Acer Embrace in the media

This is the front of a postcard published by the American Association of Woodturners to advertise the exhibit calendar at their gallery in St. Paul, MN. I think this may be my first appearance on a postcard for a calendar of gallery exhibits, so that's pretty cool.

I also found out that this image was used in the Hartford Courant to advertise the American Association of Woodturners symposium, which takes place in Hartford next week. Here's a link to the article: Turned and Carved Maple

Photo credit: Jerry Anthony Photography. I can highly recommend Jerry as a craft photographer. Tell him you heard about him from me if you use his studio ;-)

Acer Embrace on its way to the Maple Medley exhibit

It's always hard to send one of my babies out into the real world, but the time has come to let Acer Embrace become a fledgling and leave the nest. Here's how I packed it for shipping:

Miscellaneous pics from last weekend

Snapping Turtle, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

I took a short road trip up north to see the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with Steve and some friends. It was a birding trip that was quite enjoyable, except for the long drives bookending the Memorial Day weekend. This snapping turtle was spotted at Seney National Wildlife Refuge - an excellent place to bird. In fact, I had at least three life birds there - my grail bird, the American Bittern, Yellow Rail and Swamp sparrow.

There were many, many swans and loons on the lakes and it was just a truly awesome place to visit.

The sunset at Seney National Wildlife Reserve was pretty amazing, too, as were the lady slipper orchids that dotted the roadsides all through the Upper Peninsula.



I have a lot of pictures to process from the trip and will try to post some of the highlights when I have some spare time (she laughs!).

6 June 2010: added Sand Shadows




8 June 2010: added Tahquamenon Falls Trail

Whetstone Park of Roses - Perennial Garden

Whetstone Park of Roses - Perennial Garden, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

Steve and I did a photo walk early on Sunday morning at Whetstone Park of Roses. Scattered fog and a forecast for clear skies later in the day made me think there would be a possibility of sun streaks that could be seen among the trees of the ravine. There were sun streaks up in the garden as well. It was truly lovely.

There Will Come Soft Rains

Last night my daughter performed with the OSU Women's Glee and members of the Chamber Music Connection. They played Tom Vignieri's "There Will Come Soft Rains," which had its world premiere earlier this year for the New American Music Project. Meghan plays double bass and was part of the NAMP performance as well. Awesome music, awesome project, and awesome performance by young musicians.

Broad Street Bridge at night

Broad Street Bridge at night, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

Here's another Columbus, Ohio night pic from our photo walk along the Scioto River. I used Photomatix to combine 3 images to get all the information from the scene to be represented in the image. I really like HDR photos that look realistic, but I also enjoy the very stylistic ones that have a lot of tonal contrast. My HDR images tend to be more toward the realistic end of the spectrum. The exposure length was about six seconds.

Columbus, Ohio at night

Columbus, Ohio at night, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

This is the first night cityscape I've ever photographed. We were on the west side of the Scioto River, near COSI. The LeVeque tower is lit with pink floodlights to commemorate the Race for the cure, which is coming up in a few weeks.

I posted another picture from this photo walk a few weeks ago: Under the Broad Street Bridge

Moon Pie

Moon Pie, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

One more week until Luna Pi comes to live with us. She'll be seven weeks old this Sunday. She can leave her dam at eight weeks. Today I was able to visit the puppies for the first time. I took Emma along so that she could meet her "rival" and get used to being around a puppy. I'll be posting pics to Emma's blog by the weekend, so check out the puppy pics on Emma the dog blog (linked from this site).

Halo around the moon

Halo around the moon, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

My first night time exposure with my Canon EOS 7D. This is was a 20 s exposure, processed with Nik Software Photomatix plug-in, which enhanced the details in the capture. I really like the cloud streaks from the long exposure. The colors from the moonbow were gorgeous, too.

I chose the long exposure route to get the light painting effect of the colored light on the clouds. Steve was taking pics at the same time and aimed for getting the boiling cloud structure around the halo by doing a short exposure. You can see his version of this scene on his weblog. Check it out - it's really interesting to see the different interpretations of this event.

I have a new camera!

>

I finally upgraded to the Canon EOS 7D and I got a new lens (EF 24-105 mm f4 L IS), too! So far I'm really liking how the camera feels in my hands and how it performs. I have a lot of experimenting ahead while I learn all the bells and whistles of this nice gear. Woot!

Viola sororia

Viola, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

Photographed at Kenney Park, Columbus, OH

Dutchman's breeches

I met up with several members of the Ohio Nature Photographers Flickr group this morning to do a photo walk in Kenny Park. I decided to work with my Canon EF 100 mm f2.8 lens and my twin-light ring flash. I learned a couple of valuable lessons: 1) it's better to use a high aperture when you are getting this close a focus, and 2) adjusting the flash intensity downward keeps the image from washing out.

Doing fieldwork in the desert

Doing fieldwork in the desert, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

It was a very productive week of collecting Penstemon albomarginatus. The weather was pretty much perfect all week. I met some very nice folks who care about conserving this species and the habitat where it occurs. Plus I had the joy of walking around the Mojave desert and seeing some incredible plants and wildlife. Being a botanist does have its perqs sometimes.

Desert horned lizard

Desert horned lizard, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

This was the coolest reptile I saw in the Mohave Desert today. After we were done collecting and heading back to the truck, we flushed several of these horned lizards from the bushes along the way. This was the most colorful, and largest, one spotted.

An exciting day in the field

Today was another productive, and even exciting, day in the field.

Collecting Penstemon albomarginatus from the Arizona site where it occurs was quite fun. The plants seem just a little different here compared to the ones seen in California and Nevada. The habitat is slightly different also.










The flowers seem a bit paler in coloration and the leaves seem a bit more narrow and elongated.

















The flower stems are also more densely packed with flowers.










The habitat at the Arizona site is a transition zone between the Mohave Desert and the Sonoran Desert. Ocatilla and Saguaro cactus are in this transition zone.










The big excitement of the day was this close encounter with a Mohave Rattlesnake. It was basking in the sun on one of the main roads into the area.












We stopped so that Stephen Zitzer could move it off the road. The snake was definitely not happy to be disturbed.











In fact, it got rather upset about being messed with.













Stephen jumped into the truck to move it, but the snake had already decided to head for cover underneath it.












No! Don't go up in the truck! Damn!










This isn't the solution I would have come up with, but Stephen seemed pretty sure of his approach to remove the snake from the underside of our field vehicle. If you're going to yank on a rattlesnake's tail, you better be sure to fling it hard and fast away from you.










Now the snake is even more upset about the whole affair.













Ok, fella - here's the deal. You get pinned by a stick.













Then you get picked up by the neck.















Got it!



















"Now, stay off the road!"


















The snake is still upset about this treatment, but at least it's not a target for the next vehicle that comes along.










Ok, off you go then.

Yep - that was pretty exciting.