Journal archives for April 2015

April 23, 2015

Palo Duro Canyon and other adventures...

Whew -- been busy lately, so I haven't had as much time to spend on iNat as I would like. :) My wife and I just got back from exploring the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, Caprock Canyon State Park, Buffalo Lake NWR, and Palo Duro Canyon State Park... Oh, and we visited lots of quilt stores, so that gave me time to photograph some weeds and bugs in the ditches.

Stay tuned for several new observations from me!

Posted on April 23, 2015 02:30 PM by sambiology sambiology | 3 comments | Leave a comment

April 24, 2015

Do I love my hands or something?!?

I take lots of pictures of my hands. Sometimes, I am holding stuff too. :)

I tend to use my hands for scale in my pictures. These destroy the artistic side of most of my photographs, but I include them anyways... Let me tell you why!

First of all, I use my hands to focus! My camera is a point-and-shoot, and so many times, especially when I am trying to take a picture of a small flower, my camera intentionally avoids focus on what I want it to focus on... It can be quite frustrating... So, my hands give it a bigger target. This is my reason of "practicality."

I like to include a little bit of a scale with my pictures too -- I very rarely go out into the field without my hands. ;) Sure, they aren't as exact as a ruler, but anyone could tell an inch from a foot when you see my hands. If you are curious, here are my measurements: from the top of my wrist (bottom of my palm) to the top of my middle finger, it is 19.5 cm. My pointer finger is 79 mm, my pointer finger nail is 12 mm, and the width of my pointer finger is 17 mm. :)

Anyways, this is why I include my hands in lots of my pictures. Scale and focus! :)

Posted on April 24, 2015 01:50 AM by sambiology sambiology | 6 comments | Leave a comment

April 27, 2015

How to deal with a dangerous park/neighborhood when out iNatting!

Had the day off today from work, so of course, I'm outside at a park. I went to Lake Como Park in Fort Worth, and I found out it's in a pretty rough neighborhood... I interacted with a few guys... Several homeless folks were out smoking and drinking this morning. A few folks came up to me and talked with me a bit. They were pretty scary looking but were fairly nice. They told me about an alligator they spotted and that I should come back after dark to see it. Riiiiiight. I believe them about the gator, but there's no way I'm coming back to this place when the sun goes down!

So, I'm curious -- have you ever gone to a park or place that's in a rough neighborhood or area? How did you deal with it? Did it turn out not to be an issue? What have your experiences been in dangerous areas?

Posted on April 27, 2015 05:20 PM by sambiology sambiology | 8 observations | 4 comments | Leave a comment