If there were only one inverted plane in this shot, you'd accuse me of turning the picture upside down, but since there are two planes, and only one is inverted, you believe me when I tell you it's a genuine shot. OK, I suppose I could have used PhotoShop and done the same thing, but it's hardly worth the effort when you can see the real deal at these airshows.
Ahem! There is no period after the "S" in Harry S Truman. His middle name was S, it wasn't short for anything. You'd think they would know better!
You didn't think I'd forgotten about my feathered friends just because I was at a mechanical flying machine convention, did you? Of course not. I was probably the only guy at the whole show looking at the flying things in the grass instead of on the runways. I have no idea what this guy is called, but he seemed to make his home in the grass between the runways. He had his mouth open like that most of the time I was watching him. Pretty little fellow, though. I'll have to keep my eyes open for more of these and figure out what species exactly they are.
Update: It's an Eastern Meadowlark. It took me a while to find that out, since I kept searching for a name with the word yellow in it. Shows what I know...
Well, I thought I had brought you all of the googie architecture in Lakeland, but I guess I was wrong. I had forgotten about this structure at the Lakeland Linder Regional Airport, home of the airshow I was visiting today. It houses some sort of equipment for the airport, but that design is just far out there. It looks like a giant bowling pin surrounded by it's own satellites or something. Googie!
Any of you aviation buffs out there want to guess what plane this rear end belongs to? Come on, take a guess...
Just for the record, the two shots you see here are time stamped one second apart. The second one is a little blurry, but you get the idea. This guy was rolling fast!
Today was my first chance to visit the Sun N Fun Fly-In. I've been trying to go all week, but I've been ill. And on top of that, it's always been held in Lakeland, Florida, where I was born and raised, and yet I've never been. So today I tried to make up for lost time. And I will continue to do so tomorrow and possibly Sunday as well. So stay tuned for some pictures. This is the first airshow I've been to since MacDill Airfest last year (which they are postponing indefinately for some reason), and it's supposed to be the second largest in the country. I got there today just in time for the airshow, and it was opened by the parachutist above who was trailing a large flag. I couldn't see if they had a flag catcher out on the landing strip to keep the flag from hitting the ground though. I hope so...
This is the shot I wish I had been able to get of the eagles I saw the other day, but I didn't. This is the same osprey you saw the other day with the fish in his talons. In fact, this picture was taken mere seconds before he dove into the pond and made the catch. You may note how his head is cocked to the side a little. When he was zeroing in on his prey, he moved his head from side to side, no doubt performing difficult trigonometric calculations in his head to be able to know exactly where his prey was.
Here's a little demo for you to show how far away I was from the eagles the other day. The overall picture was shot with the camera zoom set at it's shortest length of 75mm. The small rectangle near the center that's slightly brighter blue is with the lens set at 300mm. This is what most camera makers refer to as optical zoom.
Above you can see the full picture at 300mm. As you can see, the eagles are stil pretty much dots near the center.
And here is a detail of the picture where you can actually make out the birds. This is an 8 megapixel camera, so there is a lot of detail in there. This would be digital zoom. All I'm doing is cropping out extraneous information. The picture is smaller, but it's easier to see what you're looking at.
I could go really crazy and zoom in on just one of the birds if I want, but the picture quality is getting really poor.
You can take the digital zoom to it's logical limit, if you'd like, but pretty soon all you can see are the zeroes and ones that lie behind the digital data.
Here's another picture from last Sunday's trip to the Venice Rookery. This little family is a group of moorhens. This was the first time I've ever seen any babies, and as you can see, they look pretty much the same as mommy and daddy.
I promise I will get more from this little adventure up later, but this is the best of the bunch, and I couldn't bear not to post it. I caught this osprey and his prey at a pond near the Venice Rookery today. I bought a new monopod and a 2G memory card this weekend and was trying them out. I think the monopod allowed me to take this shot without it coming out blurry, and I filled up the 2G card with 500 pictures, mostly of this same osprey.
Real quick, here's a picture of a bald eagle. I found this fellow and his mate down at Stump Pass State Park near Englewood, FL. He was way on the other side of the Intercoastal Waterway, so I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get anything other than by usual blurry, far away pictures, but fate had something a little better in mind. A nearby boater asked me what kind of bird I was shooting. I told him it was a bald eagle, then, being braver than usual, I asked him if he minded giving me a ride to the other side to take a closer look. He said sure, but then another boater came along and needed a tow. I told him to take care of the fellow mariner in distress, and he promised to come back. It took an hour, but the fellow was as good as his word and returned. We still weren't able to get too close to the eagles, and the light was rapidly failing, but I got a pretty good shot. I've got plenty more I want to share, but it's late, and I have to go away on business in the morning. Hopefully I'll get more pictures posted during the week.
Almost forgot to post the monthly picture for April. It's only the second day of the month, though, so I guess I'm not doing too bad. This large statue is on the side of the Hope Memorial Bridge in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. That's Terminal Tower in the background, which you may recognize in the upcoming Spiderman 3, as they are shooting there as I type this. I think I shared this picture out earlier while I was actually in Ohio, but I'm not sure. Anyway, it was good enough to make my monthly calender. I hope you enjoy it.
Oooh, here's a good one for the first full week in April. This was taken at the Virginia Kendall Ledges in Ohio. The path I was on wound down through these incredible rock formations overgrown with ferns. It was tough to get a good picture, since I was on the shaded side of the mountain, but I think this one came out quite nice.
I hadn't taken any night shots in a while, so I made it a point to try and get something this evening. This is the city of Sarasota as seen from the bridge between St. Armand's Key and City Island. There was an airplane flying over, which made the streak in the sky. Trust me, it wasn't a meteor shower.
Only one day on this weekly page, since Saturday was the first day of the month. I shot these leaves last year out at Myakka River State Park. This is about as exciting as we get color-wise here in Florida in the fall. I hope to get up to Ohio this year in the fall, and then I can show you some real color.
No, it's not November of 2004 again. This is just a nice picture from the calendar back then that shows the old barn I want to tell you about. This little barn was the subject of quite a few pictures over the years, both by me and by countless others who I saw pulled over along the side of the road to shoot it. But when I drove by the field the other day, the barn was gone. I don't know what happened to it. There wasn't any sign of a fire or a pile of debris in the field. There was no construction going on that might indicate the property had been sold for development. I know I've been by there since the end of the most recent hurricane season, and it was still standing then. I'm hoping maybe someone took it away to restore it, and someday it'll be placed back out in it's natural habitat. Not only is this small barn attractive, it is a great example of a unique Florida architectural invention, the hundred-acre barn. Since we don't have cold winters here in Florida, you never have to worry about fitting all of your cows into the barn at one time. So this barn was developed to meet the needs of the local farmers, being just large enough to store the necessary supplies for a farm that was, well, 100 acres in size.
If anyone knows what happened to this barn, which was located near the intersection of US 41 and I-275 north of Palmetto, FL, please drop me a line. I'm going to miss it. Even before I started taking pictures, I drove by it and thought how picturesque it was.
Sometimes I like to flip through my old photos and see what I might have missed at the time. I found this sky shot from last October just now, and thought it was pretty neat. I'm sure I had some odd filter turned on when I took it, since the sky certainly wasn't that blue at the time. But it's a neat effect, don't ya think?
It's the last week in March, finally. For those of us here in Florida, the weather is pretty nice. For those of you elsewhere, it may not be so nice. But maybe this picture of a boat floating lazily in New Pass between Longboat Key and City Island in Sarasota will warm you up just a little and help you get through the last little bit of winter.
I spotted this male cardinal at my parent's house this afternoon. I tried to get closer to get a little clearer picture, but he flew off before I got the chance. I've got a big whopping refund coming from the IRS this year, and I'm thinking about investing it in a longer lens. Then I should really start to get some good shots. Of course, I'll also have to invest in a monopod with a fancy head, and that will take up most of the rest of the refund.
I was up in Lakeland today, and as I drove through downtown, I saw this star. I remember seeing it as a kid, all lit up in neon over top of a car dealer's lot. I have no idea how old it is, or if it even still works, but I was pretty surprised to see it was still there. As far as I know, this is the only piece of Googie architecture in the city of Lakeland. Is it really Googie, though? It's not really architecture, since it's just an eye-catching sign. I'll have to consult the rulebook.
In yet another sign of spring, here are some baby ducks. Cute little things, aren't they? Especially the tired one below.
As if the vernal equinox the other day didn't tell you it was spring, maybe the flowers will.
Here's a neat shot of The Pier in St. Pete, Florida. I was up there this evening seeing an old friend. Whenever I shoot in St. Pete, I have a real good time, get some good pictures, and want to get back soon, but then I forget to go up there. I don't know why that is.
Here's a view you don't see every day of the common brown pelican. They're goofy looking birds when you get close to them.
How about a double shot from Hugo Winterhalter tonight? Well, a double shot from the same album. Both of the fellows you see above are representations of Hugo Winterhalter from his album 2 Sides Of Winterhalter (RCA Victor LSP-1905, 1959). I don't have a scan of it, but even the LP cover features a shot of two Mr. Winterhalters. I do have a shot of the tag from the front cover, with the line "Winterhalter Contrasts".
More fun from the South Pacific is yours for the asking when you buy this record. Entitled Dinner And Music In The Pacific Inspired By The Colorful Pages Of Holiday (Suburban Marketers L07P-2074/5, c. 1959), this LP was a custom job produced for Holiday Magazine by RCA. There is a listing on the back for other records in the series featuring such vacation hotspots as Spain, Italy, France, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Brazil & Scandinavia. It also mentions several LPs on RCA Victor with a Pacific theme. There is no artist listed for the music, but the cover art is credited to Will Dressler. The image above is the one from the front cover, the one below is from the flip side, and the collage of little images at the bottom come from the back as well as the inside of the gatefold cover. The inside is also filled with recipies that will help you achieve the 'Dinner' part of the title.
Here's another quick doodle for you from the extensive Ernie (Not Bert) archives. This fisherman is from the LP Living Strings Play Music of Hawaii (RCA Camden CAS 661, 1961). This is a pretty nice doodle to be from a budget release like this. No signature, though.
Today is the first anniversary of the blog, so I wanted to get something up to celebrate. It's been a long time since I've posted a doodle, since my doodle-scanning computer went belly-up right after Christmas and I haven't had a chance to rebuild it. So I hooked a scanner up to the laptop this evening to bring you a good old-fashioned doodle. These two pints hail from the back of Cheers-The Belafonte Folk Singers (RCA Victor LPM-1992, 1959). I guess this group was assembled to back Harry Belafonte on tour, and they released three LPs, including this collection of drinking songs. Some of you may remember that I also like the little tags they used to include on the front of these old RCA Victor LPs, and this one has the one shown below, Drinking Songs Around The World.
Just a quick note to mention that it was one year ago today I started this blog. It seems like much longer, but it's just been the one year. You've seen more than your fair share of my photos, quite a few records from my collection, various scans of various stuff, even a month worth of Christmas music. Hopefully, the next year will be just as exciting as this one. Stay tuned!
I promised you a sunset to go with the sunrise from today, the day on which the length of daylight equals the length of night. I would have hoped to be able to show you the actual sun going down, but for some reason, after a nearly cloudless day, these clouds obscured the setting sun. Oh, well, life can't be perfect all the time. Just for the sake of comparison, here are the sunsets from last night (below) and the night before that (bottom). Every night is a little bit different.
Another week, another picture. This time it's a flower I shot up in Ohio on the grounds of Stan Hywet, a mansion formerly owned by one of the founders of Goodyear. They have an amazing garden there, both in it's size, it's diversity, and the fact that it was in full bloom when I was there! I don't know the name of this flower in the foreground, or the ones in the background, either. Still a thing of beauty, though.
Happy Vernal Equinox! Today is the first day of spring, the day when the amount of daylight is exactly equal to the amount of dark. So just for kicks, here's a picture of the sunrise this morning as reflected in the side view mirror of my car. It's not art, but it's a picture.
Maybe you're getting tired of seeing all these bird pictures. How about some bird food? This little rabbit would make a nice meal for any of the raptors you've seen pictured around here.
Ever have that itch you just can't reach? That doesn't seem to be a problem for this great blue heron.
If you're like me, you never get enough of these big birds. The fellow above is a red-shoulder hawk, the same species as the one I caught last night. Only this fellow is a permanent resident at the Wildlife Education & Rehabilitation Center on Anna Maria Island. They had a booth at a small craft fair with about five birds in it. I wanted a shot of the American Kestrel, but by the time I got to the booth with my long lens, they had begun to pack up, and all I could get were the hawk above and the barn owl below.
