Painted Turtle

My first turtle picture.
He's a painted turtle.

I thought he looks kind of funny in that position, resting on his belly with his back legs out like that. I have a more normal pose too, but decided to post the unusual one. There were baby turtles too, but I didn't get any pics of them before they jumped back in the water.

npwrc1
Reptiles and Amphibians of North Dakota

npwrc2
Western Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta belli)

enature
(Belly picture.)

Old Blue

I've seen "Old Blue" a lot this spring. I've taken many pics, but nothing much better than I already have. This one had a nicer setting than I usually get so will post it. Plus I had the XSi and tele with me this time so got a little closer too. He's in the same area as the breeding Canada Geese and yes, there are baby geese (goslings), but I don't have any good pics of those yet. They're adorable, so I sure hope I get some good shots of those. (google images)

Great Blue Heron
Previously

A different one is posted
here.

Common Grackle Female

I think this is a female common grackle.
Has that creepy sinister grackle eye.

Male pic previously.

cornell
enature
google images

Brown-headed Cowbird Female

Brown-headed Cowbird Female
(Molothrus ater )

Distinctive bill.

npwrc
Breeding Birds of North Dakota
By Family Icteridae (With blackbirds, orioles, grackles, meadowlarks)

cornell
(Has a pic of a Parasitized Yellow Warbler nest.)
"Females forgo building nests and instead put all their energy into producing eggs, sometimes more than three dozen a summer. These they lay in the nests of other birds, abandoning their young to foster parents, usually at the expense of at least some of the host’s own chicks."

enature
"Upon choosing a nest, she removes one egg of the host's clutch, and deposits one of her own in its place. Unlike parasitic Old World cuckoos, which lay eggs closely resembling those of a host species, cowbirds lay eggs in the nests of more than 200 other species, most smaller than themselves. Some host species eject the unwanted egg, others lay down a new nest lining over it, but most rear the young cowbird as one of their own. The young cowbird grows quickly at the expense of the young of the host, pushing them out of the nest or taking most of the food."

More info

UPDATE:
Sat, 19 Jun 10, got a pic of a male.

Photo Walk - New Trail

New trail, yippy skippy.


Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa):

bugguide
enature
wiki
butterfliesandmoths

Fox:

Small Mammals of ND

Toad:

Could barely see this little guy, very camouflaged.
Toad vs Frog
Reptiles and Amphibians of North Dakota
Woodhouse's Toad (Bufo woodhousii), maybe?
enature

My first pic of
Black-headed Grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus):

npwrc
cornell
enature
"Voice: Rich warble similar to that of a robin but softer, sweeter, and faster."
(I thought it was a robin, before I saw it in my telephoto lens, because it sounded like a robin.)

Flowers:

ID by family
Mustard Family
Looks like a Sweet rocket (Hesperis matronalis).
google images

Turkey Shoot - Photography

Turkeys - Hen and Gobbler:


I see these wild turkeys all the time, but just never have been able to photograph them at close range before. Oh, but there comes a time when, for some reason, they will allow a photoshoot. I took tons of pics. The male (gobbler) is interesting to watch. He can be fairly muted, and then he'll puff up/out his feathers. His head is a lot lighter than the rest of his body, so some of my pictures lost detail on the head. There were several hens with him (polygamous).

Turkey - Meleagris gallopavo (Linnaeus)
npwrc1
npwrc2
cornell
enature



Turkey Facts
Caruncle-fleshy bumps on the head and neck
Snood-long flap of flesh that hangs over the beak
Wattle-red skin that hangs from the neck
Upon sight, the beard appears to be hair, but is actually a mass of thin feathers.
Male turkeys also have sharp, spike-like projections on their legs called spurs.

Most interesting pic:
Looks like they are up to something, but I don't know what.

Fern

Wonderful ferny stuff. I want some.
It was difficult getting a good photography angle on it.
I'm not sure what kind of fern it is. Googled for ferns and North Dakota. Found three possibilities.

Looks like the:
Matteuccia struthiopteris (L.) Todaro (ostrich fern)
usda
npwrc
google images

Ferns for ND
Native Plants for Landscape Use in North Dakota
Ferns
(GOOD link. Tons of plants listed for ND and also other states as well. See Tables of Contents.)

Also mentioned:
Botrychium virginianum (rattlesnake fern)
usda
npwrc
google images

Cystopteris fragilis (fragile fern)
Must be the
Cystopteris fragilis (L.) Bernh.
brittle bladderfern
usda
google images

Imagine - Dream

The Soft Focus Effect in Paint Shop Pro 9 seemed to fit this pic.
Font is P22ZanerOne.

Baby Killdeer

We have a new baby at home. Hanging out on our gravel road.


Killdeers are way fun to observe. They were skittering along down the road as fast as their skinny long legs could take them. It was so funny to watch.



I got tons of really good closeups of the mom. An improvement over what I had previously.



Very pretty eye:


I don't know if it would be called the "distraction display," as in fake an injured wing, but she did oddly crouch down and sometimes fanned out her tail. And I got a picture of her colored rump. Cornell said it is bright orange, but it looked more gold to me.



Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)
enature
cornell
"bright orange-buff rump"
Has a pic of one in flight that has a good view of that colored rump or tail.

Also
audubon
wiki (video of distraction display.)
And
The Precocious Killdeer
GOOD read and pics on baby killdeers.

Baby birds that hatch with their running shoes on are called precocial.
Precocial means "ripened beforehand." [killdeer, for example]

Birds that hatch blind, naked, and helpless are called altricial, which comes from a Greek word meaning "wet nurse." [robins, for example]

Killdeer nest on open ground, often on gravel. They may use a slight depression in the gravel to hold the eggs, but they don't line it at all, or line it only with a few stones. Since there is no structure to stand out from its surroundings, a killdeer nest blends marvelously into the background. Furthermore, the speckled eggs themselves look like stones...

It takes 24 to 28 days of incubating for the chicks to hatch....

But baby killdeer are small, bright-eyed, fluffy replicas of their parents. Just seeing one will bring a smile to the grouchiest face in town.

Bandwidth Exceeded

I've had a couple of bandwidth spikes that disabled my free image hosting account until the first of the month.
First spike happened sometime between Sunday and Monday, 23rd and 24th of May.
And the final knock out hit happened by Wednesday morning, 26 May 10.

I think someone, or some bot, may be stealing my bandwidth, because I know this blog doesn't get that much traffic.

So,
I've been making some adjustments and will monitor more closely once my account gets reactivated June 1st.

In the meantime, I moved my blog template images to Blogger's free image hosting site, Picasa, so this blog wouldn't be a total ugly mess.

No more new posts until my image hosting gets reactivated on 1 Jun 10.

Clouds

Nifty storm clouds. It has been raining a lot recently. Get very interesting clouds on those day.


These next two I dug up out of my 2007 archives and tried clarify on them to bring out detail.
I call them ocean clouds.
One is a closeup of the other.
And yes, the moon was out.
Time/date stamp was about 11am on 2 Oct 07.

Lilacs

I've posted lilacs previously.
These current ones turned out so pretty. Darker, richer color.
In the shade on a cloudy day.
Just starting to bloom now.
Only one clump on this bush so could easily isolate.

Beautiful Soul - Music

Beautiful Soul
Jesse McCartney

YouTube Video w Lyrics
OR
Google Video Search

What wonderful lyrics.

I don't want another pretty face
I don't want just anyone to hold
I don't want my love to go to waste
I want you and your beautiful soul

You're the one I want to chase
You're the one I want to hold
I won't let another minute go to waste
I want you and your soul

Beautiful
Soul
Yeah

Wiki
Jesse A. McCartney (b. 9 Apr 87)
Rose to fame in the early 2000s as member of the boy band Dream Street.
Appeared in tv series Summerland and ABC Family series Greek.
He was nominated for a Grammy for co-writing the song "Bleeding Love."
From 1998–2001, McCartney played Adam Chandler, Jr. in the ABC soap opera All My Children, a role for which he earned a Daytime Emmy nomination.
Beautiful Soul Album released in 2004.

That Certain Something

Je Ne Sais Quoi

Dictionary

YouTube
Song:
Hera Björk - Je Ne Sais Quoi (Iceland)

Book

Movie
"This is a story of the mysterious force that fuels attraction and desire, success and vitality..."

Bag

Photo Walk

Lit by the sun:
Looking East.
Hill in back of trees so dark and the morning sun peaking over the hilltops so trees were lit up.

I layered two tree pics together and then did some cloning work, so I could have just one pic instead of two.

Morning Shadows:

Yes, it really was just like that. Pretty.

A little creek or whatever. Just thought it was pretty.

Photo Walk

I liked how the trunks/branches of the trees really stood out on this one:

Because of the high contrast, I did layered masking post processing work to retain both the cloud and tree detail.

Belly shot for a different perspective:


I loved the clump shapes and the lush new green color coming up on these flowers. There's a flower bud there, but can hardly see it.

These two looked so cute staring out the window as I walked by the house:


Bur Oaks are fabulous trees:

So much texture and character in the bark and branches.

It Snowed Today

Snow.
A little unusual for May but not unheard of.
Hard on the trees that are budding, blossoming, etc.

I'm out there with two cameras. ;)
My point and shoot (S3) for depth of field (sharp thru out) without a tripod (below).
My DSLR (XSi) for the nicer artsy shallow depth of field closeups (above).
It was early morning so low light.
But I do that a lot, take both cameras for that reason.

Old Friend From Far Away - Book

Just started reading
Old Friend From Far Away
By Natalie Goldberg

Was skipping around in the book and liked this writing entitled Cezanne (no accent) on page 134.
I decided to post it to my blog, giving a taste of what the book is like.
I've always enjoyed Goldberg's writing.
I might have more to say about the book after I've read more.
Links on Cézanne and Pissarro art follow the excerpt. (I didn't notice what Goldberg noticed.)

Cezanne:

"Ten years ago I saw a big Cezanne show in Philadelphia.
The lines to get in were long. The galleries were crowded. You viewed a painting behind six other people. You bent your head this way and that to see portions of the pictures between people’s arms, torsos, and heads.

I liked the paintings but I knew I was missing something.
Printed matter said Cezanne influenced generations of artists, that all subsequent famous painters had looked to him.
Cezanne painted mountains and streams, some portraits.
Other artists before him did that.
What was the big deal?

When I went home to New Mexico I asked my painter friend to explain. She tried. I didn't understand, but I held the question inside.

Then just recently I attended a show of Pissarro and Cezanne, side by side.
The two painters had been friends, often going out to the country together and setting up easels next to each other.

I was jet-lagged and groggy when I entered the museum after again waiting in a long line where I spoke to a man from Las Vegas. He'd brought his eight-year-old mother to Paris and she was too tired. He left her back in the hotel.

The minute I saw Pissarro next to his friend Cezanne
the answer from ten years ago sprang at me,
looming large,
barefaced in the room.

Pissarro's paintings were well-done, but he followed an old idea of perspective. They receded the way we were taught in grammar school that a picture should move away to a distant point to give it depth.

Next to Pissarro,
Cezanne's came right at you.
There was no distance.
If it was a water scene, the water came to the edge of the canvas.
You were in the water.
You were included.

Two paintings of bouquets hung side by side. Pissarro showed the edge of the table and divided us from the bouquet.

Cezanne stuck the flowers right in my face.
I could almost smell them.

Before I’d seen Cezanne only by himself and since so many painters after him followed his way, I could not tell the new thing he had done.
But compared to his contemporary
I could see how he’d stepped right through the old manner of seeing and broken open perspective.

The experience was exhilarating.

The show centered on their friendship. How they both painted the same bridge together; then a bunch of apples in a still-life. What conviviality.

But I wondered what it must have been like for the two of them standing side by side, glancing over at the other's easel.

"Has Cezanne lost his mind? He needs to go back to school and learn to draw." Pissarro was the older.

And Cezanne, whose dedication, suffering, and loneliness are famous, must have felt sure of himself in the way changing reality can free you but also make you insecure. No one else had done this. And no one was going to applaud. Pissarro's work standing next to him must have only intensified the difference.

I notice Cezanne used looser, larger strokes, brought out the intensity of one color, did not soften the blow, was angular, took more chances.
I'd waited ten years to see what I was seeing.
I took a breath. I knew this also applied to writing.

Can you do the same? Bring your experience forward. Don't bog down in long introductions or explanations. Crash through what holds you back.
Also know sometimes you have to wait a long time for understanding.
Let's try this: Tell me what stifles you. Throw in everything that might even be a possibility. Go. Ten minutes.
Now that you've cleared the way, what is it you want to say? Step forward. Speak it upfront with no explanations. Go. Another ten minutes.
What must you be patient about? Make a list to remind yourself."

LINKS:

Taking risks side-by-side: Pissarro and Cezanne were close friends for twenty years...

Museum of Modern Art
Pioneering Modern Painting: Cézanne and Pissarro 1865–1885
June 26–September 12, 2005
NOTE: Click on art images at right.
Then TWO links.
1) Enter the site >
Then click on Paired Paintings at top to view Cezanne and Pissarro side-by-side


2) "Cézanne and Pissarro: Seeing Through Paint" >
Is a text presentation.

Paul Cezanne: Pity Poor Paul Cezanne
An essay contributed by: John Sheridan
"His sense of composition was highly arbitrary, and was no doubt often done completely from imagination, (one of the first artists to do this) with no consideration given for the then-mandatory use of mathematical perspective, and very little aerial perspective."

Paul Cézanne
(Tons of links here.)

Book at Amazon
Pioneering Modern Painting: Cezanne and Pissarro, 1865-1885
Joachim Pissarro (Great-grandfather is Camille Pissarro. See findarticles.com link above.)

Wiki Cezanne
Wiki Pissarro
Google Images Pissarro
Google Images Cezanne

Flickr User has tons of pics from Metropolitan Museum of Art.
(See a Pissarro there.)

Leap Year - Movie

Leap Year
A nice predictable romantic comedy.
Worth a watch if you like romantic comedies.

I loved how she tromped all over the place in those shoes, yikes.


Castle Info:



Castle Scenes
To create the scene, Cinesite went on location to the west coast of Ireland to shoot the ruins of an old castle and various panoramas to create a matte painting. The castle ruins were enhanced by adding a CGI tower and the sky was animated to create atmospherics. The animated panoramic landscape was then composited onto footage of the actors standing in front of a green screen. Further detail was added to the sky as well as rain as the scene turns from sunshine into heavy rain.





Filmed areas:

imdb discussion mentioned:

1. Rock of Dunamase County Laois
Map
Images

2. Luggala Co Wicklow Ireland
Map
Images

And the credits say special thanks to:
3. Wicklow Mountain National Park

Here's the wedding toast:
May you never steal, lie, or cheat,
but if you must steal, then steal away my sorrows,
and if you must lie, lie with me all the nights of my life,
and if you must cheat, then please cheat death
because I couldn't live a day without you.

Neon Trees - Music

Hey, I like these guys (drummer is female).
New discovery.

Neon Trees at YouTube:
1983
Animal (Viral Version)
Calling My Name (Not on Habits album.)

They only have one album out, but there are more songs at YouTube if you search for:
Neon Trees.

What Are Neon Trees?

Name Origin

Wiki
"Although a well known band in Provo, the band didn't receive nationwide exposure until late 2008 when they were chosen as openers for several of The Killers' North American tour dates."
"Although they had several prior independent releases, the band released its debut album...Habits, on March 16, 2010 with 'Animal' as its lead single."
"...the band will be touring opening for 30 Seconds To Mars and Mutemath throughout the Spring of 2010."

Amazon Vinyl version has two bonus tracks.



Wiki on Vinyl
"The vinyl record regained popularity by 2008, with nearly 2.9 million units shipped that year, the most in any year since 1998."

Image Creation Notes:
"Neon Trees" was just begging for some art, no.
Text and tree are both black fonts on black background with a green drop shadow plus and minus offsets then duplicate the layer to increase effect. Pretty simple and basic in Paint Shop Pro 9.

The vinyl image was a single at Amazon and edited by me. I changed the background to black and added a pic of the band from last.fm.