Litchfield Beach Dawn and Dusk

Often when I'm photographing a spectacular sunset or sunrise, I get caught in the moment and focus on what I perceive is the most interesting photographic subject.  On this morning, I was up early and in the surf clicking away.  It wasn't until my father-in-law, who was also out for a walk, tapped me on the shoulder, pointing my attention to the rainbow that had appeared directly behind me.

-Tom

Litchfield Beach Timelapse Video

While I can't say I've become obsessed with making videos, I have made an effort to use my camera to its fullest- and that means capturing time lapse and HD videos with my limited time.  I seem to find that vacations are now my time where I try new photo things- and our trip to Litchfield Beach this August was a perfect place to try time lapse.

Video has a big learning curve.  When I exported this video from Photoshop CS4, it rendered at 6 gigabytes.  Needless to say I received a message from YouTube with a link offering help how to better export my videos for the website.

When I set up my camera, I was expecting these billowing cumulus clouds to continue their upward development, when in fact, the opposite happened.  Although I didn't get what I had visualized, I really like this video- I had to watch it several times before I saw the man cleaning the pool.

-Tom

Cloudscape

As of late, I've been cultivating my curiosity for timelapse photography.  There's nothing quite like spending thirty minutes scrolling through the amazing timelapse creations at Vimeo.  Over the winter, I purchased a device called an intervalometer, which allows me to program my camera to capture images at specified intervals over long time periods.  This Sunday afternoon, I pointed the camera skyward andprogrammed the invervalometer to capture images once per second for an hour.  Here is my first timelapse effort.  Consider this a contemplative look at the passing of time.  Watch as the clouds move from right to left as individual pieces tear apart and disappear.

-Tom

Crab Spider vs. Ogre Fly

This action unfolded earlier this week on the flowering stem of little bluestem, right in our backyard.

-Tom

For the Adults

On June 5, I was on my deck, grilling on my Weber gas grill, and heard some buzzing.  I looked down, and this is what I saw.  Yes, I'm a little tardy with this post.  Does anyone recognize what species these creatures might be (i'm not even sure if they are bees or bee mimics), and what exactly we're seeing here?  I mean, I know what's happening, but I'd like to know the names of the parts and how everything works.... Help!

...edited:  Maybe this photo will help with an ID?  They sure look like flies that look like bees...

-Tom

Ants!

I love creating things, and my new camera has allowed me an entirely new creative outlet- film making. I'm able to shoot HD video with my 7d using my macro lenses, and it is really awesome. Learning to think like a film maker is entirely new experience. While photography is about capturing just one moment, filmaking is about stringing dozens of moments together and interweaving them to tell a story. If you haven't tried it, I found that it's been a good way to exercise my creative muscles. I hope you enjoy my ant video, shot right in our front yard.

Toma

Tricky Trillium

This is just too good not to share. I found it on the Ohio Governor's Residence and Heritage Garden site. Those trilliums really are tricky!

Tom

Welcome to Little Pond

Last Christmas my parents gave Megan and I a little video camera. Why? They wanted us to film Weston. And I have. But this little SD camcorder has allowed me to film all types of interesting natural history subjects, including one near to us and featured here often, Little Pond Maine. I know I talk about this place frequently, and hopefully, this short film will help you understand why that is. Take a few minutes to see and hear the dragonflies, birds, and botanical wonders of Little Pond.

Tom

My First T.V. Interview- Gypsy Moths at Highbanks Metropark Revisited

Well, this video pretty much tells it all. Thanks to our local Metropark District and Peg Hanley, whom happened to see my writeup of the Gypsy Moth infestation at Highbanks Metropark, The Ohio Nature Blog and I were featured last evening on our local T.V. Station. Ben Gelber, a fine meteorologist with Channel 4, does environmental stories- stories that typically don't get airtime on the local news.

Anyways, this all happened very fast, and I was pretty nervous and excited all at the same time. I think the video footage from June really added to the story, since quite a bit of the forest has started to leaf out once again, plus, the defoliation is best appreciated on a sunny day. Yesterday was gray and rainy.

Here's the the footage that I took that was featured on Channel 4:



The bottom line here? What we nature bloggers do is really important- In the past week, two stories have made it to the mainstream central Ohio media. First it was Pinky, then this story about the gypsy moth defoliation at Highbanks Metropark. Thanks Ben for taking an interest in environmental news and bringing it to the mainstream.

Tom

A Day on Little Pond Maine

From our trip two weeks ago, here is a day on Little Pond.

Tom

Evening Webs

Well, one work week in the books, almost. It has been a crazy week and it didn't end at all how I was expecting it to. Some of my facebook and or twitter friends may have caught that I was planning to join NEON and Cleveland Museum of Natural History folks at a swamp in Trumbull County. On my way up I-71 in the work vehicle, my brakes didn't respond the first time I tried to stop. Fortunately, after the second and third pumps, I felt some pressure build up, and I decided I could stop the car if I were to get off the ramp. This I did, and turned around, back to Columbus. I called our famous named fix-it shop, it was magically picked up by them, repaired, and returned later that afternoon. The service manager told me over the phone that the rear brake "just fell apart in their hands" when they took the wheel off. New rear brakes, new front brakes too. Nice. Very nice.

So that was my Thursday, expecting to survey a beautiful wetland, but stuck in the office. What could be worse? How about getting sick. I started getting a sore throat last night, and it was worse this morning, so I stayed home to spare my office the wrath of yet more illness. I slept most of the day.

This evening I dared to brave the sunny 70 degree temperatures by stepping out onto our deck. Our tall grass, the last to be mowed in the neighborhood, shimmered in the sun. What seemed like a billion cobweb strands glistened. Still images didn't capture the slow waving movements, so I got out the video camera. Isn't this cool? Insects abounded in the back yard too, flying about it circular motions all across the neighborhood. Our backyard has awakened from its winter slumber, now if I can just kick this crud, I'm set. I'm sure bats will be flying, maybe I can stay awake a few more hours.

Like animals? Visit Camera Critters.

Tom

Garlic Mustard!

Garlic Mustard Identification and Control from Barbara Lucas on Vimeo.

Take a second to check out this video about Garlic Mustard, a nasty invasive plant here in eastern and midwest woodlands. Our natural resource managers spend time and money managing invasive plants- I think some tend to discount the threat of invasives, but this video by Wisconsin Family Forests puts it all out there. It humanizes invasives a little too much for my taste, but overall, it is very well done.

Tom

Winter Storm's a' Comin'

I always love these corny graphics that our local NBC station runs at their website.

Beginning at 10:00 pm this evening, Central Ohio and Southern Ohio are under a winter storm warning. I just read in our newspaper that before the storm is over sometime on Wednesday, we could get up to 9 inches. The national weather service is saying things like "travel could be very hazardous or impossible." Here is the official report.

Here in central Ohio, any more snow than about 8 inches can cripple the metro area. We're just not equipped to deal with this amount of snowfall, even though we can count on at least 2 storms a year. It snows just enough for the city of Columbus to need and have snow plows, but not enough to take care of a real snow storm. Fortunately, now that Megan and I live in the City of Worthington, our roads have been cleared of snow almost immediately after it falls.

About two weeks ago, Megan and I were somewhat sad that we hadn't had any real winter weather. Mary commented on my squirrel picture saying that it looked like we had snow. We got about 6 inches, and it was great. It almost had all melted, and now we're in for more. I got a few good shots of winter, but I'm not ready for it to be over. Bring it on.



Tom

Hippity Hoppity Juncos

Shot with the new video camera (Canon FS100) that my parents got us, of course, to shoot footage of our child that is on the way. Thanks Mom and Dad. I'm sure it will come in handy for other things, as well. Special recognition to the person that can identify both the voice and the television program (on DVD) that was running in the background.

This week this video is my contribution to Misty Dawn's camera critters meme. Go here to view others and participate yourself.

Tom

Close Encounters with an Eastern Gray Squirrel

The squirrels are getting mighty tame around here!
I made this video with Imovie thanks to DrJaymez, who hooked me up with a Mac to fiddle around with. It is fun.

For more Camera Critters, go here.

Tom

Video of the Wading Birds of Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge

Megan was really impressed with all the crazy sounds made by the egrets and other waders at Ding Darling. This clip that she captured really gives you a good idea just how many birds were concentrated in one area at low tide. They were feasting on fish caught in the tide pools.

Tom

Mystery Sparrow Video

Click to play

Thanks to Mon@rch, who presents stunning video at his blog, I'm trying out blip.tv for video. This afternoon, I captured this sparrow in our backyard using Megan's Kodak p850 camera. The clicking noise you hear is the camera adjusting its image stabilization. I need to turn that feature of the camera off when I shoot video!

Although I may work as an ecologist (this link is fun, pictures of me with hair!), I am by no means a birder. I make my living working with Ohio's 2300 plant species. If I were to guess, I'd say this was a song sparrow, but I'm not really sure. This is where I need your help!

Tom