Photo highlights
I just dumped a metric ton of pictures onto my flickr stream, so to save you some wading, I'll post highlights here. Click through for many, many more :)
First - a turtle from Agua Caliente. Some kids were baiting the turtles with pieces of watermelon on a stick. This one came right up to the surface.
And a whole mob of turtles rushing to the watermelon.
Me holding a small sphinx moth
Then things take a turn for the creepy crawly. Remember me mentioning finding a scorpion in the bathtub where I'm housesitting? Well, since it was safely contained, I set up shop with a tripod and a black light and went to town. Got some fantastic pictures, but I'll put them behind a cut for anyone who is squeamish. By the way, the scorpion was turned loose in the desert last night. As far as I know, it wasn't harmed by the photography experience :)
First, in the bathtub with my car keys for scale
Agitated, with tail up and claws at the ready. Note the stinger. That's what gave me so much misery about this time last year. The scorp is in a thick-walled glass bowl, so that's why there are such neat, crisp shadows.
Then we flipped on the black light - WOW.
Then, my best shot of the night. I highly recommend clicking through and looking at this at the largest size. It's like an x-ray. Wicked cool!
On the 4th, I went down to Sahuarita for a picnic with my best friend and her kids. We took in the fireworks in Tubac - a small, but impressive show launched from a golf course. We were very close to the launch site, so the noise was incredible. I brought my tripod and cable release and had a great time taking pictures with a *good* camera this year.
I think this one might make a nice computer desktop image.
You can see the crowd on the lawn here. Almost everyone appeared to have a camera. Lots of LCDs lighting up the night.
I love the sparkly effect on this one. The bright spot at the bottom is from a column of ground-based sparklers they launched off periodically.
And, the finale. I love how the crowd is illuminated here.
After the show, we went back to my friend's house and played with the 4-week old kittens. She's got a very harried Mama Cat and 7 eternally hungry kittens. The runt is my favorite.
Mama cat is the blur in the background here.
Finally, the Runt.
First - a turtle from Agua Caliente. Some kids were baiting the turtles with pieces of watermelon on a stick. This one came right up to the surface.
And a whole mob of turtles rushing to the watermelon.
Me holding a small sphinx moth
Then things take a turn for the creepy crawly. Remember me mentioning finding a scorpion in the bathtub where I'm housesitting? Well, since it was safely contained, I set up shop with a tripod and a black light and went to town. Got some fantastic pictures, but I'll put them behind a cut for anyone who is squeamish. By the way, the scorpion was turned loose in the desert last night. As far as I know, it wasn't harmed by the photography experience :)
First, in the bathtub with my car keys for scale
Agitated, with tail up and claws at the ready. Note the stinger. That's what gave me so much misery about this time last year. The scorp is in a thick-walled glass bowl, so that's why there are such neat, crisp shadows.
Then we flipped on the black light - WOW.
Then, my best shot of the night. I highly recommend clicking through and looking at this at the largest size. It's like an x-ray. Wicked cool!
On the 4th, I went down to Sahuarita for a picnic with my best friend and her kids. We took in the fireworks in Tubac - a small, but impressive show launched from a golf course. We were very close to the launch site, so the noise was incredible. I brought my tripod and cable release and had a great time taking pictures with a *good* camera this year.
I think this one might make a nice computer desktop image.
You can see the crowd on the lawn here. Almost everyone appeared to have a camera. Lots of LCDs lighting up the night.
I love the sparkly effect on this one. The bright spot at the bottom is from a column of ground-based sparklers they launched off periodically.
And, the finale. I love how the crowd is illuminated here.
After the show, we went back to my friend's house and played with the 4-week old kittens. She's got a very harried Mama Cat and 7 eternally hungry kittens. The runt is my favorite.
Mama cat is the blur in the background here.
Finally, the Runt.