Waterfowl and not

Al Denelsbeck

As promised, we’re now getting back to World Waterfowl Day, which we spent a significant portion of over at Sylvan Heights Bird Park in Scotland Neck, NC – seems appropriate, since the folks there were responsible for actually creating the holiday. We’d been meaning to get back, simply trying to find the right time, and this was the best excuse. Not that you’d need one, because it’s a damn cool place.

First, let’s return to that teaser pic from a few days ago, because it deserves an explanation.

it kinda looks like a wood duck...
What struck me about this is that the size, feather structure, and pattern all said, “wood duck,” but of course the colors were all wrong. Wood duck (Aix sponsa) is correct, but this is a leucistic mutation, lacking most of the pigmentation, which happens occasionally in lots of different species. From what we were told, the Park was maintaining a small population of these. Their initial purpose had been breeding endangered or threatened waterfowl species, but they branched out after a while and expanded the Park to include a broad representation.

A note about conditions, to which I took affront: the day started out beautifully sunny and warm, no jacket required, and remained that way up to our entry into the visitor center, which we might have spent ten minutes within. Upon exiting, we found the sky had become completely overcast and the temperature had dropped at least five degrees celsius – it was like we crossed to a different state, and naturally it remained that way for the entire visit. So the colors are all muted and contrast down a bit, quite annoying in light of the way the day had been right up to that point.

But let’s see what kind of video we obtained, before switching over to more still photos.

Mentioned briefly therein, the biggest hassle with this and many other animal parks are the enclosures. Naturally there needs to be enclosures, but this means that almost always, you’re shooting through fences or netting or what-have-you, often quite noticeable. Credit to Sylvan Heights in that most of them are black, which makes them less noticeable when defocused as far as possible (usually by getting right against the fence and trying to keep the lens centered in openings,) and there are several aviaries where you can actually go through a double-door system to be inside with the birds – yet the fencing is usually still visible in the background, and now harder to get rid of because the focus trick only works if there’s a significant difference between the subject and the fencing. The trick is, either get right against the fencing to fuzz out that which is between you and the subject, or be significantly closer to the subject than the subject is to the background fencing. Difficult to achieve. This is where smaller lenses, especially smutphone cameras, work much better, at least for the former. As long as the subject isn’t moving around a lot, of course.

[Sylvan Heights does offer photographer passes which provide access to ‘portholes’ in the fences in many places, allowing an unobstructed view, but this fails to eradicate the background fencing, which is extremely difficult to frame around. Not something I’d personally drop the money on.]

Let’s get to the photos, shall we?

wood duck Aix sponsa in front of leucistic or albino mandarin Aix galericulata
In the front is a male wood duck, of course, but what’s that behind? In normal circumstances, it’s the main color rival to wood ducks, the mandarin duck (Aix galericulata,) though in this case it’s another mutation, either leucistic or albino, not sure which. Typically, the males look like this:

male mandarin Aix galericulata posing haughtily
See what I mean? They’re not native to this country, being a species from China instead (bet you never would have guessed that from the name,) but they’ve been imported as an ornamental species often enough to be found in many places here. And don’t ask me whether those vertical buff feathers are parts of the wings, or the tail, or what, because I don’t know. They seem awkward, but that pops up surprisingly often in the avian kingdom.

These, by the way, were found in the duck pond immediately outside of the visitor center, the first thing that you come to, as were this pair:

both sexes of ringed teal Callonetta leucophrys swimming together
This is both sexes of ringed teals (Callonetta leucophrys,) the male in back, though I think they’re in transition between winter and breeding plumage. Spring is the best time to view birds, since they’re on their most flamboyant displays for breeding season, but one of the reasons I like the Sibley Guides is, they’ll show all of the seasonal changes (and juvenile plumage as well,) very helpful for those times when birds are not in their ‘typical’ colors.

The Girlfriend and I both liked this next one, which probably camouflages amazingly well when on the nest:

female freckled duck Stictonetta naevosa drinking from pond
This is a female freckled duck (Stictonetta naevosa) – while the females of many bird species are quite drab (ahaha, get it?) to avoid detection while nesting, the males of this one aren’t much better.

I’m not sure how many species the Park actually features; the identification board for this pond alone had 30 species, and I don’t think that was everything therein. A few hundred, is my guess, and it probably changes frequently.

possibly a leucistic white-cheeked pintail Anas bahamensis
I couldn’t find this one on the boards or plaques, but then I found some matching traits, and I suspect this is another leucistic, this time a white-cheeked pintail (Anas bahamensis.) Like the wood duck, it actually seems to make for an understated but pleasant grayscale palette.

Moving away from the initial pond, we also got into more variety, though you’ve already seen that in the video (right?) The emu didn’t want to provide any worthwhile poses, and we never saw the cassowary, but this guy struck a quick pose:

northern lapwing Vanellus vanellus posing with one leg up
I wasn’t sure about the identification of this one from the plaques, but a websearch confirmed it; this is a northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus.) Quite small and dainty birds, and not from around here, instead being Euro-Asian. On occasion, the single image on the ID plaques in the park aren’t quite the best examples, and as mentioned, plumage can change with seasons anyway.

[A couple of species that I got images of remained unidentified, necessitating more websearches, and let me tell you, far too many pages on the greater webbernets lack any vestige of accuracy in species identification – makes me proud of the efforts I put into it here.]

Himalayan monal Lophophorus impejanus showing iridescence even in muted light conditions
Even in the muted, indirect light of the day, this Himalayan monal (Lophophorus impejanus) shows some great iridescence, but from other photos that I’ve seen, it can get a lot better. It can also get better if the intervening screening didn’t soften the entire image so much…

Nicobar pigeon Caloenas nicorbarica with delicate dark color palette
On the other hand, this Nicobar pigeon (Caloenas nicorbarica) probably doesn’t get a whole lot brighter even in direct sunlight, but the palette is nicely understated. I know I have virtually nothing in these for scale, but this is slightly larger than a typical North American pigeon (or rock dove, the proper common name,) while the monal before it is close to goose-sized. Okay, that’s not the best of descriptions either, because geese feature a lot of size variations – let’s call it a full armload, because it was a damn sight larger than this:

green pygmy goose Nettapus pulchellus in water
This is a green pygmy goose (Nettapus pulchellus,) which virtually no one would guess because it was a lot smaller than any goose that I’ve ever come across, or any chicken, or even a wood duck; it was slightly smaller than the aforementioned rock dove/pigeon. I’m glad this one was on the ID boards because I would have had a hard time finding it under any search term I would have entered.

And then there are the descriptive common names that are anything but.

pink-eared duck Malacorhynchus membranaceous poking onshore from water
I’ve been annoyed at names like the red-bellied woodpecker, which has a faintly pinkish belly at the best of times, or the double-crested cormorant which only displays this in one sex during peak breeding season, but then we have this pink-eared duck (Malacorhynchus membranaceous.) What, do you mean under those feathers? No, they’re there, but only if you’re right on top of it. We need a closer crop:

close crop of previous image showing curious bill and barely visible namesake pink feathers at ears
Do you see that faint discoloration that looks like a berry stain, at the back of the dark eye patch? Yeah, that’s the “pink ear.” Sheesh. But while we’re here, that bill needs some attention, because it looks like someone left it on the hot stove – my guess is that this is a frequent bottom feeder, using that to shuffle around in the sand and mud for its food, much like the spoonbill.

roseate spoonbill Platalea ajaja head detail
I wasn’t wild about the pattern of the fencing showing up so well in the background, but I liked the head detail of this roseate spoonbill (Platalea ajaja,) and of course we see the specialized namesake bill. I am demonstrating my age when I say this reminds me of Phyllis Diller, or Wayland and Madame…

Egyptian plover Pluvianus aegyptius running along wall
A very faint indication of the size of this Egyptian plover (Pluvianus aegyptius) is there in the background, since that’s a standard cinder-block wall behind it, or I could simply tell you it was perhaps the size of a cardinal – a small handful. But I liked the coloration, and had to track its hyperactivity to snag a few decent frames.

Though, sorry, this one needs some professional guidance:

saddle-billed stork Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis doing nothing
This is a saddle-billed stork (Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis,) looking like the kids got ahold of the markers they weren’t supposed to and started coloring it in before they were caught. I mean, that’s a cry for attention, that is – and that scientific name isn’t a lot better. You just know there are some tattoos and piercings underneath those feathers…

Is this long enough? There’s, like, three posts in this one alone. But before we close out, there are a couple of things to throw in, like a shot The Girlfriend captured as I was following a hyperactive jay for video:

the author following a jay with the video rig, shot by The Girlfriend
I had the long lens with me, and it probably would have helped with a handful of images, but I never bothered switching to it, instead keeping solely with the Canon 18-135. You can see the Takstar mic with the ‘dead cat’ wind guard, which worked reasonably well in the circumstances, not getting in the way and cutting the off-axis sounds in half at least. And this was the first real workout of the second option for improving video, which I’ll go into in a later post. Overall, it worked pretty well – when I didn’t forget to turn the mic back on…

Some of the birds were more cooperative than they should have been.

the author engaging a northern pintail Anas acuta in one-sided conversation while it perched on a railing, shot by The Girlfriend
This northern pintail (Anas acuta) seemed uncomfortable while I was explaining the myriad issues with the concept of free will, for unknown reasons. But at least it was mellow enough to stay put, and was even joined by its mate (probably) for a nice portrait:

male and female northern pintails Anas acuta posing for nice portrait on railing
They were pretty chill, allowing me to get a small variety of poses before we let them be – I don’t think they ever flew off. This is a fairly common species in North America, so not the rare or exotic images that would have been better to obtain, but hey…

I also snagged something quite expressive from the fish eagles.

probably mated pair of African fish eagles Haliaeetus vocifer looking as if captured in the middle of a quarrel
I mean, you can’t beat those faces, from species that really can’t change expression much anyway, and I couldn’t resist calling this, “When we get home…”

But my favorite is the one below. I really wanted to do more fartsy, portrait-style images rather than ‘cataloging,’ but the opportunities weren’t there very often at all; downward angles, fences in foreground or background, clutter, and fleeting clear views all conspired against doing a lot of good compositions, not helped by being there with three other people who weren’t likely to be patient with spending a lot of time chasing after specific images. Yet this image of a Guinea turaco (Tauraco persa) came together nicely, and I’ll take it.

Guinea turaco Tauraco persa framed with defocused red flowers in foreground
The other posts regarding Sylvan Heights Bird Park:

Too cool, part 11: Sylvan Heights Bird Park

Sylvan Heights continued

Under the wire

That latest one was over eleven years ago – we need to do better than that…

Participation trophy

Al Denelsbeck

It’s plastic, with cheap gold-ish plating that’s already wearing off, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

This means I responded to the forecasts that there might be a decent aurora borealis display early this morning, and went out to try my hand. The temperature was near freezing and the LCD display wasn’t showing a lot, so I wrapped it up after 45 minutes at the most.

view to north showing perhaps only the faintest hint of aurora borealis display
I was a few kilometers north of my previous attempts and thus might have been getting more residual light pollution from the town I was now closer to, or this might have been from someone’s lights even closer – that’s what the sharper white glow is from, I suspect. Really, far too many people have lights on everywhere now. Anyway, if there’s aurora light coming through in this 29-second exposure, it’s not impressive.

I took the same frame and increased saturation by 100%, just to see what appeared, and again, not much:

same frame with saturation doubled, still inconclusive
It’s possible this display was mostly green, and I have more in here than I suspect – I haven’t seen anyone else’s attempts yet. But if you look close, you may see some faint bands of pink in there, which I’m not convinced is not simply a residual of the color borders from the town lights. Basic answer: not worth the effort.

You might also have noticed the streak from an airplane in there, down low to the right, of which there were far too many to be found for 1:30 AM. Seriously.

time exposure of northern sky showing at least two aircraft crossing the frame
I waited out several of them, which can take a while – in fact, that’s why the initial frames of this post have one in there in the first place: I didn’t wait long enough. It was too dim for me to make out by eye, but 29 seconds at f3.5, ISO 1600 captured it.

And it really is a little more pinkish down there below them, though that could also be some residual taillight glow from cars that had recently passed. Still not enough to care about.

While waiting for both planes and cars, I turned to the west to do the sky in that direction, which was considerably darker, even though the trees bordering the road blocked the view close to the horizon.

night time exposure low to west showing Orion disappearing into trees
Orion is just disappearing into the trees, but still semi-discernible in there – that’s Betelgeuse, one of the ‘shoulder’ stars, showing up brightly just below and left of frame center. Meanwhile the bright one right at the upper edge is Jupiter, cruising through Gemini. Really, it was pretty good viewing condtions once you avoided the light pollution.

Perhaps the best one, overall-fartsy-wise, was this:

night time exposure of northern sky and edge of roadway with streaks from passing truck lights at edge
I quickly re-aimed the camera as a truck blew past, capturing the running lights on the trailer rather nicely – it could do without that damn barrel in there though. I should have waited at least until the headlights passed it, or simply dubbed it out and never told you about it. Still, it seems to say, “Lonely Road” fairly well, and the exposure was short enough not to get any noticeable streaks from the stars. Not that it could have had a lot, anyway; Polaris, the axis of rotation for star streaks, sits high in the center of the frame, with Ursa Major cut off a little too much to easily spot.

Prompted by the aurora predictions (more than any actual evidence of it,) I went out later this morning, when it could actually be called ‘morning,’ and did some solar filter images, showing that we do indeed have a nice collection of sunspots up there:

sunspots responsible for aurora on Jan 20, 26
Sunspots by themselves don’t generate auroral displays, but they’re associated with solar flares pretty often, which do, so generally you’ll find some if there are auroral predictions. These are distinctive enough that you might see them without needing a solar filter, through a natural cloud haze or perhaps even at sunset.

Meanwhile, the pics and video from World Waterfowl Day are on their way – still processing, and as long as I’m not interrupted too often today, I’ll have them shortly. And there’s still another video to follow, too. We’re getting there…

Tip Jar 3: Preparedness

Al Denelsbeck

I’m spinning this one out only a few hours before it’s due to post, so few (if any) illustrations will be forthcoming, but few should be needed anyway. This week, we’ll talk (ironically perhaps) about preparedness, and what you should have with you at all times when doing photography, and what is certainly helpful, and what’s optional.

So, the must-haves that you should never be without:

Adequate bag(s) or pack(s): It’s easy to say, “A big enough bag for all the stuff you need,” but there’s a lot more to it than that. Adequate padding and space, sure, naturally, but you have to carry this comfortably too, and in a way that won’t give you problems down the road. The old standby of the large bag with a shoulder strap is, thankfully, just about gone now, since it was a terrible idea; too much weight on one shoulder, very bad for your back, unstable, and occasionally needing to be set down to find something within. Now, while backpacks are better for carrying, balanced and optimizing your weight-carrying posture, they’re terrible for accessing, always needing to be taken off to do a damn thing. I trade back and forth between a sling bag, essentially a backpack that can then swing down to one side to allow access without removing it, and holster/beltpacks. The sling pack still puts a lot of weight on one shoulder, though it’s more optimized than a shoulder-strapped camera bag; mine is often offset by a large lens case slung from the other shoulder, so at least the weight distribution is more even on the spine. Also, bending over with a sling bag can still allow it to swing forward and down, unless you attach the accessory opposite-shoulder strap, which defeats the purpose of the sling bit.

Belt packs are better in a way, allowing much better weight distribution without any drag on the shoulders, and about as quick access to everything as can be achieved, but they drag on the waist instead, often slipping downwards slowly and usually trapping heat and sweat. I have offset these with suspender straps, which will even allow you to open the belt for a while and air things out, but overall, the sling bag remains in more routine use. This is certainly a season-to-taste topic, with no perfect solution.

Spare batteries: One at the bare minimum, two are recommended – since I’m always using a battery pack/vertical grip on all cameras, those take two and I maintain two in reserve. Once swapped, the dead pair are immediately recharged as soon as I get home, then put back into the bag ASAP. There’s nothing more annoying than cutting a session short because the camera’s dead.

And if you notice the interval getting shorter between needing a charge, it’s time to replace those batteries.

By the way, this also applies to accessories like your flash/strobe, remotes, and so on. For portrait sessions, for instance, have at least two full sets of batteries for the lighting. Voltage testing these ahead of time isn’t a bad idea either; too many of the packaged batteries have a dead one among them, and that will drain the others and stop things quickly because a dead battery will get reverse-charged when in sequence with good ones.

Spare memory: While it hasn’t happened in a while now, I’ve seen far too many memory cards fail, so keep at least one in reserve. Swapping them from time to time helps keep you informed of their status, too, though I’m not sure it does anything for longevity. Don’t be too hasty if a card does fail, and keep it in a safe place until you can tackle it with a decent recovery program – many times, most of the data can be recovered from the card, though I draw the line at re-formatting it and putting it back in use; that’s simply asking for trouble. Keep all cards in protective cases when not in the camera, and keep the contacts clean.

Flash/strobe unit: This is if the photographic style or job warrants it, like portraits or product photography, though these quickly become a kit of their own and carried in separate cases. When I expect to find macro subjects, for instance, the flash, arm, and softbox rig are a necessity.

Cleaning materials: Mostly for lenses, but a small towel or soft cloth isn’t a bad thing to have in the bag. While the various lens pens are handy in a pinch, they’re far inferior to lens fluid and proper cleaning papers or microfiber cloths. Keeping said cloths in a plastic bag to prevent grit and debris contamination is paramount, and if you drop one on the ground, don’t use it without a thorough washing.

[This, by the way, can be problematic by itself. Standard laundry detergents almost always leave a residue in the fabric that you’ll transfer to your lenses, never quite getting them pristine. I’ve heard baby shampoo as a solution, but I haven’t found any of those rinsing perfectly clean either. The best I’ve achieved is a thorough wash and multiple rinses, hot and cold, then a soak in alcohol and blotting the cloth between two towels, drawing the contaminated alcohol away.]

Weather protection: This may simply be rain-proofing your bags, but ideally, rain-covers for the main equipment and clothes for yourself that cover the range of conditions predicted and possible for your outing or session. Any of my warmer jackets/coats always have gloves in the pockets, and the heaviest have wool hats as well. Footwear is suited to terrain (and bags/packs to match.) Sunscreen as warranted, though due to leakage, carrying this in the same bag as the equipment is asking for trouble. In fact, liquids of any kind where they can reach the cameras/lenses is a no-no. And if your bags do get wet, get all equipment out of them as soon as possible and let them dry thoroughly at least overnight, but two full days is better.

What’s helpful to have:

A selection of lenses: This is the toughest decision at times, because they all add weight, but then again, you want to be prepared for any eventuality, and with nature/wildlife, this can often be a lot. There’s a balance point, but at the least, lenses that cover the range of focal lengths you’re most likely to use are top of the list here. Then, you can consider whether you carry that specialty ultra-wide, the fast portrait lens, the macro, and so on.

Flash/strobe unit: When not included above, this still becomes a good idea. Another weighty item that nonetheless comes in handy in unpredictable ways sometimes. Here, the more versatility that you can manage from a single unit, the better. If you’re likely to go longer periods between uses, though, remove the batteries, which have a tendency to trickle down when in a unit, or corrode.

Video microphone: If you do video, this is almost a necessity, since the on-camera mics are prone to poorer quality. Always check power switches before stowing, and keep a wind guard (dead cat) handy.

Remote release: Another item that can unexpectedly have uses. Wired or wireless, your call, and you may have use for several, but try to have at least one if you can.

Spare tripod plate(s): Typically for a quick release head, these can work loose or occasionally be forgotten when switching things out, and inexpensive enough to keep a spare tucked away.

Spare body/bodies: Overkill to some, but necessary to others – if you’re on a paid gig, especially one with singular conditions like a wedding, keep another camera handy, in your car is good enough. The big failures or unexpected damage can happen, and you’re absolutely screwed if you can’t complete the job to contract. This will also apply to lighting and crucial accessories. It’s not a bad idea to go over the equipment before a contracted job and think, What happens if this dies?

Tape, small tools, cord/monofilament, knife, etc: Whatever you think you can get away with, weight and available space-wise. Stupid things happen, and sometimes, you’re saved by taping down that cracked battery door long enough to finish the job. I perpetually carry a small folding knife and pocket flashlight, even when not shooting, because when you have them, you find how often they’re handy.

What can be useful, but probably not necessary to carry everywhere:

Extended cleaning materials: Blower brush, cotton swabs, alcohol, and so on. Most times this is better to leave at home, to be used before heading out on a session.

Chargers, adapter cords, card readers, manuals: For extended trips, you’ll want these, but if you can leave them at your hotel room or in your car, that’s best.

First aid: Same as above, though there have been times when a bandage or two in my bag would have been welcomed. They don’t last long in such conditions, though, so swap them out as needed. Painkillers too.

Extended tools: Meaning full screwdriver sets, specialty camera or tripod tools, and so on. If you’re traveling, they can be handy to have, especially if you’ll lack the ability to buy an emergency tool someplace. The one I’ve found that I needed more often than expected has been the hex-wrench for the tripod head.

Studio lighting: Unless the shoot specifically calls for it, in which case you probably don’t need to be told it’s necessary. But secondary lights on adequate stands are sometimes invaluable.

Go over the job/session in your head, well in advance: Step by step, day by day, subject by subject. It’s impossible to be prepared for everything, but you’ll kick yourself for not being prepared for something that you should have expected. As a personal example, I have a kit box for traveling, about the size of a shoebox, that contains my macro aquarium, ziplock bags, film cans, pipettes and eye-droppers, a small net, and some macro studio stuff to do macro work on-demand. These are all things that I have handy at home, but won’t find easily when traveling, and it’s been collected through experience.

There may be some things in here that I should have included, and certainly, variations that never occurred to me because I don’t shoot certain subjects, so you’ll have to fill in a little on your own. The main advice is, think about your tasks and goals and conditions ahead of time, and account for those first. Plan for problems. But then, pare it down to what you’re willing to carry, eliminating those things that you can either work around (like the ultra-wide lens) or cope with doing without, at least until you can return.

But yeah, a porter or three would be nice…

On their way

Al Denelsbeck

it kinda looks like a wood duck...
I’m happy to report that I, we really, did get out and do something for World Waterfowl Day – a lot of somethings, actually, enough that filling you in on it properly will take a little time. This translates to, uh, 472 images and 52 video clips, though relax – you’re not gonna see all of them.

We have company over right now, through Monday, so I’m finding the time when I can, and thus it still might be a couple of days. It’ll be worth the wait – you can trust me on this. In the meantime, you can ponder what the above critter is if you like. I’ll be practicing my editing to get those damn twigs out of the way…

Your weekend plans

Al Denelsbeck

[I’ve had this image sitting in the blog folder for a little over a month, for a post that never materialized, so it’s being put to use now, even though I should probably get something better.]

Canada geese Branta canadensis clustered on backyard pond
Short notice, I know, and then again, you already know about the holiday anyway and don’t need this, but Saturday, January 17th, is World Waterfowl Day, the day when we get images of waterfowl from every major geographic region across the world. Okay, I’d like to see anyone that could make that work, so maybe we’ll simply concentrate on the waterfowl that’s within easy reach instead. This isn’t too tall an order, since water is within easy reach of 90% or better of the world’s population, and with it come fowl. I’m pretty sure that’s proper sentence structure…

We have tentative plans for that day and right now, the weather looks amenable, so we’ll see if those come to pass. Failing that, we have waterfowl that practically come to the back door, so we can probably work out something – shit, we spend a hell of a lot less time in the backyard now because the ducks are almost always there, but they spook at the sight of anyone out there and we hate chasing them off, even temporarily. I may be spending more time in the upstairs bathroom, is what I’m saying…

It would also be a good day to get some nest boxes installed, if you have the opportunity and location, or scout out potential natural nest locations so you’re prepared in the upcoming nesting season, or to do a birding hike along any waterway you have access to – be creative.

green heron Butorides virescens stalking forward slowly on submerged branch
But why am I telling you this? You already know what you’re going to do – don’t you? Of course you do, forget I asked. And I’ll be back Sunday, or perhaps a day or so later, to illustrate what I got up to. Meanwhile, enjoy the day!

It’s called fashion – look it up

Al Denelsbeck

Just had to post this one. This guy’s been rockin’ the kerchief for a couple of weeks now, I think…

Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis showing incomplete shed tatters around the neck and shoulders
This is in the greenhouse, specifically on the foxglove plant that he seems to really like, since I’ve found him there (and scared him off while watering said plant) numerous times. In fact, several days ago when it was quite warm and I’d left the greenhouse door open for air, I found him not too far outside on the lawn, and recognized him from his kerchief since I’d seen it multiple times before; I figured he’d be happier in the greenhouse and shooed him back inside with surprisingly little trouble. Of course, when I went out later on with the camera, he was nowhere to be found. Spotting him again today, I made sure to get pics.

odd nested circular pattern in attached shed skin on Carolina anole Anolis carolinensisThis is, naturally, evidence of a fairly recent shed, only he’s never managed to dislodge it completely and possibly has no motivation to, since it’s about as out-of-the-way as it can be. But I noticed something odd in the old skin, shown here, an oval pattern which didn’t seem to fit. Now, if it were a snake, I’d say this was an eyecup, since snakes shed their eye coverings with the rest of their skin, but anoles don’t do that. Ear, perhaps? No, that’s an opening too and should only be a hole in the skin. Then piecing things together along that spinal ‘seam,’ I realized it was probably from the parietal eye (I’d always called it the pineal eye, another term for it but apparently not the preferred one,) which is a simple light-sensing organ centered nicely on top of the skull, not in focus in the image below but sitting just opposite in the frame, in between the grey areas just aft of the proper eyes:

attached shed skin on Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis showing shed parietal eye cover opposite parietal eye
By the way, this one is so used to me now that he barely responds when I enter, even when I’m walking back and forth – though as I said, he doesn’t appreciate water crashing into the pot that he’s snoozing within.

Tip Jar 2: Custom settings

Al Denelsbeck

info screen on back of Canon 70D with User Defined Mode 1 selected
One of the things that I tell my students when they’re first learning how to use a camera is, don’t let yourself get confused by all of the options. Camera manufacturers now try to accommodate as many different photography types and styles as possible, meaning that many of the options on modern camera bodies may never see use by any individual photographer; there are several different things on any of the bodies that I’ve owned that I never had the occasion to use. However, you should be familiar with everything showing in the image above, because they relate to most of the basic functions and a few things that can give you a handy edge. One aspect of these, highlighted in orange here (this is a typical display for Canon cameras, though others are similar) are custom settings, or user-defined settings.

At first, you may not have a particular use for these, or understand why you might want to have something like this handy and able to be activated within a couple of seconds, but as you define a routine subject matter, or style, or set of conditions, such things come in very handy and can save a lot of fiddling around when you should be just getting the shots. I’ll use mine as examples, but bear in mind that there are a lot of options and your own tastes will dictate how to optimize your own custom settings.

pair of images from Canon 70D menu showing User Defined Mode 1 and settingThere are three User Defined Modes here, allowing the user to save the parameters of Picture Style, Sharpness, Contrast, Saturation, and Color Tone to a given preset that can be made active in moments. Here, my Definition 1 shows Standard style, neutral Sharpness, but lowered Contrast and Saturation, and then neutral Color tone. And the reason for this is, I shoot primarily in natural light; sometimes brilliant sunlight with high contrast and the ability to overpower colors and bleach out highlights, and sometimes full overcast with its very low contrast and weaker color response. So I have a couple of presets to counteract these traits, which could otherwise exceed the limits of typical digital photographs. This setting is what is used in those bright sunlight conditions, reducing the contrast and saturation to help keep the color response and dynamic range (the range of brightness from full black to full white) within control. You’ll notice, however, that I’ve only adjusted by one ‘step’ on these, while three are available. In my experience, having the camera make more drastic adjustments can often result in images that begin to look unrealistic, yet you may find that your own uses benefit from higher settings. Something to remember: if the camera saved the image file with certain adjustments, you likely won’t be able to reverse these if they’re too strong. And at the same time, if the sunlit snow bleaches out to pure white, you’re not bringing detail back into the image. I have a decent grasp of digital editing and can make adjustments if needed, so I tend to prefer keeping the in-camera effects to a minimum, but again, season to your own taste.

Custom Control assignment menu on Canon 70D
There are myriad other settings that you can program into the camera for quick activation, often linked from something like the Mode Dial, as well as several presets (like Exposure Auto-Bracketing) that can be accessed easily. Most decent camera bodies also allow you to assign certain functions to some of the easy-to-access controls on the back or at your fingertips, as shown above. Two distinct settings from my own cameras here: The ‘AF-ON’ button, near my right thumb when holding the camera, actually turns the autofocus off, useful when tracking something like a distant bird to prevent the autofocus from grabbing the horizon when the bird crosses it; and the Multi-Controller (kind of like a joystick on the back of the camera, the star-thingy at lower right in the menu) selects which autofocus point is active, allowing it to be switched quickly for framing situations where I don’t want the bit right in the middle to be what the camera focuses upon. Again, these are for my shooting style; I don’t recommend them to anyone else unless they feel they can actually benefit from them. There is no ‘one size fits all’ in photography.

It can be worth it to sit down one quiet evening and pick through the Custom Functions menu (or whatever it might be called on your own camera body) and review the settings to see what’s available and what you think you can use – and this probably isn’t a bad idea to do once a year or so as your tastes and subject matters develop. The same can be said for the manual. Reading one cover-to-cover can be tedious and even confusing, but picking out certain functions to see what they actually do might suddenly make your work flow smoother, and/or give you ideas for something new to try. If you run into something that you don’t understand, a quick web search will usually enlighten you. However, it is important to remember what you actually changed on your camera – maybe even take notes. That way, when you suddenly find that your images aren’t appearing as they always used to, you know where to start looking first.

[Also, get in the habit of checking out all of the basic settings, like the illustration at top, routinely, as soon as you switch the camera on and even from time to time during a session. It is remarkably easy to change something and forget about it, only to have it affect a whole slew of images that you never intended it to. Ask me how I know…]

And one more thing, that’s been beneficial to me on countless occasions: learn how to operate your camera by feel alone. Know how many clicks you need to move that control dial to adjust your aperture where you need it, or the mode dial to go from aperture-priority to full manual. Know which one of those switches on the lens barrel turns off autofocus (this is always fun since lens manufacturers don’t feel obligated to uniformity.) The same goes for your tripod, flash unit, camera bag, and anything else that you use routinely. First off, you may not always have adequate light to actually see these, and in my case often enough, I may not want to shine a light around. But it certainly helps when you don’t have to take your eye away from the viewfinder to adjust the camera as needed within a second or so, and it even makes you look more professional in front of anyone.

So go personalize your camera to make it the tool that works best for you, and have fun with it!

One step behind

Al Denelsbeck

I’ve been trying to get this video finished and uploaded for a couple of days now, and just tonight I had finished it off but, before I had even uploaded it, obtained even more clips that really should have been added. Instead, they’ll be along within a few days – otherwise I’ll never catch up. And yes, this is more backyard pond video.

This is to note that I added the mounting plate to the bottom of the custom rig that goes on the bottom of the cheapo video mount/stabilizer, the bit that I forgot when designing it – it was a simple addition, permitting the use of a monopod or tripod with the flashlight mount. And it works quite well.

I made a small mistake in the main design, in that the flashlight needs a little more vertical play for best aiming, but otherwise everything works great. It’s also easy enough to handle and doesn’t require a few minutes of preparation like using the off-camera monitor does. I still need work on my smooth handling and especially shifting my grip (even if it’s just remembering not to do it while the video is recording, or editing that bit out when I do.)

Audio, however, is still under refinement. I tweaked my normal settings for the voiceover track here, possibly nothing that you’d notice but I think this makes it smoother and easier to edit – Audacity has a ton of settings and I’m slowly learning what works best, but I’ve cut my editing time in half while also improving the quality, so that’s a win. Onsite audio is another matter, and I’m toying with a couple of ideas. The clips I got tonight (that you’re not seeing yet) made me realize that I might want the parabolic dish instead, despite the fact that this cuts the lower frequency tones a bit. I also want to try out a couple of ideas for cutting the background road noise; one is to find the frequencies where it’s strongest and simply cut that band out (potentially making the audio seem strange,) and the other is to record a background baseline on another recorder, separated from the video rig, and use that to subtract from the audio track on the video. In theory, this will wipe out all of the background traffic noise, but in practice? Plus there’s the whole idea of setting up a separate recorder, and most especially, synching it to the video clips which would be started and stopped at will. This might be a stupid idea.

Overall, however, I’m pretty psyched that I can walk out the back door and get stuff like this. As long as I don’t encounter any bears…

Estate Find 53

Al Denelsbeck

We’re not doing it weekly anymore, but the Estate Finds will still creep in here and there, and this one certainly merits attention; we’re doing away with the roman numeral horseshit though. This is what greeted me when I went out front today:

bird feeders pulled over and damaged
That’s part of our bird feeder system. Two feeders down, both damaged, one crook tilted crazily. Now, the soil tends to give way over time and rain and cause things like this to start leaning on their own, but typically not this far.

shattered bird feeder
This was the feeder on the crook, obviously having seen better days.

bird feeder pulled off supporting wire
This was the other one, with the supporting wire pulled completely out of the top. I might have chalked this up to the blue feeder and crook toppling over and hitting this one, except they couldn’t reach the level of this. Plus the shattered feeder wasn’t all that close to this one or its crook. And then we have the suet feeders.

suet feeder sitting opened five meters from other feeder damage
This one had been quite close to the house, right in front of The Girlfriend’s art room window, hanging from a crook that was also leaning way over, now better than five meters away from it. That’s not the work of squirrels, much less the wind (which wasn’t very strong recently anyway.) But worse was the second one.

suet feeder bent and with hinges ripped open
This was twice the distance away, and forced open enough to bend the sides and rip apart the hinges. It would take me some force to bend the side like that.

In other words, we likely had a bear visit last night, right in front of the house. Now, a few months back I spoke with someone who had to take his hummingbird feeders inside each evening because the black bears would raid them, right under his roof overhang, and he was only a few kilometers off. But at the same time, we’re in a residential development, even with the ponds right there, and surrounded by either fairly busy roads (you’ve heard the traffic in the background of the videos) or a deep creek that bears are unlikely to cross. So, not impossible, but there are plenty of reasons for them to avoid the area. and this is the first evidence that we’ve seen of them.

Well, not exactly. When we moved in, I noticed some damage to the end of a drainage pipe that overhung a retaining wall of the back of the house:

notable damage to end of drain pipe atop retaining wall
Typical heavy-duty plastic (HDPE, probably) pipe, and the retaining wall is half a meter high. The previous owners only had a lap dog that couldn’t even reach this, and even if it could, it probably couldn’t have produced holes this size:

notable teeth holes in end of drainage pipe
I’d asked the owner about this, and he didn’t even know it was there. At the time, I’d suspected it had been from a coyote or at least a large wandering dog, but now I’ve revised that suspicion (and firmed it up a bit.)

No, we don’t have any surveillance cameras of any kind outside, and yes, that’s going to change soon; I’d intended for at least one to monitor the pond and backyard anyway, though it would’ve been unable to capture this going on. I guess I’ll have to add at least one for the front too.

But you go outside at night all the time, you say, Are you going to break that habit now? And the answer is, no, but I might take more time paying attention to the faint sounds I hear (and I’ve heard the occasional inexplicable rustle from the edge of the bamboo forest.) Here, it’s only going to be an American black bear (Ursus americanus,) a species that tends to be pretty shy and not at all aggressive – unless there are cubs at hand. Plus, the one time I suspect I was close (relatively – within a hundred meters) to a black bear, the musk smell was noticeable, and I’ve never detected that here. Still, we’ll see what happens, right? And if the posts stop, check the news for eastern North Carolina…

The start is not strong

Al Denelsbeck

Yeah, I know, it’s a really poor posting schedule for the beginning of the year, and I’d like to say that there’s a good reason, and I will because I’m good at indulging myself, but honestly, there isn’t. It’s been fairly cold with little to see here save for the same ol’ subjects that aren’t doing anything new, though I do have a few video clips to finish off – should have done it last night but ran out of steam.

Then this morning, there was a decent fog, lifting even as I got out to do something with it. So we’ll start with a couple of pics.

mist-lined spiderwebs on almond tree
While the fog left behind plenty of moisture, there wasn’t a lot to leave it on that was photogenic, so I settled on the almond tree and its spiderweb rigging, likely always there but invisible without these conditions. Key, naturally, was getting them against a dark background.

It showed a little better on the weathervane.

morning mist from fog decorating 3D-printed wood duck weathervane
It kind of looks like the air has been so still even the spiderwebs haven’t been disturbed, but that isn’t necessarily the case; none of the strands appear to stretch between the movable duck sail and the fixed compass cross. This is all 3D-printed, by the way, and I’d say it was my own design but it’s only my own modifications of someone else’s designs. Still, I should probably upload it…

But we do have one image of the fog itself, before it vanished entirely.

backyard pond feeding into The Bayou with fog lifting
We need a comparison shot for this, though. The pond has been distinctly higher for the past couple of months, to the point that the channel to The Bayou is no longer a channel, but a broader flood plain as seen here. We compare it to a shot from not quite a year ago after the snow:

backyard pond by channel to The Bayou, under decent coating of snow
This is sized and cropped to the same perspective; the channel that the ducks and geese use passes in front of those two trees close together on the left. Which brings us to the start of today’s saga, since while doing some brief video clips overlooking the pond, I noticed that a soda bottle was floating near the edge, getting in the frame. I’ve been seeing one or two cycling around the pond recently, due to the higher water level (more on this in a moment,) but since this was close enough to the edge I decided I was going to get it out of there. Donning the mud boots, I went out with a small net and snagged it, then went after two more, though one of those was just far enough out that I flooded the boots. While I was doing this, The Girlfriend took another net and snagged some other trash that she saw, bringing up a little surprise as she did so.

small fish netted from backyard pond, possibly smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieu
Saying that this is the largest fish I’ve seen in the pond gives you an idea of the conditions; the pond is fed primarily by rain runoff and possibly a small spring, and the channel connection at the southern end was narrow and quite shallow. So what we have are minnows, and since the pond is shallow, I suspect any larger fish that might wend their way into the area get found by herons pretty quickly. Based on illustrations here, I’m going to tentatively say this is a young smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu,) especially because it lacks the black gill flap of the bluegill, but my confidence in this identification is fairly low. Nor do I really care – I have little interest in fish, and absolutely none at all in fishing.

Now that my boots were flooded, however, I decided to venture into The Puddle, the tiny little pond that sits in the middle of the backyard, because there’s an overgrown fountain and millstone in there that we’ve been meaning to clear off. The Puddle is bordered by an American tulip tree, a pin oak, and a few bald cypress, so the debris collects easily within, and even though the fountain and millstone were only a few meters away, they were mostly obscured. I got in enough to fish out the fountainhead, bringing it out for cleaning – we’re probably not going to restore the fountain since the water level fluctuates too much.

mossy frog fountainhead removed from The Puddle, in the background
That’s The Puddle in the background, so you can see it’s not exactly stockable or swimmable, and that little patch of teal right behind the frog’s back is the remains of the pump filter – underneath it sits the millstone (which is going to remain since it probably weighs a few hundred kilos.)

The day was quite warm – I was out only in a T-shirt – and having already gotten soaked and dirty, I figured it was time to tackle a couple of other tasks. The first was raising the wood duck box a little higher, which required the kayak and the ladder (see that link above if you haven’t already.) Both have to be lugged through the woods to the opposite side of the pond, and placing them is tricky, as is actually going out there to raise the box, so it had been waiting for a while until we got psyched out for it. And then, having finished with that, it was on to part two, which was cleaning out the creek a bit.

Here’s the scenario: While the pond forms the edge of nearly the entire backyard, Walkabout Estates actually encompasses a thin band of land on the far side of it, bordered by a creek; this was where we first saw the beavers. The creek runs under the road that you hear in the background of every outdoor video, and as such (and being in the southern United States,) it collects a shitload of trash from the various inconsiderate inbred fuckholes that toss their garbage out there since, you know, we’re not civilized enough to actually have trash collection here (that’s sarcasm – we do, every week.) The pond and the creek aren’t connected, per se, but there’s a small inlet crossover into a tiny channel that eventually ends up in The Bayou, though the flow through this is infinitesimal. However, with the water level up, there apparently is a little more back-and-forth happening, and a little bit of the trash from the creek makes it into The Bayou and then upwards into the pond. I’ve been looking at the trash in this creek ever since we moved here, vowing to one day get the kayak into it and collect as much as I could, and today became the day.

trash on creek that forms the boundary of Walkabout Estates
The sides of the creek are shrouded by undergrowth over a large percentage, and we weren’t prepared for the volume of trash that it held. I carried a small net and several trash bags in the kayak, tossing each onshore as I filled them, while The Girlfriend worked with a larger net from shore, fighting through the bamboo and old greenbrier vines. Between us, we filled six bags, but this was hardly a dent in the amount that the creek held. It was especially discouraging to get down a little ways, beyond what I’d ever been able to see from shore, and find what was waiting there:

disgusting collection of trash at natural dam on creek forming the boundary of Walkabout Estates
This is perhaps not quite as bad as it appears, since the creek has minimal draft and thus minimal flow, and the log forming this natural dam may have been collecting this for quite some time; I know I’ve seen the tire in there go up and down the creek by small increments over the past year. There is at least one other trash-collection session awaiting us, probably more, and then we’ll see how fast it accumulates again.

By this time, however, we were both exhausted, and in fact left the full trash bags stacked to be brought up another day. After pulling the kayak back out, I took the opportunity to register the evidence of beaver activity that had grown since I’d last been in that stretch (which has been longer than it should’ve, really):

extensive bark stripping by North American beavers Castor canadensis on unidentified tree
That’s quite a job, and shows just how high a beaver can reach when standing on their hind legs. We have another closer look:

extensive bark stripping by North American beavers Castor canadensis on unidentified tree, with author's sandals for scale
This is the first time I’ve been in the sandals since early November, I think – feels good. The tree will survive this damage easily, by the way – there are several others that show the same treatment, obviously years ago. These four images were all taken with the waterproof Ricoh WG-60, the only camera I’ll take out in the kayak, definitely very handy to have.

All of that pushed back several of the other tasks that I’d planned for myself today, especially since we both needed to clean up extensively once we returned, and we both felt inclined to nap after that. A couple of those tasks will be tackled once this posts, but for the rest, tomorrow’s another day. I just didn’t want you thinking, with the lack of posts, that I was getting lazy or something…

1 … 4 5 6 7 8 … 330