A month ago I was struck by the contrast between the white bark and barren branches of a tree in the neighbor’s yard and the deep shade of cloudless blue sky behind it.
Rather than ingest a recreational pharmaceutical (legal here now, not that I use it – honestly, I don’t, I’m a pretty boring dude about such things) and sit and contemplate the nature of the universe, I did what I usually do – I grabbed the camera.
Light & shadow, bright white bark & deep blue sky – as Ferris said…
Filed under Photography
I was doing a lap around the backyard in the dark (my watch had bitched at me about sitting too long, and it was correct) and I was looking up at Orion and Sirius and Aldebaran. It was clear, the moon isn’t up yet, they were gorgeous – as always. I thought about going in and getting my tripod and good camera and setting things up, but I’ve got deadlines to meet and I needed to get back inside…
Could I use my iPhone, handheld, no tripod, no other apps? Of course not! It’s just an iPhone 8, and while I hear that the iPhone 12 can do really well with low-light astrophotography (and the Pixel 5 is supposed to be amazing?) and the iPhone 13 is going to be even better, a phone that’s coming up on four years old couldn’t ever… Could it?
That’s an assumption.
How hard would it be to test?
It turns out that answer is, “Yes – and no, but mostly no.” The biggest problem is getting it the camera to focus, it doesn’t have anything solid to grab ahold of. But if you can lock the focus, you can get something that at least shows Sirius (middle right), the four “feet and shoulder” stars of Orion as well as the “belt” stars, Aldebaran on the right, and Procyon near the top. That’s something like six of the dozen brightest stars in the Northern Hemisphere (one of the reasons the winter sky is so easy to find your way around, and so spectacular looking) so it’s cool that they DO register, but like the dancing bear, it’s not that they do it well, but that they do it at all that’s impressive.
Once the focus is locked you can try to manually fiddle with the exposure and brightness, but that seems to mainly cause a lot of noise as the image sensor gets overloaded.
At least that picture brings out the orange color of Betelgeuse (top left star in Orion, still hasn’t gone supernova…) where the first picture didn’t show any of the colors.
So, that answers that. Perhaps before they fade into the spring sky I can get a night where I’m not getting my ass kicked by deadlines and I’ll bring out the good gear to play with.
Filed under Astronomy, Photography
February is normally the rainiest month of the year in Southern California – this year, for only the eighth time since they started recording weather records in 1877, zero measurable rain was recorded in Los Angeles.
We had the slightest of showers today, more like drizzle with attitude at best.
Mainly it was just gray and gloomy all day. But I went out late this afternoon, just before sunset, and found a few blue spots poking through.
Still cool, still damp, but a happy little bit of color and sky. I also got to chat (okay, we yelled across the street at each other) with my neighbor, checking in to make sure we’re all healthy and staying sane.
That was nice too.
Looking forward to the days when again I can cross the street to chat face to face, you know, like normal folks used to do.
Filed under Photography, Weather
A couple of weeks ago I posted some pictures of “Detritus Art” that I found in the parking lot at our hospital, where folks were leaving behind stickers that identify them as having passed through the COVID screening at the hospital entrance.
Today I was back at the hospital and found that all of those stickers had been removed. I found a few stuck to the ground here and there, but for the most part it they were all gone.
Except…
Something about this just bugs the shit out of me. It’s wrong. It’s going to harm this poor plant which is just trying to mind its own business and photosynthesize in peace.
Not cool, man…
Filed under Photography
Because March is warm and sunny (so far, small sample size) and Doctor Lizardo loves it when it’s warm and sunny!
Doc L is adjusting well to having a different car parked in his favorite spot. He was very used to the Volvo being there, it was lower to the ground and afforded him some protection from the “Death From Above!” hawks and crows.
Now he’s a bit more exposed, but also getting a bit more sun, so it’s a tradeoff he’s willing to make.
As before, he seems willing to let me get closer than any of the other lizards in the yard will allow.
Granted, I’m using a big telephoto lens, so I’m still 7-8 feet away, but most of them scurry as soon as I come out the front door. Not the Good Doctor!
On the other hand, let’s get real! There are limits. Take that extra half step around in front and kneel down to get a closeup? That would be a big nope, he’s ready to duck under the catalytic converter for protection. My move…
I like Doctor Lizardo, he’s my favorite, so I backed up slowly and gave him his space in the sun. Who am I to be going and harshing his mellow?
Filed under Critters, Photography
This is the classic “I haven’t posted anything today and I’m still busier than God at 23:54 so, quick! Post a picture of my cat!” time.
But I don’t have a cat. Or a dog. And I don’t have any new pictures of the birds or lizards out in the yard.
But at least February is only five minutes away from being over.
That’s a good thing.
After being busier than God for weeks, tonight was the night to try our my new telescope toy, a CMOS digital camera. It’s basically a big, fat, eyepiece-like thing that goes where the eyepiece normally goes and kicks out a signal to a laptop or other computer.
I regret to inform everyone (especially myself) that there’s going to be a learning curve.
I was sort of hoping that with a full moon, which in a telescope is REALLY FREAKIN’ ***BRIGHT***, would be an easy starting point. Well, yes and no. I was able to get an image on the computer screen, but it was dim. I could see enough to focus and recorded several minutes of data, but where I was expecting something ***BRIGHT*** I got something that was kinda sorta maybe visible. Ish…
So I’m doing something wrong. I’ll have to start digging – there’s not much in the way of a manual or instructions, for either the hardware or the data collection software that comes with it. (It’s freeware, but there’s a “Pro” version for $20-$30. It could be that it’s “pro” because it works?) Even with the default software there are all sorts of options. As for help and guidance, I hear there’s this thing called a “google…”
In the meantime, through the telescope with plain old eyepieces, the full moon was spectacular. If blurry a bit – we’re having a Santa Ana wind event again (we’ve been having them about five days a week for months it seems) and with all of that air moving around the “seeing” was marginal.
But when all else fails, whip out your cell phone and just hold it up to the lens!
The iPhone really isn’t designed for this and it freaks out with the HUGE brightness differences.
There’s some detail here, but not even close to what it looked like to the eye. I’ll have to keep working to find a way to record and share that.
Meanwhile, one (dark) picture of the setup (another lighting situation the iPhone isn’t designed for) actually shows the image on the screen better than it shows on the screen to the naked eye.
This should be interesting. Stand by.
Filed under Astronomy, Photography
Just to our west about three-quarters of a mile you get into some park and wilderness areas, with Castle Peak the most prominent feature. I’ve shown it to you many times since we moved in here almost two years ago.
Folks go hiking here (which is good) and occasionally have an accident (which is bad).
Much like my experience with the cargo 747’s going overhead and rumbling the house, our first indication of a hiker in distress is usually the sound of multiple loud LA City or County Fire Department helicopters orbiting repeatedly past our house.
The green line will show their path over the last hour or so… This guy was the eyes, followed by the actual rescue crew.
And if we need confirmation,
What did we do before we had these supercomputing telecommunication devices in our pockets? Just stand out in the yard and wonder what the helicopter was doing?
More importantly, what did the hikers do before they had them, or had rescue helicopters? I mean, besides bleed and pray to be found by someone friendly before the coyotes found you first?
Filed under Castle Willett, Flying
Wasn’t it just two days ago that I showed pictures of the (finally!) barren tree in our back yard, noting,
“The winds have taken the leaves and the tree is pretty much stripped now. Just in time! Next week it will be March and we’ll need to start seeing those spring buds come out. I hope that sap didn’t get too comfortable down in the roots.”
I was out there today and noticed this, NONE of which was there forty-eight hours earlier.
Honestly, a week ago I wouldn’t have thought that this tree shed its leaves in the fall or winter at all.
Even with the nasty winds we’ve had on far too many days this winter, while a few leaves would fall, overall it was fully enfoliated. (My computer says “enfoliated” isn’t a word – it has to be a word, I just typed it twice in this paragraph! Stupid computer.)
Then, overnight it seemed, 99% of the leaves were on the ground. Prompting Tuesday’s pictures and my snarky comment.
This afternoon the tips of the branches on a good chunk of the tree are exploding with the 2022 model of Leaves-A-Go-Go! Don’t stand too close! You could lose an eye if one of these suckers pops out at Mach 3!
I can only believe that my tree is, in fact, reading this website and taking my advice. It’s the only logical explanation !
But that wasn’t why I was out in the backyard with a camera…
I’ve been working on several “deadline from Hell” projects and needed a break. I had gone into the kitchen and saw three or four hummingbirds flitting around the fruit trees and the feeders, so I grabbed my camera and went out.
The instant I went out, still 20-25 feet from them, they all bailed. I could hear them up in the pine trees at the back of the yard, clicking that weird little electronic-sounding chirp of theirs, but they wouldn’t come out.
I waited.
Eventually I noticed the new buds on the tree and went to document it. Now that I was otherwise occupied, the hummers started coming back out, flying overhead near the field of view where I was looking up into the tree. But the second I started to shift the camera over to them… “Warp Factor Eight, Mr. Sulu!! Get us out of here!” And they’re gone again.
I waited.
They came back over by the feeders, which by now are 40-45 feet away because I’m over by the big tree. Every time I took a step in that direction, they flew away like little emerald, iridescent UFOs.
I waited.
Again they were back, but every time I started to raise the camera, they teleported away to Planet Hummingbird.
I said, “Screw it!” (Close enough…) I have deadlines, I had gotten some sun and air, I was going to go back in. I got back to the porch, walking right next to one of the feeders, when…
One of the little monsters flew up to the other feeder, over by the fruit trees, about eight feet away. I froze, verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry carefully and slowly started to raise the camera…
And the little asshole flew over and started sucking out of the feeder six inches from my head. I could have (in theory, at least) reached out and grabbed him, BUT MY CAMERA IS USELESS BECAUSE I CAN’T FOCUS A TELEPHOTO LENS THAT CLOSE!!!
They were toying with me. I hope they had fun.
They were teasing me. Little assholes!
Filed under Castle Willett, Critters, Photography
Is that the light at the end of the tunnel? If so, are we going in, descending, like Sandman Slim being dragged there alive by demons conjured in the Hollywood Hills? Or are we coming out, like Orpheus and Eurydice, almost to the top, clinging to faith…
(BTW, read the Sandman Slim books – they’re excellent!)
I’ve come to the conclusion that I might hate February. Or at least, it’s my least favorite month. I still have just as many deadlines and just as much work to get done. Actually, given my current employment situation with a January 31st fiscal year end, I have MORE work than most months. But I get two or three fewer days to do it.
February is going to get dropped from the Christmas card list if it doesn’t straighten up and fly right.
Filed under Photography
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