Dinner in Autumn

We made a new friend today

His name is AHHHH!!!!

Cat Butt

Groundpig

Usually these guys aren't brave enough to come anywhere close to me or the camera. This one was obviously driven more by hunger than fear, and trudged towards the food despite presence.

Like Heron

Discovered a quaint little hideaway called Royal Lake outside of Fairfax VA. It was quite the haven for birds and dragonflies. This guy stood still for a few shots before flying away in a blaze of blue glory.

Where we hide

Land of Moron

I'm 37% sure this is the funniest site on the entire web (click on the image to see more).

Snuggle Friend

Dragonfly

Giant NEMO devours child on birthday

Fortunately our nephew survived the attack.

The Weird Plant Thing

Galaxy Zoo

For the past couple weeks, I've been identifying galaxies at Galaxyzoo.org.

Although it seems slightly intimidating at first, identifying galaxies is a fairly simple process. After a brief tutorial and test, a series of photographs featuring galaxies are presented which need to be identified as spiral, elliptical, or merger. The images, of which there are apparently over one million stored in the database, range from distant blips on the screen to beautiful arrays of lights and shapes.

I find this to be a nice diversion during the day when a break is needed. Occasionally I capture a pretty shot like the one above.

Yumi

Young Bucks

It is probably safe to say that for every doe born, a buck is also brought into the world. However, for the swarms of doe that will grace our walks and bike rides on the many trails behind our home, bucks, even young ones, are fairly rare to find.

Today, two young boys were quietly searching for food. They weren't too happy to see me, as the picture may indicate, but they did hang around for a reasonable amount of time in the darkness of the thick trees as the sun was fading.

My guess is, as the baby fuzz disappears from the antlers, so will their calmness to folks like me who gawk over their existence. Fortunately I was able to take a soft shot of these two.

Silver Girl

Baby Praying Mantis

I was watering a sunflower plant I have growing on the deck last evening when I saw a small bug walking one of the leaves. On closer inspection, I realized it was a praying mantis - that is to say, a baby praying mantis, probably not even 1/4 inch long.

I never invested in a macro lens, but it was tempting to tell the creature to stand tight while I ran out and bought one. A wiser head prevailed and I did the best I could with a telephoto and then a wide angle lens. The shot here isn't nature book quality, but it is a neat documentation of something I had never seen before.

You're Not Mom

The Boot

Geese can fly...

...they just seem to forget this fact sometimes.

We were waiting at a traffic light last evening to make the final left turn needed to get to our home. Four lanes of traffic were more-or-less halted so the side roads could empty when a solitary goose, after examining the situation, decided it would book across the road to get to the other side.

Part caused by overpopulation, and part caused by their bizarre will and attitudes, geese can often be found by the roadsides in our area. Usually they wander off the berm looking for food in the weeds or seemingly live in the grass islands that rest inside cloverleaf ramps to the highways. It isn't uncommon to see them walk along the side of the road, and sometimes right on the road, as if to challenge the cars as to who owns the rights to the land. It is frightening, but fortunately, most drivers concede to the birds and sway away from hitting them.

The "why did the goose cross the road" feathered-friend mentioned above was different. It deliberately waited for the traffic to slow, then immediately darted out in between the cars. His head was hunched down and it was running as fast as a fat goose could run. Cars turning from the side roads did have to slow for the animal as it trucked along with fiery determination to make it to the other side. Finally, it reached the curb, hopped up onto the sidewalk on the other side, and continued along like any other pedestrian.

And the fact that it just could have flown across the road, avoiding the stress it caused for both itself and us as we watched expecting the worst, just seemed to elude the creature completely.

The Slippery Slope

Sasha

Claude Lorrain

Last weekend we went to the National Gallery of Art and were surprised to find a wonderful collection of drawings from Claude Lorrain: Link to Gallery here.

With a steady diet of professional wrestling and Aqua Teen Hunger Force television shows consuming most of my free time, I had never heard of Lorrain, so the exhibit was an unplanned visit. It is probably an understatement to say I was very impressed and happy with the find. Arranged chronologically, the works loosely evolved from ships and seaports to landscapes and buildings to mythological settings. Brilliant landscapes, however, were a key element in each of the drawings and grew in detail as time went on. One could study the seascapes, mountains, and other nature scenes for hours and not capture all the subtle details.

The supporting book contains a very nice collection of the works.

Al Gore

We went to Lisner Auditorium in DC last Tuesday to hear a lecture from Al Gore. There would be a lot to comment on, if I were to comment on it. Instead, I'll post links to an audio recording I made of the event and you can judge for yourself. A few disclaimers: 1. this isn't the best sounding recording, but it is listenable; 2. I compressed and lowered the volume on the applause so it doesn't crash your ears (given the acoustics, the clapping is much louder than the speaking)...all the same, if you are listening with headphones, error on the side of low volume for the first minute to get a feel for the spikes; 3. the person who belches isn't me; I believe it was a girl sitting behind me.

Track 1
Track 2
Track 3
Track 4
Track 5
Track 6
Track 7


And hey, buy the book:



A few things you won't hear on the tape:

1. A protester outside was dressed in a panda suit. I don't know exactly what message he was trying to convey with the suit, but he had a very hypnotic dance which I liked.

2. Student photographers, despite all good intentions, need to learn to frame and take their shots and not run back and forth across the auditorium for 45 minutes. Just because they run hunched over or even crawl on their knees does not mean they aren't distracting.

3. LaRouche'ies were funny, although I'm not sure if they were trying to make me laugh.

Mama-to-be

A short walk last night revealed a number of deer. For the most part, they are so commonplace that I barely sort through the shots I sneak of them unless I sense something outstanding. But, this soon-to-be mother caught our eyes, and it was only the zoom lens that showed her bulging belly.

Things in the House (#1)

Scratch

Developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten research group at MIT Media Lab, Scratch is a new programming language that allows users to create interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art.



Fifteen-to-twenty years ago, programs like Hypercard, Toolbook, IconAuthor, TenCORE, and Authorware established the foundation for visual programming, decreasing flexibility but allowing an interface for anybody to be a programmer of basic interactions and functionality. As these programs progressed, they became complicated (or, nonexistant) to the point where it took a "technical mind" to use them successfully. Scratch may revisit the early days of these technologies in a vastly more accessible format.

National Cathedral

The Young One

A trip to Meadowlark Gardens revealed a small family of geese.

The tiny world of Willard Wigan

Willard-wigan.com


Elvis Presley on a pinhead

Luring

Just when I thought I'd have nothing to write about.

When I was a kid anxiously awaiting the first day of school, somebody bought me a binder that was littered with pictures of fishing lures. At the time it was kinda cool; I had no idea what they were, but they were very colorful and marked with words that simply didn't make any sense to me.

In retrospect, it was a fairly odd gift. I had never gone fishing or even expressed interest in doing so. I hated the taste of fish (still do), and have grown to find the whole concept of fishing barbaric.

Nonetheless, fishing lures are kinda neat looking, and through a roundabout link from Ken Jennings' blog, I found this site of vintage fishing lures.

I wonder if I still have that binder somewhere.

Kicking and screaming into the 21st century...

Truthfully, I'm horrible when it comes to updating any type of online blog. I've been trying since 1999, and rarely do they last more than a month or two.

On top of that, I like to build my own interfaces. They are, of course, not nearly as evolved and easy as sites such as this which, say, have more than one person working on them one or two evenings a month.

With that said, I'll try to maintain a photography blog here. What better way to start than with a condescending look from one of our cats, Sasha.

(And, just to maintain an archaic approach, I'll link to my own website instead of a photography-specific site. Like I said...kicking and screaming...)


Photograph by Bill Murphy