Birds and Alternate Versions

When I was leaving the place that I showed in yesterday’s post, I noticed this tall tree with crows perched on the upper branches. I snapped a few pictures, so below is an alternate shot, which I cropped for a closer look.

Next we see a bird that I noticed when I was walking Charlie. It was singing, and was shaped like a robin, but I wasn’t positive until I cropped and lightened an alternate picture. I usually try to take two pictures of a subject in case one of them is blurred. This also gives me an extra shot for experimenting.

Red Cardinal Plus a Butterfly

My bird camera doesn’t capture many birds in the summer because I don’t feed them. I do furnish water though, and sometimes they visit the birdbath for it.

This is a male northern cardinal. It was captured on video, but I prefer to publish still shots. I tried a couple of apps that are supposed to grab stills from video, but found them complicated. I went back to pausing the action to capture screenshots on my iPad. Then I cropped them in the Photos app. 

 

The cardinal happened to visit in the rain, which makes the images even less sharp than video images usually are. To make up for this, I’m republishing a favorite picture of a cardinal from several years ago. This was taken in early spring after a late snowfall.

This butterfly visited my garden on Friday. I think it is a silvery checkerspot. It is considered rare in the northeastern states, but not uncommon in Virginia. 

More Camp Roosevelt Pics

Camp Roosevelt was the first Civilian Conservation Corps camp in the nation. It opened in April 1933, providing housing and work for young men as part of Franklin Roosevelt’s program to ease the Great Depression. 

Yesterday I took Charlie for a short walk there, and remembered that I needed some close-up shots for a photography project. My iPhone did pretty well considering its size.

Made into a collage for Mosaic Monday.

We followed a short path and paused at the marker where the CCC wash house was located.

A funny thing is it that as I was planning this post, I thought maybe I shared a picture of this feature before. It turns out that exactly three years ago on this very same day, I posted this sign and a similar picture!

Is that a coincidence or am I drawn to the same places at a particular time of year? This sort of thing has happened before, but Camp Roosevelt is in the forest away from my regular routes, although it is only about a half hour from home.

Sadly, this camp and many other historic sites in the National Forests are not well maintained, although someone cleans up trash and fallen trees. I wonder if this will get fixed up before the hundred-year anniversary of the CCC, which is only six years away. I should probably call my congressman. Our Forest Service is not very well funded right now.

I have a photo to share just to answer the question, “Why do so many photographers wear black?” I took a picture of a plaque on a bench and immediately wished that I had worn a black shirt instead of a red one.

Robins and Excuses

Today I'm sharing pictures of American robins, and I apologize for the quality. My excuse is that I was excited that my experiment with the Birdfy cam was successful in getting pictures of birds at the birdbath.

The Birdfy device had to be moved when the painters re-stained the deck, and I decided to place it on the patio table facing the birdbath. So far, the only birds that it has captured are robins.

This evening, I took a cell phone picture of a bird on a streetlight. Again, I’m offering an excuse, and that is that the light was quite dim at 8:45 PM, so don’t look too closely. I’m pretty certain that this is a robin as well. I see them often, and they don’t seem to be as shy of people as many birds are.

For a closer look, here’s a robin that I photographed last year.

Running on Empty

Lately I've been so tired that I haven't done much exploring. Consequently, I couldn’t come up with a satisfying photo for Black and White Weekend. I wound up with this shadow shot, turning it and cropping so there’s a diagonal to add a sense of movement.

This was just a snapshot I took to illustrate my complaint that the deck was too hot for bare feet. The planks are newly painted, and the sun was very bright that day. 

Doctors haven’t been too helpful in explaining my fatigue, but tests continue to show that my protein and sodium levels are low. I’m supposed to take sodium pills, but they upset my stomach, So I’ve tried to increase my dietary salt, plus sodium bicarbonate in place of Tums. 

I still go to physical therapy to try to improve steadiness and strength, but it leaves me exhausted for a day or two. I keep trying because I really want to be able to walk farther. 

Theme Day: The Subject is Sky

When I first learned that the City Daily Photo theme for June 1st is “Sky,” I thought, “Oh that’s easy!” But then I realized that I have already used my dramatic sky shots for the weekly Skywatch linkup. I made an effort to get some more sky pictures today, but they weren’t very interesting. 

I decided to post this picture from Saturday, taken at Dickey Ridge in Shenandoah National Park. Shooting into the sun is generally considered a no-no in photography, but I do it all the time. Shade the lens to protect your eyes and electronics. I usually just stand in the shade.

These folks were members of a family, apparently from the Middle East. Others were doing prayers behind me on prayer rugs, but I did not intrude by taking pictures of them. A mountain top is an inspiring place to say prayers.

Later, one of the young men asked what breed of dog was Charlie. I told him beagle, and he smiled and said “Nice!”

Last Night’s Moon

On our final dog walk yesterday, I watched the moon come out from behind the clouds. I took two pictures with my cell phone, steadying it on a mailbox while holding Charlie's leash in the other hand. Realizing it was too dark, I tried to change the mode, but Charlie was out of patience and pulled me along. I'm afraid I left a footprint in the mud next to the curb.

Both pictures came out pixelated. Still, I like the mysterious look of the sky.

I made an attempt at improving the second shot using a filter, but it wasn’t a success. Then I noticed that my app was trying to identify a “bird.” Oh, good grief! That’s the moon, Siri, not a snowy owl!

Double Mural, Purple Barn

White Oak Lavender Farm, Part Two 

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I went to the Lavender Farm to see the new mural. It covers the back of a barn plus an extension. I found it impossible to get the entire thing in one photo. I tried a panorama shot, and then flattened it using AI. Even then, there was a portion on the adjacent wall that I could not get in the frame because there was a butterfly house that I had to step around. Also, there were buttresses painted with lavender plants.

Monday Murals

The artwork is by Real Creative Studio in Harrisonburg. Speaking of artists, I saw some at work painting “en plein air.”

Another structure had flowers painted on the wall. 

There was even more to see and photograph, but it will have to wait until another day. Stay tuned!

Charlie and Rhododendrons

Yesterday afternoon I took Charlie to the park in Edinburg. After a short walk, I wanted to take pictures of the rhododendrons near the pool.  Charlie became focused on something under the branches and as soon as I got a picture composed, he pulled on the leash.

After a few failed attempts, I was able to get decent pictures of the pink blossoms. 

Then a butterfly showed up! Again I struggled to get a clear photo, but between the dog pulling on his leash and the screen on the iPhone being overly sensitive, I failed and the butterfly flew off.  (It seems like the phone switches modes if I so much as breathe!)

Then the tiger swallowtail returned. I pointed the phone at it and accidentally switched on “portrait” mode. That’s why the picture has a black background. I could’ve modified it in editing, but I decided to keep it.

By the time I corrected the setting on my phone, but butterfly disappeared again.

As you can see, some of the leaves look stressed. This could be from the prolonged drought or from the sudden frost, or both. 

When I reviewed the pictures, I saw a blue abstract that I did not recognize. It must have been taken as I pulled the phone out out of my pocket. My pants have a knit pattern in these colors. They’re some of my favorite colors so I didn’t delete the picture.

Killdeer and Robins

 Shenandoah County, VA

My dog was with me when I took this picture of a bird by the North Fork. I used my cell phone at zoom setting, holding a leash in my other hand. The picture came out slightly blurred so I tried to fix it using the Picsart app.The filter is called Indie2.

My iPhone identified this as a killdeer, and that appears to be correct. I think this is the first time I’ve captured a recognizable picture of a killdeer. They don’t come to my yard, but they do hang out by the river.

American Robins are a common bird in Virginia. This week I photographed one with Great North Mountain in the background,  and another one in my neighbor’s driveway

Fruit and Patterns

The City Daily Photo theme for May 1st is "Fruit." I took a picture of apples in a grocery store, but I hoped to find something more interesting.

 I stopped at a produce stand today, but they just had some melons and one other fruit. I don’t have any fresh fruit at home because I can’t eat raw fruit without my gums swelling, and my tongue feeling sore. I can eat certain cooked fruits, and my standby is applesauce. That’s definitely not photogenic.

I looked around my kitchen and found some canned cherries. I opened them, but they were dull-colored and mushy. I ate some with dinner. 

I did notice that a pan full of water caught a reflection of the window blinds. I shook it lightly and created patterns.

Portrait Mode at Lanterns to Liberty

Front Royal, VA

As part of the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, a living history event was held yesterday. I did not stay for the evening events which included a ride by “Paul Revere,” but I took plenty of photos during the afternoon. These are pictures that I took using my iPhone’s “Portrait” mode. You need to be fairly close to the subject to use that mode, but people wearing costumes are usually willing to pose. 

I dialed in the solid background because the real background was distracting and clearly not 18th century.

I plan to share regular snapshots of the event later.

Missed the Selfie, Caught the Curves.

This first picture is the result of a mistake. I wanted to get a photo for the Weekend Reflection challenge, so when I spotted a reflection of myself, I snapped a picture. Oops, my head was cut off in this shot! I liked the curves sp I cropped it drastically.

I took a second picture from a few steps back and got the selfie. The funny thing is, I like the first image better. It looks quite graceful for a truck wheel!

Grackle Visits the Feeder

These are stills from a video that was automatically recorded by my Birdfy device. There are unfortunate glare spots because the sun was shining on the lens, including a round orange spot that makes it look like it has a red breast like a robin. I can’t avoid placing the camera where it gets sunstruck because the only direction that never gets direct sun is north, and that would be looking toward my neighbor’s window. 

This bird has character! The long beak and bright eyes give it a cartoonish look, so I found it worth the trouble to make still pictures from the video. Actually, this isn’t difficult once I download it. I just stop it where I want and tell Siri to make a screen shot, which I crop and save.

Speaking of Siri, she failed at identifying the bird when it faced downward, guessing that it was a beetle or a bear!