Fairweather Zealot

Day 2 started early as I met fellow Flickr birders Photo Patty and her husband Al for a day of birding in Monterey. I have to say right off that Patty wins the “Good Trooper” award for coming along two days after breaking her leg (she insisted).  I was excited to have some locals to show me hot spots, but I couldn’t have expected the pinpoint accuracy they would have with their predictions. Not only were they able to produce many new birds on my list, but they seemed to almost always do it at the first place they tried. Anyway, the trip to Monterey was nice as we caught up since their visit last July, talked about our trips to Arizona (man, I really want to go back), and they filled me in on the places we would be checking out. Continue reading

This weekend started off on a bit of a down note when I found that I could get to sleep Friday night (I didn’t get to sleep until 4 a.m. Friday night). Finally, begrudginly, I got out of bed and went downstairs to do some work, check out Flickr, work – anything that one can do in the middle of the night. But it was a message I got just after 2 a.m. that really put the weekend into perspective. Continue reading

American Lady
Vanessa virginiensis

Once again, my wife dragged me to Longwood Gardens to shoot butterflies – and we had a heck of a day (her, more than me – she got some simply AMAZING shots). I’ve seen these American Lady butterflies before, but this was my best chance to get a shot of one.

A comparison guide for the Common Whitetail dragonfly. Shots include an immature male (left), and (from top to bottom): mature female, mature male (dorsal), mature male (ventral).

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

Things have been crazy busy at work, but it’s nice to be able to go 5 minutes down the road to a variety of habitats and go for short lunchtime (or thereabouts) hikes. Yesterday, I got to see this spectacular dragonfly, a Twelve-Spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella). It took a while to get him in a position for a good shot, but finally he acquiesed.

It’s spring again – the birds are migrating through (or coming back), including this Palm Warbler at John Heinz NWR.

The riots in France sound pretty scary – check out this amazing photoset by “Hugo*” – Demonstrations – a photoset on Flickr

An interesting article today about Flickr, which is described as the ultimate in API madness – an open architecture that has created a multitude of toys. In Ten Best Flickr Mashups the author Michael Calore speaks about his favorite programming mashes using the Flickr API. Some I hadn’t heard of fastr, some I had and enjoy (Retrievr). But I couldn’t believe that the article made no real mention of Flagrant Disregard’s Flickr Toys, a page chock full of Flickr goodness.

Okay, so maybe I’m partial to it, but I think that the ideas and implementations that FD has come up with are fantastic – and I’m far from the only one to think so. His creations have become known far and wide and are used quite frequently throughout the Flickr world. How many mosaics have found there way to Flickr using his easy-to-use and fun php program? The Framer program has created some groups of its own, such as Bird Stamps, as has Badge Maker. And one of his newest creations, Scout has made a bunch of “interestingness” junkies of the lot of us as we use this tool to quickly see how our shots have fared in Flickr’s agonizingly undecipherable Interestingness scale.

I liked the article, but having missed this entire page of fun tools is like mentioning the best baseball parks and skipping Wrigley, the best Paris attractions and leaving out the Louvre. I just find it hard to believe that more recognition was not given to FD and his marvelous toys.

other fun »

• VW strikes again: Un-Pimp My Ride [VIDEOS]
• Wufoo · Making forms easy + fast + fun.

I got a nice note from someone at the Philadelphia Zoo yesterday that really made me feel good about my photography.

Marty-

I was searching on Flickr today and found your beautiful photos from your trips to the Philadelphia Zoo. We are always looking for members who are interested in donating their photos for our use on the website and also in publications. What stood out to me about your shots are not only how crisp and clean they are, but that you have high and low res photos which are scarse for us!

We would certainly love to be able to use some of your photos with your permission. If you’re at all interested in either this or in joining our Camera Club, please let me know.

Thanks so much and have a wonderful afternoon.

Priscilla xxxxxx
Online Communications Manager
The Philadelphia Zoo

Of course, I’ll donate the non-profit use of those images to the zoo. If/when they actually get used, I’ll be sure to post.