His 16th birthday is coming up and I’m going to give the camera to him. He’ll be stoked. We had really boring subject matter the first time we went out, but I looked at the photos and imagined them with cool subject matter and saw potential. He took one of a cat that he thought was crappy and I zoomed up on it and applied the matrix filter and he thought it looked cool. I like the eagle photos the best. It grabbed a fish out of the lake and was heading off to eat it when that pic was taken, Pretty sure it was a yellow perch. He got a picture of it as it extended its talons towards the water, but it was blurry. I think the fish was already dead because I can see something floating in the water about where the eagle is headed, but it’s a blob.
An acquaintance invited me to join him on a hike looking for Ghost Orchids on Saturday. Ghost Orchids are endangered and are among the rarest orchids in the world, so I was stoked to get the invite. The hike ended up being a one-in-a-lifetime experience. The spot we visited was really tough to get to, in a secluded swamp in the middle of one of the preserves in the Everglades. And it did not disappoint. Aside from being rife with orchids, it was really a prehistoric surreal place. We encountered at least two Cypress trees that were easily 200 years old. And there were tons of cool pond apple trees that shaddd the area giving it a secluded, mystical feel. On the down side, i forgot to grab bug spray, so I got completely destroyed by mosquitoes. In total, we found well over 60 Ghost Orchids, we estimate around twenty were in bloom. We were completely overwhelmed. To put this in perspective, my guide had never seen more than 2 in bloom at one time, and most people are lucky if they even see one. I didn’t get too many photos that I’d consider great, because the conditions were difficult, and I’m not experienced enough yet to really nail it in tough conditions like that, but here are a couple of the ones that I really like.
Here are a couple photos I took that aren’t spectacular photos, but give you an idea of the shit we had to hike through to get to these orchids:
At least you didn’t have Meryl Streep chasing after you with a shotgun
I just watched Adaptation a few nights back. I found myself critiquing those “swamp” scenes to an unusual degree. I was like, “that doesn’t look right at all, why did they trim the palmettos? Did they sprinkle lawn trimmings in the water? Omg, they took a weed eater to the foliage, lol.”
Lol, the people I went with would have literally murdered me and left me there.
Yesterday’s sunset across Clear Lake in West Palm Beach. This was my first attempt at trying to photo-stack so I could include different exposures for the foreground and background. Since the sky is so bright, you need a very fast shutter speed to make sure you get the detail and colors, but when you do that the foreground is underexposed. To solve the issue I took two exposures and merged them.
Just a brightly colored little weed I found in my yard today, about half the size of a thumbtack for reference.
Carpet in the toilet? Brave stuff.
Got home drunk and mistook the cistern for the toilet bowl? We’ve all done it.
Didn’t you just move? Is this the view from your new place?
Yes and no. That was taken on my morning walk. So far, so good, but moving is exhausting.
Looks like you’re being made to wait, outrageous. Looking forward to the angry video.
Got out for a short hike today in a nature preserve. Fresh air and solitude does wonders for your mind.
We have some bird feeders n my backyard and a lot of feed spills to the ground. We have gotten 2 rabbits, 2 raccoons, 2 possums and 2 baby gophers ( we think)
