It is with sadness that I share the news of the passing of one of my Encina trees. Not sure what happened it just split from the top.
Here is the poor thing, with a 25 to 50mm ai'd. It is in a little gully so the branches are now resting on higher ground, we will have to clean it after it is fully dry and the leaves drop.
Lost a black eucalyptus 9 years ago, out of its roots and trunk grew a little forest that you see on the picture above on the right, the Encina will not do that.
The Eucalyptus split in a similar way and we had to take it down as it was closer to people and the house. Below pic with a D3 and a 35-200mm.
I think the seeming population explosion of Blue Jays are predominately full grown juveniles. They look like the adults, but they test each others metal like puppies and kittens. Performing aerial tricks, posturing, dive bombing, and aggressive displays. Ended up with dozens of keepers, but here are four
First two are the D800 w-Nikkor 600mm f5.6 ais + TC-16a - next two are the D850 w-Nikkor 600mm f5.6 ais. The last shot the Jay flew right at me and smacked into the window. Fortunately he was not hurt.
leighton w wrote:
Wonder how long it takes for them to get the nearest large city?
Hey Leighton. The nearest “large” town would be Snowtown which is only 15 mins away with a few hundred people and I’d say most go here for fuel and food etc. After that it would be Burra around 100km away which is where we were heading to which has a population of around 1,000 and a really nice little town … the gateway to the Flinders Ranges. Many of these towns were once bigger and scattered along railway lines which subsequently closed. Many older towns just don’t exist anymore.
South Australia is a pretty huge state (about twice the size of Texas) but with a population of only 1.7m people and 1.4m of those live in Adelaide the capital.
leighton w wrote:
I know, it's really getting bad. When we first moved here 25 years ago, we hardly saw any dear. We never had to worry with our 2 acres of vegetables being eaten by them. Now, I had to put up electric fence around our garden or they'd eat the whole thing, even with the dog around. I would never kill one because of them being a nuisance, so maybe it's time we learn to like venison. I know the one that's been in our orchid every day should be tasty after eating all those apples.
There was a program around here called "Hunters for the Hungry" where you could take one to a butcher and they would give the meat to anyone who needed food....Show more →
All the way through my childhood, we used to grow about 1-2 acres of watermelons, tomatoes, and corn on the farm that was left from my grandparents in central TX and never saw deer, prints, anything. In the mid 2000's I started to see prints. In about 2008 we had a very dry year but were making good melons... right until deer came and ate every leaf from the vines about 2 weeks before we started getting ripe fruit. The farm is now crisscrossed with deer tracks and we'd need an 8 foot fence to keep deer out of a garden.
I just received a new Mac Mini M2 Pro today and made a couple of quick edits just to check out its speed. I've got to say that this thing is much faster (anecdotal evidence only) than my Dell laptop with Intel i7 & 16GB RAM. I'll add that the Dell is plenty fast for everything except really heavy photo editing. When I get some time, I'll really put the Mac to the test and see how it does with similar photo edits.
I've been using my laptop as a desktop plugged into a 27" monitor. I wanted to return it to laptop/travel duty, so I got the Mac. This is my first foray into Mac world. I have played with them extensively, so it's not entirely new to me. I think this is going to work out just fine.
James, as previously indicated by others, completely love the effect of the IR Echinacea. Liquid metal petals!
Dean, I had to read your post, as I first thought HK does not have open land like that, do they?
Regina, mmmmm, papaya.
Huss, you continue to push that film button in me, but I'm strong. Perhaps I'll invest in a simulation pack if I feel too lazy to do my own settings in LR.
Here is a final set of images from my Little Qualicum River visit a few weeks ago, the first and third are from the 5.8 f/1.4 S and the second is from the 135 f/2.8 QC.
deang001 wrote:
Hey Leighton. The nearest “large” town would be Snowtown which is only 15 mins away with a few hundred people and I’d say most go here for fuel and food etc. After that it would be Burra around 100km away which is where we were heading to which has a population of around 1,000 and a really nice little town … the gateway to the Flinders Ranges. Many of these towns were once bigger and scattered along railway lines which subsequently closed. Many older towns just don’t exist anymore.
South Australia is a pretty huge state (about twice the size of Texas) but with a population of only 1.7m people and 1.4m of those live in Adelaide the capital. ...Show more →
That's not too bad. I guess I was thinking about it being in the Outback but after I google it, I saw where it was. Still desolate looking.
huddy wrote:
All the way through my childhood, we used to grow about 1-2 acres of watermelons, tomatoes, and corn on the farm that was left from my grandparents in central TX and never saw deer, prints, anything. In the mid 2000's I started to see prints. In about 2008 we had a very dry year but were making good melons... right until deer came and ate every leaf from the vines about 2 weeks before we started getting ripe fruit. The farm is now crisscrossed with deer tracks and we'd need an 8 foot fence to keep deer out of a garden....Show more →
Good to see you Alan, hope the family is well. Not sure what we can do about the rising deer population but it's becoming a real problem.
spoupard wrote:
I just received a new Mac Mini M2 Pro today and made a couple of quick edits just to check out its speed. I've got to say that this thing is much faster (anecdotal evidence only) than my Dell laptop with Intel i7 & 16GB RAM. I'll add that the Dell is plenty fast for everything except really heavy photo editing. When I get some time, I'll really put the Mac to the test and see how it does with similar photo edits.
I've been using my laptop as a desktop plugged into a 27" monitor. I wanted to return it to laptop/travel duty, so I got the Mac. This is my first foray into Mac world. I have played with them extensively, so it's not entirely new to me. I think this is going to work out just fine.
Welcome to the club! Just got mine a week ago and finding the same results. I was also using a laptop with a Intel i7 & 16GB RAM only mine was a MBP. I have loaded mine up for test purposes and it just rolls along like nothing at all, no heat or fan noise. Enjoy your new machine.
leighton w wrote:
That's not too bad. I guess I was thinking about it being in the Outback but after I google it, I saw where it was. Still desolate looking.
Yeah, this isn't the outback but there's still a whole lot of nothing between towns though. Another couple of hundred km and you're in the never never for sure
pbraymond wrote:
James, as previously indicated by others, completely love the effect of the IR Echinacea. Liquid metal petals!
Dean, I had to read your post, as I first thought HK does not have open land like that, do they?
Regina, mmmmm, papaya.
Huss, you continue to push that film button in me, but I'm strong. Perhaps I'll invest in a simulation pack if I feel too lazy to do my own settings in LR.
No, HK definitely doesn't have anything like this. Surprisingly HK has loads of national park and hiking trails but no open plains. They're very different worlds ... HK 2,755 km˛ & 7.5m people ... South Aus 983,482 km˛ & 1.4m people.
One of the shocks I found a couple years ago was the number of parks in my area. Many have paved, boardwalks, and crushed stone paths that required building bridges, raised walkways through swamps, and lots of maintenance. There are 59 county parks in my county alone not counting State, Township, and City parks. One of these county parks has an observatory with a 14" or 16" telescope, that is rumored to be a Cassegrain reflector (haven't seen it yet) like Nikon's reflex lenses. I'm using it to show that defishing can preserve most of the 16mm f3.5 ai fisheye image area. D850 with the Nikkor 16mm f3.5 ai. Check out your parks!
I know the one that's been in our orchid every day should be tasty after eating all those apples. 
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