Dreary

The dreary drumming drops dripping on the skylight in this last faded day of the weeks end cascade from one rooftop to the next at first like a torrent later calming to a trickle. Breezes turn into gusts ripping and tearing the colors of autumn from their perches only to let the weight of their last drink pull them to the ground. It does not mark their demise, yet it delivers itself to its creator with a promise of replenishment and new life. Several long months pass giving way to the spring. The creator’s slumber through the trials of winter’s kiss gives way to the long awaited warmth of the spring. At last it is time to create again.

(Photograph by Sarah)

 

Eastern Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

Last Friday I went to check on my black swallowtail caterpillars and was a bit worried when I saw only one of the six that were there earlier that morning. I figured that I only have one left so I’ll build a screened enclosure that will still allow airflow but hopefully keep predators out (which is what I thought happened to the rest of the caterpillars). That night I started to get materials together from around the house. I had a few spare 2×4 boards and some leftover screen from a couple of previous projects. I made a bunch of quick cuts and started building. I didn’t finish that night because the mosquitoes were very bad on the patio. I spent the morning (Saturday) fishing with my dad and checked on the remaining caterpillar that afternoon. To my surprise there were two more caterpillars on the dill. Not brand new little ones but the larger ones that I thought had been eaten by birds or something.

Since I started building the enclosure I continued the build and finished building the frame that afternoon. The next step was to put screen around the whole frame but unfortunately the amount of screen on the roll of screen was a bit deceptive and although it looked like I had plenty to cover the enclosure, I only had enough screen to cover the top. I went to the hardware store and bought more screen and finished the screened enclosure on Sunday morning. It is rough and is not my most well made project but it does the job. I really can make things much nicer (see my other blog) and I will probably make a nicer one in preparation for next year after the mosquitoes are all either dead or dormant.

One one side of the enclosure I put all of the dill that I have left (I’ll need to buy more) and on the other I put a bunch of dead sticks in a pot of dirt so the caterpillars have somewhere to form their chrysalis. I probably need to provide an easier way for the caterpillars to get from the dill pots to the ground and will do that in the morning tomorrow.

Anyway, back to the story. On Monday when I went to water the dill I found another large caterpillar that wasn’t there a few days earlier. Since the dill was in short supply before my mom picked up these two pots for me I think the caterpillars moved on to the parsley. Now I have six caterpillars back. I really hope to photograph the chrysalis and the emergence. We’ll see if I manage soon enough. For now I have some more interesting pictures to share.

This caterpillar was very touchy. I didn’t have to touch it at all for it to expose its osmeterium. All I did was move the parsley pot and it reared up and told me to get away from its dinner! I rather like this picture but this one was a rather potent smelling one!

I found this one changing his suit. The half a little to the left of the middle seems to be a bit translucent and one of its feet is missing. I am not sure what happened to it but it seems to be okay since it is still alive and has almost eaten an entire dill plant by itself. I made him a prosthetic foot for the next picture using the clone stamp tool in Photoshop Elements.

 

Under the Sea

After choosing that title I’ll probably end up whistling that song from the Little Mermaid (don’t judge!) for the rest of the day. Anyway… on to the picture!

During one of my little Photoshop Elements experiments I created this image. It started out as a picture of a red asiatic lily and after applying the glowing edge filter I ended up with what looked to me like a little under sea community of bioluminescent organisms.  I thought it was cool looking and thought that I would share.

 

U.S. Botanical Gardens

Today I went to the Botanical Gardens in Washington, D.C. to photograph some of the specimens that they had on display there. I took a quick look at them (somewhere around 1000 photographs) and I saw maybe one dozen that I thought were really good and a few others that weren’t too bad. I had quite a difficult time with the lighting. The sun was very bright today and it made taking pictures a bit cumbersome. I had my mom act as a sun shield for a few shots but I think next time I may try to go there when there is a bit of cloud cover. Anyway, since I have not been able to sort through the new images here is a photograph of a dwarf blue iris that bloomed in our garden last year.

I like how this photograph turned out very nice. It was taken with the AF-S VR DX Zoom-NIKKOR 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED lens without the aid of a tripod. The rest of the information about this picture that some may want to know is:

Aperature:  f/5.6
Exposure Time:  1/80 sec.
ISO Speed:  ISO-1600
Focal Length:  175 mm.

I will post a few images from my Botanical Gardens trip soon.

 

Phalaenopsis Orchid Abstract

Sometimes things just happen when you take a picture. An insect that you are trying to photograph decides (without your consent) to jump onto your nose causing you to completely miss your well framed photograph. Not to mention that you may need to go inside and change clothes. You may also just flinch a bit right after you press the shutter release resulting in a slightly, or severely, blurry image. These little things may annoy you at the time but instead of deleting them right away, wait until you get them onto a larger screen to see what you really captured—maybe it was a happy accident. This is one such occasion where I think the image turned out pretty cool even though it was not my original intention.

The flowers in the photograph above are blooms on a Phalaenopsis orchid plant. I do not have the camera settings for this particular image on hand but I can post them later. What do you think?

 

Lady Slipper Orchid

I almost didn’t post this picture because I didn’t know what kind of orchid it was, other than knowing that it is a lady slipper orchid.  I did purchase this orchid from a store and it came with a little plastic tag that told me about the orchid, unfortunately I have since misplaced that little piece of plastic.  I can say that I really don’t like not being able to identify things.  Just like the post about my banner, before I posted I had to try to identify the tree before I published the post.  In order to identify the tree I looked up a diagnostic dichotomous key on the Arbor Day Foundation’s website that contained identification information about all trees that grow in the eastern United States (I had to put that in there to make me sound smart ;)).  Really all a diagnostic dichotomous key is is a way for you to identify something using its physical characteristics.  Anyway I would have loved to do that with this orchid but unfortunately one of the only things that I can remember about it is that it is a hybrid and I don’t know whether it is a natural hybrid or a cultivated hybrid.  I have not been able to find a key that has a list of hybrid orchids with nice pictures so for now I still have no clue what it is.  Not to mention that there are tons of different species of orchids and they can be found almost anywhere in the world (cosmopolitan distribution).  With all of that said here is the picture that I took of my orchid.

For those who would like to know more information about the photograph it was taken with a Nikon D40x and my camera settings were:

 Aperature:  f/5.6
Exposure Time:  1/80 sec.
ISO Speed:  ISO-1600
Focal Length:  175 mm.

The picture was taken at approximately three feet away from the flower and was taken using an AF-S VR DX Zoom-NIKKOR 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED lens mounted on a tripod with no flash on a black background.  If you have any questions feel free to ask.