Taken: March 13, 2012 – Jermyn, PA.

Sadly the only photos I’ve been publishing are through Instagram of late. I haven’t had the time to post process any images but I heroically opened Aperture and managed to throw this one together. Hopefully I’ll find a little more time for photography and processing over the summer.

This little guy is sitting on the broken branch of a pine tree just outside our sunroom’s window that I hang a few bird feeders on. He had a particular penchant for sunflower seeds that I had on a plate laid on the ground.

First, @cdevroe removes comments from his blog. Now, he’s uploading DSLR photographs to Instagram. Talk about hipster…

— Derek Steen (@djsteen) March 23, 2012

I realize he was poking fun. But I wanted to address this topic anyway so I thought I might as well reply to him here.

Oh, and if I Twitter would allow Google to properly index my tweets I’d be able to call up a tweet from at least a year ago wherein I called people out for cheating on Instagram by uploading photos that were not taken with an iPhone. I’ll be installing Tweet Nest later to see if I can rectify this issue.

So, yes, at one point I was angry with Instagram users for sharing their DSLR photos on the app. But something has changed lately and I knew it was coming.

Two days ago Instagram and Hipstimatic (another camera app for iPhone) let it leak through FastCompany that Hipstimatic photos were going to be sharable on the Instagram network. Here is what their CEO Kevin Systrom was quoted as saying.

“It’s a step in the direction that we’re testing out. We’ve been very careful about making sure that Instagram photos are about what’s happening right now in your life, and we want to allow for more of those photos to end up on Instagram regardless of where they’re taken.”

They’d like Instagram photos to be about what’s happening right now in your life. Certainly the name lends to this sort of network – and I’d hate to draw the correlation to Twitter’s own motto – but suffice to say – they are beginning to view themselves more as a network of people sharing photos than they do as a camera application.

So, while before I thought it was going against the creator’s grain to share just any old photo via Instagram, I now think this will be their direct intent. Sure, my last few bird photos on Instagram were not about what’s happening right now because I took those photos over the course of the last two weeks – but I’m willing to bend the rules a little from time-to-time.

I’m cdevroe on Instagram by the way.

So if birds from the city can’t flirt with birds from the country anymore, “those birds are actually going to be less likely to mate with each other,” he says. “I mean, literally they’re going to stop being able to speak the same language.”

I hope that doesn’t happen. Keep tweeting birds!

/via Jason Fried on Twitter.

“The moment the lid was off, we reached for each other. She had already oozed from the far corner of her lair, where she had been hiding, to the top of the tank to investigate her visitor. Her eight arms boiled up, twisting, slippery, to meet mine. I plunged both my arms elbow deep into the fifty-seven-degree water. Athena’s melon-sized head bobbed to the surface. Her left eye (octopuses have one dominant eye like humans have a dominant hand) swiveled in its socket to meet mine. “She’s looking at you,” Dowd said.”

/via the 8-legged Justin Blanton.

An arrangement of short clips from our trip to Ireland.

Oh, Sarah, don’t sue me. Everyone should totally buy your music.

If anyone wants one or both contact me pronto.

“For me, that’s the real beauty of writing. Ideas can be noisy, heavy things. Trying to ignore them is like trying to ignore a bored cat. It will sit on your chest while you’re resting. It will paw at you while you work. It will purr, it will scratch, but it will not go away until it is acknowledged. Writing is how I acknowledge an idea, so it will finally go to sleep.”

See, I’m not the only one that uses cats to illustrate an idea.

This lead me to ask myself a question; what is my string? In other words, what do I get excited about? What would I rather be working on or doing than anything else? What would I sacrifice just about anything to be able to do?

Once you answer those questions and figure out what your string is you should immediately start to plan how you can spend more time doing it.

I know a lot of business books say “Do what you love!” but that isn’t the point of this post. I don’t think you have to make money at something that you love doing in order to enjoy it. In fact, I’d wager that for most things we enjoy in life money can actually lessen the joy of doing it. Especially if it becomes your main way of making a living. When you have to make money doing something it isn’t nearly as enjoyable as doing it simply because you want to. My cat gets nothing out of chasing the string. Actually, in most cases he doesn’t even get the string!

I’m still in the process of truly figuring out what my string is but when I figure it out I’m going to try do spend more time doing that activity. Maybe you could do the same.

That being said… I do think you’re a little crazy. Nerves of steel.

From the “coolest thing you’ll see all day” department – these bees in Turkey make their nests out of carefully folded flower pedals.

Striking.

/via Jason Kottke. On NPR, of course.

They love them some clover.

He’s a good lookin’ dude. Hard to believe this was four years ago and that, next month, he’ll be 8.

Several birds have visited our bird feeder since we’ve moved into the new apartment. I have yet to get a really good capture of any of them though the opportunities have been there. I’m hoping to score a few before winter is over.

This particular bird, I think, is a Black Phoebe.

Waiting for the coffee to finish brewing with my buddy.

Here is @pookers’ butt.

/via Jason Kottke.

Someone flipped a box lid on top of themselves.

Sometimes we communicate this way in the morning. Isn’t Pookers cute?

This guy deserved two photos.

You know all of the jokes that I’m thinking about right now. So I don’t need to type them.

He loves to sit next to me when I read.

I’m loving this book. Too bad it doesn’t help me with my cats!

Guardian has a list of species that we’ve either lost or may lose in this decade alone. Sad.

Via Jason Kottke.

This is my blog and I can post as many ‘hey my cat is cute and is sleeping’ videos that I want to, b’okay?

After going outside it appears there are, and this isn’t an actual head count just a best guess, hundreds of thousands of lady bugs swarming around our apartment building alone. Due to other friends reporting the same in their area I’m calling it a plague.

Eliza spotted this little guy yesterday. Left him alone. I have enough pictures of cross orbweaver spiders.

A few photos from fishing the other night with my friend Johnny. I posted a pretty wicked toothed Walleye on that night but we ended up with a pretty decent catch in a relatively short period of time. Huzzah.

Click on the images to zoom. For much, much larger versions click here, and here.

I’ve been remiss to update everyone on our current bird feeder situation. Since Eliza purchased the $1 bird feeder we’ve upgraded our offerings to our feathered friends many fold. First, we put out a bird-bath type feeder that, rather than filling it with water, we fill with sunflower seeds. This takes care of the needs of larger birds that like to eat off of an exposed, tray based feeder – like Blue Jays. Second, we have a small ‘gazebo’ shaped feeder for smaller birds like finches, chickadees, etc.

Recently at a yard sale we picked up a larger version of the gazebo shaped feeder and have since mounted it to our glass doors to the deck. This isn’t getting nearly as many visitors as the smaller one (though that seems to be changing), but we have plans to slowly bring the birds closer and closer to the doors for better shots.

Not two days ago we picked up a hummingbird feeder. Eliza had spotted a few hummingbirds buzzing around our flowers and, after I saw one hovering over our red flowers, I thought it a good idea to pick up a feeder. We’ll update the progress with this in the near future.

So, how many birds are we getting? A lot. I fill the smaller feeder once every three or four days and I fill the bird-bath feeder every single morning with sunflower seeds. Morning doves, Blue Jays, and a few other birds that I have yet to identify accurately visit this feeder regularly. We’ve had chickadees, nut hatches, finches, tufted tit-mouse, cardinals (though not many lately), hummingbirds, and several other species so far. Our little fly-thru bird restaurant is becoming quite the hang out.

Today, as you can see from the photos above, I managed to stand near the door long enough that they let me open it, and open the screen door, to get unobstructed photos of them while they ate. Taking photos of creatures that fly and skip about rather quickly isn’t easy – but above are two of the better shots I managed to capture.

Looking forward to many, many more visitors.

This is all Eliza’s fault. She has created a monster. But a cute monster.

Caught this little guy while fishing in Prompton, PA a few weeks ago. The thing to watch out for when catching toads is that they are not being stalked by some other animal like a snake or snapping turtle. They are the main source of food for many animals so beware.

Nikki did not want this turtle to be hurt so she rescued it from the middle of the road.

While waiting for a ride this weekend I walked over to a small patch of wild flowers growing behind our garbage cans (there is beauty everywhere in this world, isn’t there?). I was attempting to get a half-decent shot of this bumble bee that was bouncing from flower to flower, sucking up the nectar while at the same time pollinating the entire patch by himself.

I suppose I managed to get a half-decent shot of him, but I really appreciate the details in the flower itself – the fact that it is just beginning to dry up on its edges, that its a color that I can not identify (I call it a pinkish purple), and that it grows behind garbage cans.

I’ve never really taken any photos of the things I’ve caught over the years, but I’m going to start doing so and sharing them here. In Pennsylvania we have a fairly diverse ecosystem of creepy-crawly things and I’ll do my best to seek them out. First up, a snake and a frog.

On Saturday while visiting a nearby park I caught a few Garter snakes (probably about 6 different snakes) and frogs. The type of Garter snakes we have around here are the eastern version of the Common Garter snake, a relatively calm, absolutely harmless snake. The only way you’d be bitten (and these guys have extremely small yet sharp teeth so even if you get bit the wound is very minor) is if you pick up a female too quickly. The males could generally care less if they are picked up. However, it is all about the approach. If you approach these guys in a calm manner, you can pick them up gently without any fear of harm or even aggression from them.

And then, of course, a bullfrog.

I’m going to make a concerted effort to catch more wild things over the course of this summer and also to share some of my techniques with catching things, releasing them, and causing as little harm to the animals as possible. I hope you will enjoy a little something different here at First Initial, Last Name.

I wish I had taken a lot more photos (I didn’t even get everyone in a photo). I’m looking forward to camping at least one more time this summer (and hopefully for more than just one night). All-in-all a great short trip and everyone seemed to have a good time.

Right in front of the TV.

22 hours of sleep is obviously not enough.

Moments after this photo Pookers stole the Twizzler for himself.

Date taken: April 1, 2004 | Clifford, Pennsylvania.

Five years ago today: I’m a little late posting this one but five years and about two weeks ago today I found this salamander – who was quite large – sitting on the steps outside of our apartment in Clifford, PA.

I’ve wanted to have a bird feeder on one of our windows for a while. I’ve looked a few times for one and somehow turned up empty handed. Last week Eliza returned from a shopping trip with a $1, suction cup powered, bird feeder for our window! Thanks Eliza!

This morning at 8:30AM I hung the bird feeder and put some seed in it. So the countdown until we have our first bird begins. I plan on chronicling what goes on with this feeder here on my blog. Once we get some visitors I’m going to setup my tripod and camera to see if I can get some good photos of the birds.

Oh, and since I got the seed from my mother-in-law’s bag of bird seed, this was truly a $1 investment! Can’t beat that.

Yeah, I’ll go with mind == blown too.  I wonder where a brother can find out what these things taste like.

Source: See A Fish With A Transparent Head.
Via: Justin Blanton.

Update: It turns out that this fish isn’t a new discovery but the fact that their eyes rotate and that their heads are transparent is. More info.

I had the privilege of producing this, and the next four, episodes of Eat Weird. I think they’ll get better as they go along in this latest series of episodes – which I’m calling the Dave Ciminelli series. Episode 4, which is due out Friday, is going to be a really fun episode – but I believe that the quality of each episode and our ability to produce them will go up as we go.

Maybe if I do well enough Chris will let me keep the producers chair full-time until he can find a replacement. We’ll see. For now, Live Well, and Eat Weird.

Source: Eat Weird – Episode 3: Wild Goose Breast Salad.

I’m going to try to keep doing watercolor paintings, maybe even one each week. This week I really wanted to do an owl, so here I present my fifth watercolor in this new effort; The Owl.

I tried a few techniques this time that I hadn’t before. Some of them worked out quite well, like under-shading on the Owl (probably hard to see in any of the photos).  Some of them didn’t work out so well, because I did them wrong, like the snow by using salt.  I didn’t use enough water to make the salt effective.

The salt, if done right, will cause the watercolor to separate and move away from the salt. It would end up causing a neat effect that would work well for snow, stars, or other textures. But, again, I didn’t use enough water for this to work.

There is a lot that I would do differently, if given the chance, so I’m really looking forward to my next crack at another painting next week.  Overall I’m thrilled with the way this painting came out – but there are a few subtle things (like the snow) that I wanted to add to this and I simply didn’t do it the right way.

Live, learn, move on, try again. Here are some more photos of my watercolor paintings. Next I think I’m going to tackle a Japanese sign.

Silouette of my bud.

But, immediately after that, while going through my feeds from the last few weeks I ran across the World Animal Day photos on The Big Picture. Instantly humbled.

Source: World Animal Day.

There are tons of crabs on the beach here on Indian Beach in Salter Path, NC.