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)
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 !!!!!!
A bit of fun in the garden.
Thank you to all who take the time to comment on and/or fave my images. It is much appreciated.
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
Becoming a bit of a classic as more and more photographers are drawn to these beach huts, and for good reason! There is a very short moment where the tide is right in past the huts, so to time that with a nice sunset is golden!!!!!
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 😊
Small Skipper | Thymelicus sylvestris | Hesperiidaee On Orange Hawk Bit | Pilosella aurantiaca | Asteraceae
Samsung NX1 & Kiron 105mm f/2.8 Macro
f/4 | Manual Focus | Available Light | Handheld
All Rights Reserved. © Nick Cowling 2020.
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 :)
Geological Features of Santorini's Beaches
The Red Beach as a result of the Volcanic History of Santorini.
Kokkini Paralia (Red beach) is near the archeological site of Akrotiri and is one of the most famous beaches in the island.
Red Volcanic Rocks & Pebbles flirting with the Blues of the Ocean and creating a Grand colour palette.
A few put ups after my sombre Nice and Germany photos ...
"I know Not All that may be coming,but be it what it will,I go to it hoping & laughing ..." Herman Melville's words a bit paraphrased ...
* Always Thankful for your visits & your Pink Stars *
*You All have my Love & my Admiration for your Works *
A bit repetitive but I liked the pattern that emerged as I kept folding, distorting and tiling the sample of a syringe image!
Happy Slider Sunday - HSS
FYI: Perhaps this reminds some of "Acid Queen" and Tina Turner's performance in the movie "Tommy". I totally understand...
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.
Mulholland on left was a rescue Thoroughbred (mine at the time) - Bits on right - stablemate friends to the end.
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!
It was a bit too hot for this old guy to go looking for Elephants or Alligators, so I had to settle for taking Pics of the Hummingbirds that frequent my backyard. I believe this is an Allen’s Hummingbird.
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The Allen's Hummingbird:
In early spring, a narrow strip of scrub and chaparral along the Pacific Coast starts buzzing with the sights and sounds of the coppery and green Allen's Hummingbird. Males flash their brilliant reddish orange throat and put on an elaborate show for the females, swinging in pendulous arcs before climbing high into the sky and diving back down with a sharp squeal made by their tails. These early migrants mostly spend the winter in Mexico, but some stay in southern California year-round.
Allen's Hummingbirds breed in a narrow strip of habitat along coastal Oregon and California. Male and female Allen's Hummingbirds use different habitats during the breeding season. The male sets up a territory overseeing open areas of coastal scrub or chaparral, where he perches conspicuously on exposed branches. The female visits these areas, but after mating she heads into thickets or forests to build a nest and raise the young.
The Allen's Hummingbird is a remarkably early migrant compared with most North American birds. Northbound birds may depart their wintering grounds as early as December, arriving on their breeding grounds as early as January when winter rains produce an abundance of flowers.
Like other birds, Allen's Hummingbirds use their feet to help control their body temperature. When it's cold outside they tuck their feet up against their bellies while flying, but when temperatures soar, they let their feet dangle to cool down.
The oldest recorded Allen's Hummingbird was at least 5 years old when she was captured and rereleased in California during banding operations in 2009. She was banded in the same state in 2004.
(Sony, 200-600 @ 594 mm, 1/640 @ f/6.3, ISO 8000, edited to taste)
that's the day i was born and hence, i had a birthday on april 9th, 2009! AHHHH!
it was a fun day. though it ended with bloatedness after drinking a soy chai at a restaurant. it was the powder mix chai, which, from experience, tends to be laden with dairy... Oh NOES! . . .
in any case, it was still fun. a guy gave me a HUGE purple cellophane wrapped basket of homemade peanut butter cookies he made himself, pretty white roses, funny balloons, and a card about BOOTYBUTTS (the card i received at work was about a toilet and poo... ironic much?)! his mom got me a to-die-for gift card to starbuck's (i whole-heartedly support the local coffee and tea shops, but sometimes, they just aren't around when you need 'em the most!)
then he and i went out to breakfast/lunch/brunch/whatever you wanna call it at T.C. Eggington's. they have great vegetarian choices... "portobellini"... yum! on the way to breakfast, we saw a mother and her tiny baby ducks by the freeway in the puddle-y canal/gutter/whatever you wanna call that. it was cool because it was my birthday and they were cute, yet odd because it was by a freeway and not in a park, or in my school's irrigation or something. them duckies must be suffering economically too, eh?
so after that, i contemplated going back home to work on a commedia dell'arte mask for theatre class, but decided to just veg and hang with this guy at his apartment (i find vegging out, doing nothing a bit difficult to do sometimes).
later on, we met up with my parents to eat dinner at the Euro Cafe in Gilbert, AZ. a great foodsie greeky place. and that's where, you know, *ahem*... the soy-chai-laden-with-dairy-omg-why-did-i-order-this fiasco happened. so after dinner, with all of us feeling like cows (even though i hardly ate anything and they ate like contestants in a hotdog eating contest), we went to Wal-Mart of all places. i'm particularly NOT a Wal-Mart fan, but since i was at Wal-Mart and it might be cheaper than at other places, i bought vanilla soy ice cream because i was magnetized/hankering for some.
we finally headed home around 11pm, after which i quickly shoved this guy out the door and kissed him goodbye, so i could heat up some of those peanut butter cookies and WHAM BAM!... inhale hot cookies n' ice cream. mmmmmmmmmm... no cake this year. and i wanted it that way. no one even sang to me either i noticed, but that's perfectly ok. it's not a crime. wait wait...i take that back: he played the weird al birthday song... so essentially, i was sung to in mp3 format. :)
oh yeah, and at work today for my 'employee birthday'... i made up fruit, granola, & yogurt parfaits for everyone. someone bought all the ingredients (i requested it instead of birthday cake), and i went right to work -- whipping up those babies during my lunch break. i was so amazed some people didn't know what a parfait was or how to make them.
well, now they know :)
suffice to say, i'm on a parfait kick now. i hadn't had one in a year before that day. soy yogurt though. yes, please. :)
p.s. thanks dude for taking these kickity arse photos!
Twop like a TwitterBunny
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 color fun to offset the grey skies we've been having! Happy Slider Sunday and all the best this Holiday season.
Thank You for making this a wonderful year and I appreciate all the views, comments and faves; but most of all the friendship and support you have shown.
Happy Slider Sunday - HSS
My condolences
I'll shed a tear with your family
I'll open a bottle up
Pour a little bit out in your memory
I'll be at the wake dressed in all black
I'll call out your name, but you won't call back
I'll hand a flower to your mother when I say goodbye
Cause, baby, you're dead to me
I need to kill you
That's the only way to get you out of my head
Oh I need to kill you
To silence all the sweet little things you've said
I really wanna kill you
Wipe you off the face of my earth
And bury your bracelet
Bury your bracelet
Six feet under the dirt
Rainy days and black umbrellas
Who's gonna save you now?
Can you cheat from underground?
My condolences
I'll shed a tear with your family
I'll open a bottle up
Pour a little bit out in your memory
I'll be at the wake dressed in all black
I'll call out your name but you won't call back
I'll hand a flower to your mother when I say goodbye
Cause, baby, you're dead to me
I'll mourn you when you go
Baby, you're dead to me
I'll mourn you when you go
I need to say sorry
That's the only thing you say when you lose someone
I used to say I'm sorry
For all of the stupid shit you've done
So now I'm really sorry, sorry for being the apologetic one
But if I told you I cared, if I told you I care
You would think I was crazy
My condolences
I'll shed a tear with your family
I'll open a bottle up
Pour a little bit out in your memory
I'll be at the wake dressed in all black
I'll call out your name but you won't call back
I'll hand a flower to your mother when I say goodbye
Cause, baby, you're dead to me
I'll mourn you when you go
Baby, you're dead to me
I'll mourn you when you go
Cause, baby, you're dead to me
A bit quieter and much smaller version of the Main Square but with as much beauty and charm the Mały Rynek, or Small Square, is another spot to enjoy.
Located right behind Saint Mary's Basilica this is a great spot to hear the Trumpeter play without the crowds of the Main Square.
From the 16th century onward sellers of antiques also made a home for themselves on the square, when it was known as ‘Forum Antiquum’ (the Old Market), though the locals liked to call it ‘Tandeta’ (the ‘tacky market’) or - in a rhyming pun related to the grisly meats on display - even ‘Wendeta’ (Vendetta).
Serving as an intermediate point between the nobility of the Main Square and the impoverished denizens living near the city walls, Mały Rynek also housed a soup kitchen for the poor and the 13th-century School of the Virgin Mary, which predated the founding of the square.
Maly Rynek, Kraków, Poland
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
I always pass this pump station at Elan in mid Wales and think tilt-shift would work, finally the miniature version is here!!!
one of the things I like the most is to play with light and shadow, I was on the top of a hill in the Gran Paradiso Park, in Italy, was almost the sunset. I just had to underexpose a bit to capture this scene, you can’t imagine my surprise once I developed it and the road came out from the dark.
♡ ƁƖσg♡ bit.ly/3DGKPWd
HEAD: LeLUTKA Siwa Head 3.1
BODY: REBORN by eBODY v1.69.4
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HAIR:
Magika – Hearts Like Ours
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ACCESORIES:
MICHAN – Aisha Anklets – Champagne [add me]
Tentacio Vanesa sandals & flowers
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OUTFIT:
AVALE Dominica – FATPACk @Cosmopolitan Event 1st May.
Summer Outfit -Dominica- top & bottom in 12 colors
For Kalhene (Erika), Inithium (Kupra), Legacy, Slink (Hourglass), Maitreya (Lara), Belleza (Isis & Freya), Belleza GEN.X (Classic & Curvy), e-Body (Reborn
Bits of snow cling to the tree trunks. To avoid riding on snow down the road, I made a detour. It lengthened my ride but I felt safer. Riding on slippery surfaces is not my forte. In the comments the same scene in early November and in April.
Had a wonderful Tennessee trip this year. Got to guide Flickr friend Ruthie Kansas for 2 days plus a 3rd morning. I also got to explore some new locations in Kentucky one of which had more Ceru1ean warblers than I've ever encountered-over 30 singing in a bit over 5 miles of road.
The sun has lit more of the landscape as it rises above the cloud. To assess the Vlog about this shoot click on the link above
A 16 character LCD display in all its 4-bit power. Powered by an Arduino One and connected to what is called a breadboard. The cables you see are needed, but the blue led was there just to fill an empty spot in the center of the image.
In theory, we should not see the darker squares. There is a potentiometer to the side (out of frame) that can be used to fix that. However, for the sake of the image, here I decided to leave them there.
Sure, the display may be a bit bigger than the coin, but the message will fit right in there and still have some extra space :)
(also, most components you see there are smaller than the coin, including the cables, the led and the two resistors almost completely out of focus)
Happy Monday everyone!