Post a beautiful nature picture

[spacecadet]

Hoverfly on a white nettle-leaved bellflower this morning. A lovely bit of dappled shade......and a Lastolite gold reflector.

I've got campanula trachelium, thanks John, but any chance of an ID on the hoverfly..........?

I was so pleased to get the oil-film dichroism (made-up description) on the wings. Zoom in to see.

Edited July 10, 2020 by spacecadet

[John Richmond]

33 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

Hoverfly on a white nettle-leaved bellflower this morning. A lovely bit of dappled shade......and a Lastolite gold reflector.

I've got campanula trachelium, thanks John, but any chance of an ID on the hoverfly..........?

I was so pleased to get the oil-film dichroism (made-up description) on the wings. Zoom in to see.

 

It's the marmalade hoverfly, Episyrphus balteatus.  This one:

 

 

Lots of those in my garden at the moment.  Just come back from the local nature reserve (it's only a few hundred yards from my house so an easy walk) with a fair few insect images.  A quick browse through suggests I've got about 2 worth keeping.  Field macro is hard work for little reward. 😀

[Betty LaRue]

I’ve never identified a species of hover fly.  I just tag “hoverfly”! Insects can be hard.

[spacecadet]

2 hours ago, John Richmond said:

It's the marmalade hoverfly, Episyrphus balteatus.

Thanks again, John. I didn't think I'd be captionless for long.

Not up to your standard, of course, but it was opportunistic out on the patio with the long end of the 55-200. Not the sharpest tool in the box.

[John Richmond]

3 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

Thanks again, John. I didn't think I'd be captionless for long.

Not up to your standard, of course, but it was opportunistic out on the patio with the long end of the 55-200. Not the sharpest tool in the box.

There's no shortage of close up insect shots on Alamy so I think there's space for good shots of them in the wider habitat.  Lots of copy space!

[spacecadet]

2 hours ago, John Richmond said:

There's no shortage of close up insect shots on Alamy so I think there's space for good shots of them in the wider habitat.  Lots of copy space!

I'll consider it then, thanks fo the tip!

[John Mitchell]

On 06/07/2020 at 11:58, spacecadet said:

Lemon blossom.

Lemons (and greenfly!) to follow.

 

Very nice. Just wondering, what macro lens (or lens attachments) are you using with your Sony?

[Phil Robinson]

6 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

I’ve never identified a species of hover fly.  I just tag “hoverfly”! Insects can be hard.

They're a lot easier than bumble bees!

[MizBrown]

Tall grass prairie in autumn, Missouri, US, when I lived in the DC area and went out to see friends who lived in St. Louis.

 

[gvallee]

We just spent a wonderful week bushcamping in a national park. Stunning scenery with waterfalls, plunge pools, campfires in the evening.

There was a termite mound less than 5m from our motorhome. Camera mounted on a tripod and pre-focused slightly to the back of the top of the mound, I was comfortably seated with a glass of wine in one hand, remote shutter release in the other hand. I spent hours photographing blue-faced honeyeaters and great bowerbirds landing and inter-acting/fighting/begging on and around it. 

 

A skinny dingo ventured in the campground, only to be mobbed by a crow. He had to retreat.

Needless to say, although the scenery was breathtaking, birds were the highlight of our stay.

 

 

Edited July 10, 2020 by gvallee

[Betty LaRue]

1 hour ago, gvallee said:

We just spent a wonderful week bushcamping in a national park. Stunning scenery with waterfalls, plunge pools, campfires in the evening.

There was a termite mound less than 5m from our motorhome. Camera mounted on a tripod and pre-focused slightly to the back of the top of the mound, I was comfortably seated with a glass of wine in one hand, remote shutter release in the other hand. I spent hours photographing blue-faced honeyeaters and great bowerbirds landing and inter-acting/fighting/begging on and around it. 

 

A skinny dingo ventured in the campground, only to be mobbed by a crow. He had to retreat.

Needless to say, although the scenery was breathtaking, birds were the highlight of our stay.

 

 

Beautiful bird! So do the birds come to eat the termites or what? And what do the termites eat without a house around? 

[gvallee]

3 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

Beautiful bird! So do the birds come to eat the termites or what? And what do the termites eat without a house around? 

 

No they don't eat termites. I had discreetly hidden wild bird seeds on the other side. 

[Betty LaRue]

1 minute ago, gvallee said:

 

No they don't eat termites. I had discreetly hidden wild bird seeds on the other side. 

Ah! A woman after my own heart.
Before I got into stock and was shooting film, I seeded a huge washed up twisted, gray tree near a lighthouse in Oregon.  I had the lighthouse in the BG, threw crumbled cookies (all I had) on the tree trunk, scrambled backwards with all that driftwood and rock tripping me in order to get seagulls with wings spread landing on the weathered tree. It took several tries because the gulls swooped so fast and ate the crumbs before I could back up far enough to frame the shot.

The resulting image look almost black and white, but it had a bluish tint because the day was misty. It won a best in show in a local contest, so it was worth my nearly breaking my neck. 

We were on vacation, so this was not a planned shoot. I just saw what was there and my mind painted a picture. So I had to set it up.

Gen, I’m very sure you have done the same thing. In your travels, you stumbled upon a scene and your imagination directed you.

I love it when that happens. Because that’s what it is, a spontaneous happening.

[gvallee]

4 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

Ah! A woman after my own heart.
Before I got into stock and was shooting film, I seeded a huge washed up twisted, gray tree near a lighthouse in Oregon.  I had the lighthouse in the BG, threw crumbled cookies (all I had) on the tree trunk, scrambled backwards with all that driftwood and rock tripping me in order to get seagulls with wings spread landing on the weathered tree. It took several tries because the gulls swooped so fast and ate the crumbs before I could back up far enough to frame the shot.

The resulting image look almost black and white, but it had a bluish tint because the day was misty. It won a best in show in a local contest, so it was worth my nearly breaking my neck. 

We were on vacation, so this was not a planned shoot. I just saw what was there and my mind painted a picture. So I had to set it up.

Gen, I’m very sure you have done the same thing. In your travels, you stumbled upon a scene and your imagination directed you.

I love it when that happens. Because that’s what it is, a spontaneous happening.

 

I ended up with several hundred pix, I'm not telling you the number of deletes... Bird landing from the wrong angle, too low behind the termite mound, too quick, only partially in the frame, wings wrong angle, etc etc. And then when they were two of them, they had to be both in focus, not hiding part of the other's head, etc. Bird photography is when you need the most patience but is also the most rewarding, in my opinion of course. I'm aware that it wouldn't do much for most people.

 

You must have been pleased to win a prize, it makes it all the more worthwhile knowing you are not the only person liking your shot.

[Betty LaRue]

3 minutes ago, gvallee said:

 

I ended up with several hundred pix, I'm not telling you the number of deletes... Bird landing from the wrong angle, too low behind the termite mound, too quick, only partially in the frame, wings wrong angle, etc etc. And then when they were two of them, they had to be both in focus, not hiding part of the other's head, etc. Bird photography is when you need the most patience but is also the most rewarding, in my opinion of course. I'm aware that it wouldn't do much for most people.

 

You must have been pleased to win a prize, it makes it all the more worthwhile knowing you are not the only person liking your shot.

Those were the days shortly after I’d been painting watercolors. My mind was heavy on composition, and of course I love birds as you do. If they wear feathers, I’m a fan. Even noisy, pushy seagulls.

Yeah, I understand on the deletes. Been thar......done that.

[gvallee]

Only during courtship does the Great Bowerbird (Chlamydera nuchalis) stands with its crest erect. When the crest lies flat, it is not even noticed, being the same grey colour as the rest of his feathers. In this case, I think he was just practising. He was part of a group of 7 bowerbirds around us, the others looking like juveniles and females. This particular individual would display on top of the termite mound, jump down, pick up a stick and do his silly mating dance with wings drooping.

 

 

 

[spacecadet]

12 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

 

Very nice. Just wondering, what macro lens (or lens attachments) are you using with your Sony?

That one was just the long end of the 18-55 kit lens.

For closer stuff, an old 100mm process lens hot glued specially adapted to a set of BPM bellows that came with my Illumitran. Usually at f11 or 16. It's handy enough to use hand-held if you have a steady hand. That's a lot of hands. I can get up to about 130mm. of extension which is just over 1:1 on APS but the DOF is tiny of course. The lens goes AWOL below 16- really awful.

I had been using an enlarging lens but it had a focus shift when stopped down (pretty useless for enlarging but there you are). The process lens was one of a set my brother got at a market for next to nothing so I at least owe him a drink. It would adapt nicely to mirrorless I imagine. The 100mm. is about the size of a Leica prime lens but the others are huge.

Edited July 11, 2020 by spacecadet

[John Mitchell]

9 hours ago, spacecadet said:

That one was just the long end of the 18-55 kit lens.

For closer stuff, an old 100mm process lens hot glued specially adapted to a set of BPM bellows that came with my Illumitran. Usually at f11 or 16. It's handy enough to use hand-held if you have a steady hand. That's a lot of hands. I can get up to about 130mm. of extension which is just over 1:1 on APS but the DOF is tiny of course. The lens goes AWOL below 16- really awful.

I had been using an enlarging lens but it had a focus shift when stopped down (pretty useless for enlarging but there you are). The process lens was one of a set my brother got at a market for next to nothing so I at least owe him a drink. It would adapt nicely to mirrorless I imagine. The 100mm. is about the size of a Leica prime lens but the others are huge.

 

Thanks for the reply. It's amazing what you can do with a kit zoom. I have inexpensive extension tubes that I bought on ebay, plus a set of ancient HOYA screw-on closeup lenses that work fine if you don't stack them. Maybe one day I'll invest in a real macro lens.

[spacecadet]

32 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

Maybe one day I'll invest in a real macro lens.

Maybe, but in my case the process lens is designed for fairly short subject distances (though not that short!). The advent of mirrorless is supposed to have put up the second-hand price of classic glass up now you don't have to worry about flange focal depth anymore.

[John Mitchell]

13 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

Maybe, but in my case the process lens is designed for fairly short subject distances (though not that short!). The advent of mirrorless is supposed to have put up the second-hand price of classic glass up now you don't have to worry about flange focal depth anymore.

 

I had to Google "flange focal depth", but that makes sense. 

[spacecadet]

7 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

 

I had to Google "flange focal depth", but that makes sense. 

Good job I didn't say FFD then.😀

[MizBrown]

On 10/07/2020 at 04:17, chris_rabe said:

I keep forgetting that there are threads outside of "contributor experience". And now that I am no longer contributing on Shutterstock, I need to get more active on here.

 

One of my recently re-processed images. I'd love to get back to Costa Rica next year (or my bday in December), but not sure how realistic that is these days

 

Costa Rica is lying about the number of Covid 19 deaths and is preparing to reopen for tourism sooner than later.  Nicaragua is also lying about the deaths, just not as much and three weeks late, and some tourist/retirement areas are already getting tired of the gringos who stayed.  My area is less dependent on tourism, and almost everyone is masking after a couple of recent local deaths.

 

I think Nicaragua has about 90% of the same species as Costa Rica (minus some higher altitude endemics) and has fewer of the "Mah freedoms won't allow me to wear a mask" types as Costa Rica. 

 

I can highly recommend El Jaguar Nature Reserve for birds and some of the smaller mammals and perhaps cougars (tracks mistaken for jaguars apparently).   Not sure when we'll be safe to visit, but if the Chinese or Russians produce a vaccine before the US, UK, or France, Nicaragua is likely to be a test bed for wider spread distribution. 

 

One of mine that I submitted as a single since I wasn't sure the motion blur would pass CC.  Taken at El Jaguar before the Virus.  Violet sabrewing hummingbird. 

[Betty LaRue]

Love seeing new-to-me birds.

MizBrown, lying seems to be prevalent about the virus. In the U.S. there are too many reports to be totally dismissed from family members about hospitals that are listing deaths as Covid-caused even if someone dies from something else. Maybe it’s because the hospitals get paid a certain amount from the government if the death is Covid related. Hmm. So Covid deaths are being inflated. I’d be interested to know if it is by a significant amount.

 

Right now, the largest age group of new infections in the U.S. is the 20-35 year olds, who, when stay-at-home was lifted, raced out to the bars, beaches and protests, and is the group that scorns masks more than other age groups. I heard on the news this morning about a brother and sister, both in their early 20s, who died from Covid. Young people suffer from the “Not Me” syndrome.
Betty

Edited July 11, 2020 by Betty LaRue

[Michael Ventura]

Sounds like Mizbrown is saying that they are hiding Covid deaths, in Central America, in order to reopen the economy sooner.  I have not heard that U.S. hospitals are inflating the numbers for any reason.  I would be astonished to learn that the hospital where my daughter works is fudging the numbers.  There is a lot at stake to keep accurate data so we understand this novel coronavirus the best we can.  

[MizBrown]

8 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

Love seeing new-to-me birds.

MizBrown, lying seems to be prevalent about the virus. In the U.S. there are too many reports to be totally dismissed from family members about hospitals that are listing deaths as Covid-caused even if someone dies from something else. Maybe it’s because the hospitals get paid a certain amount from the government if the death is Covid related. Hmm. So Covid deaths are being inflated. I’d be interested to know if it is by a significant amount.

 

Right now, the largest age group of new infections in the U.S. is the 20-35 year olds, who, when stay-at-home was lifted, raced out to the bars, beaches and protests, and is the group that scorns masks more than other age groups. I heard on the news this morning about a brother and sister, both in their early 20s, who died from Covid. Young people suffer from the “Not Me” syndrome.
Betty

 

We have the rumor spreaders who get "secret reports" from doctors who get information from patients they are "treating on line."  It's the opposite direction from the stories in the US of doctors falsely reporting deaths from other things as Covid 19.  One of the other Americans living here had a brother-in-law (Nicaraguan) who had several comorbidities and who had a heart attack at the hospital while talking to a kinswoman who is a doctor.  The death certificate read heart attack with several complicating factors (uncontrolled diabetes II, high blood pressure, obesity, and the Covid 19, which kicked him over the edge).  One Nicaraguan friend of a friend lost her mother and expects to lose her brother, who is hanging on in the local hospital (they've already bought his casket and dug the grave).

 

Nicaraguans are so used to propaganda that they weigh accounts on line from people they don't know with accounts from people they have known for years.   We all know that the Blue and White demonstrators weren't the "unarmed, peaceful demonstrators" that the US press tells people up there that the police were slaughtering (I heard enough gunfire in 2018 that if a quarter of it had been aimed, we'd have had more than five dead in my town).  So this one is "The government is lying about the number infected and dead" vs. "the opposition is trying to paint the government as more callous and cruel than it is."   The government is behind on reporting, but most people  know what's happening where they live and the more cases, the more everyone is wearing masks.

 

We had one idiot gringa whose husband was diagnosed from x-rays at a private hospital that charges $30K US to treat Covid 19 patients.  Neither of them could get tested at a private hospital and she refused to believe that he had Covid 19, and refused to send him to the public hospitals that are taking most of the cases (lots of Russian, Chinese, and Cuban help).  Pulse oximeters (I should photograph mine, I guess) are diagnostic; lung x-rays are diagnostic.  One of the things about Covid 19 is people can be quite deprived of oxygen without being short of breath.  The woman posted hat she didn't believe it was Covid 19, took him to a hotel and he died in the hotel room less than 24 hours later.  The diagnosis for the death was Covid 19.   She flew back to the US without quarantining for 14 days. 

 

People here are afraid that if they or a loved one has Covid 19, that they'll be taken away to quarantine.

 

I think that a lot of people die of something else with Covid 19 being the stressor that brings death sooner rather than later.   But I also think some people would rather believe what killed their family member couldn't possibly kill them, so they believe it was something else.  And people do die at home here more than they die at home in the US.  Health teams are trying to keep on top of community illnesses (as with checking the neighbors of the man who died next door to my British retired nurse friend).

 

The infection rate in households with one case seems to be 40%.  Other high risk situations are bars and mega churches.   The thing that causes spreading here are multi-generational households.  One of the people in the household with two serious cases and one fatality was a medical student whose program told its first year students not to wear masks.  He and the other students are now wearing masks (Vice President the Witch probably was told that to avoid lethal accidents, she should stop trying to stop mask wearing among government employees).

 

My British friend and I are doing what we can to stay safer.  My helper is building a house and borrowed my cordless drill for some of the work.  He's also helping my British friend.  We are supplying him with masks and green mangos.   He's currently living on what we're paying him and possibly whatever his wife can be doing while she tends their almost two year old child.

 

 

The hummingbirds here are quite amazing.    And my cat finds neutral saline (as suggested by my retired nurse friend) less painful than the solution the local vet recommended for cleaning her belly before I put the wound cream on it.

Edited July 12, 2020 by MizBrown