Turtle Shell Patterns

Two other images showing the shell markings:

In this image it appear that the one turtle is not covered with mud or algae, rather it has a completely different shell design - again, i've no idea what that different shell means; perhaps the difference is just like humans-there are many different possibilities.

Two Turtles

Last week i learned about Beaver Dam Bird Sanctuary but, so far, i've only seen one bird and it flew into a tree never to be seen again. However, there are many many turtles there and i'm fascinated with the color of both the turtle and water.

In the above photo of two turtles -these are Red Eared Slider turtles- the top turtle has a different colored shell. It seemed to be covered with mud or algae ... it only appeared for a minute or two and left 'fore i could get a good shot of it - perhaps it was an older turtle.

Pileated Woodpecker

I have been on the lookout for the Pileated Wood Pecker that occasionally comes thru here. My neighbors say they see them but in the six months here i've not seen any. Today they made up for their absence ... a pair, i think young ones, played in and around a couple of trees allowing me to get a few good shots:

This blog, owned by Google, does not allow me to put images side-by-side nor make them as large as i'd sometimes like. I think i need to create my own photo-blog as i do rent server space that is more then enough to create such a bog.

'Nuff of that ... here are a few more of this wondrous looking bird - the largest wood pecker in North America.

That one WP has a serious contemporary hair look!

Clouds

Almost every evening there is some, and occasionally a lot, of thunder and last night lots of lightening. Usually there is not rain. The cloud formations are to the south and southwest of us and the cloud formation is a delight to see.

Humm, the images are a little dark for my taste ... my monitor keeps telling me it needs recalibrating - guess its time to do that.

Still, the clouds here on the mountain side, 2211 feet at our house, are amazing and i never tire of sitting and watching them. That may be because in the SF bay area there are essential no clouds like there 'cepting for the fall and then only for a short while.

Peeking

Thistles ll

Sometimes i get excited, actually a lot of times, about an image i made or am making. This is in the, or is that a, process and i'm liking what's coming out:

Perhaps i've mentioned that to get details at such a close distance requires 'stack focusing' which i now hearing is beginning to be built into cameras. The usually way is to take a series of shots, each one in a slight different plane of focus which, when combined/stacked, will yield a depth of field (DOF) that is much greater than a single image can produce. Perhaps an example will help those who don't work with macro photography:

The top image is the first of 21 shots and the bottom image is the final image. You can see that the top image has some sharpness on the closes tips of the of the thistle and the bottom image has sharpness on the furtherest leaves and there are 19 incremental images in between these two that are put on top of each other (hence, stacking) and then the software melds them together creating a single image. And if all goes well, it is sharp - like this:

And there you have it: a mini-lesson in focus-stacking.

Thistles

I have been photographing a thistle that is growing along side of the house. Its beautiful and the neighbors said it was a weed. I've heard that before but know that a weed is any plant you don't want growing 'there'. As i'm happy with the thistle and its beautiful colors, its as good as anything i've planted - however, the needles are very sharp and pierce even my heavy gloves; i'm very careful with it.

Sometimes they host guests

 As the plant is a couple weeks old, it is beginning to fade so i pruned it -this is the unpruned shot- with the idea it'll last longer and grown new blooms; time will tell. The whole plant looks likes this:

It feels like i've just begun to work on the photographic portrait of this plant ... we'll see together where it leads.