Accomplished at sidetracking

Al Denelsbeck

I can easily claim that title, fully aware that I might even be underselling myself, but I’m trying to improve. This post is a small example of those efforts, at least.

Here’s the deal. I am (or was) presently writing a new composition post, and therein I stated the importance of having accurate color and gamma results from your computer monitor. The best way to do this is with a color spyder, but they tend to be expensive for the simple thing that they do, which is to look at what is ostensibly a neutral grey display through a little camera that sticks to the monitor, and then make any corrections needed in software to ensure that it is neutral grey (if it helps, this is also called a colorimeter.)

Reasoning that smutphones have their own cameras and there’s an app for everything, I tried out two apps intended to measure the light reaching the smutphone camera on a full white portion of the monitor display, a blank document. This shouldn’t be a hard thing to measure, especially since I wasn’t requiring any adjustments to be made, just an accurate account of what was being produced. Right?

One app yielded an RGB value of 166:166:175, which is damn close to bang-on – those figures should all be the same, regardless of how high they are. RGB values range from 0 (full darkness) to 255 (full brightness,) in each of the Red, Green, and Blue registers available through the monitor, so these results indicated a slight shift to blue, but nothing at all detrimental. The camera metering function is very likely to fudge brightness values by trying to achieve midtones, 18% grey, though hopefully the app would override this, but in no way is my monitor going to reach the brightness of a sunny day outdoors, so we accept the limitations.

The other app, however, yielded a color temperature of 7800 Kelvin from that same blank document, which is way the hell off into the blue end of the spectrum – neutral white light should be around 5500 K.

Since I calibrate my monitor periodically and am fairly adept at spotting color casts, I’d be inclined to say that the first app was accurate – but I have no way of determining this independently, and they both could be off. Long story short: unless it’s been independently measured with a method of known accuracy, using an app as a colorimeter will not necessarily help you at all and could throw you way off. And not just from the algorithms of the app itself, but the smutphone camera or the processing firmware could have its own color cast. As I measured, the smutphone display was showing a gradient red cast to the top of the white document, and a blue one to the bottom, no matter where I shifted the camera, most likely evidence of chromatic aberration from the lens itself because this is already a known trait.

Now, obsessing about this is pointless, unless you’re a graphics professional (perhaps not even then,) because your meticulous efforts are often in pursuit of tiny variations, only to be displayed on someone else’s monitor with much more significant color issues because they’ve never once calibrated it. This says nothing of our own brains performing ‘white balance’ efforts because we see things in differing light temperatures all day long and will still consider the paper “white.”

But a truncated version of all this was originally going to go into that post before I shifted it here instead; I find it useful info, but it would detract from the main purpose of that post. Which is coming soon enough.

[Should you want to check your own monitor for accuracy, a great set of guides can be found at the Lagom LCD Monitor test page, though you’ll have to determine on your own how to actually adjust the brightness, contrast, and gamma within your system or on the monitor itself.]

Tripod holes 22

Al Denelsbeck

nearly duplicated photo of rocks and ripples in Neuse River at Falls of the Neuse, Raleigh NC
N 35°56’24.93″ W 78°34’39.74″ Google Earth location

I’ve been half-heartedly trying to recreate this image for a couple years now, and finally managed it this past World Turtle Day – mostly because, this time, I’d loaded the original into my smutphone and could do direct comparisons while on site. The location given is within a few meters, because it slipped my mind to plot it exactly with the same smutphone and the aerial views I am now working from are too obscured by trees. But the image that I was duplicating, more or less, is this one:

rocks and blurred water in Neuse River at Falls of the Neuse, Raleigh NC
Carefully comparing the two will reveal that I did not get exactly the right angle, but the details are close enough to show that I finally had the right spot – I’d done several different frames nearby on previous visits but never quite got the match; turns out I needed to be a tad further downriver. Despite the copyright tag, this image actually dates from July 2000 – I had scanned a bunch of slides for the then-new website but hadn’t noted date stamps, so the tag represents the first use online. Clearly, things were growing a bit more exuberantly in this image, but the slide film also did a much better job with the colors.

I was also working from a tripod for the latter, earlier image – the one from 2000 that appears second on the page, I mean – but handheld and counting on the stabilized lens for the former, latter image. Confused yet? Good. I wasn’t planning to do this shot at all, but recalled it while there and plotted it successfully. Not long afterward, my intestines said, Guess what we need to be doing soon?, and since there’s only one thing that’s ever on their mind, I was forced to hike to the facilities a few hundred meters away.

This whole region was a regular haunt when I lived in Raleigh, and many of my first slides are from here when I switched over on the advice from professional photographers. Somewhere nearby is the lock-screw from my old tripod, too, lost while on an excursion. My first professional publications were images and subjects gathered about 20 meters away. It’s a great area to check out, so if you’re nearby, go! But mind the poison ivy…

Gotta stop planning

Al Denelsbeck

likely yellow-bellied slider Trachemys scripta scripta peeking from water
Yes, it’s World Turtle Day, still for a little while anyway, and I did indeed get out chasing turtles – in two locations, even! Yet, I did not quite accomplish what I was hoping for.

Let’s start with the actual, bona fide turtles from today, which wasn’t too impressive. The yellow-bellied slider (Trachemys scripta scripta) above doesn’t quite count, because that was yesterday, but I liked the little bubbles still on the surface catching the morning sun. This was from the neighborhood pond, which yielded a couple more today.

pair of yellow-bellied sliders Trachemys scripta scripta sunning on snags
The snag in the rear is the exact same log from yesterday’s photo, but this time the occupant wasn’t anywhere near as cooperative, slipping into the water as I maneuvered to try and line up the two of them more vertically. I was still quite some distance off using the long lens, so the larger one, at least, was being especially spooky.

I had better luck with the other, probably only because it never saw me.

likely common musk turtle Sternotherus odoratus clinging vertically to post
I’m going to tentatively identify this as a common musk turtle (Sternotherus odoratus,) not from any telltale markings which cannot be distinguished here, but because that’s what I tentatively identified one as before in the same location and similar circumstances, also for a holiday. Because of this, we can agree to rename the species Al’s holiday turtle (Selfabzorbt putz) to make it more appropriate. Can’t we?

likely common musk turtle Sternotherus odoratus perched vertically
I can only speculate as to why the species likes sunning itself near-vertically, which of course won’t stop me – I’m guessing back problems. Though since the back shell (carapace) is actually their vertebrae, there’s not a lot of room for misalignment, and this one looks pretty copacetic. Probably just one of those xtreemkooldoods that does rock-climbing and longboarding and all that.

Now, I purposefully went to another location, out at my old Falls of the Neuse shooting locale, to see what I could scare up in the way of Testudines, but only got a couple of other sliders basking on rocks before my lower intestine decided that being 40-some kilometers away from home was a perfect time to begin acting up, and I cut the trip short. So everything else is from other days during the past two weeks, which I’ll do in chronological order for giggles. A laugh a minute here.

unidentified baby turtle at water's edge
I’m not even going to try identifying this one, caught as it peeked from the water in a small pool near the North Carolina Estuarium in Washington, NC. It was no more than 45mm across the carapace, and given the conditions and location, could have been any one of several species, but very likely had hatched less than two weeks before.

That was from the trip out along Pamlico River with my brother, and the following day we were in Goose Creek State Park, seeing plenty of others, though all adults. On our way out of the park, we spotted this big ol’ common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) basking on a log.

common snapping turtle Chelydra serpentina basking on log in Goose Creek State Park
Quite a healthy specimen at roughly 30cm in carapace length, this was shot from the car window and, almost immediately after this frame, the turtle became aware of us and slipped into the water. The green carpet is algae and weeds, which helps camouflage them while lying on the bottom, but also might just be from their habits of lying on the bottom – they can hold their breath for long periods of time, and extend that neck quite a ways to poke their nostrils above the surface as needed. The shyness does make me wonder a little bit, because at this size they have few predators capable of tackling them – a coyote or wolf, maybe, and I suppose there are bears in the area, but even a fox would pass on something this size.

I’ve seen very few box turtles recently, and my brother even fewer (they’re scarce in his area,) so the following day we were happy to find two, both crossing empty roads out in severely rural coastal NC.

likely female eastern box turtle Terrapene carolina carolina being held by author's brother
This is an eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) and likely female, judging from the brown eyes which you’ll see better in a moment. When we stopped to get her out of the road, she reversed direction and tried hiding in the weeds, but I knew she’d try crossing the road again once we left and would get exposed to traffic again, even though it was ridiculously sparse there. So we did a few detail pics before depositing her on far side of the road in the direction that she’d been heading, whereupon I did a few more ‘natural’ frames. And trust me – she was permitted to vacate her bladder thoroughly before we brought her into the car for this shot. No worries – she was surrounded by swampland and could rehydrate within minutes.

likely female eastern box turtle Terrapene carolina carolina on road verge showing scute ridges
One thing captured here, intentionally, are the ridges around the ‘back scales’ (scutes,) which for box turtles are indications of their age, exactly like tree rings. Except, she had both major and minor ridges, so my estimate of the age was none too precise; if they can have minor ridges within a year’s growth, she was about 15 years old, but if each ridge indicates a full year, she was well into her thirties. I am vaguely interested in plotting the thicker and thinner ridges and determining which years were abundant and which lean for her, seeing how they compare against the droughts and so on.

By the way, I was intent on getting a full portrait angle and she was bound and determined not to let me. After a minute of us both maneuvering, I made sure she was pointed in the right direction and let her be.

Less than an hour later, we found another, again in the road and relocated to the side for these pics.

likely male eastern box turtle Terrapene carolina carolina being reticent
This one was far less spunky about its encounter and was inclined to close up and wait us out, and it was successful in that I got tired of waiting and settled for this bare peek. You can see old evidence of something trying to chew on its carapace near the head – such scars are pretty common among the adults, but they can seal their shells completely closed, more so than seen here, so predators are rarely successful. Let’s go in closer:

close up of face of likely male eastern box turtle Terrapene carolina carolina peering from shell
The red eyes peg this as likely a male – there’s some variation in the species, but unless it’s really crucial that you know, you can assume this is correct. Males also have a larger concave indent on their lower shells (plastrons,) but this is even more variable. Ya gotta like this perspective though.

A few days later, the same time we saw the heron scarfing down the snake (so, World Migratory Bird Day,) we spotted another tiny turtle perched on a log and trying to pass as a knot.

unidentified baby turtle perched on log and looking like a knot
Once dry and without the sheen, the carapace color blended in extremely well, and this one was only marginally bigger than the bebby above, but distinctly different in coloration. Different species, or just a little further along after hatching and thus having developed better camouflage? Can’t say – I’m barely up on telling the adult sliders and cooters apart, so the newborns are up for grabs. But we’ll go in closer so you can do your own determination.

unidentified baby turtle, possibly yellow-bellied slider Trachemys scripta scripta, basking on log
If forced at gunpoint to identify this one, I’d guess at yellow-bellied slider and then cower and cover my head, solely from the prevalence of the species in the area (not the cowering bit, which would be because of the gun.) Now, the plastron markings are great differentiators, but this little guy was out of reach and likely wouldn’t have waited for us to make the grab anyway.

And finally, one more from yesterday.

common snapping turtle Chelydra serpentina negotiating mud flat channel
Another common snapper but with far less algae, this one was dredging its way through a shallow channel in the mud flats of the neighborhood pond, unable to submerge any more than this. It only peeked up a couple of times, mostly keeping its head down low and extended well out, probably hoping for some minnows, but this one has almost certainly added more than a couple Canada goslings to its diet.

So, a few for the holiday, some of them even taken on the holiday – I’ve fulfilled my self-imposed obligation, even posting this before midnight. w00t!

Forgot to mention

Al Denelsbeck

Tomorrow is World Turtle Day, so be sure to do something for, or at least about, the turtles. No, not the 60s band, but real live turtles, tortoises, terrapins, and tugantros.

yellow-bellied slider Trachemys scripta scripta sunning itself on snag, with reflection
I have more than a few turtles from the past couple of weeks to feature, if I find nothing else tomorrow – we’ll just have to see what appears. But you’ve had at least a little warning for this one, enough to call in sick anyway. Even if you can’t, you can at least regale your coworkers with various turtle tidbits (by this I mean trivia,) or if that fails, you can always mimic a turtle at work or in traffic. Don’t forget to urinate copiously on anyone that attempts to pick you up. For authenticity.

Days late, but in the spirit anyway

Al Denelsbeck

I regret to tell you that I missed a recent holiday, which actually fell on the 18th: Use Something For Other Than Its Intended Purpose Day. The Manatee made me aware of it back then, and celebrated it handily by propping open a window with a license plate – only amateurs use wood slats or a cat or something. Alas, I was unable to bring anything to mind, or at least recall it in a timely fashion, because I’m notorious for using things for other than their intended purpose. I most likely used a crochet hook to scratch my ear, because that happens frequently, but I can’t vouch that I definitely did it that day.

However, today I celebrated in adequate fashion at least. Out cleaning off the deck, the power washer stopped working for no apparent reason, and I gradually worked my way through several different causes to no avail. Eventually, I ran it to ground: a clog in the very end of the nozzle, obvious when it was disassembled and no light could come through the little hole. This was probably my fault for using a supply hose that had previously been used to siphon out some rather unclean bins – I now know to thoroughly wash it out before attaching it to the power washer. But in this case, the clog was cleared with the combined use of a) the nozzle-cleaning needle from my 3D printer, and b) a Waterpik, one of those power washers for your teeth. They certainly did the trick, and I was able to finish cleaning off the deck.

I apologize for announcing the holiday so late, but not so late that you can’t recall some repurposing of your own and explain them in the comments. The most innovative entries will receive a one-year free subscription to Walkabout!

[I am hopelessly reminded of an ancient cartoon, found in Playboy to establish the context, where a guy in pajamas in glaring into the bathroom door and saying, “Hey! That’s not what a Waterpik’s for, you know!” I just attempted to find this, with no luck, but I didn’t go nuts over it and the cartoon probably dated from the eighties anyway…]

Tripod holes 21

Al Denelsbeck

raindrops on leaves at base of Crabtree Falls, NC
N 35°51’25.89″ W 82° 8’14.55″ Google Earth location

This week we have raindrops, or perhaps leftover dew, though it looks more like raindrops – I just wasn’t there when it was falling. Big deal, right? You can get rain anywhere, often at a decent price too. But the background is Crabtree Falls off of the Blue Ridge Parkway in western North Carolina, not really close to any particular town. It was one of the places The Girlfriend and I visited while doing a tour of the Blue Ridge many years back.

Or at least, I think this is the location. Here’s the issue:

I was clearly remembering Crabtree Falls, and in fact the images in my stock folders were labeled as such. I knew, from the nature of the terrain, that I’d never be able to find them for this post just by looking at aerial views, so I searched on the falls themselves, which are as I’ve plotted. But this is well off of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and I can find no evidence of the parking area where we left the car and started the hike, definitely over a kilometer, down the steep trails to the base of the falls. I don’t recall a long drive off of the Parkway either, but at that point we were following signs, having come across the turnoff for the falls, so perhaps I’m not remembering that it was a few kilometers to the trailhead. The trail, however, I remember distinctly: The Girlfriend is not sure-footed on downslopes and wasn’t happy about that part of it, which is what I consider easy, while I was unhappy about the return trip upwards, carrying the stuffed camera bags and the tripod on a hot day over what was only a little less than a flight of stairs up many stories. Should I return, I’ll do more plotting with the GPS functions on the smutphone, but both of these were unavailable in, hmmmm, 2009 I think?

So if you’re using my info here to get to the same shooting locale, well, you might not – you’ll be near the base of some falls anyway, because you can see them to the right in the mapping plots, but I can’t vouch that they’ll look the same as the photo here.

On the other hand, I think I might have found two other former shooting locations on the Parkway while doing all this, which you may see later on…

Two quick

Al Denelsbeck

It’s been a busy two weeks and I haven’t had time to do much for the bloggarino – a couple of the recent posts were actually scheduled days in advance. I should be more free now, but right at the moment, just two quick images from this morning, almost the same location but not the same time of day.

Heading out to breakfast this morning with The Girlfriend and The Manatee, I spotted my little friend here:

Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis perched alongside flowers of oak-leaf hydrangea Hydrangea quercifolia
It’s not like I need further photos of Carolina anoles (Anolis carolinensis,) but it was being photogenic next to the flowers of the oak-leaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia,) so I grabbed the camera. The morning sun was blocked from this position so it looks far more overcast than it is.

On returning, the anole had moved on, but very close by was another tableau:

very small Chinese mantis Tenodera sinensis eyeing nearby housefly Musca domestica
The housefly (Musca domestica) is easy enough to spot, but the little Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) is there if you look. While the mantis could potentially have captured and eaten the fly – well, most of it perhaps – the fly took off before a move was made. It at least provided a nice scale for the mantis, and the two images show off the radical difference, including in color, between sunlight and shade. Composition, tension, and education – what more could you want?

More o’ dem birds

Al Denelsbeck

very active nest box of purple martins Progne subis on the waterfront of Washington, NC
While World Migratory Bird Day yielded just one bird for me, the previous couple of days were a lot more productive, as my brother and I did a short trip out to Washington, North Carolina, and points further east. Here on the waterfront of the town, a nest box for purple martins (Progne subis) shows a lot of activity, in a prime location where there were plenty of riverside bugs to catch. None of the females wanted to give me the clearest looks for illustration, but the males are very deep blue with black wings, while the females more midtone grey with paler bellies, so you can at least tell that there are plenty of couples in residence. Actually, I may be assuming too much about the social structure of martins; this might just be a swingers’ condo. No judgment.

likely male downy woodpecker Dryobates pubescens possibly performing courtship display
This example here isn’t exactly migratory, tending to remain in the same areas all year long, but it was what I captured on the same trip anyway. Identifying it was a little tricky, given that the hairy woodpecker and the downy woodpecker are almost identical, save for a) the size of the beak, which doesn’t differentiate very much at all; b) some very subtle markings that, like in this photo, aren’t even fully visible; and c) the size, which is fine if you’re close enough or have a solid reference point. I’m going to go with downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) for this one, and a male at that because it appeared to be doing a display for another just out of clear sight behind some foliage, but if someone wants to argue, I’ll cleverly switch the subject over to philosophy just to trash them.

This was in Goose Creek State Park east of Washington, bordering the Pamlico River. An interesting mix of pine forest, swampy wetlands, and largely saltwater sound that yielded the green heron here, it was while wandering the edge of the sound/river that we saw a lone osprey hanging out on a distant dead tree well out into the water.

osprey Pandion haliaetus standing sentinel on dead tree
Its presence there for an extended period of time was a little suspicious, especially given how close it was to an old nest stand that had seen better, or at least more upright, days.

osprey nest platform leaning at precarious angle
I included the trunk of another tree at the edge of the frame for a reference, to show that I wasn’t being creative with camera angles but holding it dead level. This would initially seem to indicate that the nest platform was long abandoned, but then again, birds nest in the crooks of branches and all that, and sure enough, a very close look at the nest revealed why the osprey was hanging around nearby.

osprey Pandion haliaetus barely peering out of nest on heavily leaning nest platform.
Even at this magnification you have to look closely, but that’s the top of the head and the yellow eye almost dead-center in the frame, the mother sitting on eggs while the father stands watch and fetches food as needed. This was not happening while we were around, though, so no action to catch this time.

Back home, or near it anyway at Jordan Lake, more action was to be found.

osprey Pandion haliaetus circling for prey
The sky was less cooperative later in the day, but the birds were extremely active, and this osprey was circling not too far off and looking about ready to stoop for a fish. When all of a sudden…

Two osprey Pandion haliaetus in territorial dispute
… another appeared out of nowhere and dove on the innocent hunter, apparently feeling that this was poaching on its territory, and it was largely through sheer luck that I had the camera to eye at that moment – the second I saw the action I was firing off frames. Timing this would have been next to impossible.

osprey Pandion haliaetus diving away from midair encounter with another
The lower osprey quickly took the hint and dove out of contact, immediately vacating the area, perhaps as surprised as we were – it certainly showed no sign of seeing its attacker coming. While it’s hard to imagine that the victim didn’t sustain some injury from the encounter, it’s hard to say for sure; the feathers are relatively thick there and an osprey might attack another solely for the message, not necessarily to injure them. A lot of wildlife encounters are like that, especially within the same species, and aren’t as vicious as they appear, but the rest is simply speculation.

Off in the distance, a bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) performed another harassing encounter on an osprey, which didn’t yield very good pics, but I include this one solely for the curiosity.

bald eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus in awkward dive
Here, I believe it has just completed its attack and is diving for the fish that the osprey had dropped, but what an awkward pose. While I know the back is largely towards us, to the right a bit, and the head is straight down, those wings still have me confused – we’re seeing evidence of a hard maneuver, but the anatomy is not exactly clear here.

We’ll close with a better one.

osprey Pandion haliaetus making off with fish
The late afternoon sun was providing just a little color, and the autofocus nailed things properly, even for the fish. If I knew more about fish species this would probably be enough to identify it, but I don’t and I’m not taking the time. Feel free to chime in if you know.

Last minute success

Al Denelsbeck

I’m a little behind with this follow-up, but I have good reasons, plus I’m a grownup and don’t have to explain myself to the teacher anymore. Yet I did indeed get something at least semi-appropriate for World Migratory Bird Day, on that very day even, though I cut it kinda close. The outing that my brother and I made wasn’t aimed towards birds at all, and much of it was spent deep in forest canopy where, even when the birds did show, they were the little hyperactive species flitting around in poor light and I didn’t even bother trying, knowing the results would be dismal.

But then, close to when we were going to leave, my brother spotted the heron:

great blue heron Ardea herodias herodias on bank of Eno River with captured snake
This is the initial frame at 135mm, because I had the shorter lens attached, and full-frame to give some idea of how little we could see. Motion, however, counts for a lot, allowing us to see more because of the shifting contrast with the background, so we can go in a little closer:

great blue heron Ardea herodias herodias on bank of Eno River with captured snake
Now it becomes clear that the great blue heron (Ardea herodias herodias) has captured a snake, and I quickly switched to the long lens, hoping the heron wouldn’t gulp it down before I could get a few sharp frames. The heron, at least, was reasonably cooperative.

great blue heron Ardea herodias herodias on bank of Eno River with captured red-bellied water snake Nerodia erythrogaster clutching at breast plumes
The snake, not so much. While headfirst down the gullet of the heron, perhaps by half its body length, the snake was very much alive because herons swallow their prey whole, and here it’s clutching at the breast plumes of its captor. Meanwhile, the heron was stalking slowly downriver (this being the Eno River) and I endeavored to maintain a decent view, or improve on it if I could. Ducking around some intervening trees and bushes on the banks, I got a nice perspective as the light improved, right before the heron took flight.

great blue heron Ardea herodias herodias on bank of Eno River with captured red-bellied water snake Nerodia erythrogaster
The autofocus wandered no small amount at the working distance, capturing the background from time to time, but a few frames were more than sharp enough, and this is one of the winners. It’s evident now that the snake is a red-bellied water snake (Nerodia erythrogaster,) which I don’t see too often and my brother has never seen. They average over a meter in length and 20-30mm in girth – nice little meal for the heron, and a good way to round out a relatively slow shooting day.

For the sake of it, and because I can’t make a post from the remainder, I’ll throw down a couple of other frames from the outing.

white-spotted slimy salamander Plethodon cylindraceus uncovered from beneath a log
This is a white-spotted slimy salamander (Plethodon cylindraceus,) confirmed by the appearance, the habitat, and the fact that handling it immediately coated my hands with a fiercely sticky mucus that adhered to everything almost as bad as the plot device of a sixties sitcom. Moreover, we met with The Girlfriend’s Sprog just after this, and despite washing my hands thoroughly, they still displayed distinct brown stains that I showed to her – she recognized them instantly from her own experiences during her grad studies. The salamander was almost what we were out to discover, finding at least four, but none of the other species that we were actually hoping to find.

And a fartsy shot, because. The mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) was in full bloom so I fired off a few frames, not even getting a migratory bird in there. Then again, I got more than a few frames in the two previous days, and you’ll see them shortly as well.

steep bank on edge of Eno River showing mountain laurel Kalmia latifolia in full bloom.

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