The First Four Are The Easiest

2471 posts ago, I started my blog on this day back in 2005. So unlike most of the blogs out there that don't seem to last more than a year or two, this one is four years old. I can remember the day I started it. I had gotten back from Sanibel Island the week before with a camera full of pictures that I didn't know what to do with. It took me a bit of doing, but I finally figured out how to share them with the world via a blog. I've come a long way since then. In that time I've shown you planes, trains and automobiles, lions, tigers and bears (Oh, My!), and let's see, all sorts of other things. I've been to New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Cleveland, Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Los Angeles (for about 20 hours) and umpteen cities here in Florida. (Where will I go next? You'll see...) I've seen more birds than you can shake a stick at, I think the only one I really still need to see in the wild is a cara cara. For a long time, I couldn't find any bald eagles in the wild, but I've seen three (no, four) in the past month, so I've got that under control. I've brought you doodles from over three hundred musty old albums, and I've shared the music from literally hundreds of full albums with you, albeit most of them during Christmas. I am pretty proud to be the only place I know of on the internet to bring you the For Hi-Fi Living series, released way back in 1957 and re-released by me 50 years later. Christmas has always been a big deal here, both in December and July. I slacked off this last year quite a bit, but in previous years I've posted more than 250 items between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's enough that I've been called Santa Claus on more than one occasion. I'm skipping over plenty of things, like lighthouses and license plates, artworks both big and small, miscellaneous animals both big and small, more sunsets and beaches than you can shake a another stick at, some alligators both real and plush, and who knows what else, it's been a long four years. (Wait, can't forget my cat...space shuttles...fire works...the moon) Anyhow, I just wanted to make a little notice of my anniversary. Here's to the past four years, and to forty more!

Old Glory

While killing time yesterday, I shot some pictures of the flag that was in front of the snack bar in the little park I waited for the shuttle launch in. I was looking right into the sun through a long lens, just hoping that the wind didn't let up and the flag drop. That wouldn't have been good for my eye. But it didn't, so I got these neat shots of Old Glory, flapping in the breeze with some cool washed-out colors. I like 'em.

One More Bald Eagle

Hard to believe but I spotted one more rare bird while in Titusville for the shuttle launch. There were dozens of ospreys around while I was shooting, and I'd pretty much been ignoring them. But something caught my eye about one that just didn't look right, and sure enough, it turned out to be a bald eagle. He was pretty much out of range, but I still squeezed off a couple of blurry shots. Don't judge me too harshly on them, I was just happy to see a bald eagle.


What I didn't expect after spotting the eagle was to see an osprey start giving him a hard time. Twice he came after the eagle in mid-air, and twice the eagle did some incredible flying to show the osprey who was boss. It's a little tough to see in these photos, but that's the osprey on top and the eagle on bottom, flying upside down to go after the osprey with his talons. I kept hoping he'd fly back by, but I never saw him again after this pass.

Kingfishing

While waiting for the shuttle launch, I wandered all over the place. You have to get there early to get a parking spot, then you're left with all kind of time to kill. So I wandered. One of the first things I found was a kingfisher. This is only the second one I've ever shot, so it's pretty special. I never did get very close to him, so I was lucky to get these halfway decent pictures.

More Discovery

Here are a few more pictures from the shuttle launch yesterday. I drove the three hours over there, and it took me over six hours to drive home, so I guess I need to get as much mileage as possible out of these pictures. The shot above shows the shuttle to the left and the two solid rocket boosters after separation on the left. The two SRBs are actually falling into the Atlantic Ocean at the point, but Shuttle Discovery is continuing to move off into space. The curvature of the Earth is what makes it look like it's moving downward. This was probably the longest I've ever watched the shuttle after the launch. I read later that it was visible for more than seven minutes, and was as far north at New Jersey before it winked out of sight.

And three more pictures of that awesome smoke trail. I'm afraid none of my pictures really do it justice. It was just incredible, the way it caught the light and became more and more distorted as the upper level winds twisted it into a pretzel.

Discovery Is Go

Perhaps you heard there was a shuttle launch yesterday. Space Shuttle Discovery blasted off at 7:43 PM on it's way to the International Space Station, and I was there. It was about 15 minutes after sunset, so it was still pretty light out. But the light from that solid rocket fuel made everything else in the picture seem dark as night. Someday I'll get good at taking these pictures. I suspect that'll be right around the time they end the shuttle program.

I was well-enough prepared this time that I was able to slap on a shorter lens soon after take-off. So you get to see something other than a long tongue of flame behind an invisible shuttle.

I mentioned that the launch took place just after sunset. Not long into flight, the smoke plume entered the area where the suns' rays were still in the orange sunset color. Past that, the full illumination of the sun turned the trail a brilliant white, so it was quite possibly the most colorful shuttle launch ever.

This detail of the smoke trail in the area where the most color was shows the beautiful colors that are usually reserved for sunsets in some island nation you only ever get to visit once in your life.

More Eagles

Well, after finding a new bald eagle nest yesterday, I thought I'd stop by my local nest this afternoon and see what I could see. As I was pulling up, I saw one of the adults in his usual perch on a dead tree near his nest. You've seen this same shot any number of times now, going all the way back to my first sighting of these eagles back in 2005. Off to the left of this, I saw the other adult raising a commotion in another tree, but by the time I got the camera out and the long lens on it, that bird was nowhere to be seen. I hopped out of the car and started walking around when something caught my attention.

Soaring behind the trees was a big dark bird. My first thought was that it was a vulture, they seem to be all over the place around here lately. But something didn't seem right about it, so I snapped a quick shot and tried to get out from behind the trees, but I didn't see him again. Well, at least not in the air.

Sure enough, after scanning the tree line for a while, I spotted what I think is the same bird. It's a juvenile bald eagle, probably not long out of the nest. I waited almost half an hour hoping he'd take flight, but he was content to sit on his limb and wait me out.

Come On Ride The Train

Did I mention the steam locomotive I saw this weekend? I don't think I did. Gonna be riding this thing in a couple of weeks, so I don't want to get too far into it. But you can always go here for more info.

Another Eagle!

So, I'm cruising down the road today with the top down, doing about 60, when I see this bald eagle. He's sitting on top of a cell phone tower, just watching the world go by. I rapidly decelerate and pull over to shoot some pictures. I think he may actually be nesting on the cell tower, which I think is a little atypical. They don't normally nest on artificial structures. And given the size to which their nests can grow, it's going to be a problem for the people who operate the tower. Anyhow, I was quite happy to find another eagle nest.

Just Ducky

I went to the Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival this past weekend, for the fourth or fifth year in a row. I gotta tell you it's getting a little boring, but there's always some little something to see or shoot that I've missed before. This year it was the rubber duck race. I thought this was a cool shot, with just the one duck in focus. Now if I could have gotten that green frog in focus with all the blurry ducks around him, that would have been the money shot. Well, so to speak...

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.