Hummingbirds

A single hummingbird

Dream AI by WOMBO

Most of my days are pretty good.

Not fantastic, mind you . . . no one showers me with accolades, money, and songs, but also no one is calling me names, spitting on me, or kicking me.

I get up, have a coffee, feed the birds, do a few things, go to the gym, come back and have a snack, do a few more things, eat dinner, watch a few shows with Melisa, do a few more things, then head to bed.

All in all, a pretty good life. Occasionally, something brings a bit of a downer, and this was such a day. Don’t worry; nothing personally terrible, but still a downer.

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Perhaps I should have tried . . .

Just a quick post . . . I just saw the notice for the winner of Flickr’s contest. Specifically, the Nature category winner.

https://blog.flickr.net/2022/09/29/world-photography-day-meet-your-contest-winners/

I’m like . . . “What?! A hummingbird Photo?”

I mean, I have hundreds of hummingbird photos. Heck, this past Sunday’s SmugMug Appreciation post had three photos of hummingbirds that I think are just as good.

Here they are:

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Videos and a reminder to vote

A quick reminder to vote for your favorite Round 6 story (if you’ve read them). The poll and links to the stories are in THIS post.

We’ve had an uptick in votes as the various factions (… two factions …) weighed in for their favorites. There are about ten days left to the deadline, and them days will go by quick (there’s a holiday in there), so if you are interested in reading the stories (and voting), I suggest proactiveness.

Today, I share a few more recently recorded videos. Again, these videos were shot with the D7500. They were shot in 4K, but I downsampled them 10 1080p for publication. The file size differential makes the choice easy . . . unless I happen to have an amazing video. These are fine as presented.

First up, the action at one of the feeders. You can see another in the background, but this is zoomed in to just one feeder of the 13 I have spread around the house. The original recording is almost five minutes, but I pared it down to a bit over 3 minutes.

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Throwback Today — 007

The Throwback Today posts are a chance for me to get my D100 and D200 out, make sure the batteries are charged, that there’s a fresh CF memory card waiting to receive photos, and go out and shoot with them old workhorses.

Today it’s all about the D200 coupled with the Nikon 80-400mm zoom (a lens from around the same era, about 20 years ago) and the Nikon 105mm macro. Once again, I’m pushing the camera and lens combination and doing so more than I would have when the camera was new.

By that, I mean that while the D200 was a significant improvement over the D100 in terms of noise, it was still fairly limited by today’s standards. Once you went past the ISO 800 range, you were in severe noise territory. Of course, we now have much better tools to handle noise. That means I can shoot higher ISO values (1600 was the max for this camera) and fast speeds (1250/sec) and not worry about getting unusable photos.

Some of these photos have significant processing, but not all that much more than similar photos with newer cameras.

A few things about the D200 . . .

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Videos instead of stories

We had tentatively scheduled posting the Round 6 stories (It’s A Wonderful Life) today, but that’s now likely for tomorrow evening or Monday morning. One writer is traveling, another is not ready . . . and, in a first, I’m actually done ahead of time.

I can say with confidence that very few people will like my story (even fewer than usual, if that’s even possible) . . . but you’ll have to wait until I publish it to judge for yourself.

Instead, today, I share a few recently recorded videos. Normally, I use the P900 for video recording because it’s a little easier, but these videos were shot with the D7500. They were shot in 4K, but I downsampled them for publication. I mean, if they were amazing, I probably would have posted them at 4K, but these are just casual captures.

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MidJourney — The Hummingbird Files Redux

NOTE: WordPress is messing with my embedded photos, as in not showing them or showing a broken link. They are looking into it, but I figured I would try to duplicate the last post in case the issue is specific to that post. HOWEVER …should the issue continue, my apologies. You can still see all the photos in the slideshow linked at the bottom of the post (I hope). Sorry for the inconvenience.

It turns out the fault was mine for not realizing photos in a private SmugMug gallery would retain their privacy setting even when moved to another gallery. All Photos should now show up both below and in the gallery.

So, now, this is a duplicate of the previous post. You can read it again or just ignore it.

Yes, more AI digital art . . . if not interested, you can perhaps read more of my early fiction (HERE).

I doubt anyone will actually go do that, but I at least offer readers an alternative to this post.

So, what are we looking at today? Well, it’s no secret I like hummingbirds. I’d briefly considered a hummingbird for my avatar (I might have called the blog Colibrí Flight). Had I gone ahead with that blog, what might that avatar look like? Perhaps something like this . . .

Hmm . . . not sure about that . . . a bit too stark, methinks. How about . . .

Not sure I like it off-center. Plus, a bit busy. Maybe something like this:

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MidJourney — The Hummingbird Files

WordPress is wiping out the links to the photos, so many are missing below. I’ll try and recreate and republish the post to see if it fixes the issues. Sorry for the inconvenience. It turns out the fault was mine for not realizing photos in a private SmugMug gallery would retain their privacy setting even when moved to another gallery. All Photos should now show up both below and in the gallery.

Yes, more AI digital art . . . if not interested, you can perhaps read more of my early fiction (HERE).

I doubt anyone will actually go do that, but I at least offer readers an alternative to this post.

So, what are we looking at today? Well, it’s no secret I like hummingbirds. I’d briefly considered a hummingbird for my avatar (I might have called the blog Colibrí Flight). Had I gone ahead with that blog, what might that avatar look like? Perhaps something like this . . .

Hmm . . . not sure about that . . . a bit too stark, methinks. How about . . .

Not sure I like it off-center. Plus, a bit busy. Maybe something like this:

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Stuff about cameras and photos

For them not interested in reading, you can see the photos in THIS SmugMug Gallery.  

For a SmugMug slideshow click HERE. 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 will run a full-screen slideshow. You can then still use the”<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos as this will pause the slideshow.

If you want the full experience, keep reading.

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

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July 2021 Find the Hummingbird and other stuff

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.

The first one is pretty easy . . .

Ever had one of those days when you have so many things you want to do that it paralyzes you?

You know, where you lose focus and everything you even look at seems just a tad too much effort and you wend up looking for the next thing, hoping it will be easier? Only, it isn’t?

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Pressure and the backyard

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.

We begin with a fairly easy “find the hummingbird” . . .

. . . followed by an extremely easy “find the hummingbird” . . .

Letsee . . . what to talk about today?

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The Big Dump — a short long slow quick post

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.

That grackle did something I’ve not seen other birds do — it rinsed the worm it’s holding.
Notice the meal also includes a salad portion (grass blades).

What do that title even mean? Does it have anything to do with scat? Am I resorting to fecal humor? And what’s with all them adjectives?

Whoa there, Bob! That’s a lot of questions . . . lemme ‘splain . . .

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Fantastic Females

For them not interested in reading, you can see the photos in THIS<<link SmugMug Gallery.  

I have a feeling traffic will be heavy for this post . . . and that — having come here with different expectations — most will quickly leave.

That’s right . . . this post is about female birds. Wait, let me be clearer; non-human birds.

Click for larger view
Click for larger view

So, Project FeederWatch<<link — by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology — has been running weekly contests (and I’ve missed a number of weeks). This week, it’s “Fantastic Females; Celebrating the muted tones of female birds”. Anyone wanting to see the current submissions can click this LINK.

Now, I’m always reluctant to enter contests (although I’ve entered a few<<link — warning: there are nine pages of posts), and I’ll tell you why.

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