January 16, 2010
The holidays are great -but soon reality comes again and I find myself picking through the images of the season past.
It suffices to say I got a new lens for Christmas (50 mm f:1.8) and was having a great time using it. All but one of the pictures here was taken with it.
I had a bunch of fun shooting our train round the Christmas tree.
For a while I tried to get a nice long blur of the train’s light and then freeze it with bit of flash. I’m not sure I ever really succeeded but I got this far.
I love the limited depth of field I can get with the 50 mm and the nicely round lights in the background. The hard part was getting my face behind the camera that close to the floor.
Legos… what did we ever do before they were invented?
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas season and are now quite recovered. Now, I’m looking forward to the rest of winter and spring that will shortly follow.
Posted at 12:17 EST in Everything-else, Photography.
December 20, 2009
A bunch of it.
Not really the norm for Virginia -but no less enjoyed.
Best wishes for a white Christmas wherever you are.
Merry Christmas!
Posted at 20:07 EST in Photography.
December 12, 2009
The leaves are gone -the creek is cold.
The wind blows and then, the snow.
In these times we now remember, to find warmth follow the glow.
Happy winter!
Posted at 21:59 EST in Everything-else, Photography.
November 13, 2009
My buddy Alex and I both work with bats. Alex is studying the effect of controlled burns (a.k.a. prescribed fire) on bat activity. When properly implemented, controlled burns are beneficial to both the wildlife and the forest. Actually, fire is necessary for some ecosystems to persist.
Yesterday was the day for the fall controlled burns so I thought I would post a few pictures.
For this burn, the goal was to ignite the fire around the edge in a systematic fashion and let it burn toward the center. Here the guy in the background is spreading the fire around the perimeter using a drip torch.
If you are looking for “media grade” 100 ft flames than you will be disappointed. This is a controlled burn in the east not a national disaster in California.
After the fire goes through there is the long process of “mopping up.”
Water is used where need but generally a little goes a long way.
The fire leaves a nice clean forest ready for the new sprouts in the spring.
Tags: bats, forestry, habitat
Posted at 21:09 EST in Biology, Research.
