Photography, nature, science, and more.
The Hispid Cotton Rat (Sigmodon hispidus) is an extremely cute rodent with a unpleasant sounding name.
The cotton rat is mostly a herbivore and is often seen munching on a stalk of grass as though it were a corn cob. The cotton rat has large eyes with small fur-covered ears and is quite attractive.
Continue reading “The world’s cutest rodent is at St. Marks NWR”
We are fortunate to have a weather plant in our back yard. A glance at this amazing plant will tell us instantly if it is freezing outside.
Our weather plant is a Florida anise and when the temperature drops below freezing the leaves wilt. The first time this happened I thought the plant was dead but in a few hours it was back to normal.
Continue reading “Weather plant and ice crystals in rain barrel.”
Photos of the milky way are more interesting if there is some kind of terrestrial object in the foreground to indicate the location.
Lighthouses make great foreground objects not only because they show the location of the photo but the idea of this beacon shining over the vast ocean and the vastness of space is very compelling.
Continue reading “Improve terrestrial milky way photos using image stacking”
The night is a wonderful time to take photographs. I particularly love to take shots of the Milky Way, lightning storms, and moonlit landscapes.
Moonlight is simply sunlight bounced off the gray moon and it has the same color balance as sunlight. Moonlight photographs look very much like daylight images except you can see stars and any source of artificial light appears to be very bright.
Continue reading “Moonlight and lightning”
In my post of September 8, 2016 I reported Ranger John’s memorial bench had been damaged by hurricane Hermine.
On a recent visit to the Refuge on I saw the bench had been repaired (or replaced). I was so used to seeing the bench in that location it took moment to remember it had been gone for months.
Continue reading “Ranger John’s bench is back!”
“DarkTherapee” is what I call my raw image development workflow and makes use of the FOSS (free and open source software) programs darktable and RawTherapee. The two programs complement each other very well and provide an incredible array of features.
When I first started developing raw images I used RawTherapee but soon discovered darktable and started used it for all my image processing.
Continue reading “DarkTherapee and the Gimp”
Visitors to the Saint Marks National Wildlife Refuge often ask “What is that black bird?” when they see a Boat-tailed Grackle. Most people think it is a crow. They are also surprised to learn that the female grackle is a small brown bird that doesn’t look much like the male.
Many people are not impressed by the grackles and think that they are not very attractive. The Boat-tailed Grackle is actually a beautiful bird but it must be seen under the right conditions. Continue reading “The Boat-tailed Grackle at St. Marks NWR”
I lost a friend this year. A friend that I visited often. That friend was a palm tree located behind the St. Marks NWR lighthouse. As a young tree it had been pushed over to its side, possibly by a tropical storm. The tree not only survived but bent back upright over the years. Palm trees that survive such events are often beautiful and I, like many other photographers, wanted to record this wonderful tree next to the salt marsh.
Continue reading “Beautiful palm tree succumbs to hurricane Hermine”
I love clouds, storms, hurricanes and Saint Marks National Wildlife Refuge so of course I headed to the refuge the day hurricane Hermine was expected to make landfall. My plan was to enjoy the clouds and wind then take a few “before” images to compare with the aftermath of the storm. These photographs are pretty self explanatory so I’ll let them do the talking.
Continue reading “St. Marks NWR before the arrival of hurricane Hermine”
Summer in Florida is a great time to take beautiful cloud and storm photographs. It also brings a chance to view our galaxy, the Milky Way, in its full glory.
During Summertime in the U.S the Earth faces directly at the galactic core where the stars are most numerous. Continue reading “The Milky Way and St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge Lighthouse”