Bits And Pieces
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This is what a visitor sees when exits from the other side of the upper Antelope Canyon. I've made this photo for the second time after seven years and the result is almost the same; but this time I was more prepared to capture its stunning textures details; then I underexposed a little in order to capture all blue and purple hues that the sensor was able to register, maintaining the strong light coming from the outside. The result is something that I printed on a metal surface like aluminium in a vertical, supersaturated composition.
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)
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 !!!!!!
Feliz Quarta Sunset ! Happy Wednesday Sunset !
Best seen in light box "L".
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without
my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
when the talk was over there was a bit of a chase until both birds settled on trees a good distance from each other
Belted Kingfishers 8736
Well, you look just like an angel
You sound so bright and true
You seem so sweet coming down my street
But the devil is an angel too
Yeah, the devil is an angel too
Somehow you seem familiar
Haven't I seen you before?
Got a different name
But is it the same old heartache coming 'round my door?
Got one hand on my shoulder
You keep one behind your back
I'm going to need some identification
Baby, before I let you unpack
You look at me so tender
But I wonder if there lies something dark
And sinister behind those innocent eyes
Well, you coo just like a baby
Make me want to let you in
You seem sincere
But if I trust you, dear, will I ever see my soul again?
You sound just like a preacher
Stand upright and tall
But I want to know
Honey, after the show, do you have any love at all?
I don't mean to doubt your sincere intent
But underneath there's the look about something mean and malevolent
You look just like an angel, you sound so bright and true
You seem so sweet coming down my street
But the devil is an angel too
Yeah, the devil is an angel too
The devil is an angel too, that's right
The devil is an angel too, that's right
The devil is an angel too, that's right
The devil is an angel too
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 😊
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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!
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!
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
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
I seem to be a bit in a run of sunsets recently so I'm on nights , by Richard Hawley is fine. This is a similar shot of one of my favourite beach features, but with a bigger lens. You lose the sky , and highlight the sinuous pool more.
C R E D I T S
My List is going to be bit long today, wish you all a wonderful Day and I will struggle to an other hard Day, a busy Week but Weekend is coming soon and i will calm down a bit .
My Look
Head
Lelutka - Korina 3.3 @ Mainstore
Head Applier
Glam Affair - Kora [ Lelutka ] 006 ( Shape is included ) @ Uber
Outfit
Dead Dollz - Gardenia Set @ FaMESHed
Hair Base
Tableau Vivant - Lelutka HB 06 @ Mainstore
Hair
Tableau Vivant - Pearl Hair @ Mainstore
Pose
DECORATION
Bedroom Set
Fancy Decor - Blague Set @ Uber
• Fancy Decor: Blague Bed
• Fancy Decor: Blague Endtable
• Fancy Decor: Blague Lamp
Other Decoration Items
• dust bunny . sweet dreams . alarm clock . gold
• dust bunny . sweet dreams . morning tray
• dust bunny . wood beaded curtain
• dust bunny . potted dragon tree
• Bazar - Toronto-Bedroom motivation poster
• AF Monogram Luggage Bag
Dolly is a bit of a poser, check out those hind legs (they're the back ones for any city dwellers reading this :))
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I tried something a bit different with this photo. It's a hand blended 3 exposure HDR. Rather than let Lightroom do it for me, I chose to blend the photo using a series of masks in Photoshop. I wasn't happy with the colours, so B&W was an easy choice. Rather than using the standard, high contrast B&W, I lifted the black-point to about 20 to get a nice vintage film look.
After a bit of editing her tattoos are revealed in the image below
Blogged here by (Art Rock) Hennie artrock2006.blogspot.ca/2017/03/stepping-into-sparkling-w...
See his Photostream here: www.flickr.com/photos/artrock2006/
Before the sun shone directly on the water in the morning and outshone it, I "played" a bit with exposure times and details.
The water has such a high falling speed that 1/8 to 1/10 exposure time is sufficient to make it soft and yet with a certain movement.
Danke für deinen Besuch! Thanks for visiting!
bitte beachte/ please respect Copyright © All rights reserved.
After a few days of rain and feeling a bit low .I decided to grab Badger and the camera and off I went to get a few kingfisher pics.Got to the hide and a couple of the guys Colin Harvey and Cliff Woodhead were there so I joined them to try my luck at a few fliers never tried on these before.
This is the result a stunning male kingfisher that failed to catch on this particular dive but thankfully I did catch him !!
Please do not use my images in any way without my permission they are copyright protected !!
Please take A look in Large !! press L
Thanks to everyone that takes the time and makes the effort to comment and fave my pics its very much appreciated
Regards Clive