Nature – Page 10 – tim mcmurdo

well behaved bee

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

I like shooting close up to interesting insects and flowers. Put the two in the same shot and I am in heaven. The problem is that my favorite insects are equipped with stingers and they move around a lot. The first issue makes me nervous and the second makes them hard to get in focus.

Imagine my surprise when this big bee sat still and let me shoot several shots of him without flying off. Imagine my surprise when I finally realized that he wasn't moving at all. The poor bee was dead. He probably landed on the sage plant and gave up the ghost. On the upside, I was gale to really work the shot the way I wanted with all the time in the world on my hands and without the fear of making him mad. Good Bee.

liking lichen

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

As a kid, we hiked a lot in the hills and mountains of New England. I remember my dad pointing out lichen on the huge granite boulders that we would pass along the way. For the longest time, I couldn't figure out why he was liking all the rocks. Evidently, I was never the sharpest tool in the shed.

The end result is that now I am liking lichen. What a cool name. Lichen. It's just fun to say. What words do you think are fun to say?

composite moon

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Our eyes are amazing instruments. They can see a wide range of shades of light at the same time. The term used to describe the shades of light that you can see is Dynamic Range. Unfortunately, cameras do not have the ability to see the same dynamic range that your eyes can. You may have noticed this the last time you decided to take a picture of a clear moon and when you got it home, all you had was a bright sphere in a dark background. The features of the moon were missing.

I this image, I wanted to show the clear blue twilight sky, the deep black of the tree's silhouette and the moon with all of its details intact. The limited dynamic range of my camera's sensor meant that I needed to shoot this image as two separate photos and then combine them in Photoshop.

The first image photo was exposed to show the moon's surface details while the second was exposed to get the blue and black in the rest of the image. With both images loaded into Photoshop, I cut the moon out of the first image and composited it into the second. The resulting image has the full dynamic range that I needed to achieve. Now the resulting photo looks just like the scene that I saw with my naked eye.

That is one fine looking moon.

evidently, queen anne liked lace but not babies

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus Carota) is a pretty common wild flower here in Ohio. The waist high flowers seem to spring up everywhere. Vacant lots, road sides, and fallow fields have all been declared fair game. Once established, the flower spreads rapidly, creating fields of gorgeous white blooms. Just as the last of the lillies spells the height of summer, to me, Queen Anne's lace heralds the end of summer.

There is a story behind the plant's name. In the center of each mature bloom is a dark red flower that is used to attract insects. This small bloom is said to be a drop of blood that fell from Queen Anne's hand as she pricked herself with a needle while was weaving the lace.

While researching the plant for this post, I discovered that as early as the 5th century, the seeds of the flower were collected in the fall and used as an effective contraceptive. Moderns studies have verified the results. Evidently those ancient peoples knew a thing or two about not having babies. That might explain why all those ancient women liked it when their man brought home flowers to her. Good boys!

flower in window

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Good morning good people of the internet. If you are a bad peson of the internet, then you are on your own.

Today's image is pretty simple. A potted oxalis plant in the kitchen window at the farm. This image is straight forward. The difficulty lies in the dynamic range of the camera's sensor. I wanted to show the blue skies in the background while still showing some details in the shadows of the flower. A rotating polarizing filter helped to pop the sky by increasing the contrast between the white clouds and the blue sky. Without the filter, the sky would appear almost wite with little distinction between clouds and sky.

Exposure	0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture	f/5.6
Focal Length	50 mm
ISO Speed	100

Have a great day.

poultry fashion review

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

I don't know about this chicken. The bird kind of looks French to me. She has that cocky, "I dress better than you" kind of look. French chickens are like that, they think they are better than all the other chickens. American chickens tend to be fat and this one is really trim and fit. You can always tell European chickens by the way they dress. Look at the way she wears her big red comb at a jaunty angle. She makes sure it is just right before she leaves the chicken house.

If you had to place chickens in order based upon how stylish they look, you would rate them in this order:

1. French

2. American

3. English

We can't put German chickens on the list because they have a list all of their own. Don't even talk to me about those Russian chickens.. oh boy, what a mess they are. Do they even try?

maria spelterini wanted to fly

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Moths and butterflies flew. Flies, beetles, and gnats could fly as well. Why couldn't spiders? This was a question that Maria asked all the time she grew up. Her mother didn't have much patience with the question. She wanted Maria to be happy as a spider, just like all of her 836 brothers and sisters. Her mother always answered by asking Maria why she had to be different? Having eight legs and the ability to spin webs didn't make her special enough?

The lack of positive support didn't change the fact that Maria dreamed of flying. She would watch all the winged bugs fly overhead and dream. Maria just knew that, if she could fly, she would be able to see the world outside of the window that her family lived on. She would be able to sail from one end of the skies to another.

Sometimes Maria dwelled on the thought of flying for days on end and would forget to eat. With that in mind, Maria's family never knew that Maria had figured out how to solve the problem. Before they knew what was happening, it was too late.

On a warm summer day Maria climbed to the top of the window and spun a single silken thread. She spun and spun until the thin line reached below the windowsill. When the thread became long enough, the breeze caught it and began to tug at Maria, holding tight to the other end. Maria spun faster and faster as excitement built inside of her. When she thought that she could spin no longer, a strong gust grabbed ahold of the gossamer thread and Maria was airborne in a single incredible jerk.

Maria's thread was like a kite in the wind. She rose faster than she could ever have imagined. Her home on the window, next to the dirty glass, grew smaller and smaller until it vanished from sight. Soon, Maria was flying over ponds, fields and forests. Maria's dream had come true, she was flying! She passed all of the other bugs, waving and grinning. "I am flying, I am flying!" Maria would gleefully shout as she wizzed by them on the wind… flying!

As Maria disappeared from sight, her mother shook her head. That child is crazy, she thought. Who ever heard of a flying spider?

Have you ever heard of a flying spider? If you have, I'll bet it was Maria. She is out there someplace. If you are lucky enough to see her dangling from her silky thread, wave at the spider and shout; "Go Maria, go! Live your dreams girl. Fly from one end of the sky to the other!"

If you listen very quietly, you will hear a small giggle as Maria Spelterini, the flying spider, follows her dream.

there could be nightmares

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Have you ever seen anything like it? This is called a Hickory Horned Devil and is the largest caterpillar in the US and Canada. I witnessed this specimen today. Prior to that, I had never seen one nor had I ever imagined that a bug this big could be found outside of a jungle some foreign country like Brazil, Thailand, or Florida.

Here is a picture alongside a scale model of my foot. That should give you some sense of how huge it was.

When I saw the seven inch bug crawling across the yard at the farm, I started counting cats and chickens to make sure everybody was ok. The chickens will eat just about anything including mice. Not this beastie, they looked at it and then steered clear.

Here is a video of the critter in action:

Evidently they turn into a gorgeous (and also huge) insect called a regal moth (Citheronia regalis). If you want to see what the moth looks like, check out this link. Is that not a pretty moth or what?

I have decided that since I have never seen one before, they must be endangered and I am going to take steps to protect them. If you would like to help protect the Hickory Horned Devil, send a check for $100 to Tim McMurdo in care of this website. Every dollar that you send goes into my pocket and will be used to make my yard a pretty place for pretty moths to live.

Remember, a ginormous bug is a terrible thing to waste.

last of the stargazers

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

This bloom was the last of the Stargazer Lilies for the season. I always associate these flowers with the height of summer. Their blooms always come to life during the hottest part of the season and soon after they drop, the heat breaks and cooler weather begins to creep into our days.

Our blooms have completely disappeared and I am hoping that the extreme heat of this summer will go with them. I won't miss the muggy hot days of 2011. Bring on the cool crisp days of fall and I will publicly dance a jig for all of you. Just make this heat go away!

Exposure	0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture	f/5.6
Focal Length	55 mm
ISO Speed	200

black eyes and other thoughts

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Did you grow up calling black and yellow cone flowers by the name Black Eyed Susans? I don't think I have ever known them by any other name. In hind sight, several questions come to mind:

Who was Susan?

Who made up the name? Somebody had to have said "Black Eyed Susan" first and you know he had a specific girl in mind. You don't just name a flower like that out of the blue. What were the circumstances?

Why did she have a black eye? Did she fall down? Was she clumsy? Did somebody hit her?

If her name had been Deloris, would "Black Eyed Doris" have stuck over the years?

Why not a man? I kind of like "Black Eyed Chuck". That is a man's flower to be sure.

Sometimes I lie awake at night thinking of important questions like these. Issues that could change our understanding of the world. I hope you appreciate the work I do for you and the rest of Mankind.