The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Category: Photography & Images

Taking & making images.

Leaf Facehugger

T=0.000 s – The dot just below the lower tree branch extending over the middle of the road doesn’t look like much:

Jackson Rd – Leaf Impact – 2016-06-30 – 0337

T=0.600 s – It’s fluttering, which means I’ve noticed it:

Jackson Rd – Leaf Impact – 2016-06-30 – 0373

T=1.317 s – Rolling at just under 20 mph:

Jackson Rd – Leaf Impact – 2016-06-30 – 0416

T=2.117 s – I know exactly what’s going to happen:

Jackson Rd – Leaf Impact – 2016-06-30 – 0464

T=2.850 s – The camera lens is seven inches above my eye level:

Jackson Rd – Leaf Impact – 2016-06-30 – 0508

T=2.867 s – The air stream over the fairing begins tilting the leaf:

Jackson Rd – Leaf Impact – 2016-06-30 – 0509

T=2.883 s – Collision alarm!

Jackson Rd – Leaf Impact – 2016-06-30 – 0510

T=2.900 s – Perfect alignment:

Jackson Rd – Leaf Impact – 2016-06-30 – 0511

T=2.917 s – I’m now riding with an oak leaf plastered over my entire face:

Jackson Rd – Leaf Impact – 2016-06-30 – 0512

I wear big lab-grade splash-resistant goggles over my prescription sunglasses to keep dust out of my eyes: the leaf covers the googles, I can’t see out of my left eye (and, thus, the mirror), and most of my right-eye vision has gone green. Although I managed to not inhale during the impact, the leaf forms a good seal over my nose and mouth.

T=3.683 s – Glancing to the left doesn’t dislodge the leaf:

Jackson Rd – Leaf Impact – 2016-06-30 – 0558

Did you notice the oncoming car?

T=7.483 s – Four seconds later, I’m off the bridge and past the bushes overhanging the guide rail, so I can finally spare a hand:

Jackson Rd – Leaf Impact – 2016-06-30 – 0798

The view to the rear, showing the car that’s been trailing 1 second = 25 feet behind me during this entire adventure:

Jackson Rd – Leaf Impact – 2016-06-30 – rear – 0135

I caught another oak leaf the same way on the rail trail a few weeks earlier at a much lower speed in much less stressful surroundings; I figured that wouldn’t happen again for quite a while.

Ya never know what’s going to happen out there on the road…

2016-08-03
Staghorn Beetle Salvage Operation

This resembles nothing so much as a “developing country” shipbreaking operation:

Stag Beetle vs Ants – rear

For all I know, the ants haul the carcass into position, blow the scuttling charges to loosen the armor, and sink it in a convenient spot on the driveway:

Stag Beetle vs Ants – side

The hulk vanished later in the day.

This is the season for staghorn beetles; the one we spotted a few years ago was in much better condition.

2016-07-31
Red Tailed Hawk in Red Oaks Mill

We often see Red Tailed Hawks circling high above the area, but this one came closer than most (clicky for more dots):

Red Tailed Hawk Red Oaks Mill 2016-06-27 – 0195

Surely you can see it, just to the left of the speed limit sign? It took us by surprise, too!

Near the middle of the road:

Red Tailed Hawk Red Oaks Mill 2016-06-27 – 0211

And away:

Red Tailed Hawk Red Oaks Mill 2016-06-27 – 0227

Perhaps it’s taking a break to enjoy just flying around? That’s about what we were doing; it was a fine morning for that sort of thing.

Squinting at a few more frames, it’s flying at 18 mph with 4 wingbeats per second. Not in a hurry, that’s for sure, and still traveling faster than we were.

We spotted a few Gas Hawks above the airport, too, but they stayed too far away for pictures…

2016-07-17
New Hawks: Front Yard Adventures

The new Cooper’s Hawk siblings recently explored our front yard:

New Coopers Hawks – siblings

When they’re bigger, they’ll perch in treetops, but a new hawk’s got to know its limitations:

New Coopers Hawks – master of the stump

When you see something, pounce on it:

New Coopers Hawks – pouncing

Practice makes perfect:

New Coopers Hawks – tall pounce

Eventually, you’ll catch something in those mighty talons:

New Coopers Hawks – capturing something

Which looks like the wily and elusive snail:

New Coopers Hawks – practice prey

Everybody wants to stand on the bird box, but a majestic takeoff requires more practice than you might think:

New Coopers Hawks – bird box takeoff whoops

They’re now capturing their own food and don’t share their prizes.

They’re welcome to all the chipmunks / moles / voles / groundhogs / deer / whatever they can take!

2016-07-16
Monthly Image: New Hawks!

“Our” pair of Cooper’s Hawks (or their descendants, of which there have been many) hatched a pair of chicks that recently fledged and have been exploring their world:

New Hawks – standing tall

Sometimes they perch together:

New Hawks – companions

Their world contains many interesting things, not all of which are visible to the human eye:

New Hawks – curiosity

I’ve spotted a parent hawk circling high overhead while the youngsters practice their flight skills near the treetops. If you listen carefully, you can hear a hawk calling from far above:

New Hawks – parent overhead

We’ve seen them hopping from branch to branch, testing their wings, and by now they can launch from a standing start:

New Hawks – liftoff

New squirrels emerge at about the same time, with equivalent levels of experience:

New Hawks – curious squirrel

Right out of the nest, new hawks know what to do, if not quite how to accomplish it:

New Hawks – vs New Squirrel

That little squirrel instantly pasted itself to the bottom of the branch and escaped. This time, anyway.

Mary watched one hawk practicing its pouncing skills by attacking a pine cone. A talon wedged under a tight pine cone scale, to the extent that the hawk spent the next half hour flopping around the yard trying to part company with its personal Pine Tar Baby.

Perhaps the piles of Chipmunk Gibbage came from a new hawk practicing its regurgitation skills …

Go, new hawks, go!

Taken with the Sony DSC-H5, sometimes with the 1.7x teleadapter, under ambient light, hand-held, sometimes braced against the frame of a partially open door.

2016-07-15
Carnival Bears on Interstate 87!

Returning from Rochester & Points North, I spotted something in the rearview mirror that could have been either a Yellow Submarine or a storage tank. As whatever it was got closer, the view got weirder:

Bears on I-87 – approaching

Huh. Who’d’a thunk it?

Bears on I-87 – passing

A stiff crosswind pushed them all over the lane:

Bears on I-87

I hope they arrived at their destination with the shiny side up and the rubber side down.

Mary clicked the camera for these.

2016-06-26
Protecting The Sony HDR-AS30V Lens: First Drop

After a year and a half, I finally found out whether flipping the AS-30V camera upside-down would protect its lens:

Sony HDR-AS30V – flip mode vs ground contact

Yes. Yes, it does, at least from a grass-like ground cover.

I’d leaned the bike against a Blue Loo, turned my back, took four steps, and wham down it went.

The upper front rim of the skeleton case ended up firmly pressed against the ground, with the lens safe. A slight smear from the greenery wiped off easily, with dirt embedded between the fake fur and the case, exactly where the lens would stick out in its normal orientation.

Whew!

I love it when a plan works out …

2016-06-23