Karmic-Dragonfly

Nice to go for a walk today with a friend. This dreary winter plus everything else going on made me want to get outside, and today got up to 51F (10.5C).

We walked through a couple of parks, the pic below being one of the lakes we walked around --


Afterwards lunch at an Indian restaurant, where we got a free dessert because I told the waiter that I was picking up both tabs because the friend's birthday was this week. Funny -- I think the waiter thought we were "together" because he bought 2 spoons / 1 dish to eat. The friend is straight -- he didn't mention it, but I think he thought the same thing 😂

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I also sowed seeds -- basil, tomatoes, Shishito pappers -- to sprout for later transplant this spring.


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The birds have been chirping and cackling as spring arrives! Here's a picture outside the house of a house finch.

The weather is cooling, so everybody is trying to get inside! I trapped this jumping spider in a jar and set him back outside.

Not a bad photo for a phone, although it seems a bit too contrasty I think. His coloring makes him look like an old man!

Not getting to the river as much as I was -- although I'm still working part time, lately the days are often broken into parts -- with a scheduled morning meeting and then a mid-afternoon meeting, which means no river time! Sucks, actually.

But I did go down today for some much needed water sound therapy!



This is a video, but in my browser does not look like it -- click to open in a new window.


I had ice cream with my Brazilian friends this past weekend. I think it was the first time since BEFORE THE PANDEMIC - omg...COVID messed with things! But it was really good to see them. And I don't think I had at all met their youngest child, who is now 6 years old now!

Luckily, their English is so good now that we could have conversations in English -- because my Portuguese is just not up to it now, lol! The kids spoke both easily. It was nice time!

Oh, you thought I was talking about a cute guy?

Maybe, but I can't tell the sex of jumping spiders. This is a Bold Jumping Spider (Phidippus audax) --

My pictures look remarkably like the pictures from 2017 - makes sense since my equipment is the same, except for a longer focal length lens...and certainly my skillset is about the same for this type of photo 😅

At 12:50


At 13:30


At 14:00


At 14:05


In August 2017, there were leaves on more surrounding trees, so I had moon shapes on my porch. This year, none of the nearby trees had enough leaves, but I noticed the ornamental trees in the street median were casting shadows, and I stood in the street long enough to take a couple shots.


Setup
Set up is pretty similar -- 400mm lens instead of 200 -- but same camera, tripod, same type of single use solar filter on the front of the lens to protect the camera sensor.

Slight change in location in the yard to be able to see the sun clearly. I had to shift the lens angle every 5 minutes or so to follow the sun, which is a real chore.

I bracketed by 2 stops up and down, ISO 100, mostly f/5.6, auto shutter speed, manual focus.

I had an external intervalometer triggering a shot every 25 seconds with a 2 second delay set on the camera. I did that because I had trouble getting the intervalometer+camera to take all 3 bracketed images.

I had never had an SLR film camera -- only starting my camera hobby with digital cameras -- a Canon DSLR.

So a few years ago, I was pleased when a friend gave me an old Mamiya/Sekor film camera. I learned to use it -- how to load the film, how to set the (manual) setting on the camera to match the ISO of the film I just loaded, where I could send the film off to be developed, how to put the old LR44 type batteries in (which ran the light meter), how to read the light meter that shows up in the view finder, etc.

It really amazed me that using the Canon DSLR was pretty much the exact same as using the old film SLR -- it's all about aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. And of course composition and focus, etc.


I had hours of play on the Mamiya/Sekor, and I recently took it with me to my birthday get together, thinking I would get a few shots...but it didn't work! Turns out the mirror stuck in up position! I jiggled it a while, and could only get it to come down to ½ position.

I even went online and found a guy who does repairs, but on my particular model, he said 'it's always the mirror assembly', and it was too expensive to fix.

Whoever owned that old camera was definitely a photog. There was a light meter, a Neutral Density filter, and other accessories -- definitely a serious hobbiest!

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I just got another friend's old Nikon, so I can play some more with film! And I transferred the funky 1970s strap from the Mamiya/Sekor to the Nikon. (The Nikon was also missing a lens cap, and it turns out the Mamiya/Sekor lens cap fit the Nikon lens)


More to follow as I play with the "new" Nikon. It will be a while, of course, because you have to take the entire roll of film and then get it developed!

The Creeping Phlox are near done blooming, but they are still drawing Snowberry Clearwings!

I am definitely ready for a few days of holiday. Maybe it will give me a chance to get some Christmas decorations up!

A couple days ago, I came down to the kitchen to start breakfast and saw a hawk sitting on the fence between my house and a neighbor's house. This was only a few feet from my back door, so I couldn't very well go out that way. I also didn't think I could sneak up on the hawk if I went out the front door and around. So I opted to take a few shots through (admittedly less than clean) window glass.

I've decided based on its size, that it is a Cooper's Hawk -- a pretty common hawk around here. My other thought was a Sharp-Shinned Hawk, but I think that one would have been smaller. The hawk appear to be doing 'calisthenics' -- stretching a leg, opening and closing the claws, etc. Possibly the leg is hurt and healing..or maybe hawks are just like people -- needing to stretch in the morning!





This is when he "saw" me -- he didn't wait around too long after that before he flew away.

I was telling a friend how my iPhone is taking over more and more functions that used to be in the realm of my Canon DSLR. Here's an example -- a long exposure used to require a tripod and manual settings, and I still remember how to do it. But now, I just point my iPhone and use the long exposure "Live Photo" setting!


The rhododendrons are in full bloom -


I like that Maymont has a fair number of specimen trees. This looks like a Blue Spruce to me.

As a follow-up from previous posts, the friend with COVID19 has recovered! I could tell he was feeling better because he said so, and also he had starting to send me videos of his playing the piano again. He no longer has fever or shortness of breath, he's not taking any pain killers, and he goes back to work in a few days. So his ordeal seems to be over! The total time from start of symptoms to the end of them was about 10 days. (I have not confirmed if his smell or taste has come back yet.)

It helped a lot that he is young -- I can only imagine what I might have had to deal with, had it been me. I always wear a mask in stores, and limit my time shopping. But this has still been a wake up call to me for sure -- to keep vigilant about staying away from crowds, etc.

I remember him texting me about the anxiety and depression he was having during the illness, and it reminded me of mine when I was stuck inside for 5 weeks after I broke my ankle back in 2002. I imagine it is something all people with a serious illness face. To try to cheer him up, I had been sending some sort of picture each morning to him -- mostly just flowers from the yard or something. Here's a jumping spider from on top of the Halloween decorations outside. I don't think spiders are his favorite, but I like taking pictures of spiders' eyes...and I have a goal to get a photo of all 8 of them in one photo!


A couple nights ago, I woke up during the night, as I do a lot now, and I noticed how foggy it was outside. So I grabbed my camera and headed out for some pictures. It was like 1AM, so everything was quiet.