Local animal life...
Since my other "nature" thread (LaDiSHC) appears to be dying a quick, albeit natural death, here's another critter thread.
Maybe 3" long, I'm not sure if this is a grasshopper or a katydid. I took this shot at the end of summer so the grape leaves were just beginning to fall off.
My poor camera+technique combo don't do justice to the EMERALD green of this beautiful spider. About 2" in diameter. Not sure what kind of spider this is.
This little fellow is real! No, there are no white rabbits in southern Cali... I'm sure it was some idiot's pet. I tried to capture it. No dice. Too fast. I'm also sure that it survived no more than a couple of days before a coyote, bobcat, fox, rattlesnake, owl or hawk had it for din din.
Come on people, let's see what you have running around in your back yard.
Macs are supposed to be the platform of choice for photographers, right?
Maybe 3" long, I'm not sure if this is a grasshopper or a katydid. I took this shot at the end of summer so the grape leaves were just beginning to fall off.
My poor camera+technique combo don't do justice to the EMERALD green of this beautiful spider. About 2" in diameter. Not sure what kind of spider this is.
This little fellow is real! No, there are no white rabbits in southern Cali... I'm sure it was some idiot's pet. I tried to capture it. No dice. Too fast. I'm also sure that it survived no more than a couple of days before a coyote, bobcat, fox, rattlesnake, owl or hawk had it for din din.
Come on people, let's see what you have running around in your back yard.
Macs are supposed to be the platform of choice for photographers, right?
Comments
But those are nice pics. Animals are awesome.
Originally posted by hardhead
Since my other "nature" thread (LaDiSHC) appears to be dying a quick, albeit natural death, here's another critter thread.
<snipped only because I know the pain of low bandwith>
Maybe 3" long, I'm not sure if this is a grasshopper or a katydid. I took this shot at the end of summer so the grape leaves were just beginning to fall off.
<sorry
My poor camera+technique combo don't do justice to the EMERALD green of this beautiful spider. About 2" in diameter. Not sure what kind of spider this is.
<and again>
This little fellow is real! No, there are no white rabbits in southern Cali... I'm sure it was some idiot's pet. I tried to capture it. No dice. Too fast. I'm also sure that it survived no more than a couple of days before a coyote, bobcat, fox, rattlesnake, owl or hawk had it for din din.
Come on people, let's see what you have running around in your back yard.
Macs are supposed to be the platform of choice for photographers, right?
No don't be put off. The spider and the wasp were good. I meant to say so but it got away from me.
Green bug - fantastic shot! Can't fault it. Composition, colour, focus. The little blighter had me fooled for a minute. Are the three dots on his back water or part of the bug? The yellow leaf in the foreground with the red blush and the pink ones up the back with the green veins....fabbo.
Green spider - oooh never seen a spidey like that which is just as well because here it would kill you (keep believing those myths people). But what the hell is it on?
Bunny - mmmmm.....dinner! Sorry, the little bastards probably haven't ravaged your environment quite as badly as ours (but we've got the jump on them now
Been thinking seriously about getting one and actually asked a friend if I could borrow his the other day because there are a few people I'd like to get snaps of before they die.
While I think of it (and this is probably one for the Poms rather than the Yanks), there was a BBC (I think but could've been ITV or Channel 4) mini-series that was made some years ago about a huge collection of historical photos that was to be broken up and sold. It starred a female actress - can't remember who, not a Redgrave but a woman from one of those famous British acting dynasties of the same ilk.
Anyway, it was (I believe) a fictionalised real story. The woman eventually convinces a wealthy US businessman to buy the collection in it's entirety. I've been told that, in real life, the businessman was a certain Bill Gates. Anybody know if this is true (my source is only intermittently reliable), and, if so, are the pics available online at all.
At first, I thought this was it. But they're actually stills. The collection I'm after (if it really exists) is actual photographs. In the series, the number of photos is so vast that British actress and her "almost commits suicide but stuffs it up" sidekick (hey, it is a British mini-series) eventually convince rich Yank to buy the photos by finding in the collection, photos of his family which reveal a past he never knew about (great scene, that one).
It always reminds me of this amazing coffee table book my brother gave me (which I still have) by a gay-Chinese-Australian photographer named William Yang. It includes portraits of famous people as well as landscapes. But it also has pages of collages of thumbnail size shots. Without fail, everyone who has ever looked at it finds somebody they know in there. Even though most of the collages are from wild sex, drugs and R 'n' R parties in Kings Cross.
Of course, this could have something to do with the people I know.
Gosh. That turned into a bit of a ramble. Anyway, great pics!
I live in a sterile apartment complex with white walls and a guy who comes by to spray deadly chemicals
Been there done that G.
I have some more animal shots coming soon...
crazychester, thanks for the props. I'm use to my posts getting little attention. I don't take it personal...
Just as an aside crazychester, I met Mr. Yang a couple of years ago. My lady knows him well. He's a "strong" human being...
Originally posted by hardhead
Just as an aside crazychester, I met Mr. Yang a couple of years ago. My lady knows him well. He's a "strong" human being...
Fair dinkum? Wow! I'm impressed. It's like some sort of weird reverse synchronicity. Instead of seeing someone you know in one of his photos, you know him.
I've heard people who have been photographed by him say that he just puts them at ease. Totally non-threatening. Which I get a real sense of in my "Sydney Diary" book because the pics are so candid. Even when they're posed. Like he can look into a person's soul.
I don't know how much work he's done OS but some of the Australian public figures he's photographed are very "conservative" and yet he always seems to capture them in a way that is devoid of artifice and yet unique.
My old man got patted on the head by Frank Sinatra as a baby. Can I claim bragging rights on that?
(And you didn't tell me what the green spider is on.)
It was the most FUN vehicle I have ever owned! On the down side, the turbos are just about done and replacement costs are in the neighborhood of $5,000! As it is, any kind of repair on these beautiful cars is in $500 increments. That, plus the fact that I don't have the parking space unless I want to pave over the "wild" part of my property. Something had to go...
As I'm typing this, three coyotes are traversing the hill behind my house. I'm glad I don't have any pets. The coyotes can be a problem sometimes.
I'll leave them alone from now on...
I thought that red thing looked like a reflector. That car is 10 years old?
Yes, I was about 6 feet away from this guy. Louisiana Alligator for the uninitiated.
Cattle Egret; we have'm in Louisiana and Jamaica, this one happens to be in a Louisiana Cypress Swamp.
Osprey, out in the Atchafalaya basin. You can see these from the highway sometimes. I happened to use a howitzer of a lens; 600mm with 1.4x TC I think.
Not far from the Osprey. In fact one of his family members was trying to steal the Osprey's fish.
Yellow Crowned night heron chick in nest. Food for above (Joking.)
Black Crowned night heron in Cypress Swamp
Great Egret, same swamp.
Roseatte Spoonbill, again, same place.
Brown Pelican, on a little island out in the Gulf. Ironically I was sitting on the beach when I took this picture.
I'll have some from Jamaica later on.
I always thought those brown pelicans you get in the States were ugly. But you make them look good.
Originally posted by hardhead
Meet Mr. California Alligator lizard. This aggresive little beast is about 11" long! I made the mistake of catching one when I first moved in here. It bit on my thumb and drew blood the little bastard! It hurt too!
I'll leave them alone from now on...
Nice shot... one a less serious note reminds me of a pair of boots I used to have, wonder if he's related?
Oh, and chester, Yes and no. I'm currently working as a freelance graphic designer, and photograph generally product and occasionally landscapes/events for my layouts. Digital really helps there, and it's better than reselling stock photography, which I have no interest in. I do wildlife occasionally for fun and occasionally to humor my father, who actually is a nature photographer.nature photographer
I'm also the Web Layout Editor for Nature Photographer MagazineNature Photographer Magazine and I've published I believe two images to that site (I don't self publish, but occasionally the editor in chief has me post some of my stuff). I've also got an image submitted for future publication in the print mag.
And Chester, apparently the brown pelicans get that gold crest as they age. I much prefer that to the younger bird's white scalp, which I agree makes for a sortof ugly bird. I was sitting on a small island with several thousand of the birds. I got to pick the pretty ones
these were taken with my wussy Nikon D70 (which is currently in for repairs), and someone else's Nikkor 80-200/2.8 AF-S hand-held (ED? I think. Damn sharp.) and maybe 1.4TC for the short stuff (flying brids, maybe the alligator have to check. The perched birds were taken with the Nikkor 600mm f4, 1.4 optionally (who can remember?) on a wimberly gimbel, which once you get used to it is great for tracking large flying birds (have some good osprey that way)
When I post some shots from Jamaica I'll have images from the Nikon and its 18-70 (not bad, not great lens) as well as a Mamiya 645 w/Kodak DCS Pro back (lovely camera and resolution, a pox on Kodak's noise and post processing) and my little point and shoot Olympus 5060WZ.
Come on Mac-heads, some more!
The D70 is actually an excellent SLR body, which I have been very happy with, however: It's not as well built or sealed to the elements as Nikon's "Pro" D1h/x & D2h/x or Canon's 1D series, it's not suitable for stock photography as the big stock houses want at least 11MP, it's not as fast as the higher end stuff, and it's missing a few high end features that are nice for a pro to have.
As a counter point it currently produces the best picture Nikon has to offer, with few situational exceptions, and is much more feature rich than Canon's Rebel. It doesn't offer ISO 100, 3200 or 6400 though, which is a shame. Also, the newer AF system in the D2h is vastly superior. The pro bodies handle manual focus lenses much better as well.