photoessay
grrlscientist | September 8, 2009tags: travel, nature, environment, cities, Munkkivuori, Helsinki, Finland
Gifts of chocolate and licorice from my host.
Image: GrrlScientist, 3 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
Ah, the breakfast of champions: licorice and chocolate. Well, and coffee (not pictured, but you get the idea).
My host finally awoke (I had been awake for hours, watching birds, playing on my laptop, and torturing the cat) and he gave me a meal consisting of licorice, chocolate and coffee. Dessert was a bowl of yogurt topped with muesli. A perfect way to start the day in beautiful Helsinki.
After a relaxing…
grrlscientist | September 5, 2009tags: travel, nature, environment, cities, Munkkivuori, Helsinki, Finland
Brick tower that is just outside my host's apartment
in the Munkkivuori neighborhood in Helsinki, Finland.
Photographed as I walked to Tarvaspää Café at the Gallen-Kallela Museum
near Tarvon Salmi in Helsinki, Finland.
Image: GrrlScientist, 2 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
Now that a new month has begun, my Flickr accounts allow me to upload images once more, so I am back to cramming them full to bursting with images for the photoessays that I wish to share with you from my time in Helsinki, Finland.
As…
grrlscientist | August 26, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
Grog.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
All hail to the mighty beer, brewed in the original style, using ingredients that approximate (as closely as possible) what was originally used. My beer had a distinct cinnamon flavor.
As you can see below, the table was outdoors under a large tent, and entertainment included waiter watching, people watching and live music. Here, you can see the waiter adding some finishing touches to a few meals before serving them to hungry patrons.…
grrlscientist | August 23, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
A room inside the wall around Old Town.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
This is a room inside the wall that surrounds the Old Town portion of Tallinn, Estonia. As you can see, this room is in remarkably pristine condition, despite being older than god. Sorry that the pic is so bad, but the ambient lighting was impossible to deal with.
Another look at the room inside the wall around Old Town.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 […
grrlscientist | August 19, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
Lunch at the Olde Hansa Restaurant.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
This isn't the best picture I've ever taken, but most of the lighting was provided by candlelight. The interior of the building was quite dark, which made it almost impossible to get a sharply focused image without using a flash (and you know how much I hate flash).
Candlelight.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
When you order a beer…
grrlscientist | November 7, 2008tags: Anne Loftus playground, Inwood, Manhattan, NYC, NYC through my eye, photography, Autumn in NYC
Image: GrrlScientist 6 November 2008 [larger view].
As I've already mentioned, I am having a rough time right now, but I love photography, so I decided that I should view NYC through a shutter as a way to deal with my labile mood state. So as I walked down the street, I decided that I would photograph a rather colorful park that was nearby. Even though I've passed by it many times, I've never visited the Anne Loftus playground, so I spontaneously decided to photograph it.
I took this…
grrlscientist | October 31, 2008tags: bird behavior, emotional lives of animals, ornithology, birds, avian, photoessay
The bird calls out after realising that his (her?) mate is dead
Image: Wilson Hsu, AbuNawaf.com [larger view].
There are many inexplicable and tragic events in nature, yet few are captured on film. Here is an interesting series of photographs depicting a pair of swallows, Hirundo rustica (known as the Barn Swallow in the United States). In this series of images, we watch the story that unfolds after one of the birds was fatally injured, yet the bird's mate remains nearby, delivering food or water and…
grrlscientist | October 21, 2008tags: London England, London's Globe Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, performing arts, travel
A duel of the drummers at London's Globe Theatre.
Image: GrrlScientist, 1 September 2008 [larger view].
The day after Nature's European ScienceBlogging Conference had concluded, I set out to photograph the city with my friend and colleague, Bob O'Hara, and then to attend a play at the Globe Shakespeare Theatre. This photoessay details our Globe Theatre experience.
After roaming around London, taking photographs and drinking beers at a variety of historical pubs, Bob and I walked across…
grrlscientist | October 13, 2008tags: Seattle Washington, University District, first things, University of Washington
Seattle, Washington.
Image: GrrlScientist, 26 September 2008 [larger view].
This will be my last photoessay from my Seattle visit. I sincerely hope I will be able to return for more visits, but because my life has gone the way it has, I think of every visit to Seattle (or elsewhere) as my last, so leaving is intensely sad. Of course, this does not mean that I don't also love NYC, because I do, but Seattle is a physical reminder of happier and more successful and hopeful times in my life, of my many…
grrlscientist | October 12, 2008tags: Seattle Washington, Biology Department Greenhouse, University of Washington, poison dart frogs, Dendrobates, Dendrobatidae
Captive-bred Dyeing Poison Dart frog, Dendrobates tinctorius, from the Guianas of northeastern South America.
Image: GrrlScientist 29 September 2008 [larger view].
This is part two of my UW Biology Department greenhouse photoessay. In part one, I showed you seedpods and a lot of flowers (some of which need to be identified), but in this, the second and last part, I am focusing on The Surprise I kept telling you about. As you can see, the surprise discovery I…
grrlscientist | October 11, 2008tags: Seattle Washington, Biology Department Greenhouse, University of Washington, flowers
Passiflora laurifolia blossom.
Image: GrrlScientist 29 September 2008 [larger view].
I ran into another Seattle pal on my way back from the Montlake Fill to the Zoology department (now subsumed into Biology), where I earned my PhD. As a result, we spent half an hour talking, so I was late, so the office was locked up (as was my laptop). But the day was gorgeous, the weather perfect, so I took the opportunity to do more photography.
Outside the main entrance to the University of Washington's…
grrlscientist | October 10, 2008tags: Seattle Washington, Montlake Fill, Union Bay Natural Area, urban wetland, urban nature preserve, University of Washington
Entrance to the Union Bay Natural Area (UBNA), more commonly known as the "Montlake Fill".
Image: GrrlScientist 29 September 2008 [larger view].
One of my most favorite places to go birding is the Union Bay Natural Area (UBNA), which I have always known as the Montlake Fill. In my opinion, this is one of the finest small- to medium-sized urban birding areas and nature preserves on the west coast.
This area originally started out as a freshwater wetland, but the…
grrlscientist | October 9, 2008tags: Seattle Washington, Ballard Farmer's Market, fresh produce, fresh fish, wine, flowers
Dinner at Shannon's,
using fish, produce and wine from the Ballard farmer's market.
Image: GrrlScientist 28 September 2008 [larger view].
"Do you photograph every meal you eat?" Shannon sounded amused as I pointed my camera at the mushrooms in the frying pan.
"Well .. not exactly," I replied, thinking of all the meals that I had photographed, realizing that nearly all of them were meals I had eaten while traveling.
"After photographing parts of the Farmer's Market, it just seems to be the right…
grrlscientist | October 8, 2008tags: Seattle Washington, wine tasting, photoessay
Glassware in the wine bar in Seattle.
Image: GrrlScientist, 28 September 2008 [larger view].
When I was in Seattle, several friends and I visited the Ballard Farmer's Market (part one and part two) in the morning and then went wine tasting at a nearby wine bar in the afternoon.
I was so fascinated by the Ballard Farmer's Market that Shannon could barely rip me (and my camera!) away. But the promise of free wine did the trick.
We walked down the street and went into a wine bar where Shannon knows a lot of people, and we sampled their…
grrlscientist | October 7, 2008tags: Seattle Washington, Ballard Farmer's Market, photoessay, autumn bounty, harvest
Dahlias.
Ballard Farmer's Market, Seattle, Washington.
Image: GrrlScientist 26 September 2008 [larger view].
When I was in Seattle, I met a couple friends and went to the Ballard Farmer's Market, which is much much larger than when I last lived in Seattle. This is the second and last part of my photoessay of the Ballard Farmer's Market. In part one, I showed you fresh produce, and in part two, I will show you flowers and soaps.
These flowers, which captivated me with their delicacy, pale purple color,…
grrlscientist | October 6, 2008tags: Seattle Washington, Ballard Farmer's Market, photoessay, autumn bounty, harvest
Raspberries.
Ballard farmer's Market, Seattle, Washington.
Image: GrrlScientist 26 September 2008 [larger view].
When I was in Seattle, a couple friends and I went to the Ballard Farmer's Market, which is much much larger than when I last lived in Seattle.
The day was bright and warm, the air was lightly scented with seaweed and fish, and the autumn harvest was a photographer's dream! I could have spent days here with my camera. I really liked the contrast between the splotchy colors and curved lines…
grrlscientist | September 22, 2008tags: ornithology, birds, avian, National Geographic
A dragonfly has no stinger, but a European bee-eater, Merops apiaster, will beat it senseless anyway, the same way it handles its namesake prey. If the fly's wings break off, they are discarded, not eaten. The insect is then devoured as a single morsel, not as a mini-buffet of bite-size bits.
Image: Jözsef L. Szentpéteri/National Geographic online. [larger view].
I mentioned this last week, but I think it deserves a second mention: My contact, an editor at National Geographic, just sent me a link to a story and photoessay that…
grrlscientist | September 16, 2008tags: ornithology, birds, avian, National Geographic
Painting the Sky
A brilliant blur as it plucks a butterfly from the air, the European bee-eater, Merops apiaster, leads a colorful life on three continents.
Image: Jözsef L. Szentpéteri/National Geographic [larger view].
My contact, an editor at National Geographic, just sent me a link to a story and photoessay that details the courtship and breeding of European Bee-eaters, Merops apiaster. The story is fascinating and well-worth reading and the photographs, as always for National Geographic, brings tears of wonder to one's eyes.
grrlscientist | September 16, 2008tags: Northern cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, birds, Central Park, Image of the Day
Mama Shakespeare's Guacamole?
Female Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis.
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George [larger].
The photographer writes;
Mama Shakespeare interrupted her meal to pay me a visit in, where else, Central Park's Shakespeare Garden. Look at her closely. No, that isn't guacamole squirting out of her beak. It is of insect origin but I do not know precisely what creature it formerly was. I do know that I have seen this same light shade of green protruding from Northern Cardinal…
grrlscientist | September 14, 2008tags: Sandwalk, Down House, Darwin, nature, photography, London, England, Bromley, England
Part of The Sandwalk, which is located on the periphery of a large parcel of land that is occupied by Darwin's Down House and associated grounds comprised of flower gardens, food plant gardens, and a greenhouse. I liked the mysterious look of this portion of the Sandwalk, so I photographed it to share with you.
Image: GrrlScientist 31 August 2008 [larger view].
Sunday, the day after the Nature Network Science Blog conference was over, Mike, Mo and I caught a train to Bromley, England, where we…