Bits And Pieces
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It rained a bit last night (a rarity in Southern California) so I headed out to a local park to see if the rain had instigated some wildlife action. I spotted this Acorn Woodpecker Chasing Bugs. Didn’t take him long to make a catch…. Life is Good !!
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Acorn Woodpecker
Reminiscent of a troupe of wide-eyed clowns, Acorn Woodpeckers live in large groups in western oak woodlands. Their social lives are endlessly fascinating: they store thousands of acorns each year by jamming them into specially made holes in trees.
A group member is always on alert to guard the hoard from thieves, while others race through the trees giving parrot-like waka-waka calls. Their breeding behavior is equally complicated, with multiple males and females combining efforts to raise young in a single nest.
Acorn Woodpeckers are medium-sized woodpeckers with straight, spike-like bills and stiff, wedge-shaped tails used for support as the birds cling to tree trunks.
These striking birds are mostly black above with a red cap, creamy white face, and black patch around the bill. In flight, they show three patches of white: one in each wing and one on the rump. Females have less red on the crown than males.
Acorn Woodpeckers are very unusual woodpeckers that live in large groups, hoard acorns, and breed cooperatively.
Group members gather acorns by the hundreds and wedge them into holes they’ve made in a tree trunk or telephone pole. Acorn Woodpeckers also spend considerable time catching insects on the wing.
These woodpeckers live in oak and mixed oak-conifer forests on slopes and mountains in the Southwest and West Coast. They’re tolerant of humans, and you can find them in towns where there are acorns and suitable places to store them.
(Nikon, 500/4 + TC 1.4, 1/500 @ f/5.6, ISO 100)
(Edited to Taste)
Also known as the Torx drive. These are various sizes of torx drives from T15 up to T40. Shot for Macro Mondays "Stars" theme.
Thanks for viewing and happy Macro Monday!
Looking a little bit tacky here but this Robin is over two years old now which is a good age for a Robin. Always hanging around in the same area in one of my nature reserves I often go to visit. Ever since I first spotted this as a juvenile there has always been a dark patch below the right eye that is still there to this day. My little friend here has become very tame and always so very photogenic and hopefully will be around a bit longer yet. In the 1400's when the Robin was named the colour orange had not been classified and this is why we say that the Robin has a red breast and not orange. America has an eagle so it's about time the UK had the Robin as its national bird !!!!!!
Available on Getty Images' Catalogue
... or is it a bit of Paradise in the Swiss Italy?
In Ticino's Canton, the Italian speaking part of Switzerland.
@ Lugano, Switzerland
Switzerland, May 2021
My best photos are here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...
My latest ANIMAL VIDEO (warning, it's a bit shocking): www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2-Xszz7FI
You find a selection of my 80 BEST PHOTOS (mostly not yet on Flickr) here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/western-green-lizard-lacerta-bi... (the website exists in ESPAÑOL, FRANÇAIS, ITALIANO, ENGLISH, DEUTSCH)
ABOUT THE PHOTO:
So this photo is a bit of a novelty for me - at least here on Flickr, but it's also a journey back in time in a sense. I've always loved b/w and sepia photography; already as a very young teenager I would go out into the woods with an old Pentax Spotmatic (which I had nicked from my father) whenever it was a foggy day to shoot b/w compositions of sunbeams cutting through the ghostlike trees.
I used films with a sensitivity of at least 1600 (for those of you who remember what that means 😉 ), and the resulting photos had an incredibly fine grain which I loved; I blew them up to the size of posters and hung them on the walls of my teenage man-cave next to Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Slash.
But then I abandoned photography altogether for 20 years, and when I finally picked up a camera again, it was one of the digital kind. Now neither film nor grain played any role in my photographic endeavours - let alone b/w compositions: because the reason I fell in love with shooting pictures once more was the rare and incredibly colorful lizard species that had chosen my garden as its habitat.
It's this species - the Lacerta bilineata aka the western green lizard - that my photo website www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ and also my Flickr gallery are dedicated to, but I've since expanded that theme a bit so that it now comprises the whole Lacerta bilineata habitat, which is to say my garden and its immediate surroundings and all the flora and fauna I find in it.
I like that my gallery and the website have this clear theme, because in order to rise to the challenge of portraying all aspects of a very specific little eco system (which also happens to be my home of sorts), it forces me to constantly explore it from fresh angles, and I keep discovering fascinating new motives as my photographic journey continues.
Which brings me to the horse pasture you see in this photo. This playground for happy horsies lies just outside my garden, and it normally only interests me insofar as my green reptile friends claim parts of it as their territory, and I very much prefer it to be horseless (which it thankfully often is).
Not that the horses bother the reptiles - the lizards don't mind them one bit, and I've even seen them jump from the safety of the fly honeysuckle shrub which the pasture borders on right between the deadly looking hooves of the horses to forage for snails, without any sign of fear or even respect.
No, the reason I have a very conflicted relationship with those horses is that they are mighty cute and that there's usually also foals. The sight of those beautiful, happy animals jumping around and frolicking (it's a huge pasture and you can tell the horses really love it) is irresistible: and that inevitably attracts what in the entire universe is known as the most destructive anti-matter and ultimate undoing of any nature photographer: other humans.
Unlike with the horses, the lizards ARE indeed very much bothered by specimens of loud, unpredictable Homo sapiens sapiens - which makes those (and by extension also the horses) the cryptonite of this here reptile photographer. It's not the horses' fault, I know that, but that doesn't change a thing. I'm just telling you how it is (and some of you might have read about the traumatic events I had to endure to get a particular photo - if not, read at your own risk here: www.flickr.com/photos/191055893@N07/51405389883/in/datepo... - which clearly demonstrated that even when it's entirely horseless, that pasture is still a threat for artistic endeavours).
But back to the photo. So one morning during my vacation back in May I got up quite early. It had rained all night, and now the fog was creeping up from the valley below to our village just as the sky cleared up and the morning sun started to shine through the trees.
And just as I did when I was a teenager I grabbed my camera and ran out to photograph this beautiful mood of ghostlike trees and sunbeams cutting through the mist. There had already been such a day a week earlier (which is when I took this photo: www.flickr.com/photos/191055893@N07/51543603732/in/datepo... ), but this time, the horses were also there.
Because of our slightly strained relationship I only took this one photo of them (I now wish I had taken more: talk about missed opportunities), and otherwise concentrated on the landscape. It was only later when I went through all the photos on my computer that I realized that I actually really liked those horses, even despite the whole composition being such a cliché. And I realized another thing: when I drained the photo of all the color, I liked it even better - because there was almost a bit of grain in it, like in the photos from my youth.
Since then I have experimented quite a bit with b/w and sepia compositions (some of which I will upload here eventually I guess), but this photo here is the first one that helped me rediscover my old passion. I hope you like it even though it builds quite a stark contrast with the rest of my tiny - and very colorful - gallery. But in the spirit of showing you the whole Lacerta bilineata habitat (and also in the spirit of expanding my gallery a bit beyond lizards and insects), I think it's not such a bad fit.
As always, many greetings to all of you, have a wonderful day and don't hesitate to let me know what you think 😊
Bit of a special evening yesterday! Popped up to one of my favourite local places after work, Healey Dell nature reserve near Rochdale, a little hidden gem of a place right near the town, kinda hidden away.
It's the kinda place that if it was in the Lake District it would be swamped by visitors and you'd have to pay £10 to park, but as it is, there's virtually never anybody around, even locals don't know what they have there :)
This is the 2nd of a series of 5 or 6 big waterfalls that run through the place.
But when I got there my eyes nearly popped out at how beautiful it had become with the golden leaves carpeting the rocks.
One of those special moments that makes you feel good to be alive :)
Hope you like, Visit my Facebook page if you want more pics and info
Happy Friday all :)
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Pentax K-5
Vivitar 80-200mm F4 MACRO FOCUSING ZOOM MC
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© 2020 stefanorugolo | All rights reserved.
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Thank you for your visit, most appreciated!
If you decide to travel along this highway into the bowels of the Universe, carry enough fuel to cover the billions of light years ahead of you. You won't find a place to refuel. When you have travelled this distance without finding anything, not even a little bit of intelligent life and you reach the far reaches of the Universe... don't be scared... there's nothing there, either. Only the "nothing". Or since everything is cyclical, perhaps you have returned to the place where you started, full of wisdom from your long trip. It's probably better to look for intelligent life on Earth, but it's also very likely that you'll have a hard time finding it. Don't worry about not understanding the Universe or the reason for its existence... you're not Einstein, but one day you'll understand that... The Universe is wounded, but it still has infinity ahead of it. It still has you and me. Merry Christmas to all and to the infinite Universe that is within you.
Gregory Alan Isakov - The Universe
Y el Universo está susurrando tan suavemente que puedo oírlo todo... el zumbido de los insectos, todos los taxis, todo el cambio gastado de los vagabundos, todos los chicos jugando a la pelota en los callejones. Son sólo pliegues en su vestido. El Universo, está herido, pero aún tiene el infinito por delante. Todavía nos tiene a ti y a mí. Y todos dicen que es hermoso. Y todos dicen...
Image dédiée à Pat. Joyeux Noël. Bisou, jolie.
..........
Music for your trip to the Universe:
Ground Control to Major Tom. Ground Control to Major Tom. Take your protein pills and put your helmet on. Ground Control to Major Tom (ten, nine, eight, seven, six)... Commencing countdown, engines on (five, four, three)... Check ignition and may God's love be with you (two, one, liftoff...)
Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts VI–IX
"Shine On You Crazy Diamond", was written as a tribute to Syd Barrett, one of the founders of Pink Floyd. He was also known as "The Crazy Diamond Syd". Barrett was a very creative musician and is considered one of the rock icons, with a strong influence on many artists, very especially to David Bowie. Syd Barrett is a key piece to understand the evolution of rock in the 70s.. Excessive drug use, especially LSD, caused him serious mental health problems. Syd Barrett died in 2006 at the age of 60. Always shine diamond.
The Universal is a science fiction song written as a tribute to two films by film director Stanley Kubrick. In the video, the Blur members wear outfits similar to Alex and his gang of thugs, the protagonists of the movie "A Clockwork Orange." The image used for the cover of the single alluded to what is possibly Kubrick's best film: "2001: To Space Odyssey."
We haven't changed that much in 300,000 years of evolution.
Moby - We Are All Made of Stars
Radiohead - Subterranean Homesick Alien
Smash Mouth - Walkin' On The Sun
PS: Electronic - Can't Find My Way Home Just a recommendation. It is important to learn the road signs of the Universe... happy return.
PS: Ground Control to Major Tom. Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong. Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you...
"Here am I floating 'round my tin can, far above the moon. Planet Earth is blue. And there's nothing I can do" (Major Tom)
PS: Merry Christmas to all Flick(e)r users... and to the Universe full of crazy diamonds that shine... And Major Tom
Vancouver has hit the rainy season and all that mist up in the mountains makes for dreary days. A bit of colour still hangs on in the leaves of some of the trees. A crow on one of the branches seems to survey the scene. They come to our balcony now and beg for peanuts! Smart birds!
Mulholland on left was a rescue Thoroughbred (mine at the time) - Bits on right - stablemate friends to the end.
It's a good thing foil came up as a theme for Macro Mondays because now I have a reason for keeping a bag of multicolored foil bits! Perhaps they'll make it into ice cubes some day but for now it's a foil abstract.
The image area measures about 1.5 inches X 1.5 inches.
Nikon 55mm f/2.8 NIKKOR Micro, 9 image photo stack shot at f/11.
Wood Pigeon (Columba palumbus). This wood pigeon was trying to keep cool by oscillating his throat. However, he just looked a bit deranged to me!
Three Mile Island
This plant will close soon. I remember visiting it when it had a partial meltdown years ago. To say it's eerie, out in the night - is a bit of an understatement. You can hear the machinery softly whirring.
Knowing a bit more about photography makes it easier to understand how and why some oil paintings, say the impressionist, abstract or even watercolour paintings, came into being.
"A beautiful closeup of delicate orchid blossoms and a kaleidoscope of background colors. Great depth and soft light."
A review by Flickr friend/Connoisseur Gertrud Klopp
Finally home! not that my summer so far has been boring (the last 2 months involved quite a bit of traveling), however there is no place like home. I took this one at the port of Aigina island in Greece, and I will say that it was a very challenging shot. I had with me only my small tripod, so I was pretty much layed on the ground and my camera wouldn't focus so I had to switch it to manual focus and tried to do it via the screen and not through the viewfinder. It was a lovely night, the blue hour more specifically, and the waterfront promenade at Aigina's port was quite busy. After the last ferry of the day departs from the island, they shut down the main street to pedestrians only so it's really nice for families to walk without being worried about traffic.
Bjarno - Factor 30
A bit of friendly Saturday morning banter in the angling club boat shed. The eternal debate about what are the best fishing flies. Of course the answer is to be out on the water casting your line as you would have more success than drinking coffee in the shed :-D
Bit of a Flickr slow-down while I struggle with a non-Adobe workflow for the first time in a long time (trying to break the addiction). I'm also pausing the 'pro' account on a trial basis, while I save up to buy a dozen eggs.
So hopefully all have a fine weekend. I'll be shooting a little but may or may not get more images up. I won't be Flickring much tonight but will try to fave from the mobile.
Feeling a bit off lately but i just had to add a picture this week..i truly hate to fall silent here. I do hope that the picture is liked and hope to get my head a bit more clear again soon as well..
These are mini bottles, each 2,5 cm in diameter, glued together, for tiny flowers like daisies. The different colors of the little bottles seemed to be a good start for this week's macro theme. Some light added a bit atmosphere.
HMM to all participants 💙💙💙
Yesterday we walked a bit in the woods. And, like always, I couldn't resist to have a closer look to the ferns. They are really amazing plants...
Please respect my copyright. No use of the photo without my expressly permission.
And: I don't like Comment-Codes, "awards", or such groups. Because of that, Comment codes, "Awards" and invitations in such groups will be deleted. There is an Explanation at my profile.
So, if you want to say something about my photo, it will be really appreciated, no matter if it's about liking or some constructive criticism. Your own thoughts and words will mean much more to me than a universal-text.
Also please don't post pictures in the commenting-area. You could post them much better in your own photo stream. ;-D
Think I will have a "Bit of Something on Blue week" (bound to be fairly minimal so no offence if you decide to pop back when it's all over :-)
With a bit of an influx going on at the moment with Painted Lady butterflies, it reminded me of this encounter from last Summer, when a similar Spring influx led to some rather nice specimens later in the year when the eggs laid by the early arrivals became British hatched butterflies in immaculate condition.
I had to wait nearly 30 minutes for this one to nectar on the Bramble stem away from the main bush. The background was a field some distance away and after watching the butterfly for the 30 odd minutes feeding in the centre of the bush I very nearly decided it wasn't going to use this stem at the edge of the bush. As it was it was only showing on this stem for a few seconds before it headed back to the jungle of the main part of the bush.
One of two very memorable Painted Lady sessions in 2021.
Since taking the challenge of learning a bit about high key for macro Mondays I think it will be a good idea to learn more about low key as well. I believe this image qualifies as a low key shot. However, it does not count as learning about low key, it was an accident :) The flower was highlighted by the sun and there were deep shadows all around it.
I'm not really sure what I would use low key images for on a regular basis but the high key images will be handy when I have something to sell.
Regardless, I never want to stop learning, even if it is just for the sake of learning.
Have a wonderful day and happy snapping.
And every bit of love left in this beat up, banged up, scarred up heart
That's been waitin' on a girl like you
I know it ain't much
But it comes alive with every touch
Every kiss already feels like you own it
Baby it's yours if you want it
Half of this rickety front porch swing
Every word of every song I sing
My jacket when it's cold
Oh baby, don't you know
You've got a place to lay your head
On the other side of my empty bed
And it's just made for fallin'
And it's yours if you want it
It's yours if you want it