Macro on Monday - Guess What

Brilliant, a full house. A Gold Star and my congratulations to Adrian, Roy, Keith, Jan, ImaBurdie and Glo who all correctly identified the blurred photo of a pine / fir cone. I was experimenting with long exposures with a rotating object to see how they would look.









This week I have a close up partial view.
The crop was then modified with one of Harry's Filters in Elements.
The filter set is shareware and a free download from The Plugin Site.

Guess What:



Not a Danish Pastry nor a Curly Wurly.
No prizes, just for fun.


Answer and any guesses will be revealed next Monday.

Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November ...

Remember, remember, the fifth of November
The Gunpowder Treason and plot;
I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

So the rhyme goes in remembrance of the failed plot by Guido (Guy) Fawkes and his fellow conspirators to blow up the houses of Parliament in 1605. Background information can be found on Wikiquote.

With the 5th being a Monday this year those who celebrate with bonfires and fireworks will mainly use the weekend nights. Bobby never bothered about the noise of invisible (to him) explosions and whistles nearby but I wasn't sure how Penny was going to react. She does have a nervous disposition. When we are out she is easily startled by any sudden noises, especially from behind her.

Fortunately last night's displays were not too close nor very loud. At first she kept coming to me for reassurance but in the end decided that she would cover up Freddy the Fox's ears and catch some shuteye herself.



I just hope that tonight runs as smoothly.

Remember folks - if you are having a bonfire then check for any hibernating Hedgehogs as to them it is a nice cosy hibernation spot under piles of wood and leaves.

Crane Fly

Very little of note going on here recently. Not as many birds visiting as I would have expected once the temperature had dropped though there are plenty of sparrows and a group of Goldfinches visiting every day. On top of that the light levels have been abysmal with all the heavy cloud cover.

This morning there was a Crane Fly, Daddy Longlegs, on the outside of the kitchen window which gave me my first photo opportunity for several days.





Taken with the Lumix TZ7 lens touching the inside glass of the double glazed window.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

One outright winner for a correct guess last week. Congratulations and the virtual gold star go to Glo who guessed it was a wasp. I will admit that it was far from easy to say what sort of winged insect it was.

It looks to me to be one of the many varieties of ichneumon wasp.
Amazing the size of the compound eyes compared with the rest of its body.

iPhone with mini microscope attachment

My thanks to all who gave it a whirl and had a go.

On to a new Guess What.
Not a micro or macro shot this week but the whole object for a change:

A four second exposure

No prizes. Just for fun. Answer next week. All guesses will be kept hidden until then.


Goodness me how I do rabbit on. I though I was getting somewhere near the 1000 posts mark and a quick count shows the total is now 1013. How quickly four years have flashed by. To think that when I finally got the project off the Round Tuit pile I wondered what I would find to write about and how long the enthusiasm would last. Ah well, me thinks you will have to put up with my ramblings for a lot longer yet. Writing this blog and perusing the many informative and entertaining blogs out there is firmly entrenched as part of my daily, or at least weekly, routine.

Friday at the Flicks - Nest Box - Last Rose of Autumn

The Great Tit was roosting in the camera nest box again last night. This bit of video was taken yesterday morning as she (probably) was waking up: (No soundtrack on this one)




Still experimenting with the Turntable, lighting and cameras. I have added to its versatility as it can now be switched between two choices of use. First is continuous rotation to use with video capable cameras. This has also been speeded up a bit so a full rotation now only takes about 35 seconds. Second is like my first turntable where it pauses after each step and fires a still camera. My calculation was wrong regarding the number of steps for a full rotation. I had based that on the published data but in practice the stepper motor takes 512 steps to go through 360 degrees. So with a still camera that will mean 512 photos!


This shows a rose flower cut from my dwarf standard rose. Virtually the last bloom which will be seen on that plant this year. Lighting was two LED lamps, one multi LED above and a single off to the left at rose level to fill in some of the shadows. This was filmed with the Panasonic Lumix TZ7:



This time I made sure it was saved in 720p HD.

Have a great weekend and keep an eye on the wildlife around you.

First Sign of Roosting

Put the nest box camera on last night for the first time for quite a while and was cheered to see a Great Tit using the box as an overnight roost. Staking an early claim?



No signs of Hedgehogs last night so they may well be starting their hibernation period. Not in my hedgehog house unfortunately.

Macro on Monday - Guess What + Turntable / Camera Experiments

Finally got round to it, running a bit on the late side today.

Adrian and ImaBurdie indicated that last week's Guess What was part of the Arduino so deserve the Gold Star this week with an honourable mention for Jan who wasn't able to narrow things down to the right part of my rain gauge project.



   


On to the new Guess What:



Don't expect you to narrow it down to an exact identification, just the general thing.
It was stuck to the outside of my kitchen window for a few days.

No prizes, just for fun.


Turntable / Phone Experiments

Partly running late as I have been trying different cameras with the turntable and waiting for video files to upload to YouTube and even longer for them to process things.

What really surprised me was the iPhone4 could focus so close and produced sharper video than the cameras I had tried so far. It does get hot though when filming for a minute non stop. The iPhone had to be clamped in place, between some soft rubber. The line across the iPhone screen is a reflection not a scratch or crack in the glass.

 

 No soundtrack on this video:




Also I wasn't expecting the TZ7 to make a such reasonable job of it but once it had picked a focus spot it seemed to stick with it.



I don't know why YouTube didn't recognise it as HD so the full quality doesn't show on their copy. It is a little grainy as I used a single bright white LED light plus what little was coming through the window on a very dell day.