About Me

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By day I'm a propeller-head geek. I design software for electronic components for a major automotive supplier. When I'm not earning a paycheck, I enjoy playing music -- primarily jazz and classical but I dabble in other genres as well. I also compose, arrange, and play with electronic gadgets and toys. My other hobbies include photography, colored pencil drawing, genealogy, model railroading, and crosswords.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Spider and Butterfly

If you browsed my Flickr Photostream, you would find that butterflies and other insects are a favorite macro subject. There is an abundance of these critters right in my own backyard. Last night, after eating dinner on the patio, I found a spider that has built a web between the porch railing and the grill:



Then I had some fun chasing this Red Admiral butterfly around:



Lunch Walk 25 Jun 2014

The diversity of wildlife that can be seen from the small strip of land I walk at lunch never ceases to amaze me. Today, I spotted a Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker.


Thursday, June 19, 2014

Lunch Walk 19 Jun 2014

Still cloudy and a little wet from this morning's rain but today's walk was fruitful for making photographs.

There were Robins galore out picking their lunch from the grass. It wasn't hard to get a couple photos. I'd have taken more but I'm kind of bored of Robins.



Lots of Red-winged Blackbirds, too. This couple were both collecting food, probably for a nearby nest of chicks.

Then, there was this Baltimore Oriole. I had to stick around a while to get these.



Some plant life:


This guy was just crossing the path some distance up.


And, finally, there were a fair number of moths, butterflies, and damselflies about.



Edited images are now on my Flickr site.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Lunch Walk 16 Jun 2014

It was around 80 degrees today during my lunch walk. Not a lot of birds today besides a few Jays that were too coy to be photographed. So today's images were mostly of flora. I did sight a moth I haven't noticed before - a Clymene Haploa Moth, it turns out. I was so focused on the interesting wing pattern that I completely missed seeing a spider in the frame until I was editing the photo for publishing (you'll probably have to expand the pic to see it).

Clymene Haploa Moth


Friday, June 13, 2014

Evening Walk at St. Hugo of the Hills

I took a walk with Kathleen to St. Hugo's - about a mile and a half from our home. It was getting late and the sun was setting. A perfect opportunity to try some low-light photography. There are a couple fountains there that I'd like to photograph at dusk, when the sky is dark, maybe using some light painting techniques. But for this walk, I was just scouting out subjects. Here are a few snaps:




Friday, June 06, 2014

Lunch Walk 06 Jun 2014

Starting to see more flowers blooming and a variety of butterflies. I haven't been able to photography any butterflies yet for a couple of reasons: 1) I haven't carried my trusty 100mm macro lens and 2) they're just too darn fast!

Lots of Robins today. One of them even let me fairly close while he posed for me.


My first Cedar Waxwing sighting of the year:


That same feisty Red-winged Blackbird, protecting the nest - got him in flight today.



And a funny little squirrel:


Also spotted a hummingbird sitting on a high-up branch - too far and too back-lit to get a good image.

Tuesday, June 03, 2014

Lunch Walk 03 Jun 2014

When the weather is nice, I like to take a nature walk during my lunch break. I get some exercise but my real motivation is the opportunity to make some photographs. I'll make images of just about anything that catches my eye - flowers, wildlife, objects, and especially birds. I've become increasingly interested in bird photography.

Until now, I've been using an old Canon EF 75-300 f/4-5.6 II (non-USM) lens on my new 6D body. I've got my eye on a new super-telephoto zoom and I'll most likely end up with a Canon 100-400 very shortly. I'd really like to try the new Tamron 150-600 but it just has not been available. Besides, I think I'm going to want the faster AF the Canon offers, even at the loss of reach. I've read that a Kenko 1.4X PRO extender will still allow AF to work on the 100-400, so that could be an option for regaining the extra reach.

Today, I captured a Baltimore Oriole - a new sighting for me. I also got a feisty Red-wing Blackbird, a Blue Jay, and Song Sparrow. The following images are jpegs straight from the camera - no editing whatsoever. (Check my flicker stream for more refined images.)

Baltimore Oriole

Blue Jay

Song Sparrow

 Red-winged Blackbird

Red-winged Blackbird - he's got his lunch!