Photography
tags: NYC, Upper West Side, Manhattan, flowers, nature, image of the day
Lantana, Lantana camera.
Photographed on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, NYC.
Image: GrrlScientist, 16 May 2009 [larger view].
I have always been fascinated with these flowers because, as the individual blossoms age, their color changes. So each plant can have flowers with many different colors, even on the same stem!
tags: American Pipit, Anthus rubescens, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] American Pipit, Anthus rubescens, photographed in Minnehaha County, near Wall lake, South Dakota. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Terry Sohl, 10 November 2008 [larger view]
Photo taken with a Canon 40D, 400 5.6L.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
I was asked to give a three minute talk at the TED conference to try to convey some of the excitement about the hobby. I should have just quoted Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen:
"In terms of sheer coolness, few things beat rocketry."
Instead, I put together a photo montage, and commented on the stream:
The rocket projects have grown significantly since then, so consider this a teaser for future posts. Oh, and here's a sweet video montage from the last BALLS launch. It opens with a ground shot of our big QP rocket blasting off...
I am heading off to Dairy Aire tonight... to launch video…
tags: NYC, Upper West Side, Manhattan, flowers, nature, image of the day
Monkey Flower, Mimulus hybrid?
Photographed on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, NYC.
Image: GrrlScientist, 9 May 2009 [larger view].
Pheidole rosae, major worker, Entre Rios, Argentina
At the nest entrance
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D
ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f/13, flash diffused through tracing paper
tags: Great Egret, Casmerodius albus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Great Egret, Casmerodius albus, photographed on High Island, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 29 March 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with tsn-pz camera eyepiece 1/1000s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, author of Aimophila Adventures and Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
This is a big, lanky, long-legged bird with a pointed bill and a…
A maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus), photographed at the National Zoo.
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I'll be launching this rocket again on Saturday... well, the upper half of it, which survived unscathed from this dramatic motor rupture a half-mile up in the moonlit sky of the Black Rock Desert:
I just love night launches as you can get a time-lapse capture of the entire rocket flight, especially when something goes haywire.
The Aerotech Green Mojave propellant burned brightly, lighting up the playa and the neighboring launch rails, but it also burned through the center of the forward closure (melting aluminum) and torched the electronics of the bottom section... and even burnt right…
tags: NYC, Upper West Side, Manhattan, flowers, nature, image of the day
New Guinea Impatiens, Impatiens hawkeri.
Photographed on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, NYC.
Image: GrrlScientist, 12 May 2009 [larger view].
The Bridesmaid
1851
John Everett Millais
The Now Smash Of Style for Vogue Italia, via Haute Macabre
May 2009
Craig McDean
tags: Great-Tailed Grackle, Quiscalus mexicanus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Great-Tailed Grackle, Quiscalus mexicanus, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 2 January 2006 [larger view].
Date Time Original: 2006:01:02 15:42:48
Exposure Time: 1/159
F-Number: 10.00
ISO: 200
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, author of Aimophila Adventures and Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Start at the reeeaaarrr--among the blackish birds of North…
Estes is the major brand in low power rocketry, with Quest as an alternative. If you launched rockets as a kid, it was probably Estes. They make black powder motors in cardboard cases. As I have moved on to the bigger projects, the only lingering reason to consider these motors is that you can tape the top of one to the bottom of another for a cheap and easy way to do multi-stage rockets. Realize though that this shifts the weight of the rocket to the rear, which can make them unstable, as I have learned from adding three motors to a rocket designed for one:
"Icarus" came back about 15…
tags: NYC, Upper West Side, Manhattan, Lincoln Center, Julliard School
A view of Manhattan from the Julliard School,
located in Lincoln Center on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, NYC.
Image: GrrlScientist, 12 May 2009 [larger view].
I posted this picture of Manhattan, which I snapped yesterday, to let you know that I am thinking of you, but I am working hard on a writing project right now. My deadline is Friday, and I am hopeful that I will deliver a good product. As you know, Friday evening, I will be visiting AMNH's sneak preview of their new mammals exhibit, so I won't be doing much…
tags: NYC, Upper West Side, Manhattan, flowers, nature, image of the day
Yellow Hibiscus, Hibiscus rosasinensis.
Photographed on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, NYC.
Image: GrrlScientist, 12 May 2009 [larger view].
This coming Saturday the American Museum of Natural History is going to lift the veil on their new temporary exhibition Extreme Mammals, and I was fortunate enough to get an invitation to the blogger preview being held the day before. This coming Friday from about 4 to 5:30 PM I'll be wandering around the new exhibit, taking photos and (hopefully) blogging about it right from the scene. Expect lots of pictures of Ambulocetus, Uintatherium, and other fossil beasts that evening.
If you can't make it to NYC during the run of the exhibit, though, you can check out a lot of the materials being…
tags: Northern Parula, Parula americana, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Northern Parula, Parula americana, photographed at Quintana and Beach, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 20 March 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with tsn-pz camera eyepiece 1/1250s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, author of Aimophila Adventures and Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
It's easy to be distracted by color in a bird as…
A group of herring gulls (Larus argentatus) tries to avoid an incoming wave. Photographed at Spring Lake, New Jersey.
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I am still collecting topic ideas from the prior post, but several people asked how to get started in rocketry, and what is legal in the local neighborhood. Well, if there is no fire involved, it is probably OK, and so the air, water and baking soda+vinegar rockets are probably fine in just about any town. The later category makes for some sour showers though:
This thing really pops up fast since it quickly evacuates all of its fuel (>95% of its weight). With a regular camera, the human reflex is not fast enough to capture the rocket in frame (there is no signal before it pops). So I set…
These eerie photos by Alin Dragulin are exactly why tilt-shift photos are sublime. The toy-like cars and buildings seem cute and nostalgic, but the lack of focus traps the viewer in a claustrophobic middle ground, with no idea what story is transpiring. And why does everything seem so still? It's like a childhood memory written by Stephen King.
I asked Alin if he used a digital tiltshift filter to create the Toyscapes, and he said:
The Toyscapes are taken with a 4x5 camera and traditional film. I shoot digital for much of my work but these series of photos MAKE me slow down and be still.…