Tag: photography

Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Backyard Bunny, Too

This past week I made a discovery while checking decade-old back-up DVDs: Not all the 2005-06 wild bunny photos shot in my Kensington, Md. backyard are lost. It’s an incomplete set, and the best images are still missing; presumed gone forever.

On the afternoon of June 10, 2005, I stepped out onto the deck overlooking the backyard and spotted a young rabbit in the grass. I fetched the Nikon D70 mounted with Nikkor 70mm-300mm lens and started shooting. I worked my way down the stairs onto the grass and slowly approached the rabbit, closing quite the distance before it cautiously moved away. 

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Here Kitty, Kitty

I spotted three cats on North Ave. here in University Heights on the same block in two different yards. None was friendly, and one hissed when I approached but held its ground. The featured image is the twain that I disturbed. As I walked down the sidewalk, the one in the foreground caught my eye. I captured a couple shots and moved in closer for better composition. That startled the other out of the bushes to the left; I hadn’t seen it.

Last night, I snapped some street shots at dusk, and used the Fuji X-T1’s dedicated light Sensitivity dial to switch down from auto-ISO 6400 to 200. It’s a dual dial: Sensitivity top and Drive below. In near darkness, while moving one I nudged the other—from single-frame (S) to low-speed burst (CL). That setting error let me capture a sequence as the other cat exited. Lucky. 

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Bubba’s Gallery

Ten weeks ago I revisted the sad story of Bubba—baby bunny who died less than 24 hours in our care. He came to us on June 3, 2006, quite unexpectedly. A cat brought the furball home to his owners, who sought someone to take over responsibility. My daughter, wife, and I did but too briefly. Infection from bite or scratch doomed the little duffer. For years, I had but the two photos of Bubba that accompanied the original post. Today I discovered the others.

Earlier this month, I bought a LaCie Rugged Mini 4TB external drive. While I often store valuables in the cloud, I have nearly 20 years of photos and other files spread out on smaller discs and dozens of DVDs going back to 2000; all will consolidate on the large-capacity drive. I spent today searching the old discs, where I found some gems, including the Bubba NEF RAW originals shot with the Nikon D200. 

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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The Lawn Mower

A few blocks down the street from the “Butterfly House” is a University Heights resident whose origins I know nothing about. But she is a fixture for anyone riding, running, or walking by. The tortoise makes old-timer Fess the cat look like a kitten. A dino-era relic doesn’t get this big without a whole lot of years behind it.

Unsurprisingly, the big fellow follows the sun throughout the day and keeps the owner’s lawn nice and trim. I am surprised by the creature’s speed—not stereotypically slow but surprisingly spry. Hehe, which is why I shot a short video of tortoise eating grass in slow motion. It makes me laugh. And you?

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Come Out, Come Out

If you believe the axiom, and I do, the best writers are avid readers—that they absorb something about sentence structure and storytelling through a kind of mental osmosis. By compiling Flickr a Day last year, I learned something similar applies to photography. My sense of composition is changed, such that I can barely look at my own work now.

My Flickr photos don’t tend to get high views, with the highest typically topping out at a few hundred. Among the top 10, all are shots of the Fujifilm X100T, a magnificent street-shooter that I regret selling after buying the Fuji X-T1 in July 2015. This unremarkable front-view, taken using iPhone 6, is my top-viewed pic—28,000-plus. 

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Flickr a Day 365: ‘Cat Scratch Fever’

My favorite photo of the 365 is Day 38 “Master of Venice” by Alexis Bross. Cats are such an Internet stereotype how could I not conclude the series with another—conceding that Flickr a Day has too many. Additional Days: 51, 143, 201, 220, and 302.

In choosing the feline that would end the series, I favored habitat shots and ignored facial closeups or handsome subjects. None of the finalists is ugly, per se, but only the last two do I find to be attractive. I never imagined seeing more cat photos than I could possible tolerate, until selecting our winner.

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