Author: David Jenkins

Natural History Photographic Essayist

Little Visits: Enjoying the Morning Sunshine

Posted in Australian Pelican, Brown Falcon, Great Crested Tern, Yellow-tailed Black CockatooTagged , , , , 7 Comments

Funny old weather Melbourne.  Biting cold for days, then, such a tiny break of stable weather.  Frost on the ground, breathing out ‘steam’, and calm winds. Ideal.

So. I, as the Banjo wrote, “Sent him a email, which I had for want of better knowledge sent to his mail address, in case he was home.
Just on Spec, titled as follows, “A trip to Point Cook is in the offing”.
And an answer came directed in a manner I expected.  “Mr An Onymous will meet you there”.

So, as #kneetoo is on the move, but not willing to venture too far at the moment, I went.

As the weather icon ladies had predicted, the morning was crisp, still and sunny. Ideal.

After the usual “G’days” and, the like, we set off for a walk through the pines.

We’d not walked more than a few hundred metres when I turned to glance a Brown Falcon that had set itself up in a sheltered, warm spot in the sunshine. Had I kept going, he’d have stayed I’m guessing, but too much activity too close, and he unfurled the big brown sails and was gone.

Next the call of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos rang across the frosty grass, and there on the other side of the paddock we say around 6-8 descend on the large pines. To be followed in quick succession by a second group of more than 20, and then another smaller mob of about 10. By the time we’d arrived close up, they were well in to their feast of the young cones in what can only be described as an open area dining area.

 

 

Then one of the young ones, crying, caught my attention and we managed a view of it being fed.  Beak to beak.

Onward for a cuppa of the Earl’s best and a sit by the water’s edge.  The moon was pulling in a high, high tide and the still waters lapped and laughed as they kissed the sand, and retreated, having enjoyed the moment so much to quickly repeat the performance.
Sometimes, just slowing down, and watching the small things, like small child exploring the beach, not over-awed by the expanse of sand and water, but rather inspecting the grains of sand on its fingers.

A Greater Crested Tern was fishing, and I missed the head shake as it came out of the water.   Then a White-faced Heron again standing perfectly still.

Several young Pacific Gulls were paddling in the clear waters, and an adult was doing its best Otis Redding impersonation of “Watchin’ the Tide Roll Away…”

We could have stayed all day, but each of us had other things family to attend to, and we retreated to the vehicles and a local coffee shop.
Great day for birds, relaxing and a bit of a natter.

As we left the beach an Australian Pelican beat its way along the water’s edge, flying low to make the most of the lift of the water.

Saturday Evening Post #140 : Stereotype

Posted in Saturday Evening PostTagged 10 Comments

Stereotype has among its first usages several hundred years back as: image perpetuated without change.
More recently its use is in the realms of psychology deal with, so I’m told, the thoughts of an individual being applied (rightly or wrongly) to a group of people.
Rough boyscout definition only.

Our blog friend Eleanor raised such an issue for the other day as her new camera is cranking out huge CR3 files and its meant she has taken to using JPEG format.  I made the comment that I often shoot JPEG format. And with good reasons.   Bought the usual responses, of ‘can’t be a true committed photographer if you’re not using raw (usually put as RAW-but its not an acronym). My photos are doomed to the dustbin of the furthermost photo hell, and me along with it’.
Truth be told I like working in JPEG as it frees me from sitting staring at the screen cranking first this, then that slider. Strange old stereotype that judges the quality of work by the file type.   I know pretension exists, still.

However changing thoughts, I had to go, on my doctors instructions to one of those, you know, what do ya call ’em,  ohhh.   Oh yeah, cognitive memory tests. Where you get asked if you can remember important stuff. Such as, What year is it? Who is Prime Minister of Australia? Count backwards from 100 minus 7 at a time… hmm, 93…..Oh, I give up.

All sorts of things I’m not all that interested in. I’m more interested not so much which day of the week it is, but will it be sunny, no wind, a low tide, what season, and will all that be good for photographs.

Among one of the questions was something about ‘Do I like to cook’.  So I gave an answer. But.  It didn’t match the stereotype required answer, and I came to the conclusion the inquisitor wasn’t interested in my answer, only that I’d fit the pattern of old male, unable to boil water.  I took time to explain I learned to cook from my Mum early in life, spent a summer holiday working with a hotel chef, and had been househusband for #kneetoo for some 18 years since her back injury.   I think I grasped the basic principle behind boiling water, and could, given a few moments notice, master the skill of opening a tin of baked beans.
However all to no avail, as it wasn’t in the stereotype answers required.

Why, I thought on the way home, don’t they ask me some questions I’m actually interested in.

How much sodium sulpite is there in a litre of Kodak D76 developer.
What is the processing time of Tri-X in D76 diluted 1:1 at 20C.
What is the calculations for DOF.
What are the three factors affecting Depth of Field.
Can you recall what is the significance of the Circle of Confusion.
etc
For the digital age:
Describe the Bayer Pattern
For bonus points what is the first name of Dr Bayer
For double bonus points, Have you met Bryce personally
Explain Discrete Cosine Transfer (DCT) as the basis for JPEG compression.

Ohh sneaky how I managed to get that in.

Not content I had to also see a podiatrist, just to check that my feet where still down there somewhere.
It was all going swimmingly until the question about ‘would I walk very far during the day?’
Stereotype kicks in. Old bloke, couch potato, might be able to walk to the mail box
My answer, most mornings I walk for an hour or before breakfast and on a day in the field I might make 10-12Km,  was not the right answer.
So we had to spend the next few minutes going over the details, you know just in case I was doing my Walter Mitty impersonation. When I mentioned that, I received a blank stare!!!!
How easy it is to consign people it seems.

A good, dear friend, told me once that she attended such a ‘memory’ day, and was asked, “Shirley, What day is it?”
Her answer, with a straight poker face. (She was quite the intellectual, an educator and author), ” Oh, that’s easy, it’s the day you told me to come for my appointment!”. Dumb silence.  And a little check-mark in the ‘failed’ box.

Gotta finish on a high.
Do you follow  “First Dog on the Moon” cartoons on the online The Guardian, news. ?
If not then do take a look at this one.  Why Vaccines should be like Hot Chips  The birdo answer is in the last panel.

Tonight’s Image is bought to you by JEPG.
This is Jack the Eastern Yellow Robin, we worked two seasons with the pair.
Shot with a D2x camera on the Mode1 JPEG setting
The reason I like that mode is the beautiful clean greys that it produces. I still use a variation of it in the D500.

Saturday Evening Post #139.1 : On Dorothea Lange

Posted in Uncategorized4 Comments

It’s not often that I need to add something to a Saturday Evening Post.

I was directed to a Youtube site, and as I don’t usually spend much time on there, I’d have been very lucky to have found it even accidentally.

Someone has taken a sound track of Bruce Springsteen’s rendition of a song by Woodie Guthrie that he wrote in the 1930s concerning the “Dust Bowl” refugees in the US as they moved from their devastated farms, west, looking for work. They have also collected a slide show of Dorothea Lange images to go with the music.

Lange and Guthrie were contemporaneous, both approaching the refugee activity in their own way. Dorothea with photos, Woodie with poignant heart-felt words in song.

If you are not a Springsteen fan, and let’s face it sometimes the word are hard to understand, nor are you a fan of his music, at least on this its a very simple guitar accompaniment, the best thing to do is turn the sound down, ponder the words, and become involved with the visuals.

A version of the song by Woodie Guthrie is here

They are not all from her work with the refugees, some are from a series of the “White Angel Breadline” (1933).
(Lois Jordan, a wealthy widow living in San Francisco, known as the White Angel, established a soup kitchen to feed the needy and hungry. With little or no outside funding, Jordan fed more than one million hungry men over a three year period)

What struck me personally was the broad similarity to some of our most pressing social crises.

Such issues as: the Biloela Tamil family, Refugees in detention, and the Homeless on the streets of Melbourne the First Nations people recognition, Yes, even climate change, among so many others.

I wondered what Woodie Guthrie and Dorothea Lange would have done against these predicaments.
Dorothea is quoted as saying, she considered her portrait subjects collaborators and is quoted as saying,”I never steal a photograph.”

Photographically it also had me wondering, “Where are the Great Photographs of these current issues?”

Sadly, I had to conclude we live in a world of visual overload. A photo of an issue is only as fresh as the number of ‘Likes’ it has recieved. Each one has a very limited shelf-life or use-by date. Overwhelmed with the next disaster we are fed a constant steam of images, each catching our attention, but like newspapers of old, (remember newspapers?) tomorrow used to wrap up the scraps for the bin.

Does this mean, or am I inferring, that there are no great photographs nor story-telling photographers, left.
No, of course not.

But as you, hopefully, follow the Youtube link you’ll see how great and powerful a medium photo-journalism can be.

Follow this link

Bruce Springsteen ”I Ain’t Got No Home” – YouTube
Mick Wilbury

I leave you with a Dorothea quote,

“I am trying here to say something about the despised, the defeated, the alienated. About death and disaster, about the wounded, the crippled, the helpless, the rootless, the dislocated. About finality. About the last ditch.” – Dorothea Lange

 

 

Saturday Evening Post #139: The Bohemians

Posted in Saturday Evening PostTagged 6 Comments

We’ve been locked down to a 10 and then 25 Kilometre radius for the past few weeks.  Add to that the weather that seems to have translated itself from somewhere south of Antarctica, and #kneetoo still in recovery mode, there has not been a lot of enthusiasm to venture out to check the mailbox, let along go to the field for birds.

Thanks to a recommendation from Mike over at TOPS, I decided to buy a Kindle copy of a book by Jasmin Darznik titled The Bohemians

Warning: It is a novel. An historical novel; but a novel none the less.
It takes its setting in the late 1910s and early 1920s.  Its major setting is San Fransisco.

The heroine, is none other than Dorothea Lange. A photographer I have discussed on this blog before as her stunning photos and photo-journalism had an impact on my visual growth as a very young photographer. As a wet-behind-the-ears youngster, my local librarian had noted my interest in photography—perhaps astutely as  I’d borrowed the same basic photography books umpteen times and knew them from cover to cover, and admitted me to the ‘Adult’ section. Which, had for reasons I’ve never pondered, a really fine selection of photo-folio books. Several Dorothea Lange works were there and again I could pore of them learning a little of the artistic ability of this amazing lady.

Bohemians

This is not really a book review, nor am I crusading to have you rush out and buy or download the book.
The character, “Dorrie”, tells her story in the first person, and it’s a relatively good yarn, rollicking along, as Ms. Lange meets all the historical characters that played a part in forming the real Dorothea’s life.
It is also an interesting journey into the early 1920s and of course the struggles of the time. Quite a number of photographers make appearances, along with artists and writers.

Fair kept me busy during the rather cold weather of late. Hot cup of Cacao, my new fav warm drink, in my new “Hug Mug” and there was an afternoon or two speeding by.

I’m not sure about the author’s intention, but not doubt some of the social inequities of our current time have found their way into the story, which makes for some interesting comparisons.

There are a number of historical glitches, not big ones, Ansel Adams did suffer from the Influenza outbreak of 1919, and mostly they could be overlooked or simply left out of the story.

“Dorrie” hocks her beloved Graflex camera early in the story, but pops up a little later on making portraits with a 35mm Leica camera.
Really?

The Leica wasn’t announced until 1924 and production and first sales were 1925, I’m not sure of The Bohemians time setting but its highly unlikely “Dorrie” would have had access to one.  Still in the concept of the storyline it’s pretty inconsequential what she shot with. Dorothea Lange was making fine portraits and story-telling street shots no matter what camera she used.

Medical Update #5,  #kneetoo, is on the move, managed today to walk a few hundred metres up to the community centre in our village and enjoy a chat and coffee with several friends.  Full-steam ahead.

Stay safe

Return to the Office

Posted in Black-shouldered Kite, Galah, Great Cormorant, Wedge-tailed EagleTagged , , , 12 Comments

As the first Australian Lockdown came to an end back in March 2020, Scomo, our Prime Minister announced that it was “Time for Australia to come out from under the Doona and get back to the office”. Fine sentiment.

For readers not familiar with Scomo, it is a contraction of the Prime Minister’s name. Scott Morrison.
It came to public attention first on August 2, 2018, when during a press conference, Mr Morrison was asked about his leadership aspirations, as there was a lot of unease about Malcom Turnbull’s leadership.
He reached out and hugged Mr Turnbull and said, “This is my leader, I’m ambitious for him”

To which the (doomed) Malcom Turnbull responded, “Thanks, Scomo.”

The irony of the comment really only became obvious about 3 weeks later, when Malcom Turnbull was ousted, and Scomo became Prime Minister. (Skipping over some of the heavy duty political drama in there!)

So with the recent lifting of restrictions on the Victorian Lockdown to a 10km travel radius, I decided to take Scomo’s advice and “Return to the Office.

Mostly I wanted to see if the Flame Robins were still in the area. But as it turns out, they have become very conspicuous by their absence.
I did find a lone Black-shouldered Kite who was happy to share a photo of its hunting prowess.

Then I heard the intense call of Magpies announcing a raptor approaching. Looking far across the paddock a small dot with large wings was headed my way. To be honest, at first I thought it was a local Black Kite and was nearly going to dismiss it, but the intensity of the maggies attack made me look again.

Wedge-tailed Eagle

Trying desperately to get enough speed to gain some height and escape being harassed. However maggies are trained for this and they were making sure that the Eagle had to stay down just over the paddock.
It kept coming and then the Eagle and its attendant pesky magpies flew pretty much over where I was standing.

Thanks Scomo.
Hope I don’t get deposed 🙂

  • Leaving a Calling Card

Saturday Evening Post #138 : That Old Deja Vu Feeling Again Again!

Posted in Saturday Evening PostTagged 13 Comments

Been chatting, but you know, socially distanced, with a number of people over the current lock-down covid situation in our area. All of them had suffered through the long lock-downs of 2020.

Most said the current restrictions (with or without having had a vaccine), initially weren’t that hard to get settled into. But, and it seemed to be pretty universal, within a few days we all seemed to come to the same feeling, helplessness, that we’d not experienced the first time through. Not a depression, mind, but rather a niggley feeling of how quickly we had succumbed to the inevitable. It’s not an anti-lockdown thought/ Most of us appeared to at least except the need to contain the outbreaks.
But it all adds up, another quarantine failure, lack of speed on the vaccine programme, groups of vulnerable people that have been ignored, nursing home outbreaks, name calling—she said, he said—political infighting, and raging rampant fear news.

That we can talk about it and more importantly laugh about it seemed to be a good tonic

Medical Update #4
#kneetoo, is still dealing with a numbing pain of the replacement, and the long process. The good news is she is quite on the move and walking quite freely. Her physio was here the other day, and after a walk up and down the hallway, the physio said, “It’s a fine sunny day, would you like to take a few steps outside?” And so she did.
The physio opened the door and #kneetoo stepped outside.

Every bird for kilometres around felt a shiver up its spine 🙂

While all this was going on, I was sitting on a small bank of sand overlooking the beach and a number of Greater Crested Terns were taking turns (pun intended) fishing along the water’s edge.

This one had returned empty-billed, much to the chagrin of it’s hungry juvenile

Saturday Evening Post #137 : Travel

Posted in Saturday Evening PostTagged 6 Comments

“All journeys have a secret destination of which the traveller is unaware, ” so wrote philosopher, Martin Buber.

Mr Buber, certainly lived and wrote in a world out beyond the ken of your average blog scribe. But at the risk of doing him a bit of a mis-service, his basic go-to was about the relationship between ourselves and others. It get’s complicated after that, but extends to between ourselves and the around. And that has for me, connections with the Dao, that these days, of pop psychology gets, labelled, “Mindfulness”.

Medical Update. #kneetoo is moving about at home and getting mindful about her new knee. Hasten slowly is certainly the order of the day, and now we are all back in Covid Lockdown again—at least, hopefully temporarily—we don’t have anywhere to go anyway.

A blog I follow, is by Robin Whalley, The Lightweight Photographer and he has been discussing his choice of gear for his outdoor landscape rambles. And it struck me, at least I thought obviously, that while it’s nice to have a range of equipment to choose from, you know:
This camera,that lens, this ISO, that Filter, Use Flash, work with Early, or Late Light, and the myriad of other decisions we might encounter,
Sometimes, for us wildlife photographers, the secret destination, or subject, presents itself and we might not have that ‘special’ piece of hardware with us.

And I find myself having, excitedly—not limited by—to work with something that hasn’t been there before. To See Anew.
It happens in the backyard, out in the field, by the water, among the wonderful forests and of course involved with the surprising life of birds. And it takes on such an amazing range.

Here is the master, Lao Tze at this best,
Watchful, like men crossing a winter stream,
Alert like men aware of danger,
Simple as uncarved wood
Hollow like caves
Yeilding. like ice about to melt
Amorphous like muddy water

The early Hebrew poets said it this way.
Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10)

Each trip small or large out behind the camera small or large, has the unlimited potential of a secret destination, I enjoy being able to flow with the world around and be shaped by eternal forces

It is a wonderful journey.

Jacky Winter says all that, but uses a lot less words.

From the FieldNotes Book: Little Troubles

Posted in Australian Magpie, Field Notes, Little EagleTagged , , 11 Comments

We were, Mr An Onymous and I, out looking for some elusive Flame Robins around the 100 Steps to Federation park at Altona. The park was previously a rubbish dump, and as Mr A is oft to quote, “Some of my rubbish is under that hill!”

They were here the last time I looked. But, not today. We did find and get close to one lone female, and were consoling our selves that a trip back to The Esplanade and a coffee from The Norfolk Cafe and a sit on the beach area and watch people instead of birds for a while would be a fine thing to do in the warm sunshine.

In the meantime the antics of a pair of Nankeen Kestrels kept us amused as they swept in and out of a tree-line. Just too far away for photos, but I volunteered, “Let’s go check it out anyway on the way back to the vehicles.”

When on a sudden a dark shape quite close swept over my head, —big bird I thought.
By the time I’d looked up and around it had gone to ground about 20m from where I stood. The best I could determine was a big brownish wing being folded down behind the saltbush.

Options were Whistling Kite or perhaps Swamp Harrier, or maybe, well I can dream, a Spotted Harrier.
We could sit and wait, but there was a little of the ‘thrill of the chase’ in this one, so we negotiated the old barbed wire fence and worked our collective ways toward the saltbush. Not too close else if it flew, it would overfill the frame, so we only needed a few metres inside the fence.

And we waited.

The action started when a small flotilla of young Magpies turned up, and decided that what ever was behind the bush needed a good bit of hurry up, and so they set to diving on the bird on the other side of the saltbush. First one, then another, and another. Regroup then return and repeat. The numbers of young Magpies wanting to join in increased and the bush was repeatedly swooped with urgently calling Maggies.

I waited, figuring the bird would take off from behind the bush and up and away from me.
Wrong!
It must have had enough room behind the bush, out of my line of sight to get airborne and swept out from behind the bush directly to my left, low and fast.

A Little Eagle! And the flotilla of Maggies in hot pursuit. This is the type of action they love. Slow moving bird, plenty of support to control the direction and distract it from gaining speed and height.

The chase was on.

Thrilled with the opportunity to harass the Eagle the Maggies pressed home their attack. The big bird circled wide out to escape and I guessed that would be the last I’d see, but the clever Maggies drove it around, and I guess that an updraft of the edges of the 100 steps hillside would work to its advantage. So it tightly circled past me came around, found some air and began to climb. The Maggies were now having to work very hard to maintain station. They still had the speed to attack, but the Little Eagle now had the advantage of its larger wing surface in the rising air, and wasn’t using any energy. The resolute defenders of their airspace began to lose steam, and slowly began to drop away and only one or two, then only one continued the fruitless cause.

The eagle now reached a comfortable cruising speed and altitude and the Maggies were done.

While the Little Eagle drifted away in the breeze, the Magpies landed together on a nearby tree and called out to congratulate each other on a job well done, and to brag about who had come the closest to the victim.

  • Out and away from behind the bush
  • A close pass as it tries to gain some height and speed
  • Too late. The Maggies are on the job
  • While some gain height advantage others keep the Eagle distracted
  • You don’t get out of town that quickly
  • Coming around to gain advantage of an updraft
  • Vain attempt to force the quarry lower and lose speed
  • Gaining the thermal, the Little Eagle can spread the sheets to glide away
  • Free of attack at last.

Saturday Evening Post #135: Confiding Jacky Winter

Posted in Jacky Winter, Saturday Evening PostTagged , 8 Comments

Medical Update: #2
#kneetoo is home from hospital and beginning to move about on crutches.  No big walks yet, but is keeping balance and doing the physio exercises.  Still a fair bit of pain as the body is not yet quite ready to accept that it has an invader, and the immune system is punching out plenty of antibodies, so the area is still very swelled.  Hopefully all being well, things will improve.
Thanks to all who have passed on their best wishes and kind thoughts.

One of the last walks we did on the old knee was in the Eynesbury Grey Box forest.   Every time we do a trip out there, we spend a bit of time on a forest edge track as it can be a likely spot of Jacky Winter. I wrote about the last trip in a bit more details here. # 131 Laughter

There is something special about Jacky. It is certainly not the most colourfully marked bird in the forest, but its colour scheme harmonises with the grey box surround and makes it hard for predators to spot.
When they are hunting, they have a habit of tail spreading to reveal the white edges of the tail feathers and then landing on a branch and ‘tail wagging’ much like a Willie Wagtail.

Often out of breeding season they hunt together and having found one, a second one will be close by.
We eventually found a pair hunting along a sunlit track. Getting ahead of them, and sitting or standing still, allows them to come into the area at their own pace and relaxed and usually they are quite fearless in their approaches.

This pair seemed happy hunt from one branch to a small shrub across the road and quickly got into a stride of landing and flying between the two spots.  As they were quite close it wasn’t too long before they were brave enough to land within arms reach.  The sunlight through the trees gave plenty of opportunities to choose great backgrounds.

Jacky seemed to enjoy the attention.

Little Visits: The Flight of the Brolga

Posted in Brolga, Little Visits, Western Treatment Plant, WTPTagged , 8 Comments

I was going solo at the Western Treatment Plant.  #kneetoo was tucked up in her wide view bird-hide at the hospital, and as the sun was shining in a clear blue sky, I thought a quick trip to check to see if any Flame Robins could be making the most of the weather and the paddocks at the Plant.

However after a bit of fruitless searching it was obviously not going to be my day for robins.

A final quick trip around the “T Section” area just in case a Brown Falcon or two might be present and then home was my plan.

As I unlocked the entry gate to the area, I heard the long rasping call away off in the distance of Brolga. A scan around the horizon and it was not likely I’d spot any as the calls had been a long way off, and had now stopped.

I prepared to shut the gate and another birdo was approaching to go out, so I held the gate open and said I’d lock it as they left.  Then, just as I swung the gate across the road, that rasping cry filled the air, and this time I’d id’d the location. Sure enough in the air were three Brolga. Then as the shapes grew more distinct, it was likely that they were not only coming in my direction, but would perhaps make a pretty close pass by.

Locking the gate, I grabbed the camera and hoped that the pass would be on the sunny side of iAmGrey.

The more I watched, the more I became aware they would be using the roadway behind me as sort of navigation aid, and would pass right over the top of me.

And they did.

They disappeared behind one of the bunds, and I wondered where they had ended up.

Satisfied with  the fly by, I went on to look along the roadways. Time for a cuppa, so I pulled up at one of the cross tracks and pulled out the doings.

Then the croaking call rattled over the ponds and I looked a bit further along the track and the pair were in head stretch calling mode, and engaging in a little pair bonding.  Cuppa forgotten, I moved along the track for a better looksee.

They settled down to some preening and feeding and the juvenile with them was feeding in one of the shallow ponds.

I went back for my Cuppa and sat and watched until they moved off the pondage and up on to the track, and moved further along to continue their morning routine.

Satisfied, I packed up and headed off for a visit with the patient.

Enjoy

 

Saturday Evening Post #134 : View from the Birdhide Window

Posted in Uncategorized15 Comments

Medical Update #1

#kneetoo has been for surgery and after several days of recovery and learning to walk again, I had the good fortune to collect her this morning.

85 steps before breakfast,  the physio said. So how does 90 sound. 🙂
20 more steps per day, means 140 more per week, which equates in one of those logarithmic graphs to a 1000 in just a week or two, and then 5000, and well you get the idea, #kneetoo will be back in the field before I can recharge the camera batteries. 🙂

Seriously, but. Lots of work to do, crutches, walking frame (thankfully Dolly the Trolley has been waiting for this moment) heaps of physio work—coincidentally many of them looking like Tai Chi moves.  I’ve got to do this…  Oh, I said you mean “Part Wild horses Mane”.

I’m not one that is much into blood and gore, so most of the medical stuff gets by me. I go into panic on a paper cut, a slip the kitchen knife is enough for me to sit down for awhile. So most of  Mr Slice’n’Dice’s handiwork is not something I’m going to pursue.  However I am fascinated by the mechanical process of the production of the replacement knee joint. And more particularly how the robotic process results in such a precision job. The attachment joints are something that my old woodwork teacher could have only dreamed about.

Here’s what #kneetoo’s looks like.

Her suite at St Vincent’s In Werribee overlooked Hoppers Lane.  David Nice’s patch. A large window gave her a grand view of the roadway, and traffic and more importantly the gardens and trees on the Uni Campus across the road.  (PS you can just make out the trees over the road in the xray shot, as I took it against the window)
So, in her secure Birdhide window, I’d get daily reports.
What the local pair of magpies have been doing, where they are feeding and roosting.  How the local Willie Wagtails and Magpie Larks were in regular dispute over feeding rights. The three young Hobbies that flew past. And the numbers of Purple-crowned Lorikeets feeding among the flowing gums.  Perhaps I should have taken her in a camera.

So thanks to everyone for their kind words and support. We both really appreciate it all.

While #kneetoo was in ‘confinement’, I took the opportunity of a sunny morning for a quick run to the Western Treatment Plant. Mostly I wanted to see if the Flame Robins had turned up in any numbers.

As I rounded a corner, I saw a Brown Falcon on a tree ahead, slowed and although I knew the bird was too far away, I slipped around iAmGrey to get a better look.
To my surprise her mate, (bit of guess work there), was sitting on a stump, among the grasses and shrubs.  And the light was just about right. No doubt the birds was sitting out of the breeze warming up in the bright morning sunshine. The beautiful rich white chest was on good display.

This is not a bird that I have worked with before, so had no idea what it would do.   He(?) sat for awhile, but it was obvious that my presence made him uncomfortable and I wasn’t going to move any close or to a better angle. I’d worked out his flight path would be down and away from me, so I’d only get one chance at a flight shot. However, he beat me, dropping from the stump, and not wing spreading till he could glide behind one of the bushes.
So I retreated.  Happy to have made the acquaintance, and hoping that a return visit will be a closer experience.

A Little Visit: Stop Picking on Me!

Posted in Black Swan, Little Pied CormorantTagged , , 8 Comments

At the Point Cook Coastal Park, there is pair of Black Swans that are always together, and almost always distinguishable from others in the area because of their behaviour together.

I was casually watching them, as they don’t do much really, just swan about together.
When on a sudden one of them arched up from the middle and sort of jumped up out of the water.  Curious, but it quickly settled down again.
A few seconds later it did the same thing, and then a Little Pied Cormorant popped up out of the water along side it. The swan took a swing at the cormorant and it quickly submerged.

Then, the swan arched up again, and I figured out the cormorant must have been hitting or poking it underneath.
This time it was a bit too much for the swan, and it gave chase to the cormorant.  And again it submerged and the swan gave another start, and the process repeated.

Perhaps the cormorant was gaining some underwater advantage from the bulk of the swan, or perhaps their movement stirred up the waters and the creatures.

Eventually tiring of it all the cormorant swam off, while the pair of swans went back to ‘swanning about’.

Enjoy

Saturday Evening Post #133 :Bell Like

Posted in Saturday Evening PostTagged 8 Comments

I had the opportunity the other day to go to a presentation by an acquaintance, (not a close friend).  It was among her first out-in-the-open, in front of people, speaking assignments.

It has been said that if asked to speak in front of people, over 70% will say, “No, not me, I’d die if I had to  speak in public.”  I once saw that equated to the fact that at a funeral 7 out of 10 would rather be IN the coffin than, delivering the Eulogy. 🙂

With the inevitable, pauses, loss of thought chain, mixed up notes, nervous hair rearranging and the odd apology, she kept going and the ‘ordeal’ was over.
And do you know what? She’ll get better.
In a couple of years, should she have to speak to the same group, it will be a fully polished professional presentation. Full of confidence, because apart from the learning, she believes in the topic at hand. So much that the struggles will be forgotten—not erased, just no longer daunting.  The one thing we took away was her sincerity.

It has also been said, and attributed to several sources, that

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”,

Some sources wrongly attributing Lao Tzu in the Tao Te Ching add.

“When  the student is Fully ready, the teacher will disappear.’

And so for my new-speaking friend, the struggle to hold an audience will disappear and the message will be bright, clear and unhindered. How cool is that.

As I sat listening, I was drawn to the idea that no matter the art form, and photography is one such form, we want to uncover the techniques, the knowledge, and the craft, that will best resonate with our vision.
So we search.

And our experiences strike us, (as Deng Ming Dao says, “… like a stick hitting a bell and we learn about ourselves.”), like an experiment.  Education comes from the results of that experiment.

With so many creative photographic possibilities, it’s always an adventure behind the camera. Each experiment holds a chance to hear the clear ring of the bell.

Keep takin’ pictures.  We do.

From the Field Notes: So Near, Yet… So Far

Posted in Great Crested GrebeTagged 7 Comments

No doubt we all have a few photo goals that always seem to be just out there beyond reach.

One for me, and it will never be achieved is to photograph the great white horses of the Camargue, in France

Another would be a week or more with the awesome richly coloured Brahminy Kites, from a high clifftop area.  I might yet make this one.

And yet another is to capture Great Crested Grebe and their ‘reed dance’.  We have at the Jawbone Reserve two pairs at present, and they have had several good nestings so far this season. However the luck of the dance, is it’s just a bit too far from home for me to spend more than an occasional visit, so the chances are somewhat diminished.
Mr An Onymous and I had taken #kneetoo for a visit there one early morning as  treat before she goes to visit Mr Slice-n-Dice next week.

I featured the young from their most recent hatching in the previous post, so we did have a good visit.
Time to go as #kneetoo was feeling the pain.

When on a sudden, from way down the lake one of the pair came swimming down to meet its mate. Both immediately dropped their heads to the water in a greeting and turned toward each other.
Then the head crest and facial mask outstretched, so it was more than a casual greeting they were a bit more than pleased to see each other.

The closer they approached the more the crest and masked displayed and finally they were alongside one another and swayed and turned in unison, like a pair of ballerinas.
I held my breath.
They may being going to dance!!

More head waving, calling and circling.
Then, to my dismay, the crests dropped, the facial mask retracted, they turned about, and slowly swam away together into the reeds.

Opportunity over.   Near.  But… So Far.
Perhaps next time.

If you are interested in the craft of photographing Great Crested Grebes, I normally don’t do video plugs for Youtube, but Mike Lane is an exception. (he is 89 years old for a starter), and he offers some fine techniques that can be applied to working with other water birds.
Enjoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBzBXuvnv9Q