itching for a good light show

Monday night I went to bed at a decent hour. There was a spectacular lightning show going on outside. All I could think about was photography; I was itching to catch me some lightnin'! Feeling über restless, I asked myself, "What the heck am I doing in bed?!!" So I jumped out of the sack, hobbled downstairs, and set up the tripod outside the front door.

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There was no rain. Just frequent, muffled bursts of lightning. I set the program to "bulb" and held the shutter open for 20 or 30 seconds at a time. My camera takes a really long time to record those images... I wonder why.

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I tried over and over and over again. The lightning mostly showed itself as a diffused brightness in a patch of clouds. I wanted to see proper lightning bolts, not radiated light. The whole time, I felt pesky mosquitoes all around me. I experimented a little with infrared, but the ISO was too low to catch anything.

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Finally, I decided that the frequency had subsided enough, that I should call it a night and get back to bed. I woke my wife up to show here one shot (not this one) that I caught, but I didn't post it here, because it was blurry.

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I wasn't in bed five minutes before itchiness drove me to the brink of insanity. I HAD to get up again!! We have this little tube of stuff to put on mosquito bites, and it has ammonia, so it smells nasty. They got me real good on my calves, feet, and even toes!! (Shhhh... Don't tell anybody, but I have bare feet under my desk today.)

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I'm still itching from being a human sacrifice on Monday night, but it was totally worth it! They say we can expect large hail and strong winds tonight. This time, I'll stay inside, if you don't mind.

m is for...

[click on photo for larger image]

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You would find my little cubicle deep in the heart of the building, far from any hope of direct sunlight. Our spirits had been repeatedly trampled by unseasonable cold and snow and the dismal dripping of freezing rain, almost to the point where we began to get accustomed to it. So sometimes it is advantageous that I cannot see what it looks like outside.

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But this day, people were all abuzz with excitement. It was one of those days where everybody can't help talking about the weather. At my first break, I raced away from the inner caverns of our carpeted walls and artificial light, and made my way to the front entrance.

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Two full magnolia trees keep their sentry posts on either side of the main entrance. The heavy fragrance of these ivory guards has arrested me several times at the front door. As I approached, I could see the sky was so blue, it was surreal! I pushed open the door and squinting a little bit, filled my lungs with a deep breath of sweet air. I had almost forgotten what I was going to do, but the camera in my hands jogged my memory. I put a polarizing filter on the lens and began snapping pics.

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This one is my favorite from the set. If you look carefully, you will notice that my magnolia comes with a little surprise just behind the blossom. It is a mosquito.

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Funny thing. As I said, this turned out to be my favorite shot, but guess what... it was the only capture taken with the flash. Foolishly, I decided from looking at the preview screen, that I didn't like the flash. Now, I'll probably start bracketing sunny outdoor shots with and without flash.

skeeter swamp

Two weeks ago, I set out to photograph egrets, and observed that they are amazingly shy. While trying to sneak up on these reclusive birds, I fed a horde of mosquitos. I'm still having nightmares about it. Braving those itchy memories, I fetched these pics for you.

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The first shot is their local hangout. This discovery was made after a fishing expedition at a bigger pond with walkable turf. I found that it has this appendage which is less accessible. I don't know the scientific name, and if there are any naturalists or park rangers reading this, forgive me. But I must describe this spot as dense mosquitoville. I was attempting to get a closer view of our bird, but even with all that tallgrass hiding my zoom lens, whitey flew the coop.

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The next frame is a different shot, zoomed and cropped to the max, so you can see the bird a little better. This is one of the most rewarding photos after trying for months to get a photo. They stand there so pretty, and when they fly, their wings are so big, they glide effortlessly. Their curved neck is their signature as they soar.

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While craning my own neck, trying to get pictures of the herons (egrets), some ducks flew past me. I tried to act fast, and this is what I got. Is there anything on this earth that looks clumsier than a duck landing? If you could translate duck language, what do you think their quacking is saying, as they drop into the water? "Get outta the way; I'm gonna crash!" or "GERONIMOOOO..."