Demilio Sighting

I stumbled across an LP today shared at another blog that features a Demilio cover I haven't seen before. If you don't know who Demilio is, he's an artist I've been featuring here at the blog whenever I stumble across one of his covers. His stuff is pretty distinctive and quite cool in my opinion. The album in question is Carnival In The Sun by Stanley Black And His Orchestra (London 1100), and it's shared at Hooked On Stereophonic. Be sure you head on over there and download the LP while you check out the great cover. Now I've got another record to hunt down...

February 2009

Funny how time slips away... More than halfway through the month and I've forgotten to post the monthly calendar picture for you. I even missed President's Day and Lincoln's birthday, too. Shameful! Anyhow, this is the picture from the CD calendar I made for work this year. Pretty sure you've seen this picture already, since it was also on a wall calendar from a couple of years ago, but it's a good shot, so here it is again. This statue of Abraham Lincoln is in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, near the board of education. Not sure what Lincoln's connection to Cleveland was, but I found his statue there one day a few years ago while roaming around the city. I hope to see more of Mr. Lincoln during an upcoming trip to the DC area, but that's all still up in the air, so no promises.

Congratulations!

Big congratulations to my college buddy Ben on his wedding this past weekend in Atlanta! He married his long-time girlfriend Laura in an antique store that just happened to have a burlesque theater in the back. I'd tell you more about it, but what happens in a burlesque theater stays in a burlesque theater. That's Ben in the picture above, but the girl is not his wife, that's my friend's daughter, Tiffany. I remember Tiffany from before she was born. How old does that make me? This isn't the first time you've seen Ben here at the blog...

Woodstock

You find odd things in cemeteries if you look hard enough. I spotted this small monument to Woodstock at the biggest and oldest cemetery in Atlanta this weekend. Oakland, I think it's called. Some of the graves there pre-date the Civil War, but the most compelling thing I found was this humble tribute.

When In Atlanta

I was in Atlanta this past weekend, and I had lunch one day at Daddy D'z. It's pretty good, but you need to stop in just for the big sign on the roof. And don't forget, Zagat rated! (Their website also claims "Featured in Rolling Stones Magazines". Think about it...)

Eagles 2009

For the first time this season, I spotted our local bald eagles yesterday. It was a wet, grey day, and I saw one of them on the wing when I left work. I wouldn't have realized it was a bald eagle if it hadn't dropped down from the sky quickly across the street and landed near a small drainage pond. By the time I got over there with my camera, he was gone. But then I saw him on his favorite perch on my way home, so I knew at least one of them was back. So today, with better light, I stopped near the nest, and sure enough, there is activity. From the road, about all you could see was the big white head, bobbing up and down, tending to something in the nest that seemed to demand a lot of attention. They've added a fence across the edge of the field since last year, so it's not possible to get as close to the nest as before, but I did my best. This is the view from the road, the angle that most people see, shot with a 300mm lens, then cropped quite a bit.

I eventually found a thin spot in the trees that I could shoot through on the side, and I was surprised to find what I think is a juvenile eagle in the nest, along with the adult I'd seen before. The head is still dark and the feathers look a little mottled, but it's hard to see, really. I still think it's a young 'un. Either way, they are magnificent birds. I'll have to keep tabs on them, and maybe shoot with my bigger lens.

This is the view of the whole field from the road. If you didn't know there was a bald eagle in there somewhere, do you think you could spot it? See that huge nest in the second tree from the left? There's a bird on top of that. Trust me. There's a little white head on the top left of that nest. As far as spotting the juvenile in this picture, good luck!

January 2009

We wound up doing another CD calendar this year, similar to what we did two years ago, only this year they all had the same images. They didn't get done until a week or so ago, so this is the first chance I've had to share any of them with you. This is a picture of the town square in Twinsburg, Ohio, right after a light sprinkling of snow. Having grown up in Florida, snow of any size, shape or color is pretty interesting. I took this quite a few years ago, and even used a similar shot for a larger calendar a couple of years ago, so that may be why it looks familiar to those of you who've been hanging around here a while.

Behold, The Comment Spam!

I checked my email this morning to find that the comment spammers had got me last night. 20 comments spread across 16 posts. I'm still in the process of deleting all these, so be careful what names and links you click on down in the comments. I suppose this is the cost of a free blog, and I haven't been hit in a while, so I can't complain too much. Just seems like people would have better things to do with their days.

Back To Work

Sigh. The weekend is over. Gotta get back to work.

Right Tern

I've been trying to get a good picture of a tern in the air for some time. I don't think this one is too bad. I'd have loved to caught him skimming a fish from the water like I'd seen him do about a minute before this, but I have to get just a wee bit luckier, I think.

Bombing Run

I shot this series of pictures out on Anna Maria Island today. The whole afternoon, there were flocks of pelicans and seagulls and terns feasting on fish just offshore. I watched and shot for hours, but I think this is the best sequence of shots. You can follow the whole operation from normal flight, to sudden deceleration, to dive bomb and splashdown!

Nothing But Blue Skies

Did the skies seem to be an extraordinary shade of blue today? I thought so...

At First Glance

Couple days ago, I'm driving home after work, and I see something sitting on a power line over a small pond. I did a double take since something seemed odd. This small bird had a crest on his head. You don't see that every day. So I pulled over, put the big lens on the camera and started walking back. Before I could get too close, the little guy took off and started flying towards me, but never getting very close. He landed on another power line for a second or two, then took off out of sight. I took a couple dozen pictures from too far away, and these three are the best. So what is he? I think it's a kingfisher. I've not seen one since I've been taking pictures, and I can't remember seeing one before that. So I guess that makes these pictures special, if a little blurry.

Evil Eye

I shot this red-shouldered hawk yesterday, and as you can see, he was none too happy about it. Good thing I'm an awful lot bigger then he is, or I might have wound up as dinner.

I'm (Still Not) Famous!

Once again, I rate a small mention in a major place on the internet! They linked to my blog in an article over at No Depression. That's something, isn't it? The article is about Chanukah music, or the lack there-of, and they linked to an old LP share from a couple of years ago. Of all the places and for all the reasons, I never thought I'd garner a mention for a Jewish music share at an alt-country magazine. The world is a funny place. :)

Airborn!

Pretty good shot of this great egret, don't'cha think? Right place, right time.

Snake In A Tree

I had a chance to get out and shoot today, and I got lucky when I stumbled across this red rat snake. For some reason, he was hanging out in a tree right by a pretty popular nature trail near the beach. I don't think there was anything to eat up there, but I suspect he scared a tourist or two. I tried to grab him and pull him down out of the tree, but all I got for my trouble was a handful of red snake poop. I got a couple of decent pictures out of the encounter, though, so I guess the handful of poop was worth it. I can't think of the last time I got decent shots of a snake, they are pretty few and far between.

Big & Brassy

Never one to take the same picture as all the other tourists, I want to point out that I shot the wrong end of the famous bull in New York first. Of course, I walked around to the other end and got a normal shot, but I started elsewhere. This guy isn't on the actual Wall Street, as you might think, but just around the corner, on Broadway, I think it is.

Birds In New York?

Now that the big Christmas rush is over, I can go back to sharing some pictures with you. I'm thinking about going back and revisiting the photographs from some of the great places I visited this year. I didn't do a great job of showing you all of the great pictures I took this year, so I should be able to find plenty of pictures you haven't seen before. Like this cormorant. I know they are pretty common around here, but I didn't expect to find this one in New York Harbor, just off Staten Island. Look close and you'll see both The Statue Of Liberty and The Empire State Building in the background. Also, the location of the Twin Towers of The World Trade Center is on the right side of this picture. It was a bad day for pictures, but I had to get out and shoot anyway. I think I may have actually taken this on 9/11 of this year.

Eartha Kitt, RIP

How sad to discover on the way home from Christmas last night that Eartha Kitt had passed away. She was an icon of music, and an even bigger icon of Christmas. I can't think of any other artist that had a larger presence at Christmas that recorded fewer Christmas songs. After her huge hit Santa Baby, I think she only had a couple of follow-up Christmas singles, and they're pretty hard to find. And her non-Christmas recordings are pretty good, too. I think this marks the third or fourth Christmas in a row we've lost someone who's made an important contribution to holiday music. Sad. Anyhow, you can find an alternate version of her Santa Baby at this earlier post. Eartha made this re-recording after she left RCA.