It was only two days ago that I introduced you to the fact that I am an expert in flower identification! So today I am showing you another flower, called "The Little Purple Flower." Isn't it nice for all of you to have a friend as knowledgeable as I am? I photographed these blossoms in the garden right next to the house. It was late in the day and it was raining. So two things in my favor - the overcast light generally gives you better colors because bright sun can create too large a brightness range which is hard for the camera sensor to handle. The other thing is, and you may have noticed this, that colors are brighter and more saturated in the rain. That's what attracted me to these blossoms.
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
A RAINBOW!
After dinner tonight I left the house at about 6:30 It had been raining most of the day. As I drove by the harbor, I saw the sun break through some clouds as it was close to setting. "Looks pretty amazing" I thought because there were rain showers around a a beautiful atmospheric effect. Then I turned the corner down by the old power plant and started to climb the mile long hill. I didn't get far before I saw the most spectacular rainbow I have ever seen in my entire life! It was a perfect bow - 180 degrees of rainbow. I quickly pulled over and grabbed my camera but realized the rainbow spanned a huge area of the sky, so used my new iPhone 14 with it's wide angle setting to get this photograph. I didn't like all the wires so got back in the car and drove a few blocks more, and took some more photos, with both my iPhone and my Sony camera. And then I did a really smart thing. I just sat in my car with the wipers on - it was raining - and decided to just take this all in, so I sat there quietly and carefully observed the beauty of this spectacular rainbow! No photos, just looking. After a couple of minutes, I drove on, but stopped at two more places as I drove east where I took photographs. But I hold that image in my mind, where I just sat quietly and observed. What an incredible experience. So here are a few more photographs because I just could not make up my mind which were my favorites! These photographs are a bit darker but that way you can see more detail in the colors of the rainbow. OH, and look for the double bow - another much fainter rainbow outside the main bow. It is very faint but can be seen in some of these photographs.
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
The Flower Expert
At the start of my walk today I had only gone downhill a few hundred feet before a saw an area to the side of the road with these pretty flowers in it. There were hundreds in this patch of weeds and wild grasses. These blossoms are called "Little blue flowers" and I just thought you would like to know their name. How do I know this? Because for almost half my career I did garden photography for the magazine and for a couple of garden books and for three garden calendars. So it is clear I am an expert! OK, you got me! I haven't a clue what these are called. And after all my garden photography, I can probably only name perhaps six flowers. Busted! Clearly I am hardly an expert! I hope my silliness made you laugh.
Monday, March 25, 2024
The Birds!
I went for my usual three mile walk today and looked for something for the blog. I wasn't having much success exactly. But when I was almost back to the foot of our street, I saw maybe a dozen Gulls sitting in a line on the railing. So I stopped and they didn't fly away. I brought the camera up to my eye and just watched. Suddenly a bunch of gulls from out of the frame swooped in and some sat on the railing and others took flight again. So I kept watching and that happened over and over again. It was cool trying to press the shutter at the exact moment to get a nice composition. I had a really tough time picking the best photograph. So maybe this is the best. I hope.
Sunday, March 24, 2024
Practicing for the Eclipse
Stan says that for the the eclipse, we need to practice, practice, practice. The time in Rochester for totality is only 3 minutes and 40 seconds, so when totality starts I have to do everything exactly right to start photographing because totality will be over before I know it. The important thing is to do some photography through my telescope quickly, and then stop photographing and then just LOOK at the eclipse with my eyes! So many people get caught up in photography, they forget to actually watch the eclipse!
While I was testing the telescope today, I took a few photographs of the sun's disk, and was amazed at all the sunspots on it today. I should mention that the equatorial mount I am using is complicated to set up because I need to level it carefully and then align it with true north. It has two motors in it that follow the sun while I am taking photographs. I need to have the setup of the mount down pat so I can set it up without any mistakes. Practice, practice, practice.
Saturday, March 23, 2024
Fun in a Puddle
We had heavy rain all day today. The water was running down our street like a river, as it always does during periods of heavy rain. So I decided that a walk in the rain would be fun and maybe I could find a photo for the blog. I put on my hiking boots and my biggest raincoat and got a large umbrella for the walk. I was not disappointed when I got to Shore Road! In heavy rains there is usually something like 12 to 18 inches of water on the main road. The first car that came by surprised me. Most cars see all the water and maybe come to a stop and then decide to proceed slowly. Not these cars! The speed limit is 30 MPH but no one goes that slow. These SUV's and trucks were hitting the water at 30 MPH or faster! I couldn't believe it!
In the "old days" if you made this much of a splash by driving through water this deep usually the water that splashed up inside the engine compartment would short out the distributor and the engine would quit right in the middle of the puddle! I guess these new electronic ignitions are well sealed against water and none of these cars and trucks seemed to be affected. I couldn't believe it! One truck saw the water and actually accelerated! I thought they were driving in an unsafe fashion. One thing that can happen to tires when there is maybe half an inch of water on the road, is that the tires can "hydroplane" like a speedboat and suddenly the driver can't steer at all because the tires at high speeds are not in contact with the road, they are "water skiing" on the water on the road. In this case, a car could drift across the road and have a collision with an oncoming car. But everyone was lucky today.
This car wasn't speeding really but he sure was going through some deep water as he turned up Laurel Avenue. I did have a fun time watching and shooting this, and I am glad I can give you a bit of excitement on the blog for a change.
Friday, March 22, 2024
The Fallen Tree in Infrared
When the Dogwood first fell down, I started photographing the scene with my infrared camera. I thought that it would stand out more because the infrared shows plants with chlorophyl in them as white because chlorophyl reflects infrared light. But in the end I thought it didn't separate the tree from the ground, which still has dormant grass on it, or or from the hedges. But it is kind of spooky looking so I thought I would show this photograph now.
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