It seems like every time I stand at the kitchen sink in the morning - I see birds! I’ve learned to keep my camera handy and make sure the window says clean enough to photograph through.
The mourning doves are generally silent so I sometimes don’t notice them right away.
This one seemed to be surveying the yard below. Maybe it got a drink from the bird bath just before I saw it.
Then it calmly walked along the railing…and flew away. 
I did lots of hiking with campers in August…and managed some local photography jaunts (like the Butterfly exhibit at Brookside Gardens). As I was creating the collages for this month, I started experimenting with a better way to upload them…so click on any collage below to see a larger version of it! Some highlights of the zoomed images this month are:
Enjoy!
Yesterday I lead a Nature Photograph Introduction for summer campers at Belmont Manor and Historic Park. It was an exciting and gratifying volunteer gig - exceeding my expectations in just about every way. I worked with 5-8 year olds in the morning and 9-12 year olds in the afternoon. The campers became so engaged in taking photographs that they were surprised when it was time to stop! And they took some excellent pictures.
I used 8 pictures to introduce nature photography before we hiked into the forest - tailoring the discussion a little for the age group but both groups had a lot to say about each image and used some of the ideas in their photographs during our hike. I’m including the ‘priming’ images in this post and a few notes about how I talked about them.
Image 1: What story does this picture tell? Concepts: leading line (path), foreground/background, person for scale
Image 2: How was this picture taken? (Remember you don’t have to always point the camera straight ahead or down!). Concepts: bright spots, attention to light
Image 3: What is this? (birds nest fungus) Concepts: scale…approaching macro photography…get as close as your camera will focus, different stages of fungus development in the same image
Image 4: What is it? (blue bird) Concepts: zooming, introduce possibility of cropping (older group)
Image 5: What is the butterfly doing? Concepts: photograph butterflies when they are still (eating or drinking), zooming
Image 6: What is it? (blue jay feather) Concepts: photographing things you shouldn’t pick up, get as close as your camera will focus
Image 7: What is it? (mouse ears) Concepts: get as close as you can, if you want to identify the flower later - take pictures from several perspectives and at least one that includes the entire plant
Image 8: Let’s review some concepts - light (some overload)…leading line…hints of color
Then we reviewed how to hold the camera (strap around the wrist at all times), how to turn it on and take a picture, and how to zoom…..how to hold the camera while we were walking (turned off, camera in hand, strap around wrist).
And then we were hiking and finding a lot of the natural environment to photograph!
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
Everything We've Learned about Mummies Using 21st Century Technology - Mummies fascinate just because we know they are often from the distant past…new technology adds elements to that fascination.
It’s Time to End the Gar Wars - Learn something new about native fish….and the history of conservation.
Why Kids Need to Dig in the Dirt Again - Play in the outdoors….not such a common thing for children as it used to be. Sad.
What Dose of Nature Do We Need to Feel Better? - Evidently there is a lot of research right now about the health benefits of spending time in nature….not just for children either.
New U.S. Water Rule is Crucial for Clean Drinking Water and Resilience to Droughts and Floods - As water supplies shift (too much and too little), the clarification will become more important. I was surprised that prior to the clarification, drinking water for 1 in 3 Americans came from streams without clear protection from pollution and degradation. Sustaining or improving the quality of water supplies is a key component to a sustainable planet.
Monarch Butterfly Conservation Series - I’m putting these videos on my ‘to do’ list.
Watching the Simultaneous Release of 11,000 Marbles - Mesmerizing.
Why you want Google Photos - Something new I am looking into.
16 Photographs of Animals Caught in the Rain - My favorites are the tricolor heron and monarch butterfly chrysalis photos.
These Maps Show Just How Screwed China Will Be After Sea Levels Rise - This is if all the ice melts….which may be a possibility if the world continues on current trends….and even if the ice does not melt completely, there are a lot of people living in coastal areas that are very close to sea level.
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
Greenland continuing to darken - In the Water in the Western US course I am taking via Coursera they mentioned snow darkening as it melted because layers of dust that has originally been blown on a fresh surface of snow accumulated as the layer of snow melted and left the snow behind….and then I saw this article about Greenland on the same day!
Video Diary: One Tiny Hummingbird Family - If you have never had an opportunity to watch a hummingbird nest, this is an opportunity.
Milkweed and Monarch Concerns – 2015 - Plant Milkweed for Monarchs - The key message in this post is to plant milkweed that is native to the area where you live. That’s
Welcome to Oklahoma, the State of Denial - The graphics caught my eye in this article. There were a lot of earthquakes in Oklahoma in 2014….and evidently since this article was written the state government has started to acknowledge that they are likely manmade.
The Growing Outdoor Recreation Economy - National Parks contributed $26 billion to the economy in 2014 and the outdoor recreation economy is estimated at $646 billion and included 6.1 million jobs. Along a similar trend, another article….The Science of Valuing Nature Becoming Business as Usual.
Nest Cam of the Month: Barred & Barn Owls - I take look at the nest cams. Owls are popular right now.
Putting Technology in Its Place - Technology is not always the answer…or the total answer. Often it falls short of our expectations - particularly in places that need help the most.
Ten Favorite Trees for Wildlife - A very good list. Pick ones that are native to your area.
Excessive use of dietary supplements linked to increase cancer risk - It appears that dietary supplements are too much of a good thing. The bottom line coming out of more and more studies appears to be that its best to meet nutritional needs via food rather than supplements.
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
Add nature, art and religion to life's best anti-inflammatories - Yet another reason to savor the awe of nature, art and spiritually - if you need one. Including these in day-to-day living should not be a hard sell but many times they fall by the wayside if our lives get too full of other things. They don’t go on a ‘bucket list’ for some other time; they need to be included every day!
In a crisis, the bigger your social network, the better - This research indicates that more extensive social networks are a backup strategy for crises - or at least it was in the pre-Hispanic Southwest. Is it always the case? Sometimes it seems that all the increased communication going on in the modern world has increased the divides rather than built positive networks.
Never trust a corporation to do a library’s job - The history of Google and Internet Archive as ‘library.’
High Stakes in Declining Monarch Butterfly Populations and Six Ways to Save Monarchs - The rapid decline of Monarch butterflies is very sad….but there are things to do. I am going make the dominant plant in my chaos garden beginning this year!
How the Eastern tiger swallowtail got 'scary' - Another butterfly story. I bought some tiger swallowtail earrings (one is the caterpillar and the other is the butterfly) so this article captured my attention.
The Chemical Compounds behind the Smell of Flowers - The smell of roses, carnations, violets, lilies, hyacinth, chrysanthemums, and lilacs. The only flower whose smell is not produced with compounds containing ring structures is the lily.
Increasing individualism in US linked with rise of white-collar jobs - A lot has happened in the last 150 years…including a higher percentage of the population working in white-collar jobs. This study showed that the trend in type of job was more correlated with the trend toward individualism that some other changes such as urbanization or frequency of disease or disasters.
How Tourist Garbage Causes Yellowstone's Morning Glory to Change Color - The color of the Morning Glory pool is no longer the blue color of its namesake. Too many people have thrown coins, rocks, and trash into it. This article reports on why the trash caused the change.
Larger area analysis needed to understand patterns in ancient prehistory - In the past, the main tools used to study prehistory only addressed very small areas. Now there is an acknowledgement that some conclusions cannot be drawn with only those small samples and technologies that can look at larger areas are being applied more frequently to understand how cultures responded to population pressure and climate change in particular.
An ocean of plastic: Magnitude of plastic waste going into the ocean calculated - More than 4.8 million metric tons of plastic waste enters the oceans from land each year; it could be as high as 12.7 metric tons. That’s a lot of plastic. The ocean seems so vast…but we are pushing it in ways that it may not be able to absorb without huge impact to itself and the planet.
Electrochromic polymers create broad color palette for sunglasses, windows - What fun! I’d like these in the windows of my office rather than sunglasses! Maybe the window could be powered by a solar cell.
Celebrating the whole of life....
Thanks for visiting my blog! Enjoy the photo picks from 2023:
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