Galleries

Pixel 2 vs. PowerShot SX710HS

Pixel 2 vs. PowerShot SX710HS.

I’m only a hobbyist photographer. I don’t have a really nice camera, just a point & shoot that I picked mainly for its optical zoom. And I’m still astonished that I can often get better pictures out of the tiny lens on my phone.

This is from #WonderCon over the weekend, my wife’s #cosplay as Whitney Frost from Agent Carter. The phone picture is so much sharper, and the Pixel 2 finally gets the color balance better too.

Album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kelsonv/albums/72157694829944955

On Photog.Social

Birds of Madrona Marsh

Birds of Madrona Marsh in Torrance, California.

It’s a seasonal marsh, where the low-lying parts stay wet most of the year, but the rest dries out ever summer and floods during winter rains.

I spotted ducks, doves, geese, these black birds with bright red wings that sound like a smoke detector battery alert, this white bird that looked like it was fishing, plus dragonflies, a huge bee, and I heard (but didn’t see) frogs.

Full album (21 pics) on Flickr

#birds #photos

On Photog.Social

Actually the croaking frogs might have been quacking ducks in the distance, now that I think about it.

On Photog.Social

I think the white bird might be a snowy egret, and that red-winged black bird turns out to be… a red-winged blackbird. 😄

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_egret
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-winged_blackbird

On Photog.Social

Total Solar Eclipse 2017 (Gallery)

Expanded on K2R

There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland cosplay…

There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland cosplay out there, so here’s a feature post on my wife’s Alice costume from Comic-Con International.

She made the necklace and the vest, and beaded together two narrow belts to get the right look. Blouse, skirt, tights, belts and boots (plus material and beads) were obtained through shopping trips and online searches. Katie’s aunt helped adapt the pattern for the vest and do fitting. I helped with finding the pattern, sewing, transportation, and keeping our three-year-old son from melting down on those many shopping trips looking for just the right pieces.

Check out our SDCC 2014 photos to see pictures of her with other Wonderland characters, plus our usual collection of sightseeing and cosplay photos.

Yellow clouds near sunset.

Yellow clouds near sunset. It looked like the thicker clouds were actually raining – in fact, we could see a fragment of rainbow off to the right of the frame – but there was no sign of the rain actually reaching the ground anywhere.

They came out a bit too orange, now that I look at them again. But the golden hour sunlight reflected off of the cloud cover made for eerie lightning. It reminded me a bit of being in the smoke plume of a wildfire, except for the fact that the air was clear. (Clearer than usual, actually, with the Santa Anas blowing.)

On Facebook

The Food Allergy Walk was a success.

The Food Allergy Walk was a success. Our team raised over $1,300, and the event overall raised about $45,000 (and that’s only the online donations.) Plus we got to hang out with family.

At Marina Green Park in Long Beach

On Facebook

At least 100 squirrels

I must have seen at least 100 squirrels just walking down one block in Irvine. That’s the EDGE of the lot. There must be even more inside.

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Observations uploaded to iNaturalist in 2019:

There were a *lot* of squirrels in the hedge and lawn between an empty lot and the street. I posted on Twitter at the time that I’d seen at least 100 along the edge of the block.