Twelve minutes, fifty four seconds separate the first and list images of this series of 16 images, starting with the first set published here fourteen days ago.
Almost a minute, fifty two seconds, separates the images of this post, enough time for a wave to sweep over a boss of sand, forming a mirror, and to start a return flow to the sea.
Happy turning of February to March.
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Exposure: 1/250 sec at f / 4.0, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 125
A sand boss held water briefly each cycle to form a mirror.
A slide show of these images.
Exposure: 1/250 sec at f / 4.0, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 125
Heraclitus, sometime between his beginning and end, 535 – 475 B.C., wrote “No man steps into the same river twice.” The flow of these images is more changeable, ebbing and flowing with each wave.
My habit is to time early morning walks by sunrise, stepping onto the beach well before dawn to enjoy the encounter. First days of January 2020 were notably clear and warm. Then over several days the wind rose, on the 9th were these clouds,
High tide passed a few minutes before, for whatever reason there were hollows filled with the stronger waves, the water pooling to flow back as is seen here. The pattern of sand hollows across the beach was lost across the hours and tides, not to return during our time at the beach.
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Exposure: 1/250 sec at f / 4.0, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 125
A sand boss held water briefly each cycle to form a mirror.
A sand boss held water briefly each cycle to form a mirror. In the small ripples in the return stream rising against the waves of the return flow can be seen the strong, steady southeast wind of that day.
Exposure: 1/10 sec at f / 22, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 125
A slide show of these images. Use is to compare the effect of longer vs shorter exposure time and f-stop.
Exposure: 1/250 sec at f / 4.0, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 125
Exposure: 1/10 sec at f / 22, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 125
Sunrise for Florida, January, is roughly a quarter past 7 am. Most mornings this year I was on the beach for a morning, pre-dawn, walk camera in hand. This day, the 9th, the clouds were promising, no to heavy on the horizon and scattered, cumulus clouds otherwise. For the promise I brought the full frame Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, Canon lens 24 mm f/1.4L II USM fitted with a graduated .6 ND filter sitting on top of a Manfrotto BeFree Carbon fiber tripod.
A graduated neutral density filter has a portion shaded with gray to produce a “2 stop” difference in exposure between the darkest shade and clear glass with, between, a gradual feathered reduction in shade. In this way, the dark foreground and bright sky are balanced.
A carbon fiber tripod folds into a compact shape. At about 2.5 pounds it fits into a suitcase with the least weight possible for a reasonably stable platform. Using it, I am able to take a sequence of frames of the identical scene, changing camera settings as I go along.
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Exposure: 1/6 sec at f / 22, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 125
Sunlight, low in the western sky, was perfect for mirror-like reflections in the retreating surf.
Exposure: 1/250 sec at f / 4.0, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 125
In a few weeks, after the “Slievenaglogh View” series now underway, I will present a week of these images moving from pre-dawn to sunrise.
A slide show of these images. Use is to compare the effect of longer vs shorter exposure time and f-stop.
Exposure: 1/250 sec at f / 4.0, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 125
Exposure: 1/6 sec at f / 22, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 125
Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
On Tuesday, December 17, 2019 a caterpillar dropped from vegetation to crawl across the parking lot of Sonic Drive-In, 2140 N Courtenay Pkwy, Merritt Island, FL 32953, crawl up an order station, affix its tail to the kelly green semi-gloss enamel, to form a chrysalis.
The afternoon of New Years Eve, 14 days later, we spied the Retro theme of this fast food business, finding it appealing, stopped for a hi-fat lunch of hamburgers, onion rings (“highly recommended, very delicious”) and (ha, ha) diet sodas, choosing this same order station where the emerged Brush-foot butterfly, of the family Nymphalidae, clung, drying in anticipation of flight.
Captured here with the Apple IPhone 8. I cannot identify the exact butterfly species this is. Source: wikipedia article on Nymphalidae.
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Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
797 is the count of subscribers to this blog, an interesting number. The individual numerals sum to a prime number, 23. The first and last can be swapped to yield the same number. I appreciate each and every “1” added together, you readers. Thank You.
Here is a selection of images from post posts.
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The trail at Petrohue Falls is packed with tourists on a sunny summer afternoon.
Pam and Mike Wills stayed with Marantha House B&B, during our Spring 2014 Ireland Tour. It was our base in County Cork. Our day of arrival, that evening, I visited Charlemagne and fed him an apple, saved from dinner. We learned from our hosts, Olwen and Douglas Venn, he is a retired show horse they rescued. The following morning I visited Charlemagne again with an apple and my camera. As I walked up, starting from the far end of his field, Charlemagne rewarded me with a series of astounding poses, trotting toward me in fine form. The morning mists, hawthorn in bloom, distant hills came together for this memory.
Newlyweds on Cocoa Beach waiting for the photographer in a perfect early evening light. A cruise ship departing from Port Canaveral in the distance.
Trillium bloom April through May in central New York State. I found these blooming on the rim of Fillmore Glen near Owasco Lake and the town of Moravia.
Don Roberto is on the bow
Mexican Poppies bloomed in profusion throughout the Superstitions after the plentiful winter rains of 2008.
Pamela and Michael Wills with Iceberg Glacier, Bernardo O’Higgins National Park, Fjord Tempanos, Chile aboard the Oceania Regatta
A swan and cygnet feeding from the pristine waters of the River Cong, County Mayo, Ireland. Outside the door of Ashford Castle.
Ocotillo Sunset
My son, Sean, and I traveled to New York City for the first Saint Patrick’s Day parade after September 11, 2001. Every one there shared in the pride and resolve of the New York City Fire Department delegation. They had a huge presence. All of 5th Avenue from side to side, as far as we could see, was full of firemen. Each held a full size American flag, so there was a block of American flags up the street. I composed this image to capture the feeling of this moment.
Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
Pam and I were transfixed by the aquarium at Epcot, raptly amazed with the variety and profusion of life. Here are two videos of a Ray approaching the wall with graceful elegance.
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Mickey Mouse is represented in one of these post images. Can you spot him? Please use a comment to make your identification.
Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
The sun disk broaches the Atlantic Ocean horizon on a clear January morning.
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Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
There are limitations, certainly, to photographs from that tiny lens on the IPhone 10 (or IPhone X). It captured the moments in this series. I take mine along even with the professional camera bodies, lenses and tripod, for this reason. These images are the unprocessed files.
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Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
You will find I replaced photographs in the original post and well, all the major elements of Cancer are labeled. Here is an explanation of the new elements.
You can now trace the “Y” constellation pattern, with Alpha and Beta Chancri (Latin for “of Cancer”) the two claws and Iota the tail. Both elemetns of Iota, a visual binary star system, are there. They are wonderful viewed with a telescope. Near Alpha is M67 (Messier Object 67), another galactic cluster of gravitationally bound stars. It is quite faint in this photograph.
Total Lunar Eclipse and Surrounding Sky with labels for primary element of the Cancer constellation
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