sunset colors, but they weren’t that strong anyway.

More pics will be along eventually, but first, we need to check in with our latest nature photography model. Let’s see, who’s it gonna be?…

Variety? No

April 6, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

We’re having great weather now, but so far the activity hasn’t changed significantly among the wildlife, or at least not that I’ve seen – they may be playing it cool when I’m around, because I’m old enough now to be a square, a real wet blanket. So yesterday’s circuit of the pond netted a handful of images, but nothing that really adds to the stock, you know?

The turtles were out in force, and a little less spooky than normal, but I was approaching cautiously and peeking through gaps in the foliage, as you can detect the hints of from the green haze at lower left. The lead one here decided that she’d had quite enough sun on her legs, as opposed to the next one.

With restrictions being lifted, I’m guessing that this one had finally gotten her nails done and was hoping someone would notice – we are now in open-toed sandals weather. For a bit anyway, perhaps. And of course, the balancing act is none too subtle, so I’m pegging this one as a teenager. Either that or she’s been there for a long time while the water’s been receding; perhaps she’s stuck. Nah, I’m going with being an attention hound.

And yes, I backed off the focal length a little to get that reflection in there. Here you were thinking this was accidental or something – you should know better.

Around the other side of the pond, we approached another basking turtle slowly, but needn’t have bothered – it didn’t budge a bit, and as we got around front, we discovered why.

Not only did it appear to be completely blind, but from the size I’m reasonably sure this is the same one from last year, so he’s doing okay for all that. He did eventually raise his head and begin listening to us carefully, trying to determine the threat level, but we left him alone at that point and moved on, so he could continue basking undisturbed.

And a handful of birds, of course.

Not far from a nest box, we saw a female eastern bluebird (Sialia sialis) cruise up to an obvious branch and sit patiently watching us, and I ended up having to creep closer to change the angle of the intervening twigs, which were sitting right in front of her eyes. No sign of the male, though I imagine he wasn’t far away – it’s that season, after all. For a bit anyway, perhaps.

A female double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) was hanging out in the usual spot, and I lined up for the fartsy shot with the pilings in the foreground.

I managed to sneak in one frame before she offered her opinion of my skills and/or nature photographers in general:

Even as the moment had passed, the ripples and milky cloud remained, effectively ruining any further attempts at this composition, so there’s no question in my mind that she knew exactly what she was doing. I mean, look at the eye contact.

[To be serious for a mere second, birds can often be seen defecating when they find danger threatening, presumably to reduce weight as much as possible should they need to take flight, but there may be other reasons, such as the vaguely repellent effect. As you’re stalking birds you may see this fairly frequently.]

Back home, I was doing work in the front yard when I heard a sharp kip! from the immediate vicinity, and soon located the source in the neighbor’s tree, where we both had a clear view of each other.

This is an accipiter, either a Cooper’s hawk (Accipiter cooperii) or a sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus) – they’re very similar in appearance, only slightly different in size, and have the same alarm call. The only decent way to tell them apart is from the tail in flight: Cooper’s will have a rounded end to the tail feathers, while sharp-shinned will have a straight edge like a broom. Cooper’s are slightly larger, but their sizes overlap (females of both species are larger than the males, and the female sharp-shinned may be the same size as the male Cooper’s.) Since we had a brood of Cooper’s raised in the immediate area last year, I’m favoring this being a returning member of that family, but I’ve also seen sharpshins in the exact same area and the neighbors have several bird feeders, which can attract the bird-eating accipiters, so it could go either way. In fact, let’s see one of those photos from last year again.

Looks drastically different, doesn’t it? The eyes don’t even match. But this is a typical change between the juvenile and the adults, for both species, so all bets are off, and as I said, I faintly favor the Cooper’s at this point because they’ll occasionally return to the same nesting location. I’m just pleased that a semi-secretive (well, except as new fledglings) and hard-to-spot hawk chose to attract my attention and wait around just long enough for me to get the long lens out. Not to mention being in such good light. I can live with it.

Dittyday 2: Madness and beyond

April 6, 2021December 6, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

It’s time for a little more music – good music, mind you – and this fine Tuesday/Dittyday the selection is a rather largish English band called Madness. Formed in the late ’70s, peaking in the mid ’80s, they’re still performing today, albeit with a lineup that seems to change weekly.

I’m not the person to inform anyone about music styles and all that – I just know what I like, but edumacated sources pin the bulk of Madness’ style as ska or two-tone, primarily a strong bassline and beat-method that gave rise to reggae while branching off in another direction, gaining more rock/punk overtones. It’s different, very obviously, and energetic. Madness was also notorious for gently grasping the burgeoning field of music videos and thrashing the hell out of it, and no one ever matched their spirit and enthusiasm in those.

We’ll start off with the only official release in the US, ‘Our House,’ and it would be inexcusable to simply use the sound file.

To be honest, I have no idea how much of that was inspired by the band, how much the director, how much the label, whatever – it’s infectiously entertaining and upbeat, and even when you’ve known it for damn near four decades, it still gives an unmistakable vibe of having a blast. But within all that is a wonderful mix of instruments and riffs, blended in complementary ways that defined so much of the music of the ’80s. After disco died out, horns and brass virtually disappeared from the pop music scene save for saxophone, and it’s a shame because, done well, they provide great tone that offsets, really, too much guitar in a lot of music.

The theme continues with ‘House of Fun,’ sly commentary on the difference between ‘legal age’ and ‘adulthood.’

If you can emulate lead singer Suggs’ “N-n-n-n-n-n-n-no no miss,” you’re doing better than I can – I always imagine that little things like this, done in the studio where multiple takes are common, obligates the singer to repeating the feat for every live performance. He did it quite well when they appeared on the British counter-culture program The Young Ones though, the only band to be featured twice (but appropriately – they’re all kindred spirits it seems.)

This song was also used in the soundtrack to Shaun the Sheep Movie, reminding me that I needed to do this post.

Getting a little more ‘serious’ musically, we have ‘It Must Be Love,’ a cover of an original work by Labi Siffre, and much more representative of the typical ska style. Siffre’s version is also quite nice – not quite as dynamic – and Siffre himself appears in the Madness video right near the end, one of the violinists removing his sunglasses.

[Let me tell you something, writing this is introducing all sorts of rabbit-holes, and it’s taking far longer than it ever should; now I have to look for the movie The Tall Guy, which used the above song in its soundtrack and looks like it might be entertaining.]

There are plenty of other songs by Madness, with varying levels of kookiness, and I’ll leave that to you to chase down – this post could be a lot longer. Right now, I’ll feature a slight departure. I stumbled across this one a few years ago while ferreting out other music, and gave it a listen; it took a moment to realize this was the former (and returned) lead singer, Suggs, on a solo project. Camden Town is a suburb of London, a touristy area that was where the band originated, and Suggs pays homage to the eclectic nature of it, and to the Jamaican music roots, with ‘Camden Town.’

Oh yeah, we need the lyrics for this one:

Sing up tourists, sing

There’s a great crowd of tourists and they’re coming down the street
Pleased as punch with brand new Doctor Marten’s on their feet
Past stalls with leather jackets, old bric-a-brac
Indian sunglasses or a Chinese bobble hat

Tramps stare in the window of the local butcher’s shop
Like a pack of wild dogs they’d run off with the lot
In Primrose Hill, an angry man his hair standing on end
Shouts and rants in the ear of his imaginary friend

In Camden Town I’ll meet you by the underground
In Camden Town we’ll walk there as the sun goes down
In Camden Town
In Camden Town you can do anything you want to

A drunken busker hits the pavement, sending hot-dogs in the air
Towards a broken down bus full of people going nowhere
A string of Irish pubs as far as you can see
Greek, Indian, Chinese or would you like a cup of tea?

There’s tapas, fracas, alcohol, tobaccos
Bongs, bongo bingo, Portuguese maracas
There’s reggae in the jeggae, music everywhere
Every kind of song and dance, madness in the air

In Camden Town I’ll meet you by the underground
In Camden Town we’ll walk there as the sun goes down
In Camden Town

The tourists sing
Ooooh, they sing
Ooooh, sing up
Ooooh

And what’s my name in invisible game?

The two fat Americans interrupt their stay
They put down their bags, they were clamped and towed away
There’s Turkish cakes, designer fakes, fathers dressed as nuns
Every kind of music here, the night has just begun

In Camden Town I’ll meet you by the underground
In Camden Town we’ll walk there as the sun goes down
In Camden Town
In Camden Town you can do anything you want to do

In Camden Town
In Camden Town
In Camden Town
In Camden Town

… and you did catch the overdub when he sings, “madness in the air,” right? And that he plucks a Madness album cover out of the air when he does so?

[By the way, countless versions of this on YouTube are absolutely horrendous quality – this one took a while to find.]

If that was enough to interest you, there’s plenty more to be found, so have at it. And keep a couple of links handy when you’re feeling down.

Centimetering along

April 5, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

Boy, that’s an awkward phrase, isn’t it? A certain small percentage of the reason why metric measurements haven’t replaced “English Standard” in this country is the language, because we ‘Murrikins can’t take that much time with single words. When it finally is adopted, we’ll have “centimeters” shortened down to “semeers” within a year.

Anyway, the title refers to the idea that spring is, in fits and starts, moving forward; since we’ve dropped down to the freezing level several past nights, it’s not fully established yet, but I’m including a little color to show that indications are here, at least.

I’ve shown this flowering tree from the backyard before, and unless I’ve forgotten, I’ve still not identified it. Mostly because I’ve been as lazy as I am now (I have other projects waiting, so I’m fulfilling my obligation to the blog briefly,) and not looked it up. But these were the first blossoms peeking out, and I was in the backyard with the camera for other reasons, so I shot them.

The same may be said for the next. Perhaps.

As I said before, I had initially identified this weed as a winter aconite, but I don’t think it is now. It was all by itself in the middle of the backyard as I passed, so I stooped and shot a frame from above.

And if you look at the leaf at lower center, you’ll see the preliminary specks that indicate that the longneedle pines are starting to shed their pollen, meaning everything is going to be greenish-yellow very shortly. Many people consider this the cause of their spring allergies, but pines aren’t on the list of reactive pollens; it’s simply that something else is blooming at the same time, pollens that we can’t see, and we blame it on the highly-visible pines. I’ve already started off on that aspect myself, so I’m sympathetic. And apathetic too, but no one cares.

I’m not even going to try identifying this, except to say that it’s an iris, because we didn’t plant them and there are umpteen different varieties, but it was there, so I shot it. I’m O’Keeffing again – I’ll try and stop that. A little later.

Because I had to show this one, being the solitary blossom on my almond tree. We had three, two (no, three) years ago, and nothing ever came of them and there haven’t been any since. I should probably check and see if almonds are those type of trees that need another of the opposite sex to produce nuts…

Wow, that tree’s nine years old now.

And a mud ball.

Yes, another frog, but that’s what I’m seeing – even the raptors wheeling overhead make themselves scarce as soon as I have the long lens out. This rotund little Copes grey treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis) was visible between frosty nights, probably none too happy with this peekaboo spring and taking advantage of the daylight warmth here. This is perhaps the roundest treefrog I’ve seen, but right now I’ll credit that to conserving body heat – we’ll see if I spot it later on when it can stretch out a bit.

Onwards.

For some of us, every day

April 1, 2021April 1, 2021 Al Denelsbeck

Holiday time is rolling around again of course, and far be it from me to maintain my typical curmudgeonly attitude in the face of the worldwide celebrations, thus my festive contribution to today, which is I Meant To Do That Day, the annual holiday where we maintain the bare truth that, although it looks like an accident, it really was intended to be exactly this way. My example:

Yes, once again we see Mr Bugg, but even though it looks like he’s chimping, there’s no way in hell that he could possibly be doing that because he’s assured me that he’s broken that habit. He even agreed to let me shut off the review function entirely, and will soon be taking up film where of course this is entirely impossible: that’s how confident he is of his advancement. However, what he didn’t do was hold his camera where it was supposed to be for this dynamic zoom effect, where the focal length of the lens was changed during the exposure, producing these attention-focusing streaks of motion. The changing field of view causes motion blur, with the effect strengthening with distance from the center of the frame; in this manner, only the center of the frame remains with little to no blur, and our attention is drawn right to that spot. It looks off-center here because I know what framing and cropping are. The zoom should have drawn attention to his camera, had he cooperated, but what can you do?

Note too that the shutter speed (mine, not his,) was only 1/100 of a second, thus the zoom had to be taking place in this very brief time frame. That’s professional timing, that is. Alas, I can only control what is in my power; next time I may have a model that can follow instruction.

I will swear the truth of all this upon a stack of bibles, or whatever other collection of ludicrous fiction you procure.

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