UPDATE: Oh yeah, my blog. . .

I’ve been focusing more on photography again and neglecting my blog. I’ve been chasing after wildlife, and trying to get my gigs of photos at home sorted, tagged and uploaded to flickr. When I first started, I didn’t have a good plan for keeping my photos sorted, so now I’m paying for it. Thanks to Adobe Bridge CS3, I’m making short work of it.

I’ve also been experimenting with geotagging, or the correlating of GPS data with the exif data of photos. I think I have a semi working method involving a laptop in the car running Delorme Street Atlas 2008 and some great software available on both Mac and PC. There are much better ways to do it, but this method used existing hardware/software to my inventory to proof the concept without paying out any monies.I’ll elude to writing something about it at a later date, but don’t wait holding your breath, o.k.?

Finally, I’m angrily waiting for the Amazon Associates program to pay me for the referral fees from you folks shopping through my store. For 4 straight months now I have far exceeded the minimum amount for payment, and received no payment to date. I’ve been fed “We’re looking into it” for 2-3 weeks now and latest inquiries have gone unanswered. I’m sure an in depth write up will occur soon as well.

As far as the Dude you’re getting a Dell story, things turned out ok in the end. Anonymous got the machine, albeit by driving from Concord to Portsmouth to pick it up at the DHL location the Saturday before Christmas. Where he was in line with other folks picking up their Dells. A long and frustrating tale goes along with that, but it’s a new year. He also got a small refund for the annoyance.

So as I eluded, I’ve been taking photos, so here are some of the latest.

Notes to Marquis. . .

O.K., I know you’ve seen him over there in the blogroll, but if you haven’t gone to his site, this is a friendly push to do so. He’s been doing some really cool Macro Photography at home lately. He tells me he’s employing a food dehydrator to get some of these specimens to their current condition.

The Pear might be my favorite so far, but he’s got some excellent stuff going on with other photos too. Check out his blog, regularly updated with I presume his favorite shots, then follow any link to go check out what he has ‘hidden’ away on flickr.

Keep up the good work Marquis!

Belated. . .

I’d make a horrible Dad. I know it. Know why? Got any clues? Well, in 2006 on 10-25 at 9:57 P.M. I posted my first article here on Brickblog. Why, I remember when this blog was still in diapers, I was excited to get 1 visit after posting oh so many articles. To date, I’m up to 4,694 visits since I installed Google Analytics (November 9, 2006) to track such things. Truly amazing. What’s even scarrier is when I analyze what kinds of articles bring people to my site, I see when you search for d40 vs d70 my site comes up #1 in google.

So lets think back to what brought this blog to life. . .

Oh thats right, those damn raccoons. They’re still around, in fact I had great fun, ehr, I mean I was left no other option, then to shoot one a couple weeks ago with my paintball gun while I had the electric fence repurposed on the garden for the summer.

But of course, I wouldn’t be here with such an audience if it wasn’t for my peeps. Those folks that both read my insane ramblings, and those that link to my blog. So since I can’t thank every single one of you by name, I’ll be certain to report out what WordPress tells me are the good folks linking to my site.

Thanks!


Tobacco Hornworm Moth Caterpillars and Smiling Dragonflies

Went out back tonight to bring in the jalapeno pepper plant for the fall and found it mostly eaten. When I looked closer, I found this caterpillar from the hawk moth family enjoying a pepper. It devastated the most of the plant. :-(

Earlier today I spotted some red dragonflies outside. I was able to get pretty close to them, and thought they looked like they were smiling.

Hummingbird Clearwing (Hemaris thysbe)

Not too long ago, coworker and friend Dave told me about a strange ‘hummingbird’ he had seen one night. After great deliberation his family decided it must be a hummingbird moth.

Today, while mowing my untamed lawn, I had the chance to see this magnificent creature for myself. As it buzzed around just like our hummingbirds, who seem to have disappeared now, I was able to snap a few pictures (below). It’s movements and sound are just like a hummingbird. This one was a little smaller then the average Ruby Throated we had hanging around and was good fun to watch.

These are great! Show me the large images for detail!

According to hummingbirdmoth.com this little bugger was a Hummingbird clearwing (Hemaris thysbe).

From hummingbirdmoth.com

This is also a Hummingbird Clearwing (Hemaris thysbe). This was the first Sphingidae family member we ever saw. At first we were just like you – thoroughly convinced this was a baby female ruby-throated hummingbird, but we just couldn’t explain away those antennae! He mimics the hummingbird perfectly; wings just a blur, zipping here and there. He appears from June through August; feeding at our phlox at midday, always alone. He is oblivious to people, allowing us within inches; but refuses to pose for the camera very long.

Dragonfly Bow Chicka Wow, Wow.

Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. What can I say, I got a new job, got up to speed with the group in 2 weeks and presented at a week long conference for Faculty my new group puts on yearly. So as my first post back from the world of FITSI I present to you, some sweet, sweet dragonfly porn. ;-)

Enjoy.

Head over to my Flickr account if you want hi-res photos. The detail is worth it.

Double feature

Osprey with fish

Osprey with fish. Thats what I call fresh take out. Cropped for detail.

As I mentioned earlier today, I found a plethora of wildlife today. I can add to that list, a Red Tail Hawk as well. I got a chance to get a few more photos up so you folks at home can see them.



These Canada geese must have decided on Kraft Dinner eh?

I’ll admit it, I was so excited to FINALLY be getting a few close ups of these Mergansers, I totally missed that I was capturing the Blue Heron too. I saw him/her fly a few minutes after taking a series of the ducks, but didn’t see it ‘hiding’ in the frame.



“MALLARD DUCK” O.K., an inside joke involving a little Bushmills at a friends and convinced we could teach their dog to speak English if we started with one of her toys, a mallard duck. The pictures not bad either, but I have better ones from the 12th I need to get posted.


And finally, my guest of honor. I’m very excited about the Osprey above. I wish there had been more light, but having an O.K. picture is better then no picture. BUT to have found this little guy, well, kind of a porker for a fox is the highlight of my photos today. I’ve only EVER seen about 4 foxes in my 28 years on this planet. Thats a surprisingly small amount for the shear volume of time spent as a youth at Moosehead Lake in Maine.







The gallery with full-size photos can be seen where you can see the full, medium quality jpgs (god bless raw+jpg mode) is available. So that about sums up ‘Mike’s’ wildlife log for Friday the 13th. . . Oh except the male cardinal, gold finch (both in gallery), phoebe, red winged black birds, male downy or hairy woodpecker, and deer I saw today, well deer tonight on the way home from dinner. So, who wants to live in the city again?? ;-)

An April Snowday

Well, father winter went out with a big old “TAKE THAT!” This April. It’s the first time living in New Hampshire we’ve been without power for more then a few hours. Overnight ~6″ of VERY wet and heavy snow wrought havoc here in the Seacost region.

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But lo, there is always a bright side of life. [Always look on the bright side of life, tweet tweet, tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet.]. Around 10 a.m. my buddy Perry, professional photographer pulled into the drive. Ran inside, and in drill sergeant fashion, ordered me to get my camera and change out of my pjs, we were “getting out there.”

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So out there we went. Out to Isinglass falls, just across from the waste management landfill in Barrington. I thought it an odd location at first until we started humping out through the woods and we hit the falls. There, I learned a few techniques for photographing in the woods on an overcast day, in the snow, and how to get some of those silky whitewater shots. There, or rather when I returned, I also learned the importance of the correct circular polarizer for your lens. Every shot taken at 18mm, has vignette. I guess it’s time to pony up for a slim filter. Wish I had realized that before I bought the ‘cheaper’ filter.

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