Rainbow Lorikeet

Rainbow Lorikeet, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

One of my favorite birds from the eastern coast of Australia is the rainbow lorikeet. Not only are they beautiful, but they are fun to watch as they forage for seeds by hanging upside down in the trees.

North Carolina Barn

North Carolina Barn, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

I visited with John Hill and Clay Foster Saturday evening. When I was loading my car to get ready for a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway and then to the airport I noticed how the light was playing off the weathered barn on John's property. I love the warm glow the early morning sun has, and it illuminated the barn at just the right angle for a beautiful composition.

Gaura

Gaura, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

The wildflowers in bloom right now in North Carolina are very beautiful. I hadn't seen Gaura since I was a graduate student in Oklahoma. It brought back some memories of my photography days in film. I won an award for a Kodachrome image I had printed - way back in the late 1980's.

Iris

Iris, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

I'm in North Carolina this week to visit Polk County High School. Check out the link on the right for the "news from the wolfe lab" blog and you'll see the posts I've done about my site visit to a biotechnology classroom. This is an iris at the guest house where I'm staying.

Australia landscape

Australia landscape, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

March 27, 2012 - near sunset, between Cooma and Jindabyne, New South Wales.

Morning Run

Morning Run, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

Back to Australia for this morning's post. This photo is from the first day I walked the beach at sunrise. Only a few turners at Turnfest 2012 made it to the beach at that early hour, or shortly after dawn. Here are Sharon Doughtie and Christian Delhon running the beach in the early morning. Christian's wife is also one of the runners

The beach across from SeaWorld is really a pleasant place to walk in the wee hours of the morning. For an early riser, it's perfect - very few people are up and about at that hour and so there is a wonderful feeling of solitude and contemplation as you walk the sands and hear the surf, birds, and watch how the light changes as the sun rises above the horizon.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there., a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

I've had a very relaxing day, I think. I guess it was pretty busy - mostly with finishing a construction project for a plant cam stand. I'm doing a time-lapse photography project in the OSU Biological Sciences greenhouse.

Actually, the fun part of the day was a visit to the movie theater to watch "The best exotic Marigold Hotel." It was such a great movie, and it appeals to all ages, not just the baby boomers out there. It was filmed in India and reminds me so much of what we experienced in Kathmandu, Nepal in 2009. Go see it!

Carolina chickadee

Carolina chickadee, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

A few weeks ago I was walking the boardwalk at Magee Marsh when a chickadee caught my attention. It was a slow day, and so I thought I would quietly observe it. I couldn't figure out why it was staying in one spot for so long. It turns out that it was the mate of this chickadee who was in the nest with either eggs or chicks. The male was bringing food to its mate, who would pop out to see what was taking so long after a while.

King Parrot

King Parrot, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

One of the things I enjoyed most about my recent trip to Australia was the diversity of birds there. It's so cool to be out on a trail, watching a variety of parrots in the wild. Birds that we see only in cages or zoos here in the North America are native to Australia, and they are loud, raucous, and fun to watch.

Australian Pelican

Australian Pelican, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

Most pelicans are kind of homely, but the Australian pelican is rather cute, in my humble opinion. This one was walking the tidal flats along the Sapphire Coast of Australia.

President Barack Obama

Interlude between blog posts about the campaign rally last Saturday. This is one of the portraits I did of the president during his speech.

President Barack Obama, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

Here is the entire speech, posted on YouTube. I was inspired during the rally, and I found the speech inspiring while watching the video. If you know where to look, you can see me taking photos....

American Robin

American Robin, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

I took this photo a few weeks ago at Magee Marsh on the shore of Lake Eerie in Ohio. We were there a bit ahead of warbler season so there wasn't a huge crowd on the boardwalk, which gave me the opportunity to practice taking bird photos with a flash. I had a better beamer attachment to the flash unit. Using flash for bird photography is a bit of a challenge, which is obviously amplified with a beamer. I'm glad I had the chance to experiment in a more relaxed setting than when bird paparazzi are going crazy over warblers.

President Obama Campaign Rally - Columbus, Ohio - Part 1

President Barack Obama had his campaign kick-off rally in Columbus, Ohio yesterday. I volunteered to help, and had to be on site at 7 a.m.  I entered volunteer information into a form on my iPad while working the VIP line. All volunteers who had worked on the campaign prior to the rally were eligible for a VIP ticket.  I had mine in hand, but I also volunteered my iPad for the cause.

 

Early on the morning of the rally, the line barricades were set up. This is the area for the VIP line, which is where campaign volunteers lined up to enter the building.

One surely hopes that this is the police check-in line and not a line for donuts....... (just joking around, officers).

The doors to the Schottenstein opened at 10:30 a.m. The building was undergoing a final sweep when all the volunteers arrived to the site.

Carol Mohr is the UA for Obama team leader. She's the one who recruited me to help with the campaign.  She and I volunteered to enter data using our iPads, and we were assigned to work the VIP line. How convenient - when the doors opened, we were already in line.

The VIP line is on the move. Everyone was very patient during the wait and there was a lot of cheering going on all through this area.

This videographer was working the VIP line right at the entrance to the Schott. He wanted to record the hype and so he was shouting "Fired Up!" and the people in line responded "Ready to Go!"

At this point in the line, there were only a couple of dozen feet to go before the security checkpoint. You can see the some of the volunteer VIP line in the background. There were thousands of "fired up" volunteers waiting to get into the arena for the campaign rally.

This was the first campaign rally I've ever attended, and this is the first political campaign I've volunteered to assist. I strongly support President Obama in his re-election campaign. If you're interested in volunteering - just go online and sign-up to help. It's easy to do, and you meet a lot of interesting people.

Mayor Coleman at the Obama rally

Mayor Coleman at the Obama rally, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman welcomed a crowd of 14,000 supporters at yesterday's kick-off rally for President Obama's re-election campaign.

President Barack Obama

President Barack Obama, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

Today I spent all morning volunteering for the Obama campaign, and then attended the campaign rally at the Schottenstein Center at Ohio State University. It was a very inspirational day for me. I'll do a proper blog post soon, but I wanted to post this picture today.