The Photographers thread: Show us your stuff!!

[Jed Cooper]

More...




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jed Cooper]

Not quite finished yet...




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jed Cooper]

And finally, last but certainly by no means least... the world-renowned photographer (not!) with his soul mate, Tina.



Tina’s son got us tickets to the Patriots/Eagles preseason game Thursday night.  Not wanting to travel all the way home, we stayed overnight.  Tina spent the first part of her childhood growing up in neighboring Norwood, so we stopped by so she could show me places she and her family lived and where they went to school.

In the first set of photos, I couldn’t resist capturing images from the middle of the creek.  The next set of photos represents my fascination with a couple of old trees we passes by.  Afterwards,
I had to take a few landscape images.

Tina had a great time revisiting her old neighborhood and I enjoyed all the stories she lovingly shared with me. 



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Matt]

I just got back from a trip out to San Diego and Tijuana.  I didn't do much photography on the trip, but found the border wall an interesting subject.











I saw on the Travel Channel that the Caesar Salad originated in Tijuana, so tracked down the famous restaurant. They still roll the salad cart around and make the salad tableside. It was great. Actually, all the food I had in Tijuana was excellent.



The beach was crowded, lots of vendors walking up and down the beach selling toys, clam juice, or corn.  The most memorable thing about the beach was that there were gold specks mixed in with the sand and water -- I took a photo, but it's a pretty boring shot. So, I'll share this one instead -- I find humor in it:



Leaving the beach, you walk up about 50-60 steps, and on one of the landings a man serenaded his sweetheart. I hoped for a candid shot, but looks like I was caught.



Here's a night street scene:



One of the more interesting things to see walking along the strip in downtown Tijuana was milk jug art:



The residential scene:



For a Clint tie-in, our hotel was on Agua Caliente. Who can name the movie in which this name appears?

[KC]

If that's what it looks like 150 years later ... Agua Caliente hasn't  changed much!

[KC]

Remember this? I wondered what the heck it was.

Does anyone recognize this critter ... snapped on a sunflower at the Greenmarket today?



I have more pix, if it would help.

I never got an answer, here or anywhere else, but I made another version of this photo of the little fellow my phone's lock screen wallpaper, so I look at him quite often. And yesterday I had the odd feeling that I was seeing a photo I'd taken in the pages of a magazine, when I opened my new Natural History magazine ... and saw this (obviously NOT my photo, but eerily similar):



Natural History identifies it as the larva of Harmonia axyridis, the Asian ladybird beetle. If he got to grow up before somebody stomped on him, he would look like this (or possibly a variety with fewer spots):


By John Alan Elson (http://www.3dham.com/animal/malb.html), via Wikimedia Commons

So now I know!

[Matt]

Very cool! I looked for him too, and couldn't find him. Your picture may be of a younger larva with his translucent legs. 



Now that we know what to google, there's lots of pics of them!

[KC]

^ Yup, I was going to post that picture too (it's the one I found that looks the most like my guy) but I thought people would be getting enough of bugs!

The color of the legs may have more to do with what they're going to look like when they grow up (there are a lot of variants) than their age. I'm just guessing at that, though; don't really know if that's the case.

It is an invasive species that only got a foothold in this country in the past couple of decades, but it has now spread so widely that it's considered a threat to native species and biodiversity. Also they tend to invade homes in the wintertime in some localities. They are quite the little wonders at gobbling up aphids, though (why they were imported in the first place).

[Matt]

A spooky scene for Halloween. Reminds me of a Hitchcock film!

[KC]

^Nice. Are they turkeys? They'd better not hang around too many weeks after Halloween!

This little fellow has been my luncheon companion for the past week ... the scene is out in front of the Library. And that's my table leg he's ducking under.



He's an Ovenbird. And this little guy is a Gray Catbird:

[Matt]

^Nice. Are they turkeys? They'd better not hang around too many weeks after Halloween!

They're turkey vultures, and they're safe for Thanksgiving because no one in their right mind would eat one. They're ominous looking birds with a huge wing span.  We have a lot of them in my area. They can't kill because their beaks aren't sharp enough, so they have to wait for an animal that's already been killed and already torn apart. They love roadkill. You'll see these appear in rather large flocks like this one wherever there's a carcass.

I've never heard of your two feathered friends. I don't' think we have them this far south.

[KC]

Ooh, gotcha on the vultures!

EDIT: You should certainly have both Ovenbirds and Gray Catbirds in your neck of the woods. Maybe the turkey vultures got them!

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ovenbird/maps-range

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Gray_Catbird/maps-range

[Aline]

This is my little blackie. Six months ago, found this cutie on a sidewalk two blocks from my home and took her with me.
So scary in the first days, spent the whole day at the corner of the kitchen.



Some months later, all comfy and feeling the queen of the house.



Nowadays here she is, my beautiful panther.   



She is everything a cat is supposed to be... inconvenient, wakes me up in the most inappropriate hours, greedy, stubborn and I just love her.

[KC]

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!

And just in time for Halloween, too!

[Aline]

And just in time for Halloween, too!

Isn't it, KC?
Listen the pictures look so big, I tried to post them smaller, I don't know why they look so big.

[KC]

I don't think they're too big, at least not on my computer screen. 

If you want to make them smaller, you can do that with a bit of code.

The URL for an image goes between tags like this: [img ]https://i.imgur.com/NHRYhJM.jpg[/img ] (without the space before each "]").

If you put width= and a number, say about 700 for a nice convenient size, before that first "]", like this ...

[img width=700 ]https://i.imgur.com/NHRYhJM.jpg[/img ] (again, without the space before each "]")

... it will come out smaller, like this:



I hope that helps. And what a nice excuse to post a smaller version of that pic of that adorable kitty! 

[Aline]

I don't think they're too big, at least not on my computer screen. 

Oh, I am glad hearing that, KC.

Thank you very much for the explanation, it looks much better the way you posted. I'll do that next time.

I hope that helps. And what a nice excuse to post a smaller version of that pic of that adorable kitty! 

I bet you loved to do that.

[KC]

Celebrity sighting of the day ... 



The Central Park Mandarin Duck! 

[Matt]

The Central Park Mandarin Duck! 

Wow, what a beauty!

[KC]

Wow, what a beauty!

Here's another: