Second Quarter Began Yesterday, Holy Week Begins Today. A new camera. Better weather.Relearning new settings

 Holy Week Begins today.  The most important week of the Christian liturgical year. Celebrating the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Well, the first quarter of 2023 was a better than average month for sales, walking more miles, having better weather and experimenting with new camera body and more new lens. Yesterday, I walked from my bus stop to the train station. Along the way, I meet a young fisherman; had Lyft driver see me sitting on my stool in a parking lot and wanted to know if I was his Lyft customer; a couple of ladies on the way to a relatives birthday party were picking through interesting curbside give-a-ways. I photographed the religious diversity on the walk. Toured a middle east bakery, had a sandwich at a small deli and made it to the train station. The bus arrived within a few minutes and I boarded for the ride home. At my stop, I said to my regular driver, I walked from here to the train station, 8,870 steps. He looked at me and said with a radiant smile, "WOW!" 

At home, I uploaded my shots and began to edit. I found a few problems with the new settings and worked on that so the next time I am in that same situation, I will hopefully have made the adjustments for a better shot. In the edit, where I had shot a couple of Canadian Geese sunning, I found the fisherman in the shot as well. Frankly, with the new lens, I had not opened it up fully and had I done so, he would not have been in the shot. However, in wider scope of things, it added to the shot of how comfortable the geese were around humans. That, within itself, amplified the geese and made for a better shot overall. Thank you, Mr. Fisherman. Anytime, you want a copy of that image, I will license it for your personal use. 

One thing that I did notice was that with these new lens, I can get better aerial shots of birds, planes and even cloud formations. I test shot all three and the results were pretty good. One that really blew me away was that I know where the vectors for the approach to DFW runways reside in my area and I saw one that would have been about 20 miles out to the final approach. I shot it and when I could read the tail logo, I actually did a fist pump! However, my days out to Founder's Plaza at DFW are done unless I can find someone going there and will let me hitch a ride. However, I could ride the TEXrail to the north station and shoot from there, I suppose. In fact, I might even try that. On a good weather day, I could get a Lyft (I've had it Uber) from the north station to Founder's plaza I suppose, making the day expenses cheaper. That's the one area that I can't find a solution to since I sold my car and started shooting the wagon wheel from bus and train routes. Not bad for a 4-sided 45 mile arch. That says a lot about the Dallas Transportation System that covers 4 counties. That's another project to work on.

Two Crows in a tree

The commercial plane on the left is a Lufthansa 777,

                                                    A beautiful setting for a corner lot

Tempus vernum in natura

 The Latin for,"Springtime in Nature" shifts the thought, the meaning, an the beauty a little from what we take for granted. But it does move the focal point just a bit farther from center. Just enough, I might add, to stir the emotions a bit more than we do sometimes. So. Having said that: I give you images tailored to these thoughts of Spring as five of our planets align with the moon this week and triggers the fact that we, as a human species, should be more humble than we are, about what we have and who we are and how superior we think and feel as part of the human species. Looking at five different worlds within our own solar system should give us a pause...a great big pause on how we treat our planet, our neighbors and others right here in our world today. 

While the weather is nice----Shoot,shoot and shoot some more.

 Remember the sign that said that the doberman can make it from the front porch to the gate in three seconds. How fast can you run? The cat is a bit cagey, too.

Well, the images today from yesterdays walk on the East Side of White Rock Lake are a bit cagey in that they are mixed in both the Webpage pages and in this blog. It just happened that way as I was editing and listing and selecting images all the while I had to make some changes to the web page as well. Sooooo! there you have it. It's going to be a bit of a treasure hunt, so-to-speak. Hey. Change is good. And to be a bit more honest...I walked over 10,000 steps yesterday and was darn tired when I got home, I didn't even check out the images taken yesterday. Then, today had a few chores to do and I'm tending my plants on the porch. I have seed ordered that should ship today. That will be my big surprise when they come up and bloom. In short, I can't wait! I'll give you a tease about what the seed are: Lucille. Ah Ha. No, I don't think so, but some just might get the hint. It's all in fun. I do not want a total dry webpage and blog. 

    

                            Sailing Clubs are back in business after a roller  coaster Covid year or two.

  Cormorant drying it's wings.

Yes, this is a  Dime Store Fish Bowl goldfish that made it to adulthood. I have seen many, many dad's release their kids pet into the lake.

Carp spawning along the entire eastern banks.

Big carp at that.

Blooms on the Trails at the 43 Bush Presidential Center and Monarch Sighting in Migration

                                                    This early bird really did catch the worm.

                                                        Blue Bonnets are beginning to pop

Black Prairie Buttercups

 

Only One Monarch Sited since last post. Weather has not been favorable for the Central Flyway Migration Paths.

 With heavy rains, cold temperatures and a shift of the Southern Jet Stream, Monarchs have had to change their paths. Making such a trip north requires strong and favorable currents of air which we just have not had since our last post. Furthermore, we have been in the 40s for days and the possibility of a late frost this weekend looms heavy. 

It has allowed only one day of shooting in the past 10 days. We are pleased to announce that we have added another camera to our wagon wheel shoots and in doing so it has increased both the range and the clarity with an additional 20.5 mega pixels and a focal power up to 375 MM. Since the obituary of Olympus shook a lot of us to the core, we will continue to use our old Olympus for certain details as long as we can get parts or find a really good reconditioned body.. After looking at a lot of cameras and lens, packages and individual features, we settled on the Canon OES Rebel T7. Then, it was a full week of tracking down some connecting equipment too, so we could maintain our system as close as we used with the Nikon and the Olympus equipment. Finally, we found what we needed locally and it worked. 

And wouldn't you know it-- the Dallas Arboretum's half million tulips are in full bloom. Now, it's going to be a race to get even a few shots this year before the show ends by time element or by weather. The National Weather Service has confirmed today that there were two tornadoes and three super cells were skipping around the neighborhoods. Spring time in Texas!! There was a lot of damage for strong EF1 spin ups.

So, from the one day that I was able to shoot with the new equipment. That will be the long and the short of it from this post for now.

        I love this shot. For the love of the water screams out to have your board close at home.

Monarch Butterfly Watch Heading North Sighting (and Updates)

 Just a few minutes ago, I saw my first big Monarch Butterfly of the year heading north. From the mountains of Mexico to Dallas seems to be pretty much on time. This was a big one too.

16:50 Hours just saw my second one on the same route as the first reporting.  Migration is a go.
03-18-23 14:00 hours sighting of a large single Monarch on the trails of the Bush Presidential Center on the campus of SMU. 

03-23-23 13:00 hours sighting on a single Monarch flying N to NE at about 20 feet above ground where the winds were at that altitude 15-25 MPH. 

On Saturday (3-18-23) while at the George Bush Presidential (43) Center, a lady from San Antonio was telling me that they get  hords of butterflies when migration starts and then as they move north they fan all throughout the Central Flyway. Which makes a lot of sense because of the winds moving from the North Mexico Mountains seem to shift about San Antonio to a more north by northeast direction. At any rate, the migration is underway this year. Although, I have yet to see the multi-numbers at one time, having seen  only single Monarchs thus far to date. 

03-27-23. Saw yet, another single Monarch. Heading on an East wind. As I have stated before, what concerns me this year is that normally by this time, there should be hand fulls sighted in the same area and at the same time. I just have not seen that at this location thus far. Hopefully, every thing is well with the Spring Migration.

04-01-23. Saw just one single today. I just have not seen the clusters that usually are showing up by this time.

The Third and Final State of the IH635 Upgrades

 The ungrades to IH-635 is well underway. First came the High 5 at the center of the work. Next, came the western run from IH-35E to the High 5 and finally, now, the eastern upgrades are digging and plowing and a whole lots more from the end of the High 5 eastward to IH-20 . Needless-to-say, if you drive Dallas, this section has been a nightmare of delays and accidents and frustration for years. Since I don't drive anymore, I watch from the buses and trains and the pedestrian bridge that crosses at the Blue Line Station at Skillman and LBJ. As the kinks of Skillman are finally undone and a new bridge will lay straight across IH-635, I remember years ago driving that section and getting lost and wondering how I ended up where I did on unfamiliar territory. Of course, now, I kind of hate to see that rope knot laid out straight. Change happens!