Rockabilly Ruckus-Act One

As I think I mentioned, I went to a concert this past weekend at Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa. It was called Rockabilly Ruckus and it featured a handful of bands all loosely associated with rockabilly. The act you're seeing here was actually the second of the evening, but the act that preceded them played twice, so we'll catch them later on. This is 6 Volt Rodeo, a fine musical quartet. The guy getting shot to bits above while introducing the band is actually one of the DJs from WMNF, sponsor of the evenings festivities. This was the beginning of eight full hours of musical mayhem that left me drained, yet wanting more.

Pay close attention to that bass player, Mike Daley, you'll see him in at least one of the other bands on the bill. That seemed to be a recurring theme, people showing up to play in a second band later in the evening. My memory for faces is terrible, yet even I noticed the same people showing up again.

Twice during their set, they brought out this lovely lady to sing some sultry lead vocals. There were lots of ladies in the audience wearing their best swinger chick 60's outfits. If was a more forward photographer, I'd have gotten more pictures of them, but I'm too shy, and their boyfriends are too big... Actually, most of the ladies were taller than their beaus due to the popularity of some extremely high heels.

The Littlest Pirate

I spent most of today at the annual Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival near Bradenton, FL. It's the sort of festival that pops up all over Florida this time of year, as it becomes warmer and warmer, but not too hot. One of the attractions is a large pirate ship on wheels, that's also used as a parade float, but here is just used as an attention getter for a local group. I spotted this young guy on the deck of the ship, all dressed up, but perhaps not entirely sure he wanted to play the part of a blodthirsty pirate. I don't usually shoot people, much less people I don't know, but I thought he was worth making an exception.

Shoes On A Wire

I don't know what the deal with shoes thrown over a powerline is. I see them all over the place. These three were on a wire behind Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa. When I've worn out a pair of shoes, I just throw them away, not up in the air. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong.

FINOMNL

I went to Rockabilly Ruckus last night, a concert benefiting local public radio station WMNF, and they had a small car show out front. One of my favorite old cars is a '59 Cadillac, which they didn't have, but they did have a couple of '60 models, and that's what we've got here. The fins shrunk dramatically in that single year, but they're still way up in the air, and capable of killing pedestrians who get in the way of a backwards-moving car. And that license plate is great!  More pictures to come from all the great bands I saw after the car show.  I think I shot way, way too many pictures.

Local Bird

This is the hawk that has recently been seen around where I work. Nearly every day he's sitting outside, making all kinds of noise, flying back and forth, establishing a noisy presence in the area. I haven't found a nest yet, nor have I even seen his mate, but I figure it's inevitable. Maybe baby hawklings are in the works, one can only hope. I believe this is a common red-shoulder hawk, but I could be mistaken. I need to see him on the wing more clearly to see if maybe he's a red-tail instead. We found a rat in a trap the other day that wasn't dead yet, and we stuck him outside on the grass. Within half an hour, Mr. Hawk here had scooped him up and had a nice little meal. We later found the skin and tail in a pile where he'd left them. I wish there was some way to get him to come inside and save us from having to first trap the rats.

Down In The Mud

Last weekend when I went flower shooting, it happened to be at low tide, and Selby Gardens is right on Sarasota Bay. I spotted these two horse conchs in the mud on an exposed piece of bottom and thought they were pretty impressive. Hard to tell the scale in this shot, but each of those spiral shells is nearly a foot from point to end. It's pretty rare to find these guys this big, and even rarer to find them empty so you can take them home, but it does happen. These two were alive and well, if a bit high and dry until the tide came back in. I'm not sure, but I suspect maybe they were together for a little bit of mating, but it could just be a coincidence that they were in such close proximity.

VD 25

And this is the end of my Valentine's Day flower spectacular! Hope you've enjoyed all the flower close-ups. Now I can go to sleep, it's been a long day!

VD 24

Well, it wouldn't be Valentine's Day without a rose, now would it? So here's the first rose of the day, from the rose garden at the Ringling Museum.

VD 23

I've changed venues slightly at this point. Instead of shooting flowers at Selby Gardens, I'm shooting flowers inside the Ringling Estate. And this time, I think I know the name of the flower. I think this is an Ice Flower, or something like that. I first saw these in San Francisco almost ten years ago. I think they were an invasive exotic from South Africa. I don't remember all the details, but I know they make pretty pictures.

VD 22

Enough with the purple, I think it's time for some yellow. Many of these shots show the very narrow range of focus when shooting macro lens at a wide aperture. Only some of the shot is in focus at a given time. I had a hard time holding the camera still, too, and add in a little wind at the same time, and I was lucky that any of these shots came out at all. But on the whole, I've been pretty happy with them.

VD 21

What's that? You didn't get enough purple before? No problem, here are a few more for you.

Hope you're having a great Valentine's Day!

VD 20

I think butterflies loose a little of their beauty when you get too close to them. They start to look more like bugs and less like flying works of art.  I might be able to get a clearer picture if they weren't constantly moving...

VD 19

A little more purple for you, this time from a much smaller flower. The fuzzy purple glow in the foreground and background are more flowers, way out of focus. Cool effect, I thought.

VD 18

Don't you just love purple?

VD 17

OK, the reason I was out looking for flowers yesterday was in hopes of finding one of these. This is a bombax tree, and it puts out these giant red flowers right about this time of year. This one had only started blooming, and all the flowers were 50 feet off the ground. Thus, all you can see are the backs of them, and I think they loose a little something in the distance. But I had to show you my motivation.

VD 16

OK, so this isn't a flower. It's a leaf, and it's got some sort of fungus on it that's making these spots. But I still thought it was colorful enough to shoot and share with you.

VD 15

Another blossom from the bromeliad family. Which reminds me, it's got to be getting about time for another plant show and sale at the local exotic plant nursery. That's always good for some great flower pictures.

VD 14

The flowers at Selby Gardens are many and varied. No idea what this is, but it's cool looking.

VD 13

Lucky number 13 and halfway through today's Valentine's Day flower spectacular. Hope you're enjoying some of these great pictures. This is some sort of bromeliad, no idea which one, and I shot it at Selby Gardens. They've got lots and lots of great things to see and shoot.

VD 12

Don't forget that I'm taking all these flower pictures with a 100mm macro lens. Those flowers above are less than a quarter inch across. I'm amazed at how well come of these came out. There are plenty of ugly ones that I'm not showing you, but most of them came out surprisingly well.

VD 11

Sort of the opposite of a black-background picture. In this case, the flower in the foreground is relatively dark, so when I expose for it, the background gets too bright. It's not a bad look, but I think I prefer the black background.

VD 10

There's that black background again. I think there have to be three or more stops of difference between the foreground and the background for it to go black like that. The flower was illuminated in the sun, and the background was in dark shade. It's great when things work out like that.

VD 9

So many fine little details in there... If I were an insect, I'm sure I'd quickly become trapped and eaten.

VD 8

Uh-oh, an orchid. That must mean I'm in the greenhouse at Selby Gardens. They always have the coolest stuff in there, even in the middle of February.

VD 7

When you get in too close, sometimes it's hard to know what you're looking at. These are the stamens deep inside of a yellow blossom on something. I think stamen is the word. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. I love being able to get in there and shoot things this small. I didn't even have to crop this one. I'm really learning to love this lens!

VD 6

Two for the price of one this time around. Hope you're having a great Valentine's Day!

VD 5

Way back when I first started getting interested in photography, these were one of the flowers I was always trying to shoot. Problem was, I could never find them near the ground. I always saw them up in trees, 30-40 feet off the ground. I found these on a fence near Selby Gardens, so I was able to get nice and close.

VD 4

While there is technically a flower in this picture, for me it's all about the bee. Click on the shot so you can see it really big. These guys don't just collect the pollen, they wear it. She's covered in the stuff. And there's another little bug on the petal way out to the right. No idea what that is, but it's awful small.

VD 3

More flowers from Selby Gardens. Don't you love the total darkness in the background?

VD 2

Here's another entry in today's flower-palooza in honor of Valentine's Day. I just love how flowers look when you get in really close. There's so much detail in there that's so easy to miss if you aren't looking for it.

VD 1

Happy Valentine's Day! I know it's been a while since I posted many pictures on the blog, so to make up for that a little, I've got a whole bunch of pictures to share with you today. I think they're all flowers, or at least some sort of vegetation, and they're all extreme close-ups with my new 100mm macro lens. So sit back and enjoy some great color. Most of these were shot at Selby Gardens on Sunday, and I have no idea what any of them are. Some are fancy rarities, some of them are just your garden variety ornamentals.

Goodbye

I buried Baby yesterday in the field behind my parents house. It was raining the whole time, and today I woke up with a sore throat. Oh, well. But this isn't about me, it's about her. I figured the yellow flowers were somehow appropriate for a yellow cat. Thanks to all of you for your comments. I need to work on moving on now.

The End

Well, Baby died today.  I went to check on her about two o'clock, and she was gone.  I'd been going back and forth about having her euthanized, and had finally decided it was for the best.  But I waited too long.  I don't think she was in any pain when she died, but I doubt if she was very happy at the time.  I'll spare you the gory details of her last days and her death.  She was a good cat, and she will be missed.

End Of Days

I'm pretty sure my cat is dying. She had a cold back before Christmas. She'd sneeze every once in a while, and slowed down on her eating a lot. A few days into her being sick, I got sick, too, so we were sick together. I got better, but she didn't. She finally stopped sneezing, and I waited for her appetite to pick back up. It never did. She quit eating her dry food completely, but she would still take a soft treat. So I got her some wet food, which she ate for a while, but then ate less and less until all she would do was lick off the gravy. Then she quit doing even that. She's drinking, but not very much. I finally took her to the vet earlier this week, and he thinks it could be a number of things, liver, kidneys, thyroid, cancer, etc. But the tests didn't come back and show anything definitive. She's lost almost half her body weight so far, and tonight I realized that she's gone deaf. She used to meet me at the door when I got home in the evenings, but lately she's not noticed I was home until she could see me. I finally realized that tonight when I actually had to touch her before she realized I was home. I tried to get a response out of her with a loud clap or a yell, but she didn't notice. I suspect all of these things add up to something terribly wrong. I've had her for about ten years now, and she was a stray before I got her, so I don't know how old she is. It could just be her time to go. I've recently seen her sitting there, looking at an empty wall, paying no attention to anything, looking completely in the wrong direction. That's out of character for someone who makes sure to lay down in the spot most likely to be underfoot. I'm not going to spend a fortune at the vet to extend her life for another short period of time. We'll see what he says tomorrow, and then it may be time to let her live out her last few days in peace.  She's still got a lot of spunk in her for someone who hasn't eaten much in a while, though.  I learned that when I tried to get a syringe of vitamins down her throat.  So she may stick around for a while yet. I'll let you know what happens.

Circle B Bar Eagles

Before I quit posting for the night and hit the hay, here are a couple of bald eagles at the Circle B Bar Preserve in Lakeland. They have at least two eagles nests there, and somehow I got shots of eagles flying out of both nests in the same day. Trust me, I didn't flush 'em, I was way too far away. They just happened to take off while I had the camera on them. You can't actually see the nest of the one above, I cropped it out of the picture so you could see the eagle a little better. I was much farther away from that one when I took the picture. The one below I at first mistook for an osprey, but that impression didn't take long to correct once I trained my lens on him. Then all of a sudden he took to the sky and left no doubt that he was something a lot bigger and badder than any old osprey.

Fine Feathered Friend

I saw something flying by during my recent trip to Circle B Bar Preserve in Lakeland. It was too fast and too far away for me to tell what it was, but I was able to train the camera on it and hold down the button. It wasn't until I got the photos home and out of the camera, then do some enhancement that I realized it was an owl! Click on the shot above to see a larger version and you'll see an eye that leaves no doubt in my mind. I can't tell you what kind of owl for sure, but it's an owl. He's also got a twig or a piece of string stuck in his tail. Perhaps that's why he was flying around during the day, trying to shake it off because it was keeping him awake worrying about it. Or maybe not...

Not A Bird

Perhaps you're tired of the bird pictures tonight. If so, then here's a fellow that's most certainly not a bird. I spotted this 6-7' alligator out at Myakka River State Park this afternoon. He was one of three biggies sunning himself along the Powerline Trail. He was also the only one who was out in the open, so his are the only pictures I'm sharing with you. The others were bigger, but if I can't get a clear shot of them, what's the point?  The water level out there is really low, since it's the middle of the dry season around here.  Each of the three gators had staked out a deep hole that was no doubt his and only his.  I guess they just hope it lasts until the rains come.  I think I've read that they'll get down in the hole and wallow around to make it deeper and hold more water, but I don't know if that's true.  Sounds good, though.

Pair Of Kings

I sure do take a lot of bird pictures, don't I? Not sure why that is. (I blame Meredith, but you don't know who that is...) Anyhow, what you've got here are a couple of kingfishers. They're tiny and skittish, which makes them really hard to photograph, but I've gotten both these pictures in the past two weeks, so I figured they were worth sharing. The one above is from Robinson Preserve last weekend. There were several of them out there, but this is the one that let me get the closest. The one below I show today out at Myakka River State Park, and he was the second one I saw during the day. He seems to have a little more color to him. I need to do some research to see if maybe that's breeding plumage, or if the different coloration is a boy/girl thing. Or I could just not worry about it.

Pink-tacular

One of my favorite birds hereabouts is the roseate spoonbill. But they're pretty few and far between, so it's rare I get to shoot them. I was up at Cockroach Bay a couple of weeks ago, or at least the road that dead ends into Cockroach Bay, and I stopped to shoot some birds near a fence. They turned out to not be very interesting, but way out in the flooded fields were a few spoonbills, just chilling out. As I watched them, they decided to fly from one spot to another, one at a time. I shot and shot and shot, and I got this when the very last one finally joined the rest of the flock. They were pretty far away, so it's not the best shot, but I thought it was nice to get one of them with wings outstretched like this. Now if I could just get a similar picture where he's close enough to fill the frame...

A Better Bird

A year ago, I showed you a picture of one of these tiny yellow birds, but I didn't know what it was called. Thanks to a commenter, I can tell you it's a, oh, wait, he didn't identify this one, he identified one that I referenced in that old post. So I still don't know what this is. Anyhow, there were a bunch of these in the rushes at the Celery Fields today, so I was able to get a decent shot when one decided to hold still for a few seconds in some decent light. He only stayed put for about 5 seconds, but I was able to get a decent shot to share with you. Hopefully someone will leave a comment and tell us who this little guy is.

On The Wing

Here's a slightly better photo of some glossy ibis in the air than the one I showed you a couple of weeks ago. Granted, it's fewer birds, but it's in focus, and that's important. I think I need to practice my manual focus, but that comes right after I practice my manual exposure and my tracking ability. There's a lot required to take a picture, trust me. I shot this foursome out at the Celery Fields, some reclaimed farm land here in Sarasota that's renowned locally as a great bird habitat. I didn't think it was all that impressive compared to some of the places I've seen, but I guess because it's here in town, it's got a certain charm. More to come, if I don't get all lazy on you.