Posts in Category: Samsung Galaxy S4

Great Blue Heron on the Phone

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Okay. Not really a phone call from a Great Blue Heron…but an image of a GBH taken with my Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone behind the eyepiece of my ZEISS DiaScope 65FL spotting scope. The tiny sensor in the phone is ideal, in many ways, for digiscoping (as this application of the spotting scope is called) and I have an excellent adapter to hold the phone in the right place from Novagrade.

Of course the winter sun-light of Florida, and the inherent beauty of the bird, as well as the realatively close approach possible at the Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands at Viera, all contribute the image.

As above: ZEISS DiaScope 65FL. 15-45x Vario eyepiece. Novagrade Universal Smartphone Adapter. Samsung Galaxy S4 phone. ISO 50 @ 1/1550th of a second. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.

On the Nest

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After my close up experiences at Gatorland in Orlando yesterday, my colleague and I spent a few hours at the Rich Grissom Memorial Wetlands (otherwise known as Viera Wetlands) in Melbourne. Viera is one of those repurposed settlement pond complexes at a municipal sewage treatment plant. They have added Observation towers and keep the roads along the dikes graded for easy birder access. It is my favorite place to photograph birds in a more natural setting. Waders and ducks, and the lesson common Bitterns, and even Lumpkin, can be found there most days.

This time of year the Great Blue Herons are just beginning to build nests in the broken off tops of the palm trees. They are considerably further away than at Gatorland, but still well within digiscoping range. This image is actually phonescoped, using my Samsung Galaxy S4 on a universal smartphone adapter from Novagrade behind the eyepiece of a ZEISS DiaScope 65FL.

Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.

Snowy Owl, Snowy Beach

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Perhaps only in Maine would this be called a beach, but, while Maine does have some sandy beaches, mostly at the mouths of rivers, and mostly south of Portland, this is what most of the Maine shore looks like, and has to pass for beach. Of course, Snowy Owls, on their periodic irruptions into the state, love such beaches. Especially, as here, with a light coating of snow. Perched there, they are almost invisible. In fact, until this year, I have only seen Snowy Owls in Maine on such beaches.

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Though the light is not particularly favorable here, I was happy to get this shot. This was the first of two Snowy Owl sightings last Wednesday when I went out specifically looking for them. There have been abundant reports this winter already. We are in the midst of a major Snowy Owl irruption. The E-Bird sightings map for ME, NH, and MA looks like a bad case of the measles. ๐Ÿ™‚ Snowies only enter the US in winter, and only in numbers during invasion or irruption years, which follow a cycle that is not completely understood. The drawn arrow on the map shows where I live, right in the thick of it! So, of course, I had to go looking. And, while my other shots from the day, of a Snowy Owl on a chimney, are better shots, technically, this shot has the advantage of showing the Owl as we see it most of the time in a winter when they invade the US in any numbers.

Phonescoped with the Samsung Galaxy S4 through the eyepiece of a ZEISS Diascope 65FL. Processed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 using Snapseed.

Forest for the trees…

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This is a vertical sweep panorama. I was looking at the dead pine in the center background and the image builds itself around that, but the most interesting thing to me is the distortions introduced in the surrounding trees by the sweep process. It is a bendy world the sweep panorama mode captures ๐Ÿ™‚ The only difficulty in this kind of vertical sweep is getting your head back far enough without falling over.

This is at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge on the trail at the headquarters.

Samsung Smart Camera WB250F. Processed in PicSay Pro on the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone.

Goldenrod Forever!

I have never seen so much Goldenrod as is growing on the Kennebunk Plains this summer. A great spread of yellow under the sun. Of course, for allergy suffers, among which I am one, this is not good news ๐Ÿ™‚ What we suffer for beauty…and it is a beautiful plant. I can almost forgive it my itchy eyes.

Here I have used moderate telephoto to compress the layers, and cropped both top and bottom for a wider effect…to emphasize the spread of the Goldenrod.

Samsung Smart Camera WB250F. Rich Tone Mode. 85mm equivalent field of view. ย Nominal exif: f4.4 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Processed in PicSay Pro on the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone.

 

Weekly Blazing Star Bloom Update

Time for what is becoming my weekly Northern Blazing Star bloom update. Still not quite there. The bloom on the south side of the Kennebunk Plains is well advanced, with some blooms moving on toward seed, but there are only individual plants in bloom on the north side of the Plains…and even on the south many plants are still in bud.

Yesterday, however, the Goldenrod was in full cry! I was able to find this lovely stand of Blazing Star isolated against a backdrop Goldenrod. What a contrast in color. I may mess with this later in Dynamic Auto Painter to see what it would look like as a painting. ๐Ÿ™‚

Samsung Smart Camera WB250F. Action Freeze Mode (the wind was blowing a gale, and the flowers were never still). f5 @ 1/750th @ ISO 200. Processed in PicSay Pro on the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone.

Halloween Pennant

I have been looking for a Halloween Pennant for several years now. I mean, who could see them in the dragonfly guides and not want to see one, and photograph one, in real life. They are at the extreme north east of their range here on the coast in Southern Maine, but they are listed on the Odonata Central list for York County. I had hope. But I had no bug! Until last weekend when I found a single specimen at Roger’s Pond along the Mousam River in Kennebunk. Roger’s Pond is not nearly as productive as the Quest Ponds when it comes to Odonata, but I have found several dragons and a few damsels there that I have yet to see anywhere else.

I went back yesterday on my lunch-hour scooter prowl, and there was a second Halloween Pennant…this time in better light and closer, perching on the tallest stalks left in the mowed margin of the pond instead of on rushes out in the water. I know it is a second specimen because the first I saw was slightly worn…with an obvious notch out of one wing, and the colors somewhat faded. Yesterday’s bug was fresh and spectacular. What more could any odonatate ask for. (Yes, in my secret life, I an the Odonatator! ๐Ÿ™‚

Canon SX50HS at 2400mm equivalent. Program with -1/3 EV exposure compensation. Hand-held of course. Transferred to my Samsung Galaxy S4 via the RavPower WiFi disk and card reader, and then processed in PicSay Pro. (I am getting ramped up to spend two weeks in Europe without my laptop.)

 

 

Wet Rose

We are having another 24 hours of rain to end the week. This was taken near sunset on our last rainy day, when the storm finally moved out to sea and the sun broke through for a few moments. The sun was already gone by the time I got to the beach roses covered in rain water, but they still made a good study in the soft light of early evening. The colors are never richer than when wet, and the drops add interesting highlights. And, of course, Rosa rugosa petals always have that crushed silk texture that catches the eye.

Samsung Smart Camera WB250F in Macro mode. 32mm equivalent (the Macro default). f3.4 @ 1/45th @ ISO 160. Processed in PicSay Pro on the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone. Auto Enhance by Google+.

Trees by threes

This trio of popular trees along the Kennebunk Bridle Path caught my eye one day as I passed. I like the lichen on the bark, and the pattern the three make against the greenery. The 24mm equivalent lens provides the depth of field to shot close in to the front tree, and yet have the others in relative focus as well. It is all about composition, really.

Samsung Smart Camera WB250F. Program. -1/3EV exposure compensation. 24mm equivalent field of view. f3.2 @ 1/60th @ ISO 100. Processed on the Samsung Galaxy S4 in PicSay Pro.

 

The Long View: Happy Sunday!

I took my scooter down to the beach in the early evening yesterday, mostly to feel the cooling wind of my passage at the end of yet another day of oppressive heat and humidity. We don’t get many of those in Southern Maine, not enough to justify the cost of an air-conditioner certainly, so when we do get them, all we can do is sort of suffer through with window fans, iced drinks…and occasional scooter rides when things just get too drippy.

Turns out the sky over the ocean and the marshes was spectacular. I puttered about from place to likely place, cooling myself in the rides, and took a lot of pictures. ๐Ÿ™‚

This is the view last night out to sea from one of our semi-private beaches. I like the low angle. It was taken with my Samsung Smart Camera WB250F, which, unfortunately, does not have an articulated LCD. What it has is an excellent, no-tripod-needed, in-camera HDR, which was called for here. I am learning, for the the low shots, to shoot more or less blind, and straighten in software later ๐Ÿ™‚ Rich Tone mode. 24mm equivalent field of view. Recorded exif for the three shot sequence was f3.2 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. Processed in PicSay Pro on the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone.

And for the Sunday thought: I was also having, yesterday, a Facebook conversation with a young friend, the son of an old friend, about choosing a place to live. I gave him several suggestions from among the places I have lived and visited, but then he specified that he needs the ocean. “Being able to look out over the water from the beach and not to be able to see the other side, is something that I really need. I need that sense of curiosity and the sense of greatness that the power of the ocean displays.”

Today’s image is, in fact, the view he grew up with. The family moved inland while he was still young, but his grandparents still have a house on this beach, and I am sure he looked out on this sea often enough each summer so the view became part of the essence of his soul.

I, on the other hand, grew up in hills. My father and mother built a house on the shoulder of a high hill in rural New York State. The view that shaped me was pasture and woodland stretching away in folds to the horizon. We never got to the ocean at all. When we wanted, as people will, whether they can articulate the need as such, a wider horizon, the mystery and the wonder of the long view, we would drive up, or hike up one of our green mountains. For me, the view from a bare hill top, or even more, the view from a stony mountain top, especially under a spectacular sky, has the same power as the view out over the sea does for my friend. It might be more “homey” and even more “homely” but it is still full of power and glory.

I did not come to the sea, really, until I was a young man, and then we lived by the ocean just long enough for me to miss the view when we moved far inland to the desert mountains of the Southwest. I am, after all, back by the sea. And yet, I found that same mystery and wonder in the desert. Oh I have never seen a real desert, with sand dunes or stony flats running on to the eye-level horizon, but I found that sense of power and grandeur in the intensely living desert of the American Southwest, always with its mountain islands rising to the sky in every direction. And the view from the tops of those mountains! There was a wonder.

And then, too, while we lived in New Mexico, we spent time in the Rocky Mountains of Southwest Colorado each summer, camping and hiking. I defy anyone to climb even a 10,000 foot, wildflower infested, peak in High Peaks area of Colorado and not feel the awe of that long view!

More recently I discovered the far views of the Potholes and Prairies region of North Dakota. Such skies. Such an expanse of land. And I have, on a few trips there, learned to love the gentle vistas of England…from the hills and lakes of mid-lands to the mountains and lakes of the Lake District, to the rolling expanse of the Dales, to the grandeur that is Scotland, Skye, and the Hebrides.

And last year I was totally blown away by the awesome skies over the somehow miniature, certainly manicured, and always canal cut, landscapes of Holland.

And, come to think of it, I have felt exactly the same wonder and awe standing in a redwood grove where I could not see 1000 feet in any direction or the sky at all…where all the power and majesty was in the size and age of the life around me, where the long view was not spacial but temporal.

And waterfalls…falling water…rapids even…the eternal rush is always enough to take my breath away.

So what does it come down to? I need to live in a place where I can feel the awe of the long view, the energy of what is wild and wide and beyond my control, certainly, but I have come to realize that the awe is not in the place, but in me. If I never again saw the view out over the ocean on a day with a great sky, I would miss it, but it would not stop me from finding the awe of the place I was in. And I realize in writing this that I am about due for high mountain experience. I miss the mountains! But that will not stop me from scootering down to the beach on a hot day to find the awe that lives out over the ocean and the marshes. Today, since the mountains are too far, I will go find a waterfall, and maybe some dragonflies, and a deep dark forest.

Those are well within the reach of my scooter…and they will do for the awe of the day!