Oak Quiz

So I'm guessing that if you live north of Columbus, you'll be like, "what the heck is that" while the southerners will be like, oh yeah, that's ______ oak"

Have you seen this species? For me, only a few times. But remember, I'm the Lake Erie watershed botanist. I don't make it down south very much.

Tom

The Mossman

Just call me the Mossman!

I spent the weekend at the Edge of Appalachia Preserve in Adams County attending a moss identification workshop taught by Dr. Barbara Andreas, who I have had the fortune of botanizing and naturalizing with several times in the past. She knows her mosses!

I'm completely exhausted after spending the weekend looking through a compound microscope- it was intense. Mosses are so small that they are identified looking at really tiny parts- like the shape of their leaf cells, and weather or not there are any bumps on the cells. Pretty cool stuff!

I had a great deal of fun, learned a ton of new things, and after three days, I was completely wiped out, hence the lack of pictures in this post.

More to come soon, including photos of the incredible Edge of Appalachia Preserve and other botanical wonder sites in Adams County, Ohio.

Enjoy your week. We government employees get a big day off right in the middle of it, thanks to Veterans Day.

Tom

Midway, Message from the Gyre, by Chris Jordan

I must say I had never heard of photographer Chris Jordan before this morning, but after viewing some of his work, I don't believe I'll ever forget these images. Powerful and gut wrenching, Chris travels around our coasts and produces images of what he sees as a "slow-motion apocalypse in progress."

Although I usually stay upbeat and positive about nature and our connection to it, these images affected me so much that I felt obligated to share them.

www.chrisjordan.com

The Gray Jay, a Bird from the North

Streaked Mountain, Maine, October 2009

Hi everyone- how are you adjusting to daylight savings time? I'm loving the early morning sun, but the evening blackness will take some time to get used to. I was telling Megan this evening that it isn't all bad. The early night makes me want to settle onto the couch at about 6:30 and do nothing for the rest of the evening. I'm not going to be able to keep that pattern up for long without consequences, so perhaps a re-commitment to the Worthington recreation center will be in my future on these upcoming dark winter nights.

Speaking of dark nights- when Megan and I visit Maine come Christmas time, the north woods sky will be pitch black by 4:30 or so. It's amazingly early. I can't imagine living a full winter with that little light, but this bird is probably used to it. Megan spotted this avian friend on the top of Streaked Mountain on October 2009 near South Paris, Maine. This was a new one for me, and observing it and photographing was thrilling. Do you recognize it?

Tom

P.S. The pronunciation of the Mountain in question is not the same as if I were to say "I just streaked through the streets of Worthington." It is decidedly said with two syllables, as most words in the local vernacular of western Maine are drawn out into two, three or four syllables where here in Ohio they would just be one syllable.

Say Stree-ked mountain, and you've got it down.

Tom

HDR Photography How To- "On Golden Pond"

Click for larger image.

First of all, I'd like to thank Tom aka Fishing Guy, from Kent Ohio, and Heather of the Hills, for inspiring me borrow the original "On Golden Pond" film from the library. I was explaining that I'd never seen a loon at Little Pond, Maine, and Tom was surprised, since the movie "On Golden Pond" portrays them as a regular sight and sound for the Thayers. Not so for Little Pond- I just don't think it is big enough to support loons.

Getting back to the movie- Megan and I watched it, and although it is a bit dated, a bit slow, and a bit cheesy- it was really worth our time. The movie does a superb job of illustrating what the lake life is like in Maine- idyllic.

Now, onto how I created the picture above. Obviously, this type of view is something that an ordinary camera cannot capture with a single image. However, using a photographic technique called high dynamic range photography, or HDR, we photographers can take multiple exposures of the same scene and merge them in a software called Photomatix. The resulting merged image can then be tone mapped, also using Photomatix, to allow the bright areas and the shadow areas of the image to be exposed as the eye would see them in nature.

Let's see how this works- here are the three images that went into making my On Golden Pond- Little Pond photograph-.




The three shots are not exactly impressive are they? One reason for this is that they're minimally processed RAW files, straight out of the camera. Photomatix, with a great deal of input from the user by adjusting many features with sliders and buttons, can really make magic.



Tom

P.S. I'll give 10 points, yes, 10 points, to the commenter that can correctly identify the scientific name of the deciduous tree prominently featured in the right hand portion of this image.

Horizontal Panorama- Dusk at Little Pond

First vertical panorama photography, and now a horizontal panorama of Little Pond, Maine, from our Mid October 2009 visit.

This shot was taken well past sunset. At this stage, the clouds are entirely backlit from the last tiny bit of the day's sunlight. I've found that this period, just before pitch black, is one of my favorite picture taking times at Little Pond.

Tom

Vertical Panorama Photography- The Bur Oak

Hi All- Megan and I are settling back into Ohio. There is just something about a week long vacation in Maine that made me wordless upon our return for a few days, but now that we're here and living our lives once again, I'm getting back into the swing of things.

As a photographer, have you tried shooting multi-image panoramas? If you haven't you really should. It's just crazy fun. I made this seven image composite of our backyard oak tree in Adobe Photoshop CS4. I've also used Canon PhotoStitch to make panoramas. PhotoStich is a free program that came with your Canon camera software (other camera owners will have to help me out with this one- does Nikon offer a free photostitch software?) Even if you don't have a Canon camera, you can download it and use it all for free.

As you can see, even with multiple photographs, I wasn't able to get the whole tree in the frame. Maybe I can? What if I took multiple vertical rows of images stacked upon each other, and then tried to use the Adobe CS4 photomerge tool?

Also- If you do go and try to do this- make sure you shoot in manual and turn off autofocus. You'll want the images to have identical exposures and focal point- if they don't, your finished product could look very strange.

All of this panoramic photography has been prompted by two things. First, this incredible composite image from the latest National Geographic that must be seen in the magazine to be appreciated. And second, I have been tasked to shoot a vertical and horizontal panoramic photograph for my most recent assignment at Columbus State.

Although this type of photography might sound gimmicky, it allows us nature lovers to present the natural world in interesting way that captures so much more information than a single frame image. It's almost like being there, but not quite, but just close enough to be really interesting.

Tom

Also- Here's another free panoramic maker, that a reader pointed out to me, this one from Microsoft.