Scarlet Kingsnake on a US Postage Stamp

Scarlet Kingsnake (Lampropeltis elapsoides)

South-eastern United States

U.S. Postage Stamp ~ 2003

Postage stamps are often such wonderful pieces of mini art. I've saved them for years. I don't sort and organize them, and I know nothing about stamp collecting. I always grab the cool animal stamps I see, and a few other other images, too. I use them in collages or I just keep them in a jar. Now I have another use for them . . . on this blog.

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Almost Lost

Paris ~ May 6, 2004

This is among the photos I almost lost when my luggage was scanned. I hadn't learned in 2004 that the scanners are stronger than the ones that scan your carry-on things. When I got home, some of the files (scattered randomly across several disks) looked pretty strange and I couldn't open them. After I calmed down, I searched online for a recovery service, and I found one that turned out to be exellent, although I no longer remember the name. I sent the two or three damaged SD cards off to the media recovery guy, and it was well worth it. I feel very lucky to have the pictures back. Since then, I've remembered to carry the SD cards with me!

I imagine this is one of the most photographed scenes in Paris. Taken from Pont Neuf, it shows the point of the Ile de la Cite, the Pont des Arts, the dome of the Institut de France, and the Eiffel Tower. For me it's unusual among my photos of Paris because the sun was shining.

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Extinct Cat Sculpture at the San Diego Zoo

San Diego, California ~ November 5, 2009

San Diego Zoo

It seems that zoos display more and more animals that aren't alive and aren't in cages. I'm not sure when zoo sculpture began to be popular, but my most recent trips to zoos have turned up quite a lot of it besides the typical oversized animal sculpture outside the zoo's front entrance. I like the trend. This extinct cat, however, is designed more for instruction (I think) than as art. It was in an area that also had a replica of a prehistoric horse's skull embedded in the earth and a demonstration of the La Brea Tar Pits, both seen here on one of my other blogs. I should have looked for a plaque explaining more about the cat, but this photo is all I have.

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Another Brazilian Cardinal

Red-crested or Brazilian Cardinal (Paroaria coronata)
Napili, Maui, Hawaii ~ May 7, 2010

Wikipedia / Common Birds of Honolulu

These are the two "artistic" shots of the cardinal. Yesterday's photo gave a better idea of the coloration of the bird. There are many brightly-colored birds in the world, but the dramatic red against the white and then the incongruous gray body made this bird seem somehow special. Or maybe it was my surprise when the bright red appeared all of a sudden.

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Brilliant Brazilian Cardinal, Maui

Red-crested or Brazilian Cardinal (Paroaria coronata)
Napili, Maui, Hawaii ~ May 8, 2010

Wikipedia / Common Birds of Honolulu

I could hardly believe the flaming red color when this cardinal hopped onto the table at our hotel in Maui. I'd never seen one before on my trips to other Hawaiian islands, but this bird visited us several times each day. It didn't come around often enough that I had much time to take photos, but I did take a few, and I have two more to show you tomorrow. It was a quick little bird, active and somewhat skittish, and so it was harder than the other visiting birds to get into focus.

The Brazilian cardinal was introduced from South America to Oahu about 1930.

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The Amazing Salmon Bench

Langley, Whidbey Island, Washington ~

February 2008

Photo by MB, Small City Scenes

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Trashions

Portland, Oregon ~ May 6, 2010

Portland International Airport

Junk to Funk Recycled Fashions

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Morning Sky

Napili, Maui, Hawaii ~ May 9, 2010

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Chasing Fish

Star-eyed Parrotfish (Calotomus carolinus)

Honolua Bay, Maui ~ May 8, 2010

I mentioned to someone that I would soon be chasing fish with a camera in Hawaii, and she asked, "Do you really chase fish?" Yes, I do. I'm still a rank beginner at photographing fish under water, and this trip was my fourth attempt. I've learned that sometimes if I wait, they'll come to me, but I've only just discovered that. More often, I become excited, see a fish I like (which is practically any fish) and I try to follow it, ending up with a photo of the fish from this angle. This is not too bad, actually. I have the whole fish in the frame.

Due to overcast conditions this past weekend, I have fewer usable pictures from this trip than from earlier trips. The water was very clear in Hololua Bay, but the overcast skies dulled the colors, and neither did we find schools of fish right up close and easy to capture with the camera. This is the first tropical-fish-not-in-an-aquarium photo on this blog. As I'm trying to post something almost every day, I'll be posting the good pix from this trip as well as digging into the archives from earlier adventures. I have some nice turtle pictures, too, although we didn't see any turtles this time.

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Five Years Ago at Crater Lake

Crater Lake, Oregon ~ May 7, 2005

The road goes clear around the edge of Crater Lake, but today the road up the mountain was only open as far as the lodge at the edge of the crater. The message was pretty clear: Use snowshoes or come back in the summer. The air was biting, clear, and beautiful. We took photos until we got too cold.

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