sunlit swallowtail

Swallowtail

The size of the images, and their consequent level of detail is impressive. Mind you, this causes problems with software. Zenfolio can't handle the images if I enhance them (they're over 64M) and i'm not sure their web editor is happy either.

black swallowtail

Still, they are dashed pretty.

Good thing I'm familiar with basic web programming (which as a computer scientist, I'd darned better well be).

Tri Color Heron

Since it's unlikely you'll visit there, I've posted my images here.  Tri Color Heron Tri Color Heron Tri Color Heron Tri Color Heron Tri Color Heron Tri Color Heron

During world war 2, Camp Gordon Johnston used this beach for amphibious training, including for D-Day.  Other than a marker and a museum, there's not much left of the camp.

DSC05509 DSC05542 DSC05512

Mexico Beach is a community on the Florida panhandle. Sort of a red-neck Tybee Island with pretensions. 

DSC05465 The weather the night we arrived was decent, tho it's been windy and we since then (and i've been the one with the dog).

DSC05444 Our dog (who appears in other blog posts) is a lake dog, so he wasn't quite sure about this salty wavy water. 

DSC05433 DSC05467

T100

While this verges on product placement, I actually do love this bike. It's fast (60mph in < 4 seconds for me!), stable, and surprisingly comfortable. 

Wood SceneWoodland Panorama

Lake EdgeThe Edge of the Lake The results are stunning.  The main trick, other than using a stable pivoting point, is not to use too many images. They shouldn't overlap by more than a third because if they do and they're too complicated, then the program will not converge.  I ended up using every other image I took to make these.

A Gulf FritillaryA Gulf Fritillary This is a Gulf Fritillary. We're not near any gulf I know of, but it is a pretty insect. If you look closely, it's furry too.

A Common BuckeyeA Common Buckeye This one's a common buckeye. The eyes on the upper side of the wings are rather diagnostic. 

The acuity of the pictures is good, but the lens combination is decidedly awkward.  Some of my images had blur, even at 1/640 of a second. So if you try this trick, and it is a good one for shy creatures, be prepared to take more images than you might normally. 

Monarch of the Buddliea

swallowtail

Wild HibiscusSee the bee deep inside?

Paper waspsOne of the many species that make paper nests. Even the wasps posed for a head shot.  (These aren't particularly aggressive bugs - not like fire ants or yellow jackets)

Day Lily The wet, not too hot, summer is really great for our flowers.  

Glad tidings

black-eyed susan It takes a bit of practice to use effectively, but even with only a little you can get nice results

Aster with native bee To put this in scale the aster flower is about the size of a dime or a 5p piece.  The little ant-like creature is a native bee.

Dinner SceneProduct placement, much?

Finn acting silly The dogs are perpetual subjects.  Finn, above, is asleep. His eyes flicker when I make a noise.

Big Brother His big brother tends to be more dignified.

Honeysuckle

red honeysuckle

Trumpet Flowers

One of the more unusual wildflowers in Alabama, Trumpet flowers come out in the mid-spring, April.

They're distinctive and bloom just about the time the Hummingbirds arrive.

Trumpet flowers

Not completely surprising as this sort of flower is exactly the kind of tube that the birds specialize in. They're even the right color (Red).

Anole

Anole This young lady haunts our doorway.  She's the more common green shade and about half the size of the last one.  He saw me photographing - despite the 600mm lens - and did his best to hide. She's doing the same - lots of green leaves around.

wild plum flowersNot quite wild - we planted it, but a native plum none-the-less.

It's a difficult - a bloody difficult - a damned bloody difficult time.

Spring carries on.

Renewal ... we will, despite whatever, or whomever, we lose, carry on as well.

Bluets Nature survives. 

It's tough.

And so are we.

Spring Beauty CarpetA carpet of spring beauties. A carpet of spring beauties - mind you they're growing over our septic field.

Black Oak

Black Oak

This Spring's floods have finally receded, leaving debris behind. The lake lowered slowly so that leaves were left on the dock. When they dried out and blew away, the muddy water that they trapped left behind a ghostly imprint. The ghost of Autumn last. Southern Red Oak

Moonlit RoadA moonlit dirt road in Alabama

I was experimenting with photographing the moon lit road. It's a bit dark and grainy, but captures the feeling. Where are the zombies (or for that matter the vampires or ghosts)?

Moon lit road

It's amazing how much of the color is visible, even when the light is so limited.

long neckTri-colored herons have longer necks than most other herons

DSC02854 This one sat for a long series of photographs. It was almost as though he wanted a portrait sitting.

DSC02861 Looking more like other herons. 

Coming in for a landingSandhill cranes on their approach

cranes in field This year they didn't come as close to the road as they sometimes do. While my new lens is very sharp, one of the troubles is that autofocus tends to pick out the brush behind the birds, and it's difficult to use manual focus while handholding a massive instrument. (Note to self - bring your monopod next time.)

in flight Still, I could get some pretty decent images. Especially of the birds in flight - which just didn't work with the older lenses.

Gator One of the things that makes for a striking shot is getting close to the animal. This is where the telephoto helps, a lot, really. This alligator was about seven feet long and could easily make a meal of a measily human. (Though apparently we don't taste that good.)  With the telephoto (and a lethargic gator) I could be out of immediate strike range and still get a close up. There's simply no way I'd do this with a 50mm lens (or its equivalent). 

DSC02655 Otherwise you're stuck with photos like this, which while nice enough, lack impact.

DSC03112 It also lets you get close to birds, though it helps when the bird is a mockingbird and letting you know that this is his territory. 

Beach TryptichTybee Beach  Space - where the camera moves

BirdsA flock of birds and time - where the waves and birds move.

ButterflyA fritilary of some sort or another.

Tri-colored Heron This tri-colored heron posed for us.

AlligatorKeeping an eye on us And of course there were alligators.

Savannah CatWe had a visitor this morning.

We had a visitor this morning in Savannah. One of the local cats came over to show off his new bow - though how his people convinced him to keep it on is a mystery to me as our cats would object to such frippery. Still to each his own.

SquirrelSquirrel

The Sony 200-600 is my latest try - first a mirror lens, then a sigma 150-600, and finally this.  It is of first quality. Even though it costs about $2000, it is money well spent. Auto focus works well with the A7III. it's best to use continuous focus because the focal plane is very sharp and the subject can easily move out of it. It does use more battery power than smaller lenses, so be prepared with a backup.  I'm looking forward to trying it out at the Savannah natural history reserve.

squirrel_eye100%

At 100% magnification, the image is still sharp. squirrel_eye100%

A less extreme view is still good.

two deertwo deer Even under less than ideal light (dusk and rain) the image is sharper than I could get with the sigma lens in much better light.

A Doewith the sigma lens

as is clearly visible when you scale the images to about the same size.

twodeer

I think she's the same doe, but in her winter colors.

Ordovician trilobitea cast of a trilobite

There are fragments of two more trilobites. One in the crack just to the left of the big one and another at the end.

The ant in the lower right is for scale. Insects and other arthropods had more adaptable body plans are are still here.  

The Ruins

Containing a souvenir of General Sherman's visit to Atlanta - though it was CSA General Wheeler whose cavalry destroyed the mill - Sweetwater Creek State park is just to the west of Atlanta. Like most Georgia parks, it costs $5 to park. Which is well spent. The park is full of natural beauty and hiking trails. It's possible to arrange a closer visit to the fenced off ruins. 

trail

Fall colors abound. It's a good idea to visit on a weekday - if you can - because these uncrowded trails get busy.

The rapids

Street Scene

Man and Dog

Night Sky line

SeagullNot much scares these birds.

There isn't much that scares these birds. She posed for me, even though I stood barely a meter away.  The Gulls in San Diego have seen it all, are jaded, and if you're not careful with your food, thieves.

Alone

Good art tells a story and invokes an emotional response.  The looming figures seem threatening. The woman seems isolated, alone, detached from the threats.

It's actually from the latest hackathon (I guess my day job is peeking through). The figures in front are getting ready to demo their projects and the young woman is checking her email.

be_the_person

In addition to the photographic products available from here, you can get it on t-shirts and other clothing from redbubble.

beeA cutout of a bee on our buddleia davidii

The options are a Sony lens and a Tamron one. They're similar in speed and performance, but not cost.

Being economical I chose the less expensive one.

The lens is relatively heavy and a bit of a battery hog, but it is sharp - even wide open. 

August The sharpness is similar to my Sam Yang 85mm and much better than the kit lens

full frame bee

This is the full frame version of the header image.

Finn's stare

 I've opened another web-store for products that zenfolio doesn't support. Tshirts and the like.

Finn Finn is one intense puppy.

August This one's a bit of a cheat - natural light. Still good.

The Castle

The top of the "Castle" has shooting windows and at one time sported cannon.

Ghosts

As with most historic sites there are reinactors.

Later works at Fort Niagara Well worth the admission fee. On a clear day like this you can see Toronto across the lake.

The maid of the mist

Seriously, even in the rain, there are crowds of people

the fall crowd All armed with cell-phones and amidst them the occasional photographer.

Time Exposure from Luna IslandA time exposure can help capture the power of the falls.

Long exposures can be interesting.

The best views are from the bridge (It costs $1 to get back from Canada - four quarters or a loonie)

View from the bridgeAs seen on many a postcard or at dusk from the Canadian side.

The Horseshoe

I love the smell of jet fuel in the morningSunrise on the 8:16 to Buffalo

It's also quintessential Atlanta.

Actually I'm experimenting with using the rapid multiple exposure and autofocus for capturing action. It's important enough to use a high shutter speed to capture the action - otherwise it's blurry. So shutter-speed preferred mode is usually the best.  It still might be blurry because the autofocus can isolate the wrong part of the image. So be prepared to take a lot of images to get the ones you want.

Finn with his favorite toy. Finn with his favorite toy. Finn with his favorite toy. Finn with his favorite toy.

Churchyard at DuskColor Balance corrected

One of the more frustrating things when you fly on "automatic" is color balance. Most of the time the camera does a good job, but there are times when it just muffs it. Dawn and dusk are one of those times. I was helping my son to move to graduate school - a thousand mile drive - and we stopped in Staunton Virginia for a break. Walking at dusk, to find a place to eat, we strolled by this church and the light was just right.

However, that's not what the camera saw. It saw something far more blue and grey. Down right ugly.

Churchyard at DuskColor Balance uncorrected

The uncorrected image is too flat.

The same effect is seen with a street scene.

Staunton Street sceneColor Balance corrected

The effect isn't quite as bad with this image, but it's not what I saw or envisaged.

Stanton street scene at duskColor Balance uncorrected

Again, uncorrected is just too blue and flat.

The right solution, of course, is to set the color balance in the camera. Almost as good is to use Darktable and correct the color temperature.

Finn, resting

Finn, after we've picked him up from boarding, looking somewhat tired, a little worried, but mostly happy to be home. That's still his favorite chair, even though he has to scrunch up to fit in it now.

cassie

raw image ​​​​​​While she's cute, as always, this image is too busy. I trimmed out the middle and then used the GIMP's select by color. It doesn't always work, but when it does it's not bad.

waterfall

another waterfall It's reminiscent of the slow exposure times of  early photoprocesses, but colour of course.

River

The sky in the background was deliberately over-exposed to give it an ethereal atmosphere.

King Arthur's CaveThe entrance.

The Wye valley, itself, is a designated area of natural beauty.

Wye ValleyView from one of the seven sisters. Solar panels have penetrated rural England. It's just inside Offa's dyke so even though it's across the Severn it's in England. A number of the local villages make that clear by flying St. George's cross - the flag of England.

The High MeadowThere's a solar panel on the barn in the centre. The Wye itself is used for whitewater kayaking and various youth groups, including scouts.

scout campThe scouts are out canoeing. (The Scouts were out canoeing - their bus passed us on our way to the car)

There's a suspension bridge, that we crossed. Cassie wasn't overly keen on it, and this photo shows her triumphantly waiting for us to catch her up.

bridge end
 

Jump Sequence

We took a walk to a series of waterfalls in Pontneddfechan (easier written than said). More on that later, other than it's currently hotter in the UK (32-35) than in Atlanta (30C) and a walk along a shaded river is much easier than one under the sun.  A group of young men were jumping from this waterfall. Not completely sure that's a good idea, but I used the shutter setting to take a series of photos in quick succession. This image shows them reassembled with the GIMP.

Use the open layers command, and then carefully, for each layer introduce a mask (default to transparent (black) and color in the overlapping bits), and adjust the images to be in register.  I used that grey rock near the middle left as a fiducial mark.

The Grey WethersThe quarry for Avebury, watched over by fast mean cows and slow mean cows.

Disapproval

Tyndale MonumentTyndale Monument - to an early translator of the Bible into English.

Map We parked on the Old London Road just past the major parking area. This is a popular area when the weather is nice and on weekends. I didn't make a GPS track because we've been here so often. We walked around the edge to the north, climbed up onto the top, walked to the monument, and then back across the top to the car. In the UK (but not the US) Bing maps will show the ordnance survey maps. To encourage them, I left that part of the screenshot in.

DogsFreddie likes his walks. The dogs, Cassie and her friend (borrowed from another family) Freddie love it. Almost anywhere in the UK, you'll find people walking their dogs off-lead when they are away from the roads.  Most of the time they even make sure that the droppings are off the trail.

woods

Most of the woods are dark and somewhat gloomy, but there are patches of blackberry (not yet ripe), raspberry (excellent), and miscellaneous wildflowers

Blue wild-flower

Frisbee DogFinn has learned to catch frisbees (but not two at once)

Playing with the puppy Finn's good enough at coming (recall command) that we can safely play with him outside. 

The video below is a sample of my work. It's in single viewpoint "Talking Head" format, which is appropriate for the purpose of this video. It's intended to describe the research done in the Evidence-based Cybersecurity Group.

Raw footage from my (old) D7200 at 1080p/40 fps, edited with shotcut and mixed with Audacity.

marie_music

August and the Shark

Asleep His little brother is exhausting. August has been a fantastic "pater familias" - looking after the puppy. 

I've been a little remiss on posting - I have a new product line - videos. It's been taking up a surprising amount of time. More on this in a later post.

Barred Owls

These are the ones who call "no soup for you" at night.

Barred Owls

Just out of the oven

ANZAC biscuits are a storied staple of OZ and NZ. They're named for the expeditionary force from WW1, and both the name and composition are enshrined in Austrailian law.

Unfortunately, Austrailian measures and flour are different from those used in the land of the free, so the recipe requires adapation.

Here's my version:

(1/2 batch)

Mix:

1/2 cup of flour (all purpose or plain)

1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of Oatmeal (Plain, uncooked)

1/2 cup of Cocoanut flour 

Melt

1/2 stick of butter (125g +-) in:

    2 Tablespoons corn syrup (I use Golden Eagle, a distinctly Southern brand - the same you use for Pecan pie).

    8 Tablespoons water.

When melted add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda to the liquids. It will foam.

Add the liquids to the dry ingredients, stir and knead together. The dough will be a bit crumbly. Then form biscuits on a non-stick sheet. They won't rise or spread much.

The raw biscuits

Bake 12 minutes at 350F (175C).

Enjoy.

The difference between this recipe and the OZ one is the additional syrup and water. When I stick to the OZ measures, the dough is far too dry to form. I gather that tablespoons (or possibly cups) are different below the equator.

The rather horrible pictures I took from the peanut gallery shows our view. Not too much to see.

View from the stands What's cool is the quality of the detector in the A7III. I cut the middle out to show his graduation handshake. It's a little tiny bit from the middle.

The Handshake Not quite as good as a telephoto, but clear enough to identify the people.

Toomer's Corner Of course, no photoessay on Auburn would be complete without a picture of Toomer's corner.

Finn asleep I'm really loving the light and color that this SamYang lens gives me. This was taken about f2 so it has a very shallow depth of field. The lens's point spread function (how big the image of an infinitely small point of light would be rendered) is comparable to the detector sampling on the A7III.

Finn with a smaller aperture With a larger Fstop the depth of field is wider, but then you have to hold the camera very very still.

A wild turkey hen

Turkey (and Deer) patrol Our dogs are on alert for the birds (and the deer - who don't get so close). They both know the words 'turkey' and 'deer' as well as that dashed 'S-animal' (squirrel)

On deer patrol

The reason for this cost is mostly due to the electronics, (that and labor - I expect Zeiss doesn't pay minimum wage on piecework). So I decided to try the relatively inexpensive Sam Yang 85mm F1.4.  I wanted the speed as my kit lens is f4-5.5, and since I'm usually using it on manual there isn't a big advantage to having automatic focus or F-stop.

Finn on his first birthday

The lens is really sharp. Finn's nose is in crisp focus - even though the depth of field limits where it's sharp. This is great in a portrait lens.

Focussing is a little trickier than with the kit lens because the camera doesn't shift into "assisted focus" where it enlarges the middle of the image. Still it's just like my old film SLR and that was a blast.  The lens doesn't focus quite as close-up as the kit lens (no closer than one meter). The contrast is a little lacking, but that's easy to fix in Darktable.

Azaleas Still our deciduous Azaleas come out well, even if I can't qet quite as closeup.

white Azaleas So I'd say the lens is a success - as long as you're willing to live with the limits.  I wouldn't use it for sports photography or anywhere where rapid - nearly unconscious - focusing is needed, but it shines when you're a more controlled environment. I was able to use it in both manual mode and aperture preferred mode (A) where the camera adjusts the shutter speed to get the exposure right.

Still, spring has finally emerged and both the animals and plants are out.

An Anolehunting wasps and other insects. Those fresh-water muscle shells are 8-12cm wide. Another view:

Sillouette of the Anole Carolina Silverbells (in Alabama)

Carolina Silverbells in flower and wild iris

A wild IrisOnly in the spring and only for a few days.

So instead, here are a couple of puppy photos. Much better Finn, looking cuteFinn, looking cute. On one of those rare times when he is still. Finn is still looking cute, at about 11 months. August, dignifiedAugust is still an intense dog. His big brother (now the smaller of the two dogs, but still boss) is still intense. He's more relaxed with having another dog around.  I tried using the swivel screen on the A7III to put the camera at floor level in this shot. It seems to have worked.

Flood at Lake Weiss. Normally this is dry land. Our puppy was thoroughly excited by the extra water (He is a water dog after all). We didn't want him to swim too much because there's a metric tonne of stuff in the water.

Another view of the flood Still, I could find interesting wild things, including this stick insect, which was toughing it out on a pawpaw.

Stick Insect

The squirrels have been busy.

Hickory Shells

Soda BreadIrish Soda Bread after baking

Between the day job and wet weather, I've not had much chance to photograph this week. So here's a recipe instead.

• 2 cups plain flour 1 tablespoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt (or 2 cups self-rising flour)
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon Caraway seed

Mix the ingrediants either adding a little flour if it's too sticky or a little more buttermilk if it doesn't come together into a dough. In the US I use regular flour rather than self-rising because in the US self-rising flour is slightly bitter. In the UK, just use self-rising flour. Kneed it gently and put on a greased baking sheet.

Ready to bake

It's traditional to cut a cross in the top of the loaf, though this time it didn't quite take. I tend to use "lite salt" which has potassium chloride in it. It makes a big difference with yeast breads, though not here.

Bake at 400F (200C) for about 1/2 hour.  I used 27 minutes in a preheated convection oven, but you may want more time in a regular oven. The loaf will sound hollow when rapped on the bottom when it's done.  It will sound a little hollow if it's not quite done, so when in doubt bake it longer.

This recipe was most likely introduced to Irish cuisine after the potato famine when (eventually) the corn laws were lifted and people could afford flour. Baking powder wouldn't have been available before the mid-19th century in any case. A similar recipe - without the buttermilk - makes a good "damper bread" that you can bake directly in the coals of a fire (Build a fire, and brush the coals from the center. Then put the bread in the middle).

Sandhill Cranes

more cranes I experimented using a Sigma 600 mm zoom lens with an adapter for a Sony A7III.  The auto-focus, etc doesn't exactly work, but the camera is fine on manual.

Sandhill Cranes The birds were calling raucously in the rain. The most difficult part of getting these images was the relatively low amount of light. Still the quality beats my D7200 by a mile.

Finn, dozing

The beautify filterset for the Gimp aren't part of the default set. On linux, use apt get to install gimp-beautify, and there's something similar that can be done with windows and Mac. 

Finn dozing, sketched Applying the life-sketch filter in beautify results in a pretty good simulacrum of a charcoal sketch.

Classic Sketch filter And the classic sketch results in a artistic effect. 

The only trouble with the beautify effect is that it's slow on my limited hardware.

AugustAre you done already?

Finn One thing I've noticed is that the detail is far better than when I use natural light. Finn's photo, above, is at a low aperture (f1.8) so the depth of focus is a tad shallow. Where it's in focus it is sharp. 

The dogs don't seem to mind the flashes. 

Getting ready for the superbowl

Just a few scenes from my walk back to G-deck after a long afternoon at the Imaging 2019 trade show. There's a murder mystery set there, but no such luck today.

Fairley Street

and the famous Coke sign at Five points.

The coke sign

Atlanta MistA view from the bridge over Dekalb

Imaging USA (2019) is in Atlanta this year. It's about a quarter mile north from here in the Atlanta Convention Center. (almost visible in the distance.) Say hello if you recognize my name (one of the several thousand Robert Harrisons).

Pruned glory

In the same way that you prune roses to get new growth in the Spring, I've been somewhat quiescent recently. I've been taking classes in portrait photography and studio lighting at  The Photographer's Studio, a non-profit community group in, well, not quite Buckhead (Peachtree Hills). Well worth the effort.

Ideal and real

The real or the ideal? To paraphrase Plato, which is more real the image or its reflection in the lake.

One of those artsy images.

• Prime focus lenses are lighter and have sharper images than zoom lenses (in general).
• Prime focus lenses are usually faster than the equivalent zoom lens (lower lowest F-stop).
• Zoom lenses let you shift the image size to frame the subject without moving.

There's a reason for this. 

aberationsAn ideal lens focuses all the colors on the same plane. A real lens can have both spherical aberations (not focusing on a plane) and chromatic aberations.

An ideal lens (on the left above) will focus all points from the same distance on a single plane. It will also focus all of the colors in the same place.

Real lenses fall short of idea. The focal plane isn't actually planar (spherical aberration) and the colors don't focus in the same place (chromatic aberration).

Chromatic aberration occurs because the index of refraction (relative velocity of the light) in glass depends on the wavelength of the light. Fortunately, the index also depends on the composition of the glass. So "achromatic" lenses which are made of two (or more) lens elements of kinds of glass shaped to correct for the differences in index of refraction have been used since the 1850's (if not earlier). Mind you, early photographic processes were orthochromatic and most sensitive to blue light so chromatic aberrations were less critical than with modern detectors.

My old film lenses had a special mark for Infra-Red focusing. After finding the best focus with visible light, you could adjust the focus if you were using IR-sensitive film.

This is also why a small concave mirror works better as a fire starter than most lenses - all the reflected light is focused on the same place which results in a much hotter spot.

Spherical aberration requires careful design of the shape of the lens and lens elements to bring the focus into a plane.  The analytical approximations from my old optics book have been replaced by numerical ray-tracing and similar computational methods. Computer aided manufacturing has brought the cost of high-quality lenses into the range that most of us can afford.

Applying these corrections to a lens at a single focal length is relatively straightforward. Not trivial, but straightforward because there's only one target, the best image a a fixed length from the lens.

A zoom lens has multiple configurations of the lens elements and the corrections have to work reasonably well in all of those configurations. That means that the design will have made compromises.  There is, typically, an optimal zoom where the image is sharpest. My A7III came with a kit zoom lens (28-70mm) and the best image quality about the middle of the zoom range. The lenses that came with my old Nikon are best at the lowest zoom. The lens needs to have more elements than a typical prime focus lens. Each element absorbs and scatters some of the incident light. Hence the lens is both heavier (more elements mean more glass) and slower than the equivalent prime focus lens.

Usually, you can use "chimp zoom" and move closer or farther away to frame the image the way you want. There are times when you can't and that's where the zoom excels. A zoom can also have much smaller physical dimensions (my 600mm lens is a great deal shorter when it's not zoomed out which allows me to put it in a pack and carry it to where the animals are.)

Jess looking dignifiedA dignified old lady.

picking blackberries She was active, albeit slowing down, until near the end. This image shows her and her sister calmly waiting after a 4-5 mile stroll while her people pick blackberries on a farm lane near Castle Coombe.

DSC_0218As a puppy - about one and a half years old. It was a little harder to get her to stay still when she was a young dog. She will be missed.

FloodingThe water level is above full-pool. This should be full of mud.

DSC00371Waiting for better water. Our boats are chained on shore because it's not just flooded and filthy, but rather windy and dangerous sailing.

DSC00372Tupelo trees I've posted about persimmons. These are Tupelos - a related species that produces large amounts of (unfortunately inedible) fruit.

DSC00324   Red at night, sailor's delight? 

A Pine WarblerA pine warbler, caught mid flight

I was having fun, trying to catch some of the local fauna with a telephoto (A sigma 150-600 zoom, which is OK as a lens but could be better). It turns out I identified two new ones for my life list.

Pine WarblerMore canonical view of the Pine Warbler This pine warbler was gleefully hunting whatever it eats on a scrubby loblolly pine.

DSC_1478Yellow throated vireo This yellow throated vireo is on his way south. He's a much brighter yellow than the Pine Warbler, who he resembles.

DSC_1468A bluebird And, of course, the obligatory bluebird. He's acting like the thrush he is.  

The acuity on this lens isn't everything I want. Some of that is the inevitable consequence of having a narrow field of view - which means that there isn't enough of the incident light captured to get great resolution. The rest is that it's a zoom with the optical compromises that accompany zooms.  Still, I hadn't planned on finding two new birds for my list, and was, well, chuffed as a chaffinch to do so.

D7200 Controls

The two cameras are easy to use and give images with about the same resolution. The Sony is a mirror-less camera, a version of the next generation of hardware, and it shows in the finish and features. The D7200 is an older technology, perfectly competent and well-developed, but somewhat clunky in comparison.

In no particular order, the relative strengths of the two devices:

• Composition aids. The D7200 can display a grid and has a level line that's visible when using the screen. The A7III has more grid choices, and the level line is on in the viewport.  The A7III can do a "zebra display" which reveals over-exposed regions.
• Lenses. There are an enormous number of lenses available for the Nikon. Far fewer are available for the Sony. The Sony lenses are more expensive. There are some extremely high quality lenses for both (Zeiss lenses for the Sony) and you pay for them. There are adapters that will take Nikon F mount lenses to the Sony E mount. The adapters let you use the lenses, but the autofocus is a bit wonky.
• Battery life. The nikon batteries last forever (>800 shots if you're careful). The Sony eats charges. Get two batteries and an external charger for it.
• The Sony has a full-sized sensor and the D7200 has a smaller "APS-C" one. This makes the Sony a little bit sharper than the Nikon, but that's a second-order effect (Fraunhoffer diffraction.)
• Focus. Both cameras have similar automatic focus modes. However, manual focus on the Sony is seriously cool. The camera zooms in and you can get the image focused exactly the way you want. The Sony has more focus points and can be razor sharp. Autofocus can be a headache because it will focus on what it wants. Often that's what you want, but sometimes it isn't. The 7200 has a neat feature - you can decouple the focus control from the shutter control and use spot focus. Unfortunately, my 7200 has the habit of randomly resetting focus mode to what it wants. 
• Sensor cleaning. The 7200 sensor seems to attract cruft. I've gotten into the habit of using the cleaning function every time I turn the camera on. 
• Preview. The 7200 has a preview button that sets the aperture of the lens. That's a good start, but the Sony beats it hands down. If you adjust the exposure, or work in manual mode, or exceed the speed/aperture/shutterspeed limits of the camera, it shows what the image will look like. This is extremely useful for contrasty or back-lit scenes.
• The Sony needs to be turned on to see what the image will be. The Nikon, being mechanical, can be used with the power off to see what the image will look like. Obviously both need to be turned on to record an image. Not a big deal when you can recharge quickly, but this can be an issue for extended field trips. (Bring yet another battery for the Sony.)
• Menus: Some reviewers complain about complicated menus for the Sony. Both cameras have similar complexity.
• Low-light performance and grain. The Sony is better. Acceptable grain at 3200 ASA.
• Both cameras can take videos and sets of frames in rapid succession.
• Raw format. Both cameras can save raw images. Darktable 2.0 supports the Nikon, and Darktable 2.4 supports both. I've tried building Darktable 2.4 for my version of Linux mint, but haven't tested it yet. I don't know about Adobe's software. 
• Image quality. I nearly always need to process the D7200 images to get the best quality. I rarely have to fiddle with the Sony ones.
• The Sony is a great deal lighter.

I seem to have automatically switched to the Sony for my main camera. 

An Old LureA rescued fishing lure that's seen better days.

Rorscharch Sticks

What's left is form.

A CleatOnly pine needles now. Form and shape. Seeds of the new year.

Dried Aster A winter photoessay.

A fitting name for our puppy, now with us for six months, who was dropped out of a car in rural Alabama.

Finn on his first dayTiny, skin and bones, with a share of ticks, Finn trusted us from the beginning.

Finn was so weak when we found him that I had to carry him home. Our neighbors were able to lure his brother into their car only with a hot dog. Although we can't know, he looks and acts like a pure black labrador retriever.

AugustFinn's older brother approved of the addition to our family. Fortunately, Finn's older brother approved of the idea. One of the things having two dogs has taught us is that they're social animals. They need company, and having a single dog is a little like solitary confinement. The older dog is much calmer with a little brother around.

Finn MaccheulExhausted after his first trip to the vets The first trip to the vets was exhausting. We asked if we should leave a contact number and were told "He's your dog now." 

Finn resting Good food, a stable and loving environment, and a dose of worm medicine make a big difference, but the scars of his ordeal are still visible a month later. It's only after about six months that he has finally realized that the water bowl will be refilled so he doesn't have to drain it.

Finn, resting. After about three months, he's grown and has a sleek and shiny coat. A healthy and happy, if a bit bossy, dog, and one who enjoys his training classes at Adog (Dogwood training academy).

Finn at nine months old

Looking for deer. He'd like to play with them, but somehow I don't think that would be reciprocated.

with_the_dogsOn a walk, in Atlanta, with his brother.

(Pinch collars, a training aid, look ferocious, but are actually more comfortable than a chain "training collar".)

DSC00058On a camping trip.

We've taken the two dogs camping.

Ho Ho HoFather Christmas, full of air?

One of the characteristic things in the good ol' USA around Christmas is the presence of Christmas light displays. It can be a little tricky to capture these and here are a few tricks that work for me (outside of the obvious need for a good tripod).

Film Speed. You can always use a higher film speed, but as shown below that tends to wash out the colours.

2000 ASA or so

The colors work better with a slow speed and longer exposures. (I used ASA 50 - as low as the a7iii would go and aperture mode to get to a 30' exposure). This brings its own problems as even with a decent tripod you can get motion.

motion problems The next trick is to use the self-timer. That gives the camera time to settle before the exposure. (See the title picture and the one below).

with the self-timer Of course, you can get those "happy little accidents" like when a car came by and I had to move mid-exposure.

A happy accidentAvoiding a car running my camera and )possibly more importantly) me over.

One of the highlights of our trip was exploring the nearby National Wildlife Refuge. We were about a mile down the road from it, and while route 180 is fast, there are wide margins so that it is eminantly walkable.

bon_secour_trail_map_campsite

I have a birding life list into the hundreds and was still able to identify five new species without serious birding. (Just walking with binocculars in hand.)  We walked there three times: first, late in the afternoon to the junction of the Gator Lake trail and the Pine Branch trail (4 miles round trip),  second, to the shore on the Pine Branch trail (6 miles round trip), and lastly to the Gator Lake trail returning via Mobile street, the shore, and the Pine Branch trail (8 miles round trip).

DSC00161 A Sandriling

Since pets (dogs) are not allowed in the refuge and there are not that many people who visit, the birds are quite tame. The Sandriling walked within two feet of me.

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There were mosquitos, even at the winter solstice, so a summer visit should include insect repellent and quite possibly a face net.

Without trying, we saw:

• Osprey
• Great Blue Heron
• Belted Kingfisher
• Brown Pelican
• Sandriling
• Snowy Plover
• Willet
• Common Loon
• Horned Grebe
• Double Crested Cormorant
• Lesser Scaup
• Common Goldeneye
• Bufflehead
• White-eyed Vireo

There were gulls (of course) and crows, as well as several varieties of sparrow, that we didn’t identify.  Not to mention these guys, who scared off the plover.

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DSC00058

A complete change of pace for camping, (my base weight < 15lbs), we decided to try out using an RV. There are several companies that hire them and we ended up with cruiseamerica.

We decided to explore the Gulf Shores region in Alabama. It’s on the Gulf of Mexico, near the Florida panhandle, and something of a “red neck Rivera.” So we fit right in. We picked one of our sons up from his university (Auburn) and after spending the night there (Eagles landing RV park is clean, has nice people running it, and is convenient for a stop over.) drove on to Fort Morgan. We stayed in Fort Morgan RV park, which is a small, nice, friendly, and remote place near Bon Secour NWR (about a mile walk from the trail head.)

I’ll post some of the things we saw in another post, but you can see my portfolio here. Instead I’m writing notes about what we learned in the experience.

This is a 25-foot class-b machine. It was just barely big enough for 3 adults and 2 big dogs.  To be honest, it was just big enough for 2 adults and 2 big dogs.

Hooking the machine up to the power and water at the site (the “shore line” and town water) was straightforward, as was dumping the tanks. Follow the instructions and little can go wrong. It is important to let the tanks fill up so you get a clean flush, do the black water first, and then the grey water. It takes about two minutes, tops.

We used almost no propane. Turning on the water heater a few minutes before you needed it and then turning it off worked well. The water stayed warm for most of the day. Similarly we brought winter sleeping bags and between 3 adults and 2 dogs, only needed the heater now and then.

In no particular order, here are points to consider:

• Bring a wooden cutting board to put hot pots on. Our unit had two small burners, which were enough, barely. Occasionally we needed to boil water, say for noodles, and move the pot off the burner to finish cooking. The countertops are laminate and would be damaged by direct heat.
• Clean up as you go along.
• Find a place for everything and put it back.
• For long-term: an external propane hookup is a great idea.
• An awning over the door would make life in rainy weather much easier. (The rental units don’t have this because it tends to be fragile and would be damaged by a typical renter.)
• For purchase: Aerodynamics matter. The flat surfaces on this unit produce significant drag. If I were purchasing one, I’d look for smooth surfaces and rounded contours.
• Speaking of driving: It handles like a dump truck. You can get up to speed, but anything more than 70mph is a bit dicey. It bounces and rattles. Drawers will open in turns.
• 30 gallons to fill up from 1/3 of a tank of petrol. Fuel economy isn’t a feature of these vehicles. They’re not too bad on the motorway, but terrible in town.
• Having a second vehicle would be a good idea. There are three solutions: 1) tow a car behind an RV, b) use a trailer or “fifth wheel” with a detachable towing vehicle, and iii) a truck camper.  Truck campers are about half the size of this unit and relatively rare in the South.  We saw both towed vehicles and trailers at the RV parks.
• The propane-powered/electricity-powered fridge worked fine. It’s a little small and slower to cool than a home unit, but fully stable.
• Storage is a bit tight and takes no little thought to organize. We didn’t get it quite right, but it was OK.
• The black water tank pellets are some sort of detergent. They help to break up the debris. We could not find any for sale and used laundry detergent pouches. No idea about this for the long term, but in a pinch, it worked well.
• Most RV sites have water, power, wifi, and cable TV.
• There was no oven. We brought a Dutch oven which worked OK. It helps if you’ve used one before.

Overall, it was a pleasant experience, and one we’ll probably repeat. There are people who live in these things year-round. It would be tight, somewhat cramped, but definitely do-able.

Palmetto and pines

Which is a good thing. The birds are surprisingly tame. This little sandbird came within a few feet of me, letting me take pictures (70mm lens on a Sony A7III) all the way. Here are a couple of the better ones.

feeding at the surfline As with other animals, it helps to get closer to their eye level. Though, without a waterproof camera, there is a limit.

Searching for critters

Pelicans in Mobile Bay

Pelicans on Mobile Bay The birds were enjoying the dusk, after a series of torrential days. 

Deer Spotting

Deer outside, just outside the window. It is a matter of supreme importance.

Frost on White Oak leaves

Winter is (finally) here in the South. I caught the frost on our leaves before the sun melted it.

Frost on leaves

Something of an abstract study. There's also an overlap with one of my previous incarnations where I'd have mounted the crystals for diffraction studies - doing imaging with the Fourier transform and math rather than a lens.

Finn, looking coy

Finn, giving his cute look Don't let the sad expression fool you, he gets more than enough to eat and quite a lot of attention.

August

Not very good picture of August

Most Doggy pictures look something like this. Taken from a human vantage point, with a posed, almost demanding stare. August is clearly thinking something along the lines of "What are you doing you crazy person?" Not very photogenic.

August AgainAfter a game of tag with his brother. For this (repeated so it shows on twitter), I got down at his eye level and made a hand-held image with a fast film speed. Still a little blurry, it captures his focus and intensity. A much better, if still technically flawed, image.

with_the_dogs

Not the greatest, techncially (it's from an Iphone), but this shows how to manipulate perspcitve. The two dogs dominate the image because I made it at their eye level rather than from human eye level. I love the sort of disgruntled expression on our older dog (in back). 

A Lab Session

Lab Session 2

That famous sign

The students are gone, vanished into the dust. GSU becomes almost a ghost-town, even the homeless head off for greener pastures.

A ghost.

Normally these scenes are figuratively crawling with undergrads (figuratively because no one in their right mind would crawl on Atlanta streets.)

An Undesired Streetcar

Mind you, the streetcar to nowhere is just as empty as usual.

St Arilda's Church in Olbury on SevernThis church, on a little hill overlooking the Severn valley, is in a village to the north of Bristol that has been occupied since pre-Roman times.

The original image, taken on a hot, dry, and extremely bright summer day is somewhat bland - to say the least. Cartooning it brings out the drama and my original vision. 

Several of these cartoons would make excellent greeting cards, and to blow my own horn, as it were, can be ordered from mpix labs on my site.

Church in Castle Coombe

I played with colour-specific masking in the cartoon. It brings out the Post box (In the UK the Royal Mail collects and delivers the post, In the US the Postal servcie collects and delivers the mail. Go figure.)

This would make the background for an excellent Christmas card - even though I did make it in the Autumn. To blow my own horn, you can order cards on my site.

The original isn't quite as nice.

Church in Castle Coombe

I find the original, taken in the overcast conditions, is more threatening - reflecting the stormy future of the UK.

Poppy

One of the effects I've been playing with is the cartoon filter in the Gimp.  It draws black lines where the gradient in the image intensity or color is large. 

DSC_0966_cartoon It is a useful technique.

Garden in fall

Fall colours in the rain

Fall is, finally, coming to the Atlanta area. When you get the light right, it's intensely beautiful color. Nothing as gaudy as the maples up North, sort of understated, but still there.

Virginia Creepers

I almost titled this "Mcclellan" because it's a Virginia Creeper (obscure Civil War joke). This is an image where playing with the color balance brought out the tones that I saw from the sun light filtering through it. 

Dogwood fall colours

That doesn't mean it isn't interesting and worthwhile.

It blew my mind. I understand why the above image "works."  

Marcia Cohen, a new emeritus professor, gave a workshop in color theory.

First we made illusions like:

illusion1

Where you get a sense of transparency if you pick the hues and saturations just right. She then showed an example with an illusion of depth. I've tried to reproduce it, but it's not as good as Alber's example

illusion2

In any case, I was seriously impressed with the place, and going to give it a shot.

Dogwood

a coven? Becomes, after processing:

Witches This works best for images with broad areas, so my current crop of (extremely) hot peppers:

Sakura peppers, becomes: Peppers, cartooned.

Contact me for your own custom shooting session (the mandatory and usual plug)

2018 Crop of persimmons

These are not ripe. Almost ripe, but not quite. The deer and raccoons get them as quickly as they turn soft - and a darker orange. Early on they have a protective colony of ants, which defend the ripe ones to their death. That said, we get our share by carefully feeling the fruit or shaking the trees to see which fruits drop. The bulk will turn ripe after the first hard frost and there will be some on the tree until Christmas.

It's a bit of a pain to convert the fruit into a useful form for baking. What I do is to mash them with sugar - about a cup (300 ml or so) and then dissolve the mixture with milk. Then it's an easy matter to strain the mixture and remove the seeds and inedible bits. After that, any muffin recipe will do - I like adding walnuts, cinnammon, and ginger.

Remember to plant the seeds when you're done. It's the least you can do for the plants.

Nikon D7200The setting knobs on a Nikon D7200

It's worth using the different modes on your DSL. After all, that's why you paid for it.

There are two relevant settings on the knob in the centre of this image. The bottom ring sets whether the camera takes a single shot, continuous 3 frames a second, continuous 10 frames a second, self timer and mirror lock. Neat, but other than bracketing, I usually use the S.  The dial on top sets the mode and that's far more useful.

I have it set for automatic, without a flash. Elsewhere I've set the speed to 200 - it can do automatic speed adjustment but that tends to end up with very high speeds and lots of grain. This setting tries to balance off shutter speed and aperture for generally optimal shooting. It's a good first approximation, but the other settings, P,A,S,M, are useful.

P turns on the programming mode. That lets you set things like HDR (if you don't save raw images) or bracketing. Neat but not particularly useful.

A, on the other hand is often exactly what you need. With A you set the aperture - the 'f-stop' - and let the camera pick the shutter speed. This lets you force the lens to use a high f-stop (small aperture) with good depth of field, or to use a low f-stop for shallow focus.

Using the highest F-stop let me take this image:

Saint Catherine's chapel and Hawthorne where the hawthorne and the chapel are both in focus.

For portraits, I like a big aperture because it defocuses the background. By the way, in a shameless plug, you can book a session with me.

A happy couple By the way each F-stop is half as bright at the one above it. Since the size of the aperture scales as the width squared, they go by the square root of 2 (e.g. 1, 1.4.2.2.8,4,5.6,8,11,16,22 ...)  and usually the lowest number is the best the lens can give you (which is never one).

S does the same thing but lets you control the shutter speed. Very useful for action shots and with big telephoto lenses. (1/4000 S is a good idea with a 500mm lens). You can also force the shutter to stay open long enough to get blurred motion.

waterfall

M lets you set the shutter speed and aperture. There's a bar on the side of the view finder that more or less lets you know how close you are to the correct exposure - or you can just let the speed adjust.  I've used manual when taking pictures of the sun or the moon because the camera tries to make the average exposure 15% grey, which is usually fine. In those cases I fix the aperture and shutter speed and then adjust the film speed to get the image I want.

Our SunOur sun, showing a few sunspots. Preparatory to shooting the recent eclipse You can even see a sunspot or two. (I used a solar filter for this and even through that the contrast and light were too bright to let the camera make the decisions).

Tending the pressure washer

It's both easy and hard. By the end of the afternoon I was pretty shot, but the results weren't too bad. I've posted my results in People of Atlanta

You can always make an appointment for a private session. (have to put this shameless plug in.)

Tourists

A sage

Finn, resting.

Finn MaccheulA very thin dog, somewhat exhausted after his first visit to the vets. Something tells me he's grown. A few months of good food tends to do that.  Now for the inevitable - Click here - to document your special animal by making an appointment.

A starry night

Another star shot. I moved the camera for this shot. The North star is just left of center at the bottom of the image (Cassiopeia points at it) There were meteors but other than where I caught my head (180 degree FOV is a bugger) I didn't catch any.  Still, the detail beats my earlier attempts - you can see the small stars. Later in the night would have been better, but the clouds were already rolling in. 

CheckinThe tidal wave approaches

The computer science department at GSU hosted its biennial Hackathon this last weekend. The quality of the student projects has definitely improved.

DSC_0941 The organizers. 

Girls can code

mother and fawn

I made this image a couple of months ago, at dawn, using a 600mm lens and a film speed of 3200. The apparent grain is larger than ideal. I use darktable to process images because it's a) free and 2) works on Linux (2 is more important). Like Adobe's lightroom, darktable can process grain. 

Mother and Fawn, denoised This image, processed with a parametric denoising algorithm, using wavelets for the convolution, is much smoother. It takes a careful adjustment to trade off between smoothness and loosing image detail. The image below has a patch from both the original and processed.

Mother and Fawn, for direct comparisonA patch from denoising on top of the original

Fall Sunflowers

We have a fair lot of logged over areas in Alabama. In Autumn, they erupt into swarms of these flowers.

Sunflowers It feels as if you're swimming in a sea of yellow.  Makes a change from:

Sunrisemorning mist over a regrowing woods in Alabama.

Ollie, relaxedFinally getting over the new puppy.

Get that thing out of my face. I used an 85mm lens which has a shallow depth of field. 

Is he back? Though upping the "film speed" and using a higher aperture helps. He's keeping a weather eye on the little one - ready to give him the claw if needed.

Orb WeaverFall Spider

Argiope_aurantia Increasing the F-stop results in greater depth of field - which is somewhat distracting. 
 

St Catherine's interiorRendered with oil and highlights using the gimp.

St Catherine's interiorThe original. Note the doves. The original image, for your delectation. 

Finn 3/1618

Don't forget about the coupon RWH-LTO-ART Apply it to any of my works to get them at lab cost - which is a dashed good offer.

English Blackberries

Wild Blackberries

Fruit of the same name, but in the US. They are clearly a different species. Ours ripen much earlier (they're mostly over by July 4th) and don't form such dense clumps.  Both kinds are good to eat and worth the harvesting. (Though US ones are a bit more tart than UK ones).

picking blackberriesPicking blackberries near Castle Coombe. Jess and Cassie are patient dogs.

Abbotsbury The village itself lies between the downs and the sea. The ruins of the abbey (dedicated to St. Peter) can be found in the village. The chapel survived because it was used as a beacon. It's visible off the fleet in the day and with a fire in the old bell tower, far out into the channel at night.

St Catherine's chapel in the storm The inside, in addition to being a dovery, is picturesque. There still are services and people leave written prayers the two small niches that once held statuary.

Interior of St Catherine's

Hiking on the South Coast trail

Storm clouds over the Fleet The weather isn't always so good, as this image from the next afternoon shows. It's best to be prepared for anything when hiking in what passes for summer here.

Exeter at night

a happy accident It takes a rock-solid tripod.

Exeter Cathedral, with bins Getting the exposure right can be tricky.

Abbotsbury at night But it can be neat.

Exeter Tea Shop

In the remains

The ruins of St Stephens Alms house in Exeter make for an interesting visit. They're slowly returning to nature, in the middle of a busy city.

low gate.Watch your head

Untouched BeautyA country cottage, Tintern, in its primal state.

Still, given the countryside that's nearby, it's worth the expense and effort.

Wye River Valley

Jess looking dignifiedFinn's cousin Jess

Jess

She and her sister Cassie enjoy swimming and long walks. If you look carefully, occasionally they show up in my UK landscapes. 

Rough and tumbleAn action shot of the two brothers.

My Ball The two dogs also like fetch, although we don't have as good facilities for it as Finn's brother.

Ollie as an Oil paintingAfter processing

The artistic filters in the GIMP are worth exploring. 

OllieBefore

The oil effect doesn't work equally well for all images, and quite often cubism is better.

Mother and FawnApplying Cubism.

Mother and Fawn Oil Though it does do a good job of removing the grain.

Peachtree Street

Peachtree in the Morning.I love the smell of exhaust in the morning.

This image was made with a 30mm lens in almost the same place as the one above it.

Dekalb Ave

Sometimes the image works surprisingly well as in this one of a man disputing the reason for his traffic stop.

A police stop.The man on the phone is calling his lawyer. I think this one works surprisingly well.

And, of course, my spacious office with its elegant high-class furniture (and Asterix's replacement on the desk undergoing brain surgery).

My officeComputers in different stages of repair and reuse.

My Commercial Website

The first really big step in becoming a commercial photographer. I've set up my Google business listing.  You can see the quality of my work on this blog, and if it's not extraordinary, it is pretty dashed good - above the plimpsoll line so to say. As you can tell from the places I photograph, travel is something I'll gladly do, though I expect pets and people in Atlanta will be my main customers. There is a bit more paperwork, but this is the start.

I've had to be careful, for privacy reasons, about the people I put in the public area. Zenfolio has private 'customer galleries' and that will be used for customer proofs. For the curious, that machine is running Linux Mint, and using Darktable for image processing.

And now a return to our regularly scheduled programming with a neat picture:

Peachtree in the Morning.I love the smell of exhaust in the morning.

A Morning in Atlanta, Police in front of Kell Hall.

Two cultures at AveburyArchaeologists (the serious ones on top) and true believers.

Silbury HillThe view from the front of West Kennet Long barrow. The view from the barrow

The GuardianThis skull was fastened to a tree, guarding the entrance to the village of North Bovey in Dartmoor. A hint of pagan times past, or just for the heck of it?

One of the interesting things about travelling in England, especially in the more rural areas is the survival of what appear to be folk traditions. This skull, discreetly hidden away and overlooking the entrance to the village of North Bovey, is one example from Dartmoor. 

A guardian, or just something fun for the tourists? Well, maybe not just for the tourists. Speaking of tourists, my portfolio is worth a look.

Offa's Dyke Figurine.

This figurine, on the Offa's dyke path, near Tintern Abbey is covered in offerings. It's maybe a hundred meters from 'the Devil's pulpit' - a rock where the devil would preach to the monks.  Don't forget to take a look at my portfolio while you're here.

DSC_0307

DSC_0302 This buck divided his time between browsing and chasing the does.

Browsing

DSC_0315He's sniffing for pheromones at the moment.

This time I tried using a monopod and the results are much better (200 asa instead of 25600). I still have work to do, but it's on the right track. A slightly higher speed and using the mirror-lock function are probably the next step.

PetroglyphsLizards

One of the things that I've discovered, rather belatedly, is how useful a little post-processing can be. These are photographs taken when skipping out on the ACA meeting in Albuquerque New Mexico a few years ago. They were indescribably dull (digital cameras have a highly linear response) and a tiny amount of contrast/saturation/shade correction works wonders.

Totemic TurkeyA bird, a shaman, or both? Ralph is not the artist.

Hand print The petroglyphs are not far from the city.

Albuquerque

Are you sure this is the way, Frodo?The road into the hills, off to the West.

Wryscan Quarry is tucked deep inside of Moel yr Hydd. An earlier post shows some of the ruins. The ruins remind me of Mordor, or at least what I image it to be. One can almost imagine Sam asking, "Are you sure this is the way Frodo?" The trail goes down hill, away from where we stayed so we didn't explore that. 

Worker's houses

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Who's there?

Our local herd is mixed gender - mostly female with a fawn, and one buck. He's just spotted me Who's there?

Is that dangerous?

Who's there?

Let's go. Who's there?

The trail from ‘camp one’ in the redwoods. 20180803065711-28244-map dsc_0280

Point Reyes overveiw:
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Abbott’s cove:
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20180803065808-28244-map

Drake’s Cliff:
20180803070050-28244-map

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Tule Elk Preserve:

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Jade Cove:
This location is a bit of a secret – and nearly to the current blockage on route 1.  It is a bit of a climb down a steep cliff and there is more than enough poison oak. That said, it’s a fun day trip.
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First fig of the season

It's a dark and stormy time in Atlanta. Still the figs are finally beginning to ripen.

DSC_0123

DSC_0116 You can see that the fur is returning around his eyes; the result of two weeks of good food and care. He still barks at the cats, when he can, but they've learned that showing him the paw works. So we end up with the cat back on the plant-stand, relaxed, and well rested.

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Cajun FrogSwimming in the swamp in Lafitte NWR. From my wildlife gallery

Then we headed down to route 101 and up route 1 to Point Reyes National Seashore. After stopping at the park center to pick up a good map, we headed to Abbott’s lagoon before going to our rental cottage.

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We also picked up food. A warning is in order here. There are several small markets along the inner bay in Inverness. Avoid them. The Palace Market in Point Reyes Station is the only one that’s reasonable -both in cost and selection.

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The dunes and beach beyond the lagoon were closed to allow shorebirds to nest and raise their young. Totally laudable, and later we walked to the beach farther North. These pictures are uncommonly sunny – usually the coast is socked in with fog this time of year.  More like this view from Drakes’ cliff

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My photoblog can be found at zenfolio. For what it’s worth, I’m also selling photos at Shutterstock and Alamy.

August

Finn after almost two weeks These are natural light - with a D7200 - in a darkish house. (We live in an urban forest).

My Muse

I'd want to add a supplemental light to this shot, but as a candid shot, it's not bad. The lens lets me keep my distance which limits the disturbance to the subject and flattens the perspective. No outsized noses.

Tyndale Monument at dusk

Tyndale Monument

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DSC_0774Moel yr Hdff in the dusk, from Blaenqu Ffestinog The mine village is stark and slowly decaying back into a pile of rocks.

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There's a poem, in Welsh on the walk into the village. It says, roughly, we lived here, had a school, a church, a village, and now it's gone. 

Electric CalvaryOne of my favorites, Point Reyes

Tenacity 2The tree, the fog, the roots holding it to the cliff. I like to balance it off against this one, of a Monterrey cypress clinging to the side of a cliff in the fog. (Though this is from northern California and not Monterrey).

DSC_0074Taking a break from the zoomies

DSC_0080Mid-wrestle. Finn's on the bottom in this image. The two dogs had a case of the zoomies and as it was a social call I couldn't quite get down on their level to get the best images. Still you can see the joy the two healthy puppies had playing with each other.

DSC_0083Ready for more? Since our puppy was in better shape, we've had the easier job of it. Our neighbor's animal is no longer hand-shy or timid and the two brothers hit it off. They both slept extremely well that night.

DSC_0067A quiet moment on the porch.

Finn on his first dayThin and wary, but cautiously optimistic.

One of the disputable joys of spending time in the Alabama back-country is the chance to rescue animals. Someone dropped off this puppy and his brother on our dirt road. It was 95F, sunny, and they had neither food nor water. Our neighbor and us rescued them from being coyote food. 

Finn MaccheulAt home, after his first vet appointment

We took ours to the vet in Centre (Nichol's animal hospital) for a physical. Puppy shots and a dose of worm medicine later, he was ours. He hadn't been abused, per se, just neglected. Irregular feeding and limited access to water. That was about to change.

Finn restingResting after dinner and a chew. Sleek, slightly plump, and relaxed. He's at home now.

Point CabrilloPoint Cabrillo lighthouse in the fog. The light really works.

The 300 StepsPoint Reyes lighthouse.

Point Reyes lighthouse is 300 steps down from the main land. Not too bad on a clear, cool morning in the sun, but not for the faint of heart in a storm. (and to be honest not for the faint of heart at all - it's a 30 story climb.) The original keepers used a wheeled cart to lower and raise supplies. You can see the marks from the cable at the top of the stairs.

Sailing into Santa Cruz HarborSanta Cruz Lighthouse. Only a few years old. One of the two lighthouses in Santa Cruz, this one is only a few years old and marks the entrance to the small boat harbor. The Alcoa plant at Moss Landing is just visible on the horizon.

After a couple of days exploring San Francisco, we decided to explore further north. Unfortunately, the next few days were predicted to be hot – 110F 38C – in the internal valley so we changed our plans. No lollygagging about in the Napa valley.

Instead we headed to the coast, up to Fort Bragg. It’s a bit of a drive, up the 101 and then over on the 20, but we could stop in Jackson State Forest and explore the redwoods.

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We stopped at a rest area for lunch where there were logging artefacts and some of the worst pit toilets that I’ve seen. The redwoods that have regrown form circles about the one that was removed. Many of the trees that return aren’t redwoods, but douglas firs, so we’ve done a great deal of damage.

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Camp One is a right turn, most of the way to Fort Bragg. You follow a winding dirt road back to a parking lot. There’s a short (1 mile) and long (3 miles) loop up the valley. We took the longer loop to stretch our legs. It’s a bit of a climb on freshly cut trails, but well worth it. The header image shows one of the redwood stumps from this walk.

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Fort Bragg is nothing much to speak of. We stayed at the Hotel 6, which had the dual advantage of being the least expensive motel and an open room. It was a choice between eating at a glorified fast food place or going for a walk. We, of course, chose the walk and found Fort Bragg harbor to the south. Live music echoed up and we made our way to “Django’s Rough Bar” for some excellent sea food, live jazz, and good beer. It’s named for Django Reinhart, the two fingered guitar maestro and the rough bar at the harbor mouth.

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The next day we’d head down route 1, stopping along the way at the Jug Handle State Nature Preserve and Point Cabrillo. But more on that later.

For what it’s worth, I’m selling photos at Shutterstock and Alamy.

Another digression, between Monterey (we actually stayed in Marina, but more on that in another post) and Santa Cruz, we visited the Elkhorn Slough State Wildlife Refuge. It’s a great place for birds, in November through early spring, but less so in summer. Still we counted about 15 species, including a couple of new ones for the life list, so I’m not complaining. Rather I’m thinking of an excuse to visit at a better time.

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The refuge, an old farm, is maintained by the state and in great shape. They will lend you excellent binocculars (Eagle optics), and the rangers are friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable.

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There are about 5 miles of looped trails over a range of habitat. However, it’s mostly slough, mudflat, and open fields with some oak woods mixed in.

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Speaking of oaks, California is in the midst of a slow crisis of sudden death oak fungus, so it’s important to clean your shoes when traipsing about.  They also had us brush off any possible seeds from invasive species. Poison oak isn’t an invasive species, and it is present in the refuge (the birds love the berries). One interesting difference between the western variety and its relatives in Georgia is that the California poison oak was already turning red and losing leaves. Still you should be careful about it – unless you like itchy patches of blisters. (Using soap and water within an hour or so of exposure is usually enough to remove the oils.)

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However at this time of the year, the non-avian wildlife is worth a serious look. In addition to lizards (mostly fence lizards) and a gopher snake that stayed put for an intimate photograph, there were rabbits, seals, and sea otters. Sea otters!

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I repeat sea otters. At least two of them (both surfaced at the same time) and possibly three of them. There is a power line that crosses over the Parson’s Slough overlook. An Egret rookery is at the far side of the slough where it crosses. The sea otters were playing in the incoming tide more or less directly under the wire. There was also a curious seal, who would poke his nose up, now and then.  I have to admit I didn’t believe that sea otters came in the sloughs, but I was wrong and the ranger was right.

Our day started out sunny, but then the fog and chill (54F, 12C) rolled in, hence the fairly grey photos.

For what it’s worth, I’m selling photos at Shutterstock and Alamy.

Something of a digression, but we just walked the Tomales point trail at Point Reyes National Seashore through the Tule Elk preserve. This species of elk was nearly hunted to extinction and reintroduced to park about 40 years ago.

Fine, neat, but so what.

Most of the hikers on the trail, and there were more than we’ve seen on any other trail in the park, missed the elk completely. We saw at least 21 and possibly as many as 26 (there was a large herd that was hard to count, my best estimate was 20). There’s a trick to it, well two tricks actually:

1. Skill and knowledge
2. Patience

The first step is to find the elk. Being prey animals, even though they’re the size of small cows, they tend to hide away. We  saw three heads on the top of a ridge in the distance. Were they elk? Well, out with the binoculars. Yup, elk.

Further on, to get out of the wind (Tulome trail is very windy. The Park Service quietly understates ‘even experienced hikers may find it difficult’.) we took a diversion to hide behind a pile of rocks. There was a small cluster of similar little dots in the distance. Again, out with the binoculars and quelle surprise, a herd of elk, not 100 meters from the path.

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So then it was just a matter of walking to the closest point on the path and waiting. While a fair number of people walked past, chatting about this and that, we watched the elk.

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At first, they were blobs in the distance.

They walked closer and soon our patience was rewarded.  People kept walking past without noticing the animals. Shame.

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These pictures were made with a 200mm lens, which isn’t a particularly powerful telephoto lens.

For what it’s worth, I’m selling photos at Shutterstock and Alamy.

We decided to try exploring the West coast for a number of reasons. The most pressing being to see how the trees I planted while working for the city of Salinas were doing. Well, not really, but it’s been a while and, quite frankly, we wanted to see somewhere we haven’t been recently.

We started off by flying into San Jose, which is a smaller airport than SFO, but has the advantage of being much easier to get away from. We booked a couple of nights in Antioch – near the end of the BART yellow line with plans of exploring the city. (FYI we stayed at America’s Best Value Inns there which is cheap, clean, and decent.  Hazel’s drive in, just down the road, is a fantastic little restaurant if you’re in the area (bring cash – they don’t take credit cards).) If you do this, it turns out there’s no parking to speak of at the Antioch station. Drive to Pittsburg Bay Center and park there. (You also avoid a transfer).

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We explored Chinatown and had excellent dim sum at the Imperial Inn before walking to Telegraph Hill (the Coit Tower then pier 51).  The trick to finding good dim sum is to look at the clientele. If they’re mostly Chinese, you’ve found the right place. We picked up salted plums and various Chinese candies that aren’t easy to find in Atlanta. If you walk a few streets West of the tourist area, you can find the Chinese grocery shops. There English is a scarce commodity, but the vegetables and fruits are authentic.  There’s also a tension between the mainland and Taiwanese Chinese. Several of the buildings pointedly had either the PRC or Taiwan flag displayed.

dsc_0055 Unfortunately the heat followed us, it being 85-90F (30-32) instead of the more normal 60F (16). So we decided the best thing to do the next day (with inland forecasts of 35-38 (100-108) was to take the ferry.  We started at the SFO ferry terminal (near the Embarcadero BART stop) and took the ferry to Sausalito.

The natives posed for a practice shot with my mirror lens. It’s OK, but the resolution isn’t up to my normal standards.

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The ferry ride costs about $6.50 each way (use a clipper card, and keep track of your balance). It’s the cheapest way. There’s a bike over the bridge and return on the ferry route that looks fun, but you have to be prepared for it. (We weren’t.) Sausalito is a bit of a tourist trap, so we walked around and admired the yachts. Most of the yachts weren’t being used, and some could be had quite cheaply – if you don’t count the work you’ll need to put in to make her seaworthy.

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The yachts are entrancing, but I’d need a lot of practice to move up from a sailing canoe to one of these.

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For what it’s worth, I’m selling photos at Shutterstock and Alamy.

The top of G-deck turned out to be a good decision. There were a few other people there, but nothing like the crowds in Woodruff park (where I understand fights broke out over viewing equipment.)

I used a regular photographic tripod, which is decidedly sup-optimal for astronomy, but good enough for this purpose.

You can see how the shadow appears to roll over the sun in the sequence below.

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Even with that filter, getting the exposure correct can be a bugger. I ended up in manual mode 1/4000 s f29 iso2000.  The featured image shows the results, and, yes, those dots in the middle of the sun are sunspots. So we’re ready to go.  I’ll probably play around a bit with the film speed to reduce noise, but this is decent enough to work.  I’ll use a tripod tomorrow and be at the top of G-deck.

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If you don’t adjust the exposure, the sun is completely washed out. Not at all what you want. After adjusting the exposure, it works somewhat better.

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This started out as a “pub walk” from the house we hired in Wootton Courtenay – and we did get to one, about seven miles in. After several missed turns and places where the map … deviated from the trails on the ground.

screenshot-2017-06-30-14-21-24 This shows our GPS trace overlaid on the most current Ordinance Survey map. These differences made it a bit interesting.

I covered the first part of the hike on an earlier post where we hunted a local pub. So you can read that post for details. We take this walk up at the village of Timberscombe.

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We headed uphill on the wrong road, but eventually found our way to where we could see Dunster in the distance.

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sany0555 If you get to this carved bird (the buzzard), you’ve gone too far.

Some of the local landmarks have a decidedly sci-fi name. Is Gallox bridge in Gallifrey?

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We stopped in the Stag – which is an excellent pub – and let two sweaty, dirty, and tired hikers enjoy their pints inside. It had a guitar in the corner so if you were a better player than I am, you could entertain the crowds (or if you were a better runner you might escape the disapprobriation.)

The path heads uphill, of course, from the town. It winds its way past St. Leonard’s well (Shades of Blackadder) along a ridge.

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There is an excellent set of views of Minehead from the exposed ridge. The sun is shining on Butlin’s holiday camp.

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We also wanted to look for this weird feature – seen on google maps.
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Unfortunately, it’s nothing special.
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Dunkery Beacon is the tallest peak in Exmoor. We’d hired a house in Wootton Courtenay which is at the base of the peak, but if you’re driving there are other places to start from.  I would probably park at Webber’s post where there is a large parking lot, but no post. screenshot-2017-06-26-12-46-11

We managed to arrive just after a heat wave; 32-35 is no fun without aircon. It was typical English summer weather; i.e.raining and cold.

The trail proper starts in a lovely grove of trees and then ascends a moderate slope.
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Of course we started in the sun, but that was not to last.

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We passed the ponies several times – this shot being on the way up.

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These preferred Bracken to handouts, which was a relief.

The top is marked by a cairn. We used it to shelter from the wind while eating lunch.
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This shows the path up the hill.
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We followed a steep descent part way down the hill and made our way through delightfully pretty woods sany0506 (Rowan and Holly so we were doubly safe from the foul spirits of the undead) to Webber’s post, and back to our house. If I started from Webber’s post I’d go across the hill and up the way we did rather than the other way around.

Of course, then the weather cleared.

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The early Daffodils are fading.
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And the Cranes have flown off.
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Time to plant peas, potatoes and clean the gutters (again).