This is a look back at photos from the last five months of 2022.
“Why five months? Why not six months?”
Well, Bob — if that is indeed your name — I’, not going through this again. If you want an answer, read the intro to the previous post.
Anyway, we continue with a brief — but hopefully worthwhile — look at a sampling of the 2022 photos I snapped using the Nikon D7500 camera.
“So, like, are these the best photos of the year?”
This is a look back at photos from the first seven months of 2022.
“Why seven months? Why not six months?”
Well, Bob — if that is indeed your name — I have 56 photos and wanted to split them into two posts, and it just happened that the first 28 photos cover the months of January through July of 2022.
“But you could have just processed a few more on this first half, no?”
. . . everyone’s a critic . . . Yes, I could have, but I didn’t set out with a particular number in mind. Fifty-six is what I had in the end, and fifty-six is what I’m working with.
“So, like, are these the best photos of the year?”
I’ve had one other encounter with jumping spiders, and I still feel bad about it (HERE – by […]
This a short post, mainly to test whether the “Like” implementation worked.
One morning in late September, when I went out to feed the birds, I noticed three bugs on the screen door.
Here’s the first . . .
The above photo is from September last year, but a similar scene was a daily occurrence at the four feeders I’d left out for the bees this Fall . . . until Friday.
. . . wait . . . I should back up a bit and explain from the beginning. Some might get bored, but that can’t be helped. If interested, keep reading.
I closed yesterday’s post with this teaser photo . . .
I’m not sure how many noticed what I was referring to, so here’s a close-up.
That is a Snowberry Clearwing. I’m providing additional links about it (HERE, HERE, HERE) and also mentioning that if one does an image search for it, one might be shown a different moth, the Hummingbird Clearwing Moth; they are not the same.
Like in the previous post, the SmugMug Gallery has 27 photos, but I won’t be posting them all. I’ll feature a few I like, but there is a slideshow at the bottom of the post of all 27 photos. And, of course, you could visit the gallery itself. Note that the photos below are linked nearly at full resolution (they are crops of the originals), so the only advantage of going to SmugMug is that you can more easily navigate the photos.
In Thursday’s post documenting Wednesday’s Erculean photography effort, I posted a few photos snapped with my Nikon P900 camera. I don’t use the camera as much primarily because most of my subjects are fairly close. Also, because I’m sitting on a chair on my patio, the weight of the equipment isn’t a concern.
Still, I usually have the P900 out there with me, and for every ten or so photos with the D7500, I’ll snap one or two photos with the P900.
The advantage of shooting with the P900 is that I don’t have to crop the photo much (if any) to fill the frame with the subject.
I tend to fall am way behind in sharing photos, so when, yesterday, I ended up shooting about 300 photos, I decided to share a few more than a tenth of them before too much time passed.
So, what kind of photos? Well, hummingbirds, dragonflies, a brown thrasher, white-tailed deer, a raccoon, and a Great Egret. Oh, and the massive Moon we had that evening.
And, we begin with a ‘find the hummingbird photo’ . . . because I’ll have a number of them and I don’t want to bunch them all in one place.
Next up are a few photos from the P900, but only a few; the rest are all D7500 photos.
I previously mentioned I’ve been snapping a lot of photos . . . so I have an excuse for not working on the story that’s due in a few weeks as I instead work on this post. This is a short post because I have other stuff to do (stuff that’s also not writing the story).
We begin with a series of flying photos . . . er . . . photos of flying things. Specifically, a Great Blue Heron.
I meant to post something yesterday … instead, I spent hours repairing the blog.
So, I figure I would let others know what I experienced. No, I don’t need help. Yes, it’s (mostly) fixed. Yes, I would like WP to stop mucking about with stuff for just a few minutes. No, I don’t think they will.
I’m also sharing the rest of the White-lined Sphinx Moth (a. k. a. the Hummingbird Moth) I was lucky to photograph last September. There’s even a video of one feeding on inpatients. I say “the rest” because some were shared in THIS post.
Anyway, WordPress . . . wait! Here’s the first photo of the moth . . .
As I’d mentioned in the other post, the shooting conditions were not ideal; setting sun combined with shadow areas made for a difficult exposure situation, but I’m not displeased with how these turned out, especially considering how difficult they are to capture in flight (they move like a hummingbird, and hummers are not slow) . . .
. . . yes, it’s a homonyms feast. But, to go on . . .
If you are new to the SDS Challenge, a little background.
Three writers will each write one story a month going down the list of deadly sins. The stories can be anywhere from 666 words to 6,666 words in length, although those numbers are not set in stone. If ambitious, the writers will provide accompanying graphics. These stories will not be anonymous because some writers may want to use the same characters for each story and write a series — or book — encompassing all seven sins. Finally, interpretation of the titular sin is up to the writer. Meaning, each ‘sin’ can take multiple forms.
Disclaimer: The writing challenge has no restrictions and the stories will likely span a wide gamut of genres. The majority of the stories fall in the PG-rating range with a few perhaps pushing into the soft R-rating. Some readers might find a few of the stories disturbing because of the topics, language, and/or plot points, and if so, stop reading and move on.
If you want to read the Seven Deadly Sins submissions for the Sin of Envy, and then vote, your gateway is THIS POST <<link. There, you’ll find links to each of the three stories and a poll for you to vote after you finish them (if you be so moved).
So, yesterday I posted a quick observation about the state of comments on this blog (and maybe blogs in general, based on some of the feedback).
I might have come across as rueful of the situation, hence let me clarify a few things because I fear unintended consequences from that post . . .
Namely, I fear an increase in comments due to people (consciously or unconsciously) thinking I was pressuring them (consciously or unconsciously) to comment more often.
Well, let me set the record straight . . .
Yup, still busy . . . these days are just flying by and before I know it, it’s late at night. So, more samples of photos that will appear in future posts (with others, of course). Yesterday morning, a few Northern Mocking birds frolicked in my backyard . . .
They gave me lots of opportunities to get decent photos both with the D7500 (above) and the P900 (below).
Yup, still busy . . . but, I want to give a glimpse of a few things coming up. Meaning, these are photos that will appear in future posts (with others, of course). For instance, bugs . . .
I have a ton of hummingbird videos and photos . . . I’ll need to decide what and how much I want to share, but whatever it will be, it will look something like this . . .
For them not interested in reading, you can see the photos in THIS<<link SmugMug Gallery.
For a SmugMug slideshow, click HERE<<link. When you click the link, it will open in a new window, and you have two options:
1) Manually scroll through the photos by clicking the “<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos.
2) There’s a PLAY/PAUSE button at the Top-left of the screen with the transition set at about 5 seconds. Note: clicking the PLAY arrow activates the option for a full-screen slideshow. You can then still use the”<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos (this will pause the slideshow).
If you want the full experience, keep reading.
This shy bird was photographed (hurriedly) in Kansas . . .
I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a good match for it . . . and the best I can do is Gray Hawk (LINK). I have a lower degree of confidence that it’s a Cooper Hawk (LINK). The only reason Cooper’s Hawk comes into the picture is that the eyes appear to be red in this next photo.
Disperser Tracks 