{"id":10398,"date":"2017-10-09T07:16:55","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T11:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/p4td.lightshedder.com\/?p=10398"},"modified":"2017-10-09T07:16:55","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T11:16:55","slug":"opossum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psnp.info\/p4td_\/?p=10398","title":{"rendered":"Opossum!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Opossum, the backyard, Kennebunk Maine<\/p><\/div>
\nToday\u2019s Day Poem is about last night\u2019s opossum encounter. In some light research this morning, I was reminded that the opossum is a marsupial, the only marsupial native to the US and Canada, and learned that it originated in South America and only entered North America after the continents were connected, finding its way up through Centeral America. <\/p>\n

The photo was taken with a flashlight for light (a big Surefire tactical light with a beam that will illuminate at 100 yards…which I use for owling and night photography) and in the Sony Rx10iii\u2019s Anti-motion Blur mode (takes 3 to 4 pics at a fast shutter speed, stacks exposures, and processes out motion blur…quite magical for night photography with a flashlight). Manual prefocus was required, but then the auto focus locked on. I find the light of flashlight to be much more natural looking than the harsh light of the camera flash…and suspect it has less effect on the wildlife. I have developed a technique where I hold the flashlight like the policemen on tv hold their lights and guns, in my left hand against the side of the camera pointing along my line of sight where the camera is pointed. It sounds harder than it is. <\/p>\n

The camera records the nominal exposure, not the actual stacked exposure. A single shot would have been at 1\/50 @ ISO 6400 @ f4…but the four shot AMB mode result, though it has some artifacts if you blow it up, looks much better than any shot at 1\/50 and ISO 6400 of this creature in motion could have. Processed in Polarr (including a graduated filter effect to lighten the upper right corner where the flashlight beam was falling off). <\/p>\n

The poem: <\/p>\n

Last night as I climbed into bed,
\nmy CPAP machine already ticking
\nover, I heard, seemed like right
\noutside our window, the unmistakable
\ncall of a Barred Owl. Of course, by
\nthe time I was dressed and outside
\nwith my owling light and camera
\nthe owl was long gone. It stopped
\ncalling while I was still getting into
\nmy shirt. Still, nothing ventured
\nnothing gained. As I stood there
\nin the back yard arching my big
\nlight up into the branches of the
\nmaples and oaks and pines, I sensed,
\nmore than heard, something moving 
\nat ground level. I lit the area up, and 
\ncaught a opossum at the foot of one 
\nof the big maples, headed, maybe, 
\nfor the fresh meal worms in our back 
\nporch feeding station, or maybe just
\ncrossing our yard headed who knows
\nwhere. That was a surprise. I know
\nwe get Raccoons some mornings
\non the back deck, raiding the sun-
\nflower feeders, but I never suspected 
\na possum. Sharp nosed, beady eyed,
\nwith that long prehensile tail…
\nthe only marsupial north of Mexico,
\nvisitor from the true wild, reminding
\nme that tame as our village suburb 
\nis, we are the visitors here, the
\nincommers, the new folks in the
\nneighborhood, and our yards,
\nthough we mow and trim them 
\nand rake the fallen leaves, are still, 
\nas far as the natives are concerned, 
\njust a piece of their wild patch…
\nthe place they rightly call home.<\/p>\n

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