Blackbird's nest right outside my window, an hour ago.
There's currently at least one egg in there and I hope to take pictures of the little ones soon.

Update: another hour later, the baby bird has hatched - no photos yet.

Redstart fledgling on my window sill last June

21:30 I had a chance of seeing into the nest: 1 baby bird and one remaining egg (sorry for the blurry picture, lighting was poor).
Baby was moving and mother was back after a minute or two.

very freaking cool

Managed a clearer photo today from the upstairs window.

Wow, grown a lot from egg size. I wonder if his unhatched brother will ever catch up?

Keeping w/the birdy babies theme of late...A few years ago my mother stuck a "birdhouse" on the support pole for her carport. This is a purely decorative birdhouse, not intended for real habitation. This spring, for some reason, a pair of tree swallows thought this was the perfect place to raise their young. Three, we think, but I can't get them all in a pic w/their heads poking out.

that is just so...cute!

you could make that into some sort of "cheer up, ya old fucker" kind of card.

7 days old now

Did the other one ever hatch?

Big brother probably ate it right out of the shell. I mean, the thing does look kinda reptilian.

I don't think #2 ever made it

Scenery RFN

Some friends of ours were going away for the weekend, and they asked if we would be willing to watch their chrysalises. They thought that one of them was just about ready to hatch into a butterfly (I forget which kind) and they wanted us to release the butterfly after it hatched.

So on Sunday morning, which happened to be my daughter's birthday, she woke up and checked the little butterfly cage. One of them had hatched. We took it outside and opened the cage. It walked out onto this leaf. We checked on it every once in a while, but missed it when it finally flew off (or was eaten) a couple hours later.

Very nice! Good timing too - being her B-day and all.

Excellent shot. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Starting to get my photos from this weekend at the Mid-Ohio race course up, here's the first batch and a few select favorites: http://pruett.smugmug.com/gallery/86...71620200_C7NcE

http://pruett.smugmug.com/photos/571630113_EyWCS-M.jpg

http://pruett.smugmug.com/photos/571632114_2h5wZ-M.jpg

http://pruett.smugmug.com/photos/571635265_UfAq5-M.jpg

http://pruett.smugmug.com/photos/571633169_EtMD5-M.jpg

http://pruett.smugmug.com/photos/571628699_C8ayL-M.jpg

There's a trapeze school in the parking lot across the street from my office building. It's been there for a couple of weeks, and will be there for a month or two longer. Classes are $40-$60 dollars each. I remembered to bring my camera to work yesterday so I could get some pictures of it.

Here's a view out of a conference room window just down the hall from my interior office. You can see the safety net easily. They also have safety harnesses for you when you are climbing up the extension ladder to get to the starting platform, and harnesses while you are on the trapeze itself.

There appear to be 4 staff/teachers working all the time. One to put a harness on you and hold the safety line while you climb the ladder, one is on the platform with you when you get to the top of the ladder and coaches you, one to hold the safety line for when you are on the trapeze, and one is on the second trapeze to catch you when you fly from one trapeze to the other.

It looks like there are 8-10 other students sitting in lawn chairs in the shade waiting their turn.

So after you get to the platform, the head instructor tells you when to step off that platform and swing out on the trapeze. There is a simple system the teachers use to call out to each other to get the timing down perfectly.

This student somehow got a little tangled in her safety lines, but it didn't hinder her.

She let go with her knees before grabbing the other guys hands. That was impressive. She was flying. Most other students would wait to have a hand hold before they released their knees.

Here's a more typical student. She's maybe a little more nervous, grabbing that trapeze with her knees for so long. She let go a moment later.

It all looked like fun, but I'm too skeered to try it.

I don't think any of us expected him to say that!

Thanks Glatt, that's pretty wild. I wonder how they choose a location where they expect to get enough customers to pay the rent, instructors and insurance.

Maybe the chick in red is a shill? ;)

*awesome pictures* glatt!!! I would do that in a heartbeat.

something a little more serene...

Ooohhh, very nice V.


( . V . )

Aaah. Thanks V. I needed that.

Thank you for the compliments. That is the view eastward into the fog over the southern reach of Dabob Bay, taken from Highway 101 just north of Brinnon.

Must be a fast shutter speed. There's not much motion blur as you drive by on the highway. ;-p

Man, I love Seattle. Bring on the crabs and the oysters.......

1/1500, f/2.8

You fly, I'll buy.

btw, I'm famous in the oyster crowd.

When I was in the service I was famous in the crab crowd.

<><> J/K.....

Tahoe Dusk

I was messing with the lighting features on the camera and manged to get the foreground siloutted against the background.
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...enthetrees.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r.../tahoedusk.jpg

Just beautiful.

Wow. Rarely does someone make me miss Cali...

alright, here are two other ones. This last Father's Day, I took my dad up to this spot. I would say its the best view of the lake, there might be a better spot, but definitely not one you can drive to like this

so, first picture is me, the second are two of my brothers myself and my dad.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...fdf1dbcd96.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...18eac0fbc0.jpg

Gorgeous! I lived in Tahoe for a couple of years and I never tire of views of the lake. Thanks for the memories!

alright, this one came out too nice not to post. Skipping stones on the water. Can you believe this is from a camera phone?

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/IMG_0308.jpg

Great pics.

Nom from today

correction: Nom Nom from today.;)

whose arm is that hanging from the giant crab's mouth?

Old Man Dibble?

I took this out my back door today and the sky was so blue it set off this photo so well! Then I looked closer at my fence and I wondered, " where oh where is Tom Sawyer when you need him?" ;-)

Nirvana that is gorgeous.

Beautiful. I like the fence...

My son has these pokemon like stuffed things and he's been giving them to my dog to play with.

She likes to chew holes in them, and rip out their stuffing.

Then look all innocent, like it wasn't her.

This time, I caught her red...uh...mouthed?

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i5...r/werentme.jpg

Haven't posted in forever - and stumbled across this thread tonight while surfing. Awesome shots folks!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2493/...74db6f8da0.jpg

Carolina Beach State Park, North Carolina

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3497/...ace8e2c311.jpg

Gate at the Orton Plantation, Wilmington NC

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3491/...bd6e17f6d1.jpg

Sunset near Carolina Beach, NC

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3644/...fe46d7537e.jpg

Out the car window (no, I wasn't driving *G*)


Thanks for some inspiration - I need to dig out the camera and finish an assignment on DOF work a class on Tuesday.

Hi Dagney, welcome back. :D

Just reminded me of this: "Orton"

cool.

I've not done a lot with the Orton effect yet - I'm still working on basic HDR and bracketing techniques (not that easy when my camera doesn't auto bracket for me) My husband wrote a pretty good technical piece on the orton effect and how it works - I'll try to dig it up if you're interested.

And thanks Bruce! I missed a bunch of you folks...will still be laying low, life is crazy - me, moreso ;)

You mean there is more to know? Bring it on then (if it isn't too much trouble). Thanks!

I've PM'd it to you :)

.

I recently was wandering around the Smithsonian's National Portrait Galley and was up in a very rarely visited corner of the building and came across this sculpture. It stunned me, resonating on some basic level. Sure, it's Raquel Welch in a bikini and resonates for the obvious reasons, but that wasn't it.

I knew I had seen it a long time ago. It took a while to place it, and then it came to me from the depth of my mind. A picture of it was in one of the first Playboys I had ever seen. I was just a little kid, and my older cousins had snagged some of my uncle's hidden Playboy stash. I must have been around 6 or 7 years old. We were sleeping out in our bus, made up as a camper.

I've since traced it to an issue from 1970.

Frank Gallo is the artist who made this. I've worked with epoxy resin and fiberglass, and I'm not sure how he did it. It's so smooth. He made some kind of mold, but with the negative angles, like where it curves around at her waist, and where her hair is, you would never be able to release this from a mold. I'm curious how he did it.

Look at Seinfelds face over on the left side across the street in the second pic.

Yeah, he's totally checking her out.

Silicone mold, sandcasting, breakaway plaster mold...

...water soluble....