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Tag: "photography"

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Mississippi
By Erich Vieth on November 14th, 2009

Mississippi

One of the readers of this blog, Jim Shank, has offered me the right to publish some of his photos. This is one of his photos, a morning scene of the Mississippi River, about ten miles north of St. Louis, which is also a few miles south of the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi.

chain-of-rocks-jim-shank

This shot was taken from the “Chain of Rocks Bridge,” which has been reconfigured to be only for pedestrians and bicycles–no motor vehicles. This is also a spot where, in January and February, you can spot American Bald eagles.

Speaking of St. Louis, Jim also captured this reflection of the Arch, taken from a nearby collection of rehabbed warehouses (now serving as offices and retail) known as Laclede’s Landing.

lacledes_landing_jim-shanks

Thanks, Jim.

Saint Louis • photography
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Stunning photos of waves
By Erich Vieth on November 01st, 2009

Stunning photos of waves

If you’d like to see some spectacular photos of water, visit this site. The focus is on “tubes.”

And speaking of water, have you ever before seen this 1911 photo of Niagara Falls while it was completely frozen (Photo is from the Niagara Falls Public Library)?

public domain

photography
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By Erich Vieth on October 29th, 2009

Falling water drops as you’ve never before seen them.

If you think you know what happens when a drop of water falls into a pool of water, take a look at these beautiful slow motion videos:

Science • photography
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What if there weren’t any other living great apes?
By Erich Vieth on October 26th, 2009

What if there weren’t any other living great apes?

During my recent visit to the St. Louis Zoo, I wondered how it would have been had humans been the only species of great ape still alive on the planet.

I suspect that there would have been quite a few preachers out there suggesting that the animals represented by the fossils of other species of great apes were not at all similar to humans. I can imagine them preaching with great confidence that there wasn’t any credible evidence that any other living animal was ever remotely similar to humans in physical appearance or facial expressions, regardless of the fossils.

Image by Erich Vieth

They would call it laughable to suggest that any other species of great ape was a tool user, or that any other species of great ape exhibited emotions akin to those displayed by humans. And they would have argued without any doubt that it was silly to suggest that communities of the other great apes would have ever exhibited such things as reconciliation, empathy and proto-morality.

Human animals • nature • photography
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By Erich Vieth on October 26th, 2009

Close up bugs

I’m marveling at Thomas Shahan’s close-up photos of bugs.

[via Daily Dish]

nature • photography
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Orangutan trying on a t-shirt
By Erich Vieth on October 18th, 2009

Orangutan trying on a t-shirt

While visiting the St. Louis Zoo today I photographed a young orangutan trying on a t-shirt. It was a delightful display, though not unexpected, given the long-documented tool-use of orangs:

Many wild orangutans have developed an amazing ability to use tools to help them exploit what food they can find. They’ve been observed using probes like twigs to extract insects and honey from tree orang-1trunks (held in their hands or their teeth), as well as blunt tools to scrape seeds from spiny fruit cases.

In addition to food-gathering tools, wild orangutans have been observed making tools to scratch themselves, fashioning leafy branches into “umbrellas” to shelter themselves from sun and rain, and using branches as swatters to repel bees or wasps that are attacking. Many have also been seen using “leaf gloves” to handle prickly fruits or branches, or creating “seat cushions” to sit comfortably in thorny trees.

Tool use hasn’t been observed in all orangutan populations, and it shows great variations even when itorang-2 exists. This suggests to scientists that tool use is the result of innovation and learning that’s passed on from one generation to the next – one of the hallmarks of culture.

orang-3

[More photos . . . ]

nature
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By Erich Vieth on September 16th, 2009

How to photograph a redwood tree

How do you photograph an entire redwood tree? It’s not easy, but the result can be spectacular, especially when it’s done by National Geographic’s pros.

photography
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Children at Navy Pier
By Erich Vieth on September 11th, 2009

Children at Navy Pier

This is a photo I took a few weeks ago during a trip to Chicago with my daughters. More specifically, this was a trip to Navy Pier’s amusement park. My nine-year-old is one of the kiddos in the image:

img_8794

photography
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Tour de Lafayette bicycle race photos
By Erich Vieth on September 04th, 2009

Tour de Lafayette bicycle race photos

Watching bicycists racing is awesome. The Tour de Lafayette bicycle race was held tonight, about two miles away from my house. My wife and two daughters (9 and 11) rode our lighted bikes through the dark to watch parts two img_93341races. We brought our little consumer grade camera with us (the Canon SD1100SI) to see if we could squeeze a good photo out of fast bicycles racing through the still night. There was lighting at each of the corners of the 1 mile square course, so we parked ourselves under one of those lights. Most of our photos were total blurs, even when we tried panning with the bikes as they blew by us from left to right. I did manage the photo on the right, though.

The winning photo of the night, however, belonged to my 11-year old daughter JuJu, who at first thought she had let the pack get too far in front when she snapped her photo (below). It’s a neat effect: speed, darkness and well-tuned athletes. You’ll have to imagine the cool night air and the gracious encouragement of the spectators.

Image by JuJu Vieth

Click on these photos for larger versions.

Athletics • photography
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Extraordinary ordinary things
By Erich Vieth on August 18th, 2009

Extraordinary ordinary things

I’ve been having fun taking photos with my Canon SD1100SI, as usual. I carry it almost everywhere. I especially enjoy when an ordinary thing looks extraordinary. While driving yesterday, I noticed a beautiful sunset. I handed my camera to my 11-year old daughter JuJu, who was sitting in the back seat, and asked her whether she would be willing to take a photo of the sunset (see below). The shape of the sun is what intrigues me. Now, really. What’s going on? Was the sun starting to take the shape of the Virgin Mary?

Image by JuJu Vieth

I’ve noticed many other extraordinary ordinary things lately. That was actually my purpose for carrying around a small camera–the camera reminds me to actually look at the many amazing ordinary things surrounding me (and you). Things like this bumble bee at work in my neighbor’s yard.

bumblebee

Insects are especially fun and easy to photograph. All you need is a “macro” feature on your digital camera, and most cameras have that feature. I do love the macro feature, because it reveals things you simply can’t see in person. spiderLooking at insects makes me wonder whether they are complicated robots or simple animals. And what are we, for that matter, given that we are confirmed cousins of these insects? To the right is another recent subject: a spider I noticed on a screen on my back porch. To give you an idea, this critter was merely 1/3 of an inch in width.

Here are a few more things I’d like to share. First of all, a backyard snail, a gastropod. It snailis a close cousin of cephalopods (mollusks).

That’s all for now, except for this dragon kite flying high in this exceptionally blue sky over Forest Park in St. Louis, Missouri.

kite

Whimsy • photography
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Fly
By Erich Vieth on July 29th, 2009

Fly

This is another in the series of “backyard bug” photographs several of us are publishing from time to time at DI. I use a consumer grade cameras (Canon’s SD1100SI), and I simply try to have fun finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. This fly photo turned out especially nicely (I think it enjoyed the attention), thanks to a perfectly diffuse batch of sun pouring through a modest layer of clouds outdoors. For this shot, the lens was about 1 inch from the fly.

Here’s two more thoughts. This little animal is on the same phylogenetic tree as human animals. This fly is my cousin. Hello, cousin! It puts this fly in such a different light to remember that. Second, how in the hell can a fly fly? I’m reminded of the conclusion reached in 1934 by French entomologist August Magnan, who calculated [albeit thinking of bees] that their flight was aerodynamically impossible. But they somehow can fly (and eat, poop, compete for mates and–oh my–mate). Utterly fantastic. OK, this is an aside: scientists have found that fruit flies compete by “displacement and incapacitation of a previous male’s sperm.” Highly sophisticated stuff.

Image by Erich Vieth

nature • photography
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Kodachrome
By Lisa Rokusek on July 29th, 2009

Kodachrome

You give us those nice bright colors
You give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day, oh yeah!
I got a Nikon camera I love to take a photograph
So Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome away - Paul Simon

Sometimes we love a moment so much that it hurts to think about it ending, so we cling to it. We long to capture our present and preserve it, keep it from changing – like taking a picture. Sometimes it isn’t love that makes us grasp at a moment, but the fear of what might come next. We crave fixity, when everything around us is in flux.

Maybe I am alone in that need, but I don’t think so.

Regardless of the reason, I think much suffering comes from clinging to what is known, what is familiar, to who we are at any given time. Life feels so much more manageable when we have planned out what will happen and prevented the unexpected, when we are safe.

It doesn’t work that way, of course.

Life is change. Nothing is guaranteed, nothing is static. Stuff happens. We become who we are and who we will be through a process of beginnings and endings. Facing that reality can be frightening, its no wonder we sometimes attempt to capture where we are under glass.

Featured • Meaning of Life • photography
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More undocumented workers in my front yard
By Erich Vieth on June 13th, 2009

More undocumented workers in my front yard

I spotted these guys today. I really admired the way they worked. I had to bring out a reading lamp to the front porch (during the daytime) to get a bright enough field to get a clear photo. I also liked the way the colors turned out here. There were hundreds of ants whisking their cargo from one side of the porch to the other. Nonstop. Unrelenting. Click on the photo for details.

img_7257

nature • photography
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