Just once, part 48


When first/last I featured this duo, I said that I wasn’t sure where it was taken – the obvious choice was the North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro, given how long ago it was taken and the negative film used. Except I didn’t recall ever seeing mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) there. Since that time, I found several more examples in my negative pages, read more

Outer limits

I often have to explain to students that camera and lens manufacturers tend to exaggerate abilities, and the students should automatically drop off, for instance, the upper two ‘factors’ of any claim that is made about their equipment. For instance, while the ISO setting in a new camera body can go all the way up to 12800 or whatever, you will typically find that useful results read more

Living in the past XXIIX or XXVIII


We’re into 2016 now. The Girlfriend loves calla lilies and we’ve had them a couple of times, but they never seem to last more than a year or two. Still, while this one was blossoming, I got extraordinarily lucky in that a newborn Chinese mantis scampered around the bloom while I was there, and I got several frames. This one in particular became an art print and was displayed read more

Living in the past XIV

I threatened to do this, and it was not a mere bluff – I’m going through with it, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.

[Well, there probably is, but let’s not go there…]


We’re back to revisiting some of the images from years past that I particularly liked, and this one certainly counts – dating from 2014, it’s been a part of a read more

This evening, even fartsier

Again, sunset looked promising, so to the neighborhood pond I went. Again, sunset didn’t live up to its promise, so I chased a few other pics while there.

Notably, the bats were active, and while I had only the 18-135, I got a couple of frames that worked. You get to decide which crop works best for this one, though – vertical?


Or, horizontal?


I was just winging it (heh!), read more

For effort, anyway


On a (fairly) recent trip to the NC Botanical Gardens, I was making the attempt to shoot with more effort towards composition and all that, rather than illustration, but we know I don’t do ‘art,’ so we’re back to being fartsy here – define that as you will. And I could probably research read more

On this date 56

We have another sporadic throwback today, a peek at what was happening in years past, and this time we have two from the same day, which was 11 years ago. As I suspected, it was a weekend, a Saturday to be precise, and following a snowstorm the previous day or so. I had gone out once the roads were clear to see what might be found that was scenic, but the snowfall wasn’t significant enough read more

Mason Farm 1: Fartsy

I got enough photos from a recent outing to Mason Farm Biological Reserve to separate them into two broader categories, so we start off with the fartsy ones, since I don’t do art.

Actually, we’ll start off starting off with a setting one.


We couldn’t quite call this ‘fog,’ (or at least, I couldn’t, but Buggato had no problem with it) – read more

Macro photography, part 13: More than illustration


Once again, we’re going to delve into this deal where I tell you to work on mastering something that I haven’t mastered myself – do as I say, not as I do and all that. Except, I don’t really believe that anyone masters anything in photography there are simply different levels of skill, so let’s use the word ‘improve’ read more

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