Somewhere in New Jersey

My friend Laura has a wonderful blog entitled Somewhere in NJ. Recently though you could call it "Somewhere in Wisconsin". Seems she went on a trip there (and blew off a trip with me to the Pinelands here in NJ. The nerve!). And she's been blogging about all the fabulous flowers she saw there.

Well they don't call it the "Garden State" for nothing. Here are some flower images from right here in New Jersey. Taken in the Pine Barrens this past Saturday morning. All at one spot. And all before noon.

Yellow Fringed Orchid


Bog Aster


Turks-cap Lily


Slender Yellow-eyed Grass

Round-leaved Sundew


Cross-leaved Milkwort


Lance-leaved Century


Green Wood Orchid

Canada St. Johns-wort


White Fringed Orchid

Imagine if I had spent the whole day out there?

:-)

Sunday Six: May 17th

                                    Citizen Scientists ...

This is part of a group of volunteers who will be performing grassland bird surveys throughout New Jersey this May and June. Sadly, grassland bird numbers are dwindling due mainly to habitat loss at the breeding grounds. The picture was taken at Duke Farms during a workshop on grassland bird identification in the field. One of the target species, grasshopper sparrow, was the subject of my musically inclined 365 theme image.


                                    ... Doing Science

In the form of scanning for grassland birds. The purpose of the outing was to give the volunteer surveyors practice identifying and viewing the target species in the field. The habitat at Duke Farms is ideal for this. And there is no comparison between observing a bird in the field or only in a field guide.


                                    Tree Swallow

We saw approximately thirty species of birds amongst the group. Including this nattily attired tree swallow.


                                    American Toad

Not only birds make use of the grasslands. A variety of mammals, reptiles, and amphibians do as well. This fellow was pretty well hidden in the grass along the side of the dirt road. 


                                    Dr. Kristin Mylercraine

Of the New Jersey Audubon Society, shown here taking my profile picture, is the researcher overseeing the grassland bird surveys.


                                   Lichen Bench

Back at the Coach Barn there were several benches like this one. Clearly they haven't been getting much use of late. By humans anyway. The lichens seem to like 'em.

Sunday Six: May 10th

                                   Golden Heather

I spent Saturday morning at the Franklin Parker Preserve and had fun using my macro lens to take pictures of the wildflowers growing there. The Preserve is 9400 acres in the heart of the Pinelands National Reserve.


                                    Red Chokeberry with Ants

Look closely and you'll see that the black spots in the flowers are actually ants. I've long been fascinated by ants. It amazes me how such a tiny create can show such a wide range of behaviors including fungus gardening, "milking" of hoppers, and elaborate structure building. At one job I had the people I managed even got me an ant farm for my birthday. I set it up in my office. It freaked out some visitors. 

                                    Dwarf Dandelion

I've never quite understood the distinction between flowers and weeds. This sure looks like a flower to me. But if you believe the TV ads, it is really a scourge to be eliminated at all costs. Curious.


                                    Pine Sap

This stem appeared to have been cut relatively recently but there was no other evidence of cutting or trimming in the area. The stem itself is about the size of a US 25 cent piece.


                                    Mystery Flower

I've no idea what this flower is. Neither do two friends who are pretty good botanists. If you know what it is please let me know in the comments.

Update: We have a tentative ID, Teesdalia nudicaulis (shepherd's cress). And Mike was right, it's a weed.

                                    Old Cranberry Bog

A wide view of the preserve showing an old cranberry bog. You can see a couple of the pump houses in the distance. As I'm sure you've guessed, this one is not a macro shot.

Sunday Six: May 3rd


                                    Giganotosaurus carolinii

This is what greets you upon entering the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia or as my nephew calls it, the Dinosaur Museum. It is literally over the ticket counter right inside the front doors. It is slightly larger than ...


                                       T Rex

Who put the 'terrible' in terrible lizard. But T Rex has the bigger brain (slightly). The lighting in the dinosaur hall was difficult. It was dark with bright spots, windows and light fixtures. And trying to find angles that hid lights and signs and wires was tricky. Plus it was all hand held, resulting in plenty of soft or outright blurry images.

                                    T Rex's Foot

Significantly larger then her 'hands'. And I suspect rather unpleasant in everyday use.


                                    Butterfly

On the top floor of the Academy is a butterfly garden. And this is one of the resident butterflies. I do not know the species, and as they are flown in from around the world I don't have a field guide to look them up (if you know please leave a comment telling me). I'm not sure if it is the travel or that the habit isn't right or if it is a normal lifespan, but the butterflies live here for only a few weeks. Update: Mike Sokorski, Butterfly coordinator for the Academy has left a comment id'ing this as Tithorea harmonia.


                                   Another Butterfly

Again I do not know the species. If you do please let me know in the comments. It was very warm and humid in the room housing the butterflies. And my lens (at least the filter) kept fogging up. I was lucky to get some clear images. Update: Mike has id'ed this one as Idea leconoe. Thanks Mike.


                                    Iguana

I'll end with a living not so terrible lizard. The Academy also has an animal rehab center. I'm not sure what this guy was in for. But he had a knack of almost posing perfectly and then at the last minute turning her head to a horrible angle. But I managed to get a pair of good shots including this one.

Sunday Six: April 26th

                                Arabian Lights Dance Company

Another shot of the belly dancers and their very colorful costumes.

                                       Dance Fan

Julie in the comments on my Skin theme image asked for an image of the "enthusiastic fans". Alas, this is the only one I have. This young man was very enthusiastic, and he actually joined in on two of the dances.

                                       Sunset

A much more serene view of the horizon and the tree line that the next night would be the stage for my lightning images. But this would be a good night and I would be up imaging until 5:00 AM.

                                       Leo Triplet

The three fuzzy patches in this image are the three galaxies that make up the Leo Triplet, namely M65, M66, and NGC 3628. This is one of 80 frames I took of these galaxies, the idea being that I can stack them and increase the signal to noise ratio. Each individual image was between 60 and 120 seconds and stacking them will give me a much greater effective exposure time.


                                           M13

M13, the great globular cluster in Hercules. Another not so great astrophoto. But still not awful for my first time out. As with the Leo Triplet I've got a number of frames I can stack to hopefully bring out some additional detail. But to get truly better I'm going to need to guide. And practice, practice, practice.


                                   Summer Milky Way

This shot was taken at 3:56 AM. We are looking south and the light dome is whatever town is in that direction. Our home galaxy, the milky way aches overhead. The ghostly red image of a person is my friend and fellow club member Jerry Lodriguss. If you want to see some truly superb astrophotos visit Jerry's site, Catching the Light. You'll be glad you did.

Sunday Six: April 19th

                                    Pond, Close Up

I and two friends took a ride down Quaker Bridge Road in the New Jersey Pinelands. Our first stop was this pond. As you can see the trees have yet to leaf out,  and while the bottom of the frame looks calm and serene, the top looks very busy; a mass of tangled branches.

                                    Pond, Wide View

Zooming out a bit completely changes the character of the place, with the reflection of the blue sky now dominating the image. The tangled mess of branches becoming a gray band in the upper half of the image.

                                   Running Water

This is the front of the sluiceway shown in my Mirror 336 Theme image. The water was much higher this visit. I tried a number of times on this trip to shoot long exposures of running water. I wasn't really successful. The places where the water was running fastest had few if any stationary objects (rocks, plants, etc.) so the images just looked blurry. And where there were stationary elements in the image, like in this one, the water wasn't obviously moving. I do like the spider webby effect in the lower left of the image.

                                    Quaker Bridge

My traveling companions up on the new metal Quaker Bridge. The original Quaker Bridge was build in the 1700's by, you guested it, a group of Quakers. There was an annual Quaker meeting in Tuckerton, and a number of Quakers from West Jersey and Philadelphia had drowned crossing the Basto River making the trip.

This road was part of the Tuckerton Stage Road, one of the main routes from Philadelphia to the then major seaport of Tuckerton. Stage coaches would travel the road, and those who could afford the ride would spend several days doing what now takes a couple of hours, stopping at the taverns along the way for food, drink, news, and a place to spent the night.

                                   Moss

I don't know exactly what species this is. The stalks are about the size of wooden match sticks. And for some reason, my camera didn't want to autofocus on them. Too many too closely packed together for the Digic 4 chip? 


                                   Golden Club

A solitary golden club flower. A bit further down the stream were bunches of them. But the terrain was much like that in the Shadows 365 Theme image. And this one is all I got. 

Sunday Six: April 5th

                       Night Sky over Finnisterra

This is an eight second exposure using s 50 mm f/1.4 lens at 1.4. The light reflecting off of the cliff sides is from the city of Cabo San Lucas. While it makes for a nice image, this light pollution ruins any chance of serious stargazing. Which is really disappointing because this is much farther south then my usual observing sites. And there are a number of southern sky objects that I can't observe at home that I could see here. Bummer.


                                    Dawn

Most places I travel to if I want sunrise pictures, I've got to get up very early and drive to the location. And it is usually very cold. Here I roll out of bed, open the sliding glass door, and step out on to the balcony. After firing up the coffee maker of course.

                                    The Morning Star

Venus in the crescent phase, coming out of conjunction with the sun.

                               Sunrise over the Sea of Cortez

A wide angle shot showing the view of the sea from the balcony of our suite. If you look really closely at the horizon you can see a little bump, a cruise ship on its way in.


                                    Kite

Another shot of the kite from the Kite theme image. This was essentially a lucky shot, aim at the sun and shoot.


                                   Villa Del Arco

This is the resort where my sister has her timeshare. Our suite is the fourth floor down from the top, or the one just above the tall floor. You can see the grill on our balcony, with a collapsed umbrella next to it (it was very windy all week. Good for kite flying.)

Sunday Six: March 29th

                              Sunrise over the Sea of Cortez

Our first morning in Mexico and I'm up with the sun taking pictures and watching the various creatures, including sea lions, whales, rays, pelicans, and humans start their day.

                               Adobe Meets Eastern Europe

That's how my brother described the architecture at the Westin resort in Cabo San Lucas. This where the cab in the 365 Rainbow theme image took us. My sister and her husband and my brother and his wife had to sit through a time share sales pitch, while the rest of our party, including yours truly, were free to wander the grounds. By sitting through the pitch we received free cab fare to and from the Westin, breakfast, two bottles of tequila, and vouchers for dinner and breakfast at our choice restaurants in Cabo. Neither couple bought a timeshare.

                               There be Whales Here!

You'll need to look at a larger version and I didn't have my long lens with me, but if you look past the far point of the open square, you can see the whale's tail as it heads out to sea.

                                   Squares

Close up of the walls at the Westin.

                       Finnisterra, where the Desert meets the Sea

Finnisterra, or in English, Land's End, is the bottom of the Baja peninsula. And it is curious to see cactus, palm trees, and the sea in the same view. I find the desert often beautiful and adding the blue of the water just makes it that much better.

                           Literally, Desert meeting the Sea

Makes for a very nice image, even if there aren't any palm trees or cacti.