VW Plant

Posted by dkrashb on April 25, 2013

This is not a broken, black ping pong ball but rather a common fungus

There comes a time in every bird walk when someone much more knowledgable about plants than I am suddenly stops and points out a plant. Often, the plant is a fungus. Is a fungus actually a plant? According to http://herbarium.usu.edu, it is not. Rather, fungi have their very own kingdom–and what a special kingdom it is.

Photographically, I am always challenged when we encounter cool fungi or plants along the trail while birding. This is because I only take one lens with me birding. It’s my 100-400mm and it doesn’t really perform well for macro photography. This doesn’t stop me, of course, from trying my best to get a shot of the life forms we encounter. Realistically, I am not going to tote my tripod and macro lens on birding walks to capture these plants better up close, so I will just have to live with the motion blur and shallow depth of field I end up with when shooting with the 100-400mm. It’s still better than what I get with an iPhone.

The first really interesting fungus we encountered looked like a block ping pong ball that hand been broken open. In fact, it looked so manmade to me that I would have assumed it was litter had we not had one of our plant experts on the walk. It amazes me when I see things like this in nature that we ever think we invented anything on our own.

“My what big ears you have!”

The second interesting fungus was a group of wood ears growing along a fallen log. They really do look like slightly slimy ears growing on wood. I believe this may be the birthplace of the idea for Mr. Potato head. Perhaps the wood ears were growing on a potato and someone thought, “Hey! That looks like a face with ears!” and then the idea grew from there. You never know.

What kind of buckeye is that?

The next interesting non-bird we saw was, in fact, a member of the plant kingdom. It was of particular interest to me because my Tennessean friends called it a Buckeye tree. As a person from the buckeye state, I can tell you that I have never seen a flower on any buckeye tree that looks anything like this one. I have read on more than one occasion that the buckeye tree is indigenous to Ohio and not found anywhere else. I had doubted the truth of that, but now am wondering if perhaps what people call a buckeye down in Tennessee is not really the same tree at all. Whatever it is, it’s quite beautiful.

An immature red-tailed hawk sends us on our way

We made our way out of the wetland a bit tired after such an early morning start. We found many birds in the 3 hours we spent wandering about. As we stood listening to a Cerulean Warbler just before calling it a day, we were surprised by the appearance of a Red-tailed Hawk, soaring happily overhead. I managed to get this image of the immature hawk flying over head.

Mini Macro

Posted by dkrashb on April 19, 2013

This flower was about 1/2″ across in person–iPhone with macro lens attached

This morning, when my alarm went off at 5:15, I decided I didn’t want to get back into my full-blown exercise routine too quickly. After all, biking and rowing 3x in a week after several months off is a pretty strong start. I re-set the alarm for 7:00AM instead of going for my bike ride.

About as tight as I could get with my 100-400mm lens on my DSLR

When my alarm went off the second time, I was sound asleep and dreaming–it was as if 5 minutes had passed from the first alarm. I felt like I could have slept another 7 hours easily. But, this time I dragged myself out of bed.

The same flower as above shot with the iPhone with the macro lens attached

Since I need to try to bump up my bird count for the Birdathon and there was a storm yesterday, I took my binoculars and camera on Tisen’s walk. Bird migration often follows cold fronts moving in and sometimes birds literally blow into an area during high winds. However, when I got downstairs, I realized the temperature hadn’t actually dropped any. I prepared myself for disappointment.

Water droplets covered these tall grasses

Not a single bird I hadn’t been seeing for weeks presented itself. Tisen was disappointed, too. He wanted to turn around and go back inside immediately. Seems like he’s been nervous ever since the storm moved through last night, bringing lightening and thunder. It’s almost as if he thinks there is a causal effect between walking in the park and thunderstorms.

I couldn’t get far enough away from this violet to frame it properly with the macro attachment on the iPhone

As a result of the lack of birds, I decided to photograph the amazing beads of water on some grass. The problem with this decision was that I had my 100-400mm lens on my camera. The 100-400mm lens is not the lens I would choose for shooting subjects like water droplets. For starters, it has a minimum focusing distance of about 5 feet. That means I can’t shoot from closer than 5 feet away.

More water-covered grass

It’s kind of tough to get interesting shots of water beads from 5 feet away, even at 400mm. The second problem is that shooting at 400mm while hand-holding requires a really fast shutter speed. Especially since there was still quite a bit of wind. I managed to get a very fast shutter speed by setting a slightly higher ISO and opening the aperture all the way (the max is f/5.6 at 400mm). While I wouldn’t hang these on the wall, I do like that you can see the coating of water droplets on the blades of grass.

Brightly lit yellow flower shot with iPhone and macro attachment

This evening, I decided to try out my macro lens attachment on my iPhone to see how it compared. Interestingly, auto focus doesn’t work. In case you were wondering how you manually focus an iPhone, you moved the phone further and closer until you find the point where the image is sharp. This is much easier to achieve when Tisen isn’t pulling on the leash, determined to get back home. But, with a tripod, the iPhone might have done better than the 100-400mm lens did in some cases.

Tisen seems very happy to be at home

Web, Wings, and Walks

Posted by dkrashb on April 18, 2013

Spider web with buildings blurred in the background

I am not obsessed–no matter what my husband claims–with birding. I have only listened to my bird song recordings a few times this season. I have only ordered one new birding-related product (a new version of birding software that let’s you quiz yourself on recognizing birds by sight and/or sound). I have gone on no long-distance trips for the purpose of birding.

spider lace

I even walk outdoors without binoculars. This is a bit foolish–especially during the birdathon when every bird counts. I keep seeing birds I can’t identify without binoculars when I don’t have them on me. But, I often forget to grab the binocs when Tisen is in a particularly big hurry to get outside. Somehow it seems wrong to ask him to cross his legs any longer than necessary while I get myself organized.

Drops reflecting the buildings outside

Today I was determined to make an evening bird walk at a marsh. I haven’t been to this marsh before and I figured there was a good chance I’d pick up a few additional species before the Birdathon ends.

Single strand of water droplets

I took Tisen for a walk before I had to leave. We made it about ¼ of the way through the park when the first clap of thunder sounded. It wasn’t even a clap; it was more of a rumble. It was enough for Tisen–he did an about-face and started pulling on the leash to head back in. Because we lost Tiger during our lunchtime walk, I wanted to continue the walk and look for him. But Tisen wasn’t missing Tiger so much. I got him to turn around and take about 3 more steps, but when the next rumble of thunder came along, he was done. We ended up jogging back up the path from whence we came.

This spider literally ran into the center of the shot as I was shooting and then ran out again

As the sky opened up, lightening bolts struck left and right, and even hail started to bounce of the windowsills, I noticed a large spider web in the window was catching raindrops. I decided to experiment with shooting it for the few minutes I had before I needed to leave. While I had a little trouble because of the background, I got a few images I like.

The Standifer Gap Marsh

By the time I needed to leave, the rain and lightening had moved on. I headed down to the garage and headed out to the other side of town for the walk. Traffic was backed up and visibility was nil. I arrived at the marsh late and then wasn’t sure where the entrance was. No one else was there. Not a big surprise considering on this side of town it was still raining and lightening every few seconds.

I got out of the car and walked about 50 yards from the car and back–just long enough to add 2 birds to my birdathon list and take a few photos with the Camera! app–my iPhone safely protected in a waterproof case while my DSLR remained sheltered in the car.

More marsh

Tisen gives Daddy a bath

Breaking a Lens

Posted by dkrashb on April 12, 2013

Twiggy decided on a dip in the river before the storm started

This evening, I slipped out with Tisen in a hurry to get him out and back in before it started to rain. A storm was promising to break lose at any moment–the smell of rain hanging in the air as if the deluge was over instead of yet to begin. Whether it was the tickle of electricity forming far away in the clouds or the accumulating energy evidenced by the swirling winds, Tisen and I both had extra spring in our steps.

We didn’t make it very far before we ran into some neighbors–everyone was out with their dogs. Tisen made a couple of new friends and caught up with several old ones. Then, Twiggy and her daddy arrived on the scene. Tisen was beside himself.

I let Tisen follow Twiggy, his favorite trail leader. We meandered along and followed the dogs. Distracted by Twiggy’s feminine wiles, Tisen was suddenly oblivious to the impending storm.

Tisen looking worried after the first clap of thunder

When a loud clap of thunder sounded, he became momentarily airborne and immediately started looking for shelter. I had trouble keeping him out from under Twiggy’s daddy’s feet as underneath our friend seemed to be the best shelter Tisen could find.

We made our way back, but not in time to avoid a good soaking. I was prepared with my rain jacket, but it rained so hard, my pants were dripping and my sandals were soaked by the time we made it back to the building. Tisen was soaked through.

But I was smiling–it was our first summer storm.

The image that caused me to play with the positioning of my lens

When Pat came home, we sat on the balcony for a bit, watching the clouds and the rain, listening to the sound of gallons of water falling from the sky in a giant curtain of water hitting the pavement below. I had the sudden urge to take a fisheye photo of the sky and the rain and the distant ridge.

The fisheye lens for the iPhone attaches purely by magnetism. I made the mistake of fumbling while trying to get the lens centered around the phone lens. The lens popped loose and we watched in slow motion, our mouths opening, sound forming, and a long, “Ohhhhhh . . .” coming out of mine as the tiny lens tumbled to the floor of the balcony, landing at my feet, and rolled. It rolled for what seemed like 10 minutes while I stood frozen in place, still forming the word “Ohhh” and watched it roll right off the edge of the balcony and fall, and fall some more.

The bent rim of the lens after its fall

Still in slow motion, I leaned over the balcony and watched for another 10 minutes as the lens fell 7 stories to the patio below, and suddenly, the one piece became at least 2. I sighed and reminded myself it was a $20 lens, not a $2000 lens, but really, I haven’t gotten $20 worth of fun out of it yet.

I was able to retrieve the pieces and it may even be repairable–we’ll see.

The pieces of my broken lens

Finding Flowers

Posted by dkrashb on February 28, 2013

Purple Deadnettle–an early bloomer

Yesterday, while walking Tisen through the park, I noticed things were starting to bloom. Not big things, but tiny little things and, of course, dandelions. Since I haven’t shot outdoors much lately, I thought I’d try seeing how well my image stabilization works on my 100mm macro lens and try hand-holding some macro shots of these blooms.

Since I was hand holding while holding a dog, I decided to forego extension tubes. These cut down the light by a couple of stops when I use all three–less light means slower shutter speeds, which leads to more blur when hand holding.

Bright spots

I am still enamored with dandelions. Their big, bright blooms light up the mostly dead grass like tiny suns. They make a gray day seem cheerful. They also seem to promise spring is right around the corner. I wish they would let the weather service know–they keep talking about 20 degree weather coming our way. I really thought we were past that.

The other things blooming weren’t flowers I knew. I did a little searching online and determined that these are Purple Deadnettle:

Apparently most of the stuff blooming in February is non-native. I guess that’s how it got so widespread–by starting early.

A similar bloom was in another section of the park. I believe this is Henbit Deadnettle:

The last flower in this small collection was a complete mystery to me. From my searching, I believe it is Harbinger-of-Spring, which, happily, is a native wildflower:

I really needed extension tubes and a tripod to get a good shot of this one.

I don’t think Tisen liked any of the flowers. He kept peeing on them. Fortunately, not while I was shooting them. That would have made for an interesting action shot!

Henbit Deadnettle from the side

Tisen seems to think it’s fine for him to stop and sniff whenever and for however long he likes, yet he gets impatient when I stop to shoot. He was particularly unhappy when I spotted the Harbinger-of-Spring and had to back up so I could get a shot. He was very focused on getting to the next good scent.

More purple deadnettle

Once many weeks ago, when Tisen was particularly involved in snorting every last particle of scent off a tree trunk, a man walked by and said, “Catching up on all the good gossip!” That’s the perfect description of what Tisen was doing.

In any case, I found myself struggling against the pull of Tisen against the leash I was holding while shooting. Between Tisen tugging and the wind blowing, I had many a blurry shot. However, I was pretty impressed with the image stabilization. Without it, I doubt I would have gotten any sharp shots at all given that I was shooting at 1/60 sec or slower for all but one of these images.

Clearly, I needed something much faster to catch Tisen while he played with Pink Dog (borrowed from his girlfriend, Twiggy):

Tisen is a blur at 1/50 of a second

The Plight of the Purple Monkey

Posted by dkrashb on February 24, 2013

Purple Monkey after his vibratorectomy

The saga of Purple Monkey began last weekend. I had to run errands–we ran out of trash bags. This has never happened before. This is the one aspect of running a household that I’m usually on top of. It started with paranoia about running out of toilet paper, which goes back to a guy I dated when I was in college who was forever out of toilet paper. The outages led to improvisation that led to clogged toilets. Having a father who wrote a book about plumbing, this was sacrilege. In the end, I came away with a compulsion to stockpile toilet paper.

Soon, my compulsion expanded to include other household supplies. Trash bags, plastic wrap, toothpaste, dental floss, paper towels, hand soap, dish soap, laundry detergent, bath soap, and a variety of “daily needs” items are all well-stocked in my house.

My husband teases me that I think “we’re almost out” of toilet paper when we have less than 24 rolls in the house. When the toilet paper supply dwindles, I take stock of anything else running low, make a dash to Target, and buy in bulk. It’s a system that works for me.

The offending part

However, one of the side effects of having a housekeeper is that she takes the trash out and we rarely use more than one kitchen trash bag a week, so I never see the level of the trash bag supply anymore. I was caught completely off guard.

I made an emergency run to Target. Tisen went with me and waited patiently in the car. After, I took him into PetSmart to stock up on poop bags and, of course, let him pick out his own toy.

He chose Purple Monkey. At least, I thought it was a monkey. Whatever it is, as mentioned in yesterday’s blog, it has a bizarre vibrator inside of it that makes it jiggle. Tisen didn’t like the vibration, so, for the first time since we’ve had him, he chewed on a toy–he broke the vibrator inside. That wasn’t enough to satisfy him.

Purple Monkey’s trap door

Today, he decided the vibrator had to come out. He pulled at it until he got it lose from the fabric it was glued to. I finished the job for him, afraid he was going to hurt his teeth. Tisen seemed relieved.

Purple Monkey has a flap on his backside held shut with velcro. The flap was intended to allow for battery changes. As I examine this toy, I have to wonder if the designer had every seen a dog at play in his/her life. What dog would want a toy with a giant motor in it?

Tisen treats his toys more gently than any dog I’ve ever seen, yet even he couldn’t stand that stupid motor. It was made by Toys-R-Us Pets. I suspect it was considered a choking hazard for children so they relabeled as a pet toy, but maybe this is just my paranoia.

Tisen contentedly plays with his old friend, Jack, while I shoot Purple Monkey

Night Lights

Posted by dkrashb on February 23, 2013

The light on our Time Capsule reflected in the top of the cable box it sits on

Have you ever noticed how many tiny little lights there are glowing away in our homes these days? I had to banish all electronics (besides my iPhone, which is also my alarm clock) from our bedroom several years ago because of the lights.

The glowing apple is almost enough light to ready by

After struggling with sleep issues, I was educated on ways to improve my sleep environment. The first rule was to remove all light sources from the room, including my clock. I had no idea how bright our room was until we started removing the lights.

Room darkening blinds, the removal of all electronics, and closing the interior doors revealed we had a bright light on an alarm panel permanently mounted on the bedroom wall. I ended up using an old pair of biking shorts wrapped around the panel to cover the light (that was always a little awkward to explain on the rare occasions we showed our bedroom to a guest). When we turned off the last light as we went to bed, we couldn’t see our hands in front of our faces. We both slept much better.

The only symbol I recognize is the power symbol. I have no idea what the other two lights on our cable box mean.

Once I was used to sleeping in a totally dark room, I became hyper-sensitive to lights in hotel rooms. I have to unplug alarm clocks and carefully position the light-blocking curtain, sometimes moving furniture to hold the curtain against the window to prevent light leakage.

Glow of a power button next to stray light coming through the vent

Once, at a conference in Vegas, my hotel room, a ridiculously large suite, had a sunken seating area. Because there were steps down to the seating area, lights were installed in the floor for safety. Unfortunately, they didn’t turn off. I’m sure the housekeeper wondered why I kept leaving a towel on the floor, but that was the only way I could get to sleep–cover the lights. I couldn’t seem to remember to pick it up in the morning.

Laptop lights are deceptively bright–a sleeping laptop in the room is enough light to keep me up

Tonight, looking around for a photographic subject after working past sunset, I noticed all the glowing lights in the office. I found myself wondering what they would look like in photographs.

Perhaps they would be more interesting in a wide angle shot of a totally dark room with all these little lights glowing like a constellation in color? It was fun to try shooting them, though. I try to remind myself it’s about the journey and not the destination. 🙂

Our own, tiny traffic light is actually the lights on a surge protector

Tisen was not very interested in my photographic experiment. He was more interested in playing with his newest toy. I was surprised he picked this toy when we stopped at PetSmart the other day. It doesn’t have a squeaker in it. This is usually a show-stopper when it comes to Tisen’s selection of toys.

This one has a strange vibrating device in it. When you squeeze its paw, it vibrates in a rather strange, R-rated sort of way. Tisen doesn’t like when it vibrates while he has it in his mouth. I finally realized he wasn’t playing with it, he was trying to get it to stop vibrating–permanently. He succeeded.

Tisen puts an end to the vibration in this toy

Lost Marbles

Posted by dkrashb on February 21, 2013

It almost looks like I succeeded, but the moving marble actually missed and passed behind the other marble

I failed to get two nickels to connect yesterday. I decided to revise my experiment and try with two marbles instead. Of course, if I ever owned any marbles, I lost them (yes, that’s a pun). However, I do have a glass vase with a bunch of glass beads in it to hold the flowers in place. These glass beads are reasonably round, so it seemed possible that I could park one and roll the other into it.

Disappearing marble–as the moving marble passes in front of the still marble, it’s so blurred, it’s a ghost

Picture this (another pun): One large camera with a substantial looking lens on the front of it sitting on a big tripod and placed up close to the kitchen counter, level with the counter top. One small, black glass bead sitting on said counter. Me, kneeling behind the camera, reaching up to the counter and rolling a second small, black glass bead towards the first. As soon as I release the rolling bead, I try to move my right hand back to the camera fast enough to hit the shutter at the moment the two beads connect.

This resulted in a lot of photos of the second bead rolling through the frame somewhere other than right when it hit the other bead. In fact, it would have been impossible to capture the moment when the two beads hit because they never did. I began to suspect the beads were imperfectly round. I’m sure it had nothing to do with my coordination.

The most common image I ended up with

Since it rapidly became clear that I couldn’t hit the bead and I was not going to magically spout any extra hands, I recruited the extra pair of hands in the form of my husband. It’s possible there are government grants available to study the length of time two adults can be amused by trying to collide two beads and get a picture of it. I should have applied before starting this exercise–I doubt I will get a second chance to run the experiment.

The two marbles actually collided in this shot, but I was a split second too late and the sitting marble blurred as it started to move

The one thing we did prove is if the lack of ability to make the two beads connect is related to coordination, my husband is only slightly more coordinated that I am. Since he usually has pretty good finesse when it comes to doing anything involving eye-hand coordination, I’m confident those beads really weren’t all that round.

One marble passing behind the other

On the rare occasions when he managed to get the two beads to connect, I missed the shot. I have about 40 images of one bead rolling into the frame on the right while the second sits patiently.

Marble passing in front of the other

It’s more fun to create 40 of these images than it is to look at them one after another. But, as I flip through the shots, a running narrative goes through my head “almost, almost, there it . . . oops . . . here it comes again, almost, oh shoot.” The one shot where it looks like I captured the moment the two beads were colliding, the rolling bead actually passed behind the still bead without touching it. But, I’ll take it.

The marble came hoping into the frame in this shot

Two Nickels

Posted by dkrashb on February 20, 2013

I was able to capture one nickel on edge, perfectly still

I noticed something interesting today. I noticed I didn’t feel quite so bored. Interestingly, this seems to correlate with a sunny day. Is it really that simple?

It was also a Tuesday. Tuesday is a kind of mad-dash in the morning because the housekeeper comes on Tuesday. This means, in addition to my normal morning routine that includes walking and feeding the dog, showering and getting myself groomed and dressed, we also ran around picking up and then I drove the dog to day care.

Guess what? There’s rush hour traffic in the morning! Even here. And, of course, Tisen didn’t want to get out of the car when we got to doggy daycare. He’s such a mama’s boy. I had to lift him off the back seat of the van and then hoist him down to the ground. It used to be a little easier–he seems to have picked up a few pounds of late.

Of course, once he got inside and one of his doggy friends showed up, he was all excited to be there. He happily pranced back to the play room with his new best friend after a few doggy handshakes (which is a polite way of describing how dogs actually greet and get to know one another).

Back at home, Tisen seems to feel the need to keep a friend handy at all times

That task completed, I raced back home for my first conference call of the day. And, of course, got stuck in traffic. Traffic was backed up a good quarter of a mile. It took an extra 5 minutes to drive the one mile between doggy daycare and our building. Yes, it’s somewhat laughable, but 5 extra minutes to go one mile is a bit annoying. Especially when you’re running out of time before your first conference call.

Tuesday morning also means I pack up my laptop and head down to the common area at the end of the hall where I can sit and work while someone else vacuums and scrubs back at home. (How I appreciate the folks who do those chores for me!) Since the common area is a large room in a corner of the building with lots of windows overlooking the riverfront, it’s a fantastic view.

This morning, there are other residents meeting in the room, so I must sit outside on the balcony so I can talk on my call without their voices interfering. This puts me outside in the sunshine.

Apparently I need only 2 things to shake me out of my doldrums: a slight change in my routine and sunshine. That’s not so hard.

So, now that I’ve spent nearly all of my 500 words, tonight, feeling a little more creative, I had this idea of capturing 2 nickels. I thought I would have one nickel sitting on edge, in sharp focus. The other nickel I would roll towards the other, the motion of the rolling nickel blurring it as it strikes the one sitting on edge.

Up close tails–the second nickel is out-of-frame, flopping over long before reaching the first

I’ll post that shot after I grow a couple more hands.

Jumping In

Posted by dkrashb on February 5, 2013

Momentum is a funny thing. The tendency of an object at rest to stay rest often feels overwhelming when that object is me. Conversely, once I start moving, momentum carries me away, often making it hard for me to return.

On Sunday afternoon, curled on the couch and disappointed that I hadn’t been able to actually nap, the thought of putting on my coat and boots, packing up my gear and heading outside to shoot seemed just silly.

But, between the motion of my husband (is motion contagious?) and my need to have photos to post for the next week and a half, I managed to get up and get myself and Tisen ready for the park.

I liken the feeling of steeling myself to unwrap from a blanket and step into the cold to the feeling of preparing to jump into a pool.

I love to swim. Moving through the water feels like being home. The feeling of being buoyed up makes me feel weightless. I’m not fast, but I re-learned how to swim when I undertook triathlons about a dozen years ago. In the process, I found a relaxed, meditative way of moving through the water that I could sustain well beyond the time I had to swim. In fact, I often ran late getting out of the pool because I was enjoying being in the water so much.

None-the-less, even now, just sitting here thinking about how much I like to swim, the thought of going out into the night and taking that initial step into the cold water makes me recoil. There’s something shocking about going from being warm and dry to being suddenly immersed in water that feels like an ice bath (even when it’s actually a little too warm for swimming laps). It takes a little extra push to move momentum from rest to motion when I feel like I’m about to jump in the pool.

But having made the leap and gotten myself and Tisen out the door, I was soon kneeling on a garbage bag in the mud finding interesting things I’d never seen before. Once I got started I didn’t want to stop. The image above is the last image I shot that day. It was shot after I got the call from my husband that he was making dinner. I had already collapsed my tripod and put the lens cap back on, determined to head straight home when I saw this plant.

I don’t know what it is. I don’t know if the image was worth being late to dinner for, but I was perplexed by the arrangement of the dried stems (or were they shriveled petals?) laced with the silk of milkweed. At least it looks like milkweed. There are apparently many, many varieties of milkweed, so it seems reasonable this might be one.

The tones of reddish brown intermittent with the silk against the green grasses in the background just caught my eye.

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Tag Archives: Macro photography