Getty Images |
Since 2009, the retirement home of Shot On Site Photography... the source of the finest sighthound performance images in the world. As of August 1, 2022, the blog will become much more photo-centric. Not only will I post images from the homestead in the foothills of the Little Florida Mountains, and surrounding environs, but also tips about shooting, editing, archiving, software, hardware and more. The political rants will become few and far between (but not eliminated! It is 2022 after all!)
Saturday, March 26, 2011
I Can Picture it Now...
Friday, March 25, 2011
Horn of Plenty..
and to think there have been times when we've walked for hours and never got a sniff..
H/T Jim Heffelfinger via Dutch Salmon
H/T Jim Heffelfinger via Dutch Salmon
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Sooper Dooper Moon.
Everybody and their brother (and aunts, uncles, and nieces and grandsons, no doubt) took pictures of the closest "Perigee Moon" in almost 20 years. Why should I be an exception?
Now, every time I've shot the moon since we've lived here, it's been from the back porch, and I've caught it rising over the Little Florida Mountains which, you should know by now, are basically in our back yard.
I needed to find a new location to shoot from in this case, because I knew that once the moon got a few degrees above the horizon it would begin to look like any full moon. I needed the horizon in the picture when the moon was appearing to be at its largest. It was time to pack the little Montero and head up into the Little Floridas.
We were going to a spot about 2 miles east of the house, but the drive was more like 6 miles on fairly easy jeep trails. Our vantage point would give us unobstructed view all the way to the Organ Mountains east of Las Cruces... nearly 100 miles away! I had my horizon, and had only to wait for the moon to rise.
Problem was, I had no way of knowing exactly where the moon would appear. So we arranged it so we'd be there early. Real early. Not wanting to be rushing around at the last minute, we arrived at our lookout around 6:15. Moonrise was scheduled for 7:44!
I got the camera, with 300mm lens on the tripod, and wandered around with another camera and shot a bunch of pretty much forgettable ambience shots. I've been to this location many times before.
I took my position at the tailgate when there were about 20 minutes remaining before moonrise. Margaret thought my verbal countdown ever five minutes was overkill, but hey, that's how I roll. When I finally saw the glow on the still quite light horizon, I had only about 10 seconds to get focused in and start shooting. It moves fast, and yes, it really did look 30% larger than a normal moonrise:
For a while.. meaning 2 or 3 minutes.. I was able to shoot on auto, and still get detail in the foreground, and also in the moon itself, along with its beautiful orange cast. Also, the whispy clouds add much to the drama of the image. Unfortunately, as anyone who has tried to capture images of the full moon knows, (and judging from the interwebz, that's nearly everyone) there comes a point when you have to choose between detail on the ground and detail in the moon. You can't have both. Again, as evidenced by the images on the internet, most of the people who shoot the moon, have no idea how to do it properly. If you let the camera have its way, you end up with a white disk in the middle of the frame that looks very much like an Alka-Seltzer tablet.
If you want a properly exposed moon, with lots of detail, you expose exactly as you would at high noon, because what is moonlight, after all, but reflected sunlight! At ISO 200, shoot it at f5.6 and 1/500th of a second. Or thereabouts. Just don't be looking for any details in the surrounding frame. To get that you have to "take one from column A, and one from column b", mix in a little Photoshop magic, and voilá...
That image was taken from the old stand-by location.. the rear porch of the house. After we'd used up almost all of the daylight up on the mountain, we drove back down as quickly as was prudent, and got set up on the porch in time to catch a second "rising". Moonbats.
Now, every time I've shot the moon since we've lived here, it's been from the back porch, and I've caught it rising over the Little Florida Mountains which, you should know by now, are basically in our back yard.
I needed to find a new location to shoot from in this case, because I knew that once the moon got a few degrees above the horizon it would begin to look like any full moon. I needed the horizon in the picture when the moon was appearing to be at its largest. It was time to pack the little Montero and head up into the Little Floridas.
We were going to a spot about 2 miles east of the house, but the drive was more like 6 miles on fairly easy jeep trails. Our vantage point would give us unobstructed view all the way to the Organ Mountains east of Las Cruces... nearly 100 miles away! I had my horizon, and had only to wait for the moon to rise.
Problem was, I had no way of knowing exactly where the moon would appear. So we arranged it so we'd be there early. Real early. Not wanting to be rushing around at the last minute, we arrived at our lookout around 6:15. Moonrise was scheduled for 7:44!
I got the camera, with 300mm lens on the tripod, and wandered around with another camera and shot a bunch of pretty much forgettable ambience shots. I've been to this location many times before.
I took my position at the tailgate when there were about 20 minutes remaining before moonrise. Margaret thought my verbal countdown ever five minutes was overkill, but hey, that's how I roll. When I finally saw the glow on the still quite light horizon, I had only about 10 seconds to get focused in and start shooting. It moves fast, and yes, it really did look 30% larger than a normal moonrise:
Moonrise, W. Potrillo Mtns., NM |
f4.0 1/8sec, ISO400 |
f8, 1/250th sec., ISO400 |
If you want a properly exposed moon, with lots of detail, you expose exactly as you would at high noon, because what is moonlight, after all, but reflected sunlight! At ISO 200, shoot it at f5.6 and 1/500th of a second. Or thereabouts. Just don't be looking for any details in the surrounding frame. To get that you have to "take one from column A, and one from column b", mix in a little Photoshop magic, and voilá...
Moonrise, Little Florida Mtns., NM |
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Another Spring Visitor.
The peach tree is attracting all kinds of insect life, from common houseflies, the metallic green sweat bees featured in yesterday's post, regular honeybees, and this solitary Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly. I don't know where his friends are, but he's now thoroughly worked over the tree for the last 3 days.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Some Good News After All.
Peach Blossoms |
Monday, March 07, 2011
Paper Trail..
Everything but the Paper Cut: Eye-popping Ways Artists Use Paper | Fast Company - StumbleUpon
Having recently discovered StumbleUpon, I find that it is yet another exquisite time waster. The above piece on ways contemporary artists are re-imagining paper is a great example.
This blog, and it's "sister" blog, Scanners! are both registered with StumbleUpon. You can help create traffic when you click on the StumbleUpon logo. It's found on this blog on the right hand side in the subscription area, and on the Scanners! blog at the upper left side). Increased traffic means potentially increased ad revenues. Maybe. Hey, it's worth a try!
UPDATE: As I continued my morning "Stumble", I discovered yet more amazing paper art. To apply the term "painstaking" to this work doesn't even begin to cover it.
Between the Lines, by Ariana Boussard-Reifel |
Having recently discovered StumbleUpon, I find that it is yet another exquisite time waster. The above piece on ways contemporary artists are re-imagining paper is a great example.
This blog, and it's "sister" blog, Scanners! are both registered with StumbleUpon. You can help create traffic when you click on the StumbleUpon logo. It's found on this blog on the right hand side in the subscription area, and on the Scanners! blog at the upper left side). Increased traffic means potentially increased ad revenues. Maybe. Hey, it's worth a try!
UPDATE: As I continued my morning "Stumble", I discovered yet more amazing paper art. To apply the term "painstaking" to this work doesn't even begin to cover it.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Yup. This is Depressing.
A mere 6 weeks separate these two images. The palms all over town, and in Las Cruces look the same. This makes me sad.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Hummers Rule!
Past 30 day count shows the hummingbird film is beating the former most viewed post here.. Dipshit Glenn Beck. I think I owe Soso Whaley one.
Consequences of a Changing Climate
Just a few weeks ago, these California Fan Palms in our backyard were snow covered, and still green. Then the deep freeze hit. More than 90 straight hours below freezing, with overnight lows around 0°F, and wind chills 15 - 20° below that. Daytime highs struggled to make the 20’s. A few days after the cold broke, I noticed that all the fronds had turned brittle and brown. Then we had a day with brutal winds, and the crown of the tree just went over in a right angle to the trunk. We don’t know if these palms are dead. The experts say don’t trim or chop till Spring.. see if the plant can replenish itself from the roots.
We live in an area where the average January and February high temperatures are in the 40’s and 50’s, and overnight we might hit 20° on a bad night. The plants aren’t used to what we have and neither are the houses. We lost our water for 48 hours, and have some not-quite-essential pipes to replace under the house.. (the pipe supplying the outside faucets, and also the refrigerator ice maker- the horror! No cracked ice for Margaritas!). There’s also a tiny leak in the well house, although I’m not sure it’s related to the cold. It took me several days to realize the consistently crowded parking lot at the hardware store wasn’t because they were having a giant clearance sale. They were selling PVC pipe. Thousands and thousands of feet of PVC pipe.
Besides our palms, our prickly pear cactus are drooping, and even the acacia, and Mexican elder look sickly. The Ocotillo always looks dead in the winter, so we’ll just have to wait and see on that one. The only thing that looks unscathed is the all the goddamn cholla!
Most disturbing of all, is the plight of the Ponderosa pines. At Christmas, they were green and thriving, lit up with our holiday lights. Now they are sad and brown. I can’t believe that the cold did this. They’re mountain trees fer chrissakes! I think they’ve fallen victim to the lack of moisture. We haven’t had any appreciable precipitation since Summer. We had a blizzard at the end of January, but because it was so cold and dry, the snow seemed more to evaporate than melt. There was no mud.
I’ve been watering the pines and the fig tree, (which also looks in a bad way), but so far they remain golden brown, and stand out on our hill like a beacon.
Rain is in the forecast for Sunday. It may, and it may not, depending on the wildly varied forecasts from the different online weather services. These plants have been in the yard since the house was placed here in 1997. I’d hate to have to start over.
We live in an area where the average January and February high temperatures are in the 40’s and 50’s, and overnight we might hit 20° on a bad night. The plants aren’t used to what we have and neither are the houses. We lost our water for 48 hours, and have some not-quite-essential pipes to replace under the house.. (the pipe supplying the outside faucets, and also the refrigerator ice maker- the horror! No cracked ice for Margaritas!). There’s also a tiny leak in the well house, although I’m not sure it’s related to the cold. It took me several days to realize the consistently crowded parking lot at the hardware store wasn’t because they were having a giant clearance sale. They were selling PVC pipe. Thousands and thousands of feet of PVC pipe.
Besides our palms, our prickly pear cactus are drooping, and even the acacia, and Mexican elder look sickly. The Ocotillo always looks dead in the winter, so we’ll just have to wait and see on that one. The only thing that looks unscathed is the all the goddamn cholla!
Most disturbing of all, is the plight of the Ponderosa pines. At Christmas, they were green and thriving, lit up with our holiday lights. Now they are sad and brown. I can’t believe that the cold did this. They’re mountain trees fer chrissakes! I think they’ve fallen victim to the lack of moisture. We haven’t had any appreciable precipitation since Summer. We had a blizzard at the end of January, but because it was so cold and dry, the snow seemed more to evaporate than melt. There was no mud.
I’ve been watering the pines and the fig tree, (which also looks in a bad way), but so far they remain golden brown, and stand out on our hill like a beacon.
Rain is in the forecast for Sunday. It may, and it may not, depending on the wildly varied forecasts from the different online weather services. These plants have been in the yard since the house was placed here in 1997. I’d hate to have to start over.
Monday, February 14, 2011
It’s A Game of Keepaway..
Friday, February 11, 2011
Not A Couple.
Ever wonder what would happen if your dog jumped a jackrabbit when a large bird of prey was in proximity? Would the bird, (in this case a handsome Prairie Falcon) join in the pursuit? Would it steal the prey? I wondered the same thing!
I’ll keep on wondering, too, because the falcon flew off just a second after I snapped this image, and a good half hour before we finally jumped a hare. Ah, what might have been.
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Darwin Day Is Upon Us..
One of the saddest things to have happened in the last couple of months was the decision by Pat Burns to 95% walk away from his Terrierman's Daily Dose blog. It's been a must read for me since being pointed there several years ago from Steve Bodio's Querencia blog.
Fortunately, Patrick's 5% is generally more useful than my 100% here, so I look forward to his too few and far between posts. Yesterday he posted this very valuable reminder that this coming Saturday, February 12 is Darwin Day! He also included this wonderfully subversive little video:
Evolution Made Us All from Ben Hillman on Vimeo.
This helps to raise my spirits some, which had been soundly dampened yesterday, by this deeply disturbing bit of news from NPR.
Chin up fellow secular humanists! All is not lost. Celebrate Darwin Day!
And hurry back, Mr. Burns.
Fortunately, Patrick's 5% is generally more useful than my 100% here, so I look forward to his too few and far between posts. Yesterday he posted this very valuable reminder that this coming Saturday, February 12 is Darwin Day! He also included this wonderfully subversive little video:
Evolution Made Us All from Ben Hillman on Vimeo.
This helps to raise my spirits some, which had been soundly dampened yesterday, by this deeply disturbing bit of news from NPR.
Chin up fellow secular humanists! All is not lost. Celebrate Darwin Day!
And hurry back, Mr. Burns.
Monday, February 07, 2011
The Best Super Bowl XLV Ad You Didn't See..
..unless you were watching Armed Forces Network in Afghanistan, or from a carrier in the Gulf..
Some find the fact that our servicemen don't get to see the real commercials on AFN as slightly un-American. I think I agree, but if all of the PSA's were this well done, they'll be all right.
Some find the fact that our servicemen don't get to see the real commercials on AFN as slightly un-American. I think I agree, but if all of the PSA's were this well done, they'll be all right.
Sunday, February 06, 2011
"This is what we do.."
Just ignore, for a moment, the fact that Chrysler is now owned by FIAT (Fix It Again, Tony), and the US taxpayers... better yet, just imagine a Ford Focus ST, or Fusion Hybrid in the place of the Chrysler 200.. Or, just forget about the car completely, because the car's not what makes this, hands down, the best ad from Superbowl XLV:
Start The Revolution Without Me.
I find it interesting that in the midst of a revolution, someone in Cairo still finds the time to surf to this blog to look at the Victoria's Secret image.
Friday, February 04, 2011
This Is A Big Fuc.. .. Deal!
Doves, seeking shelter during the worst. I feared for their lives. |
blizzard!
In our area, particularly, the homes are not suited to cold this extreme. We've been without water since Wednesday night, probably because the water line from the well building to the house is not buried deep enough. Fortunately, our well building is well insulated, so there was running water from the tap there.. we were able to fill some 5 gallon buckets to at least be able to flush the toilets. We've been spoiled here, and had forgotten the rules about opening the taps to prevent freezing.. besides, who could have imagined that we would break the record for low temps by a whopping 20 degrees?!
The dishwasher is full. The kitchen counters are full of more dirty dishes. Our bodies are.. well, enough said about that. We could use showers.
I awoke at 6:15 this morning to the sound very much like a dog getting ready to empty its stomach. I was afraid the drains were about to back up. In reality, it was the faucet in the bathtub, trying mightily to produce water! It would produce only a trickle, but a trickle was more than we've had for more than 50 hours. To compound the good news, the same was happening in the second bathtub. Not a drop from any of the sink faucets yet, but now that appears only a matter of time.
The forecast for the next 10 days is for highs in the 60's. That sounds a whole lot like normal to me, and the last two days will be but an ugly memory. Next Winter we'll know better, and I want a wood burner in the house!
Thursday, February 03, 2011
The Hummers of the Summer of 2010
On an eye-bleedingly, bone-chillingly cold day in the middle of Winter, where the last two days set record low temperatures, and tonight promises to do likewise, I was inspired to finally put together a film from last Summer. I was probably complaining about the flies and the heat then.
I may have mentioned - more than once - that we had an unusually large numbers of hummingbirds around the yard last season. May this make you feel warm. (Not doing much for me so far...)
I may have mentioned - more than once - that we had an unusually large numbers of hummingbirds around the yard last season. May this make you feel warm. (Not doing much for me so far...)
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Scanners!.... is moving!
I've looked at the amount of raw material I've got to work with, and decided there's more than enough to scan, modify, and install in its own blog, probably to be called: Scanners! oddly enough. Many images will be of a more, um, adult nature, so you'll have to show proof before entering. I'm sure it will be worth it. It's also another place to run the Google Ads, and hopefully increase the revenue stream.. only took two years to earn the last $100. You know what to do.
I'll let you know when the site's up and running!
I'll let you know when the site's up and running!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)