Visibly different, part 17

Al Denelsbeck

Another take on the subject this time; instead of comparing older and newer images, I’m going to show the alterations done to a single older image. I suspect this is the only image of mandrills that I have, and I can’t even recall where I took it, since I’m pretty sure the NC Zoo hasn’t ever had them and I’ve never been anywhere on the African continent.

Anyway, the original:

pair of mandrills Mandrillus sphinx in unknown location
This was before the routine cleanup that negative/print film requires, and you can see the dust and degradation from the original scan – nothing too hard to clean up, but that grain is another matter. This was a pretty high ISO film, and it shows: even with film, the higher the ISO, the lower the quality, and while it handled the reduced light of the enclosure and even produced some decent colors, the grain was simply overwhelming. For giggles, we’ll take a look at full resolution:

closeup of mandrill Mandrillus sphinx face on grainy negative film
Even as a small print, this was noticeable, but as an enlargement it simply wasn’t going to do. It was a shame, because I liked the semi-cloned poses of the two mandrills, a faintly cubist effect, and thinking in those terms also brought up pointillism, and I decided to try something.

[Pardon me for digressing slightly and further for potentially butchering the definitions, but I feel clarification might be in order for some. Cubism is the technique of showing two or more perspectives simultaneously, such as a face-front and a profile, what Picasso is best known for, while pointillism is creating the image from dots instead of strokes or lines, a little like a mosaic.]

With that in mind, I cleaned up the original, converted to greyscale, and then burned in the surroundings to make the mandrills almost floating in dark space. In that space, I added grain to match the original, giving it a little more of an old film effect, one of the interesting things about our culture. The older films were terrible and grainy compared to now, but we’ve gotten so used to it that converting a grainy image to greyscale simply makes it look more ‘natural.’ Meanwhile, the eradication of the surroundings draws more attention to the mandrills, and the similar poses gives an impression (to me at least) of two different ages, the senior years lurking in the background, and the greyscale enhances this idea too.

mandrill image converted to greyscale with background removed
Even the position of the wrist of the one behind seems to support this idea, more crooked and less fluid, and the shadowed brow helps too, implying sunken and even squinting eyes. Is there the suggestion of a hunch? It just seemed to work, and cleaning it up to concentrate on this faintly surreal aspect helped it along. Because of this, I added it to the Black & White gallery on the main site, though the version you see here is a remaster done recently.

And then, considering this post and the impressions that I was getting, I did another version, a little layer masking (there are tons of videos out there that explain and demonstrate this, but it’s easy to do in most of the Photoshop versions and in GIMP.)

selective color version of mandrills image
The selective color effect is a bit trite now, but it seems to work for this concept. This now largely defeats the purpose of converting to greyscale, since the grain remains in the color portion, but the greyscale portions gain a more unreal impression, more of the imagined/dreaded specter of old age sitting just behind. Without seeing the original, it would be easy to believe that I pasted two images together to convey this idea, though granted, most people wouldn’t choose to illustrate the idea with mandrills. Their loss, you know?

*       *      *

I just have to add this, because I’m me, but I suspect that we’re actually seeing a female and a male here instead of different ages, which puts an entirely different spin on the whole image, and one that I’m not going to comment on in the slightest…

Outside the box

Al Denelsbeck

Ran across this image online, unfortunately I forget where, but it was unattributed there anyway.

unidentified frog/toad with probable suitors on back
Though it’s not so much the image itself that I’m highlighting, but the context and captioning, which were references to a mother carrying her brood on her back.

Uhhhh, no. Almost certainly not, anyway. And it’s a subtle illustration of a prevalent attitude among humans, because we tend to view wildlife in our own terms, largely to our detriment.

We’ll start with, very few amphibians are even around for the birth of their young, having deposited their eggs in a favorable pond or pool and moved on long since – need we remind ourselves about the tadpole stage? While my knowledge is by no means comprehensive in this regard, I know of only one amphibian species that is present at the birth of its young, and it’s quite a weird one. The vast majority of amphibians and even reptiles are on their own from birth.

Moreover, we tend to view size disparity as a sign of disparate ages – if one’s smaller than the other, it much be younger. Which is a little funny, in that even our species has a distinct, though not remarkable, size difference between the sexes, but plenty of others, from amphibians to birds to insects, demonstrate this disparity, sometimes on orders of magnitude. Size really isn’t important – you heard it here first.

What we’re likely seeing here is mating behavior – the big one is the female, and the others (it’s not even clear how many there are) are all males, hopeful suitors. One is even clearly in the amplexus position, grasping the female under the armpits. Here they will remain until the female is ready and finds that favorable pond or pool to enter and expel her eggs, whereupon the male(s) will expel their sperm to seek the eggs out in the water itself, called external fertilization – many different species do this. As I type this I realize that my chosen title has a further, indelicate meaning (honestly not considered when I chose it,) that I take a certain delight in leaving as is.

My crudeness aside, I just like pointing out that assumptions regarding any other species stand a good chance of being completely wrong, and we need to remind ourselves of this constantly – our human-centric thought processes don’t work with other species. The image almost certainly does not represent motherhood (quite yet.) As pleasant as we may find bird song, an awful lot of it is warning other males to stay the hell away. The great apes lack the power of speech not because they lack the anatomy, but likely because they lack the need. I quote, once again, Douglas Adams, in reference to mountain gorillas:

They look like humans, they move like humans, they hold things in their fingers like humans, the expressions which play across their faces and in their intensely human-looking eyes are expressions that we instinctively feel we recognize as human expressions. We look them in the face and we think, “We know what they’re like,” but we don’t. Or rather, we actually block off any possible glimmering of understanding of what they may be like by making easy and tempting assumptions.

I was going to say that wildlife observation needs to begin with a blank slate, no assumptions, but this isn’t exactly true either; we sometimes need to be aware of what the species is, and does, its environment, predators, and prey. It’s tricky. But if we think we recognize some particular form of behavior, odds are we’re completely mistaken.

Dirty Day

Al Denelsbeck

This wasn’t intentionally aimed for Earth Day, yet it’ll do, unless I find something else. As indicated in the previous post, I was slightly delayed in getting this out, given that it happened yesterday, but so it goes.

While doing yard work yesterday, I came down the back steps and found this indelicate display right out there for all to see.

mating Carolina anoles Anolis carolinensis on iron gate
These are, naturally, Carolina anoles (Anolis carolinensis,) and they’re engaged in… well, they’re apparently beyond engagement at this point, but this is how they mate. I mentioned just a few days ago that I had several goals concerning this species, and this was one of them. I hadn’t wasted any time in grabbing the camera so I wasn’t fully equipped for video with tripod, microphone, external monitor, or even a longer lens, and thus what I captured was ‘on the fly,’ but quite acceptable for that. Quality-wise, anyway – I can’t vouch for the views of any delicate souls out there. So yes, I did capture a handful of video clips to illustrate, though there admittedly wasn’t a lot to illustrate.


For what little I have here, I was out there for quite a while, determined to capture a complete display of courtship and mating should it occur. Given that I had already seen the mating, only a few minutes earlier, I was surprised to see the male displaying a short distance away from the female, until I realized that there were two females. Or so I surmise, anyway, because while both sexes can change their coloration this distinctly, typically the territorial display for males is flashy green with other patches, not brown. But what had happened in the short space while I wasn’t observing? Was either female the one seen initially? Here, I figured I’d leave them be while they conducted business, and this resulted in missing some part of the drama.

male Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis during courtship/breeding display showing pink dewlap
The male spent a great deal of time scampering around on the fence, from the immediate vicinity to several meters away, displaying enthusiastically. The second female that appeared ever-so-briefly in the video remained completely out of sight, while the first took shelter and shortly reappeared, though circumspectly; I suspect this was from my presence. For my part, I picked a spot that had a decent view and held still, getting both too warm and more than a little achey from holding the camera higher. Not only that, but soon after starting video, the low-battery warning was flashing, typical when I start video because it uses the LCD for focusing and framing and this takes a lot more power. It’s one of the reasons that I have an external monitor – when I bother to have it attached.

Nothing ever came of this whole secondary courtship, despite my observing for about 15 minutes.

female Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis remaining unimpressed
From what I’ve seen of the species, they tend to be remarkably sharp-eyed, but I was never certain whether either could see the other – the female definitely showed no recognition of the male’s display, and the male never approached the female any closer than that seen in the video. Eventually, he gave up and took a position along a fence slat, his color fading closer to that of the fence as he appeared to get in a quick nap.

Meanwhile, I’m still not sure if this is my imagination, but the female here seems to show a hint of purple in her coloration. Is this typical, and I’ve never noticed it? Is it sparked by the proximity of the flowers? (I’ve once again forgotten the species.) Are my eyes shot? Tune in next week – we won’t have the answers then either, but perhaps there will be something else of interest.

By the way, as of this brief video upload, I believe I’ve reached my free limit on Vimeo, and will have to give them some money to host anything further. This isn’t a hint or anything – just observing. Gosh, sure are a lot of cool videos up here though, with fancy title cards and everything. Pretty classy for free content, you know? Not that I’m saying anything…

Poor planning

Al Denelsbeck

I’ve got some photos and video clips to upload, all taken today, but naturally the video needs a voiceover track and the 3D printer on my desk is grinding away right now, so I can’t record that bit just yet. They’ll all be along soon, but it will be tomorrow, even if it’s only an hour or two hence.

Yeah, I should have delayed starting the 3D job, but even the simple ones can take a while, so I fire them up and then turn to other projects. I’ve gotten the photos and the video clips edited, but now the audio bit is waiting until the printer ceases.

I didn’t really need to tell you all this, but it’s something to do while I’m stalled. Gotta keep that post count up, no matter how needless it is. There’s a multi-level joke about volume in here.

Visibly different, part 16

Al Denelsbeck

brown pelican Pelecanus occidentalis silhouetted in sky near sun
This one I can remember fairly well, despite having no context or surroundings. This was in Florida, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to be exact, taken while my brother was visiting. It was a grab shot as I spotted the brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) cruising overhead, and including the sun was intentional. This was with the Sony F717 loaner camera in late afternoon on a slightly hazy day, so there wasn’t a lot of color to work with.

But it’s pretty similar to the next, taken 15 (and not quite a half) years later.

brown pelican Pelecanus occidentalis banking with wingtips against sun
Seriously, not a lot different between them, though the latter is definitely superior. This does not come from greater experience, more planning, or anything of that crafty nature, though it might have benefited from using Full Sun white balance instead of Auto like the previous, retaining the color register of the early morning sun. Nor was this a planned revisit of the earlier image. I was simply tracking the pelican in the hopes of a close approach when it banked near the sun. The Canon 30D definitely did not have the shutter lag of the F717, and chances are I was anticipating this more, but other than that it was all chance differences. More than anything, this is just showing the unintentional similarity of two images shot years apart.

It’s that April busy season

Al Denelsbeck

Yes, indeed, like every year, we’re closing in on three principle events within April, and unlike some of the other ‘events’ that pop up around this time of year, these are not at all mythological.

First off, we’re already within the Lyrids Meteor Shower, though it peaks on the 21st-22nd – basically, go out whenever you get clear enough skies and give it a shot. On the peak nights, the moon will be rising just as the meteor activity is due to increase, not ideal, and it’s a waning gibbous moon so, still noticeably bright. The general rule is, after midnight the spot on Earth where you’re standing starts to face into the direction of Earth’s travel around the sun, which increases the likelihood of seeing meteors. This year, we have a little window around that time when the moon either hasn’t risen yet or has just risen and not gotten too high or bright, and the sun is as far from orbiting satellites as it can get, so our best chances of seeing something fall in there – weather cooperating, of course. Since we still haven’t gotten completely past this ridiculous tendency for overnight temperatures to drop to inexcusable levels, it might be less than comfortable out there, but hey, I didn’t plan this.

I have yet to capture anything even remotely noteworthy, despite my attempts, but I have to note that, to the best of my knowledge, neither did anyone else anyplace within a few hundred kilometers of my location during any of the storms that I tried observing. What I’m saying is, there’s no proof that I suck.

April 22nd is also Earth Day, so plan your visit there early because it’s sure to get crowded – scientists predict damn near everyone will be someplace on Earth that day. It’s a good time to see just how far you can get on strictly human power (well, camels are okay too I suppose,) or whether you can go the entire day without extraneous electricity, or things like that – trust me, I’m not getting preachy myself because I do too much stuff on a computer, even when I watch no TV myself; The Girlfriend and I watch an episode of Bob’s Burgers over dinner, three to four times a week, and that’s all the TV for me, but the computer, well… We’ll see if I can shut it down and leave it down for at least the day.

April 24th is the – are you ready for this? – 32nd anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, still going strong up there. Most people have at least heard of the newly-launched James Webb Space Telescope (“Webb” or “JWST” are fine,) and a lot think it’s Hubble’s replacement, which isn’t exactly true. Webb is geared towards more refined observations than Hubble, largely in the infra-red spectrum, so even though its main mirror, and thus its resolving power, are several times greater, it’ll be looking at different things.

[Sidetrack here for trivia that has nothing to do with Hubble. Webb is ‘parked’ at an imaginary point in space called Lagrange 2, or L2 – exactly opposite the Earth from the sun, so it will never receive any direct sunlight, and at such a distance that the gravitational pulls of both will help it remain there in orbit, self-stabilized. The instruments onboard need to be extremely cold to operate, so this is the best of the options available. It sits about 1.5 million kilometers out from Earth, about 1% of the distance between the Earth and the sun, but almost four times farther than the moon, and more than 2,600 times as far as Hubble. Unlike the Hubble, we’re not going to see it with any backyard telescope, especially since it perpetually remains in Earth’s shadow.]

Anyway, Hubble’s still kicking and can be spotted on certain nights – Stellarium, once again, is your bud.

HST images of protoplanetary disk AB Aurigae b
Credit: NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

The image seen here shows a protoplanetary ‘blob,’ essentially a forming string of planets, in very wide orbit around the star AB Aurigae. Courtesy of Hubble, we’re seeing a planet (likely a string of them) forming around a star 531 light years away. Slick, right?

Fulfilled that obligation

Al Denelsbeck

I’m here to tell you from personal experience how nice it feels to accomplish something, and coincidentally, this ties in with the holiday, because today is Finally Make A Bare Minimum Advance Towards Goals Day. Yep, it’s the day when we get something done, no matter how minimal, that we can feel proud of instead of the usual background embarrassment over ongoing complacency.

For my part, it’s illustrating a little more behavior from my local and easy-to-observe photographic subjects, to wit, the Carolina anoles (Anolis carolinensis.) This actually occurred three days ago, but I hung onto it until now to make celebrating the holiday even easier; otherwise I might have had to accomplish something further today, the thought of which is more than a little galling. So let’s see what I got:

Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis shedding skin on fence
While doing a bunch of gardening, now that spring may actually be here (or maybe not,) I was marching back and forth among the sprawling expanse of Walkabout Estates, including multiple trips through the gate between the anterior and posterior spreads, spotting anoles more than a couple of times – they were attempting to enjoy the brilliant sun and pleasant temperatures and would probably have preferred not to be seeing me so much, but the gardening is almost as much for their benefit as it is for mine. Well, some portion of it anyway – a non-zero percentage at least. But a little later on, I glanced over and found this. This is how an anole sheds its skin, which happens several times a year – not like we do in tiny flakes, nor how a snake does all at once in one distinct piece. It’s pretty decrepit-looking, really. While we’re here, I’ll point out the curved shadow on the fence just beneath the lizard; this is the shadow of my own head, carefully maintained down low where the sudden eclipsing of the sun might have spooked the lizard off. We can go in a little bit closer.

Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis shedding skin on fence
The lizard was well aware of me closing in, but I moved as gently as possible and kept the noise to a minimum, managing not to disturb it. The chances are fairly good that this was one of those that I was seeing earlier that day, though no signs of the impending shed were noticed, and it’s also fairly likely that this was the one that I’d caught sleeping two days previous, since this was a bare meter from the location on the gardenia bush; I was leaning into/through the bush to get these frames.

This is the kind of thing that I want to capture more of, illustrating the various life habits of the species that I pursue, and the fact that it doesn’t happen often suggests that I should be spending a lot more time ‘stalking,’ observing as much as I can from enough distance that they don’t feel too threatened by my presence. This isn’t that difficult with the lizard species, since a few minutes of motionlessness is enough to convince them that the threat is gone – I just haven’t been dedicating the time to it. As for seeing more, such as through video, there really wasn’t anything more to see for this one: the anole was simply basking, probably helping the skin to dry out, and said skin would eventually be brushed away with passage down the fence and among the leaf litter, at least from what I’ve seen so far. Capturing the start would be nice, but admittedly a matter of blind luck. Still, it’s a goal.

What are those goals, you ask? There’s always a list, for any given species, and among them for the anoles is:

  • Foraging, and capturing meals
  • Mating
  • Giving birth (highly unlikely – this probably takes place in deep concealment)
  • Territorial displays and encounters
  • First emerging from shelter
  • Avoiding (or not) predators
  • Anything else that illustrates their typical behavior

    • Most of that would be ideal for video, of course, which requires adequate light and usually having the tripod already set up, because handheld macro video is far too shaky and nausea-inducing. So, not quite as casual as I implied above, but it’s also not going to happen unless I make it happen, so I need to kick myself in the ass to make it happen. Good thing that I’ve already observed the holiday for today though, so I can kick back instead and revel in the sense of progress.

    Just because, part 46

    Al Denelsbeck

    unidentified water plants against reflected sun
    An outing to Jordan Lake yesterday was remarkably unproductive, but I managed a few frames of minor merit, and we have one here (demonstrating that my definition of “merit” isn’t influenced by Merriam, Wagnalls, Webster, or Funk – and no, that’s not where “funky” comes from, and you probably don’t want to know the actual etymology of that.) These might be some variety of lily pads, or they might not, but I’m not looking them up – the purpose hereof is just the aesthetics (again, mine.) The initial light angle made their shapes stand out, but shifting around a bit to put the sun’s reflection in the immediate surroundings made them more surreal. Should I have left the stem at the top out? Should I have waited to see if they would flower? Should I have stayed home and cleaned the office? These questions shall remain completely disregarded.

    This image is a little too similar to what will (likely, unless I get better in the interim) become the end-of-the-month abstract – another image that I shot yesterday – but that’s two weeks away and you’ll forget about this one by then. In fact, you probably already have. If you exist outside of my fevered imagination at all.

    Some night, anyway

    Al Denelsbeck

    I was initially going to say these were from last night, but it’s getting late and some idiot decided the date should change at midnight rather than, say, seven AM. Whatever – they were shot at night, and obviously not right now. Good enough.

    While I’m still leery of the temperature dropping to something inexcusable again, it’s been warm even overnight, and so scoping out the sprawling acreage of Walkabout Estates has been showing more than just dead leaves. This next bit, however, was largely like this many hours earlier in the morning, when I noticed that another of the Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) egg cases had hatched. But something was wrong.

    newborn Chinese mantids Tenodera sinensis still hanging from ootheca egg case
    Normally, they’d be scattering away to the surrounding branches and plants, but something seemed to have kept far too many of them hanging right beneath the egg case, even when they appear to have separated from their supporting lines properly and show a color change to their chitin. It was very odd. Some were visibly running around, but too many seemed to be stuck or trapped right there. Nothing, so far, has seemed to make sense – I would easily have believed a sudden drop in temperature, but we didn’t come anywhere near a dangerous drop for them, so I’m stymied. Like I said, this was hours after first sighting them, without looking much different.

    Someone else noticed this too, and was taking advantage of it, visible above off to the right if you’re looking closely and recognize the anachronistic body shape. In a moment, it revealed itself more distinctly.

    unidentified crab spider Thomisidae making off with incapacitated newborn Chinese mantis Tenodera sinensis
    This opportunistic but lazy crab spider was helping itself to one of the newborns, which showed no sign of movement itself – this might have indicated that it was already dead, or simply that it had succumbed to the spider’s venom. Regardless, that’s two egg cases down and very little to show for them – here’s hoping at least one of the three others produces an abundance of hardy newborns.

    [Technically, there are five others, but two of them don’t look too viable and I suspect they may be from a previous year. The outside ‘foam’ is quite tough and long-lasting, so I can’t say for sure.]

    In doing yard work, I moved a bunch of old window panes that we’d replaced last summer and disturbed no less than seven juvenile green treefrogs (Hyla cinerea.) Those that allowed it, I moved to another safe location, but a few found my handling unsavory and made their escape nearby. That evening, within a meter or so of where the windows had been, one perched atop a fencepost and gave me the stinkeye.

    juvenile green treefrog Hyla cinerea perched atop fencepost at night
    I suspect it was simply waiting to see what else I was gonna fuck up, obviously knowing humans enough by now not to expect anything better from them. Or am I reading too much into this?

    We’ll make this a shorter one, because there isn’t a lot to say that hasn’t been said before, but I’ll show off another find, quite visible in the headlamp as I toured the yard.

    Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis snoozing overnight on gardenia bush
    A slightly-portly-looking adult Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis) was asleep in one of the gardenia bushes, and might have escaped attention (naaahhhh) if it hadn’t been flashing its white belly in my direction. As I maneuvered close, it opened one eye and regarded me dispassionately for a moment before going back to sleep, permitting a nice broadside perspective. This let me keep the entire body in focus, which you’ll see in better detail if you click on that image. Notice the faint color shift right behind the head, which may mean something but I don’t speak Anole.

    Hey, look! It’s still Wednesday, so this really was last night. Lost connection twice while typing this, too. Boy, making deadlines like that should be worth something…

    Visibly different, part 15

    Al Denelsbeck

    view down from bridge over waterfall in Watkins Glen, NY
    This one came about when I was running through my slides and realized that I had a comparison image – it was unintentional, but fell into place. What we see here is a view down from a bridge over a small waterfall/torrent in Watkins Glen, New York, during a visit in 2006. Watkins Glen is the name of the town and the big scenic gorge that cuts down through the bedrock towards Seneca Lake, with excellent access for sightseers. I’d been meaning to get back there and do the place justice for some time, but the day that I had available was overcast and a little rainy, so while it kept the crowds at bay, it didn’t lend itself to good photos. The wet rock stood out perhaps a little better, but of course increased contrast significantly, rendering many of the slides that I took that day almost into monochrome.

    [A word of background: I grew up near this in central New York, and visited a couple of times but long before I was ever doing photography. After moving away, I didn’t get back up to NY to visit family too frequently and was often constrained in available time when I did, plus the fact that Watkins Glen is roughly an hour from where I was staying, to say nothing of the multiple hours hiking up the paths that run alongside, so arranging the trip wasn’t a simple thing. I was more than a little chagrined to find the weather so crappy when I finally did get the trip in order, but so it goes.]

    We follow that with a few years ago in 2019, when I eventually got another chance to return.

    ferns about cascade in Watkins Glen, New York
    Same bridge, same perspective, but this time I found a foreground item to use. Plus the conditions were a lot better, though the flow is clearly reduced. So credit to the better lighting at least, and I think the latter was later in the year (summer instead of spring, if I recall correctly,) and so more likely to find a fern of this nature to begin with. But a part of it was just finding the fern sprouting from the vertical sides of the bridge and realizing that I could make it a subject; it was even better when I realized that the steps in the rocks could accentuate the edges of the fern leaves, if I positioned myself carefully – yes, this was fully intentional. In this case, the reduced flow worked in the image’s favor by even providing those lines to begin with. We lose the depth of the descending falls of course, so the conditions of the gorge are not displayed here, but I’m good with this particular tradeoff.

    If you want another perspective, it’s the same bridge in the second image here, from the same excursion, and you can thus see the number of people visiting when the weather’s right. It’s worth the visit, and really, the Finger Lakes region of central New York is very scenic, so if you have the chance and haven’t done so already, check it out. My big regret is that, with last year’s visit when The Girlfriend was finally along, we didn’t have a lot of time to check out more spots.

    1 … 86 87 88 89 90 … 318