Eliza’s gifts are awesome.

Helloooo spring!

When Steve Jobs said, at the D8 conference, that the next era of the personal computer was just around the corner (whether it was the iPad or not) and that most of the “long timers” would be uncomfortable about it – now I know what he was talking about.

I’m reluctant to see the PC go but if this is what replaces it – bring it on.

(Watch in HD by clicking on HD on the player.)

We all had a great time and ended up coming home with about 40lbs. of cod fish filet each (there were 6 of us). I’m sure I can speak for the entire group and recommend Ann Rowe Charters (our photo is on their site too) to anyone that wants to have a great day at sea.

Last night I spent some time on my patio working and reading.

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

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.

John and Kristopher Weinert fishing. We won’t mention the current score between the two fishing this year. (Kristopher is most likely ahead.)

Taken: May 7, 2009 in Mayfield, Pennsylvania while on a walk with Eliza. Photographing these bees was a neat experience because I would get as far into the tree as I could, and I would hear a constant bzzzz until I found the bee that was closest to me to shoot.

Random 60: Back up your computer, right now. | Favorite on Viddler.

Chris recently had a complete hard drive failure. Fortunately for him most of his data, since he is a Web site developer, was “on the Web” somewhere. Everything else he had backed up on an external hard drive.

Consider this a friendly reminder from Random 60 to back up your computer today.

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.

Date taken: December 20-24, 2008

From the car.

Date taken: July 15, 2003 – New York City.

While in Salter Path, North Carolina on vacation we saw this grasshopper, which was already dead, being carried away by countless ants.  You can’t tell from this photo alone but there was a line of thousands upon thousands of ants leading from the grasshopper back to the ant hill.

The speed at which the ants were carrying the grasshopper was impressive.  At once point the ants came upon an obstacle and managed to turn the grasshopper all the way around in order to get around it.  They did this in a matter of seconds.

Nature always amazes me.

Date taken: September 30, 2008 | Eliza wanted to test out her new waterproof camera. Andrew and I helped her out. All photos credit: Eliza Devroe.

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

Weather has been good so far. Nearly empty beach. Perfect.

Date taken: June 2003 | Left: American Falls. Right: Canadian Falls (Horseshoe Falls). An amazing amount of water falling over an ever-eroding cliff.

Just about one year ago I posted a photo of this bird without too much explanation besides that I had taken the photo in the Tampa Bay in Florida in August of 2001. But there is a little more to this story.

What reminded me of this story was our life poster that is hanging in our living room.  Whenever Eliza and I have guests our life poster is a topic of discussion and, for whatever reason, I’m drawn to the story behind the photo of this bird on the poster.  If you follow the link to the life poster, you’ll see I’ve noted the photo using a Flickr note. So, I thought I’d tell that story here.

My brother Derrick lives in St. Petersburg, Florida – a city my family lived in a few times.  I lived there from the ages of 2 through 5.  We have friends that owned a very nice home on Tampa Bay and during a visit to their house in August 2001 we saw an egret perched on a neighbor’s dock.  I decided it’d be fun to feed the egret one of the many lizards that were bouncing through the leaves next to our friend’s pool.

Derrick caught the lizard while I got as close to the bird as possible for a few good shots.  Using the lizard as my primary means of keeping the egret’s attention – and boy did I have it – I was able to get off a few good photos of him.

I sometimes find it regrettable that I only had a 2.1MP digital camera at the time, but like I said in my post regarding creating a simple video podcast – you shouldn’t skip opportunities based on the quality of your equipment.

The egret allowed me to get very, very close to him and ended up eating the lizard right out of my hand before taking off.  You can see from the first photo that he didn’t even swallow the lizard before he took off and landed on a dock about 5 homes away and munched away.

Photography, for me, isn’t always about getting the best shot but about the stories behind the photos.  I’m much more interested in the stories that happened before, during, and after a photo was taken than I am in the photo itself.

I’ll remember this and many other stories about my life because they were captured in photos.  And I’m looking forward to many more future memories caught on film, err, disk.

And of course, a little wine.

This photo, by my wife Eliza, was simply too good not to post.

My love of insects on this blog continues. But we’re going to take a break from moths today.

One of my friends needed some help moving a refrigerator and while doing so we found this Cross Orbweaver spider (Araneus diadematus) hanging in a web off the front of a house.  The photos included in this post don’t really do this spider’s size too much justice, but for Pennsylvania this is a fairly big spider.

This Cross Orbweaver spider was energetic, so getting a really good shot of it proved to be a pretty big challenge.  With the help of two friends; one manning a stick to move the spider around, while the other handed me lenses on-demand, I was able to get about 6 quality shots of this spider. I’ve included two of them here.

This appears to be a female Cross Orbweaver spider.  They range from 6 to 15mm in length, and live in many areas of the United States and Canada.  From what I’ve researched they enjoy creating their webs on structures like homes and really like to be under unnatural lighting to catch their prey.  This one proved that theory by being attached to the front of a house near a porch light.

The silk that this spider weaves is unique. It is extremely sticky when touched, almost like hot taffy, and is very strong and light.  When we were moving the spider from the ground to the fence, or just suspending him in the air, he’d shoot out his silk in such a way that many different strands would float into the air and he was able to keep himself afloat this way.  It was amazing.

The web that they weave, which you can read about and see on this site, is very sporadic and random in its design.  I’m looking forward to doing some research on how and why they spin these types of webs when I get a few minutes to do so.

Insects!

One of the things that struck me about this photograph is how you can manipulate the iPhone while you’re taking a photo. I shot this photo in landscape mode, by tilting it backwards prior to rotating it, which ended up giving me a portrait result. I think that’s kinda neat.

Also, if you’ll notice the depth of field. I think I might try playing with the iPhone’s DOF, albeit not its best feature, but it is there, and I think I might be able to start to come up with some neat results given the proper conditions.

I suppose that parking on the grass may not be the best idea anyway.

Lots of them.

When I left for work the morning of this photo, it had been raining as if in a hurricane. I drove to New Jersey, somehow getting ahead of the storm. Thirty minutes after arriving it began to rain a torrent. Once the storm had past I drove back to Pennsylvania and, just prior to getting home, I was greeted with this scene.

The iPhone does not do this sun-scape justice. But it doesn’t have to, I’ll remember it all the same.

The Lackawanna River while on my walk today.

Date taken: August 17, 2008 | A small cafe/restaurant just outside of the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Date taken: August 17, 2008 | The fountains in front of Arc de Triumph at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.  To the right; the Bellagio Hotel.

Date taken: August 17, 2008 | A cloud above Las Vegas, Nevada.

Date taken: August 23, 2008 | Trees dying in a swamp.

Date taken: August 17, 2008 | A 757, as the bird flies, over Las Vegas, Nevada.

I took this, and a few other photos of this plane landing, from the top of the Eiffel Tower in the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas.  This photo gives a fairly good glimpse at how Las Vegas is generally laid out and how much you can see from even slight elevation there.

For example, while I was on the phone with Eliza on the morning I took this photo, on the 26th floor of the Hilton Hotel – I could see all of Las Vegas.  I could see countless golf courses, resorts, casinos, convention centers, pools, bars, restaurants, and even the airport.  Not only could I see the airport, but I could observe the landing of planes (which happened every 4 minutes or so) from my hotel room.

I think the most impressive part of Las Vegas, is scale.

Date taken: August 17th, 2008 | Impressive. Most impressive. A display set to music.

Date taken: August 17, 2008 | The Eiffel Tower replica at Paris Las Vegas from the Bellagio.

Date taken: July 18, 2008 | Lights reflecting in the harbor waters.

Date taken: July 18, 2008 | Seneca Lake Marina in Watkins Glen, New York at night.

Talk about a photographic trifecta.  The Astronomy Picture Of The Day, from July 5th, is a photo taken in January 2007 in Perth, Australia wherein a group of people watching the Australia Day celebratory fireworks catch a glimpse of Comet McNaught and a lightning storm.

You might be wondering what the Aussies are doing on the beach in January, wearing shorts no less.  Let us not forget our solstices.

The photo is amazing, stunning, and extremely well captured.  The editor for APOD hits the nail right on the head when they wrote: “Sometimes the sky itself is the best show in town.”

Source: APOD 2008 July 5 - Comet Between Fireworks and Lightning.