Solar Eclipse

It was a lot of fun ... and HOT ... standing in the sun waiting for the eclipse. I finally had to put hat and shirt on to protect my lily white, Irish skin! I had my glasses on to watch the sky, and I remember texting friends and family when I first noticed the 'flat edge' to the sun...as the moon was just starting to come between us and the sun.

The clouds came in right after max eclipse, so I only got photos up to and including the maximum. And that was fine. Here's the requisite selfie in the hot sun --


I really enjoyed doing this -- I remember being amazed that I could see the 'weak light' -- like a cloud had gone over the sun, except there was no cloud over the sun. I can only imagine the reports from a friend's relatives of seeing stars in the middle of the afternoon!

Camera taking intervals (you can see I was able to re-use the home-made filter that I described making in a previous post) --


This was a few minutes before max --


This is a collage of pics at different times --


I had read that the light/shadows under trees would show the eclipse...I kept walking around looking but not seeing anything. And then at a certain stage, I totally saw it...here are the crescents on the porch --


And crescents on the calçada--


It was a good time...I'm glad I got to see it...Maybe I'll go see a full eclipse sometime!

Os Beija-flores

I spent a lot of time with the camera this weekend! It was good and I enjoyed myself, but I have given myself a rest period today...I noticed the bikers returning from the races in the park tonight...I'd like to get over there and practice my panning on them before they stop for the Fall!

I had not been completely satisfied with the hummingbird pictures...at least until yesterday when I got a couple pics that I liked!




This one was when I put the camera on its back under the feeder, taking pictures at intervals --


Originally, I was hand-holding the camera, but when I walked too close to the feeder, the birds flew away.

Then, I put the camera on the tripod taking intervals. But I wasn't happy with the shutter motion or depth of field focus.

The final solution was to stand in place near the porch but in the garden...and they returned. Often it was about 10 minutes before they stopped by my feeder. As long as I was slow in motion while photo taking, they seemed to be okay with me being there.