In Search of Warblers

I photographed in the Fontenelle Forest wetlands again on April 18th.  I had heard that a couple of warblers had been spotted.  I didn't see them.  The forest was filled with the sounds of spring birds.  They were a cautious lot that stayed out of camera range.  I didn't take any outstanding photos today but the warblers are coming!

I saw my first Towhee for the year.

I spotted a group of 20 White-throated sparrows.  They stayed hidden behind branches and twigs

The Canadian Geese are preparing to nest.

Steve Jobs Isn't Around to Screw Things Up Any More

I've ended my boycott of Apple Computer.

I purchased my first PC about 30 years ago.  It was an Apple II+.  I coded my first programs on it.  It was a hands on PC- you could open the top and add and remove cards at will.  My first add-on was a 16K card that brought my internal RAM up to a whopping 64K!

I was so happy with my Apple that I upgraded to the Apple IIe and then to the Apple IIGS.  My Apple IIGS was personally signed by Woz himself.  I was one of Apple's most loyal customers.

Apple was not content with success.  They introduced the Macintosh and did away with the cards.  You were expected to buy a PC that you couldn't upgrade.  The straw that broke the camel's back for me was a 10 megabyte hard drive call the Apple Sider.  While it was an unbelievable amount of storage, it had a steep price tag - $695.  For the same amount of money, I could buy a 40 megabyte hard drive that would work in an IBM PC.   The PC had horrible graphics compared to the Apple IIGS or the Macintosh.  At about this time, a guy at Apple named Steve Jobs decided to sacrifice the Apple II line to save the struggling Macintosh.  Enough was enough and I moved to a PC with 2 forty megabyte hard drives. 

I made the correct decision.  PCs improved faster than the Apple and soon the majority of software on the shelves was for the PC.  It was easy to boycott Apple because the most creative developers wrote software for the PC.  If the Apple users were lucky, the software was released later in an Apple version.

Fast forward to 2011.  I'm in a little Italian village and something about me caused a lady to realize that I'm an American.  I try to blend in, but it's difficult when you carry 30 pounds of camera gear and cannot speak a word of Italian.  The lady came over and said, "They just announced that Steve Jobs is dead."

It's 2012 and a revitalized Apple announces the iPad3.  It retains some of the worst Apple features, no user replaceable anything and you can't even plug it into a hard drive.   It reminds me of my Apple II+ which didn't have a hard drive either.  It's moved up a few letters - 64K has been replaced by 64G.  The programs for it are small and often as useless as some of the original Apple software.  It has excellent color Graphics and sound like the Apple IIGS - but better.   You can add and remove apps instead of adding a removing cards.  It's compact to continue the tradition of the Apple IIc.

I purchased the Apple iPad3 last week.  It's a born again Apple II.  It's taken over 20 years for Apple to upgrade the Apple II line.  This is a definite improvement and this time Steve Jobs isn't around to screw things up.  I wonder if I can convince Woz to sign it.

When the Student is Ready, the Teacher will Appear

Many years ago I heard this Zen proverb for the first time - "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear".  There is an order to things that cannot be ignored.  Disaster struck the Fontenelle Forest wetlands last year.  Recovery will be a process that will follow a sequence.  As the wetlands heal, the animal and plant life will become more diverse.

Before the flood, the wetlands were a special place.  The plants and animals lived here in a habitat that was unusual in Nebraska.  Migrating birds were attracted to the area as they traveled north.  Some animals that lived here are not commonly found in any other part of Nebraska.

The animal and plant life was not so diverse because of any special attention that was paid to the area.  The opposite was true, the land wasn't very suitable for farming or human habitation so the humans were willing to leave it alone.  

The terrible flooding of 2011 altered this habitat for months.  Many of the former residents will not find it as welcoming at first.  The plants need to return before the animals that eat them will come back.  Plants that require shade may be pushed out by the grass that now will grow where the trees once stood.  Animals that eat seeds will need to wait until late summer when the plants produce seeds.  The carnivorous animals will need to wait until their prey has returned.  

Recovery will not mean that the area will be exactly the same.  For example, the Sycamores, Cottonwoods and Elms survived but other species like the ash and box elder were wiped out.  Eventually it will be very similar to other wetland areas in the Midwest because certain plants and animals thrive in this type of environment.

I visited the Fontenelle Forest lowlands before Sunrise on Saturday, April 14.  As darkness changed to light, I realized that it was too foggy for long range photos.  There were wood ducks swimming in the fog and I startled a Great Blue Heron when it saw me approach before I saw it.  There was a flock of Goldfinches high up in a tree and I could hear the honks of Canadian Geese. 

The forest staff has been hard at work.  The little bridge across the stream has been completed.  Dead branches have been removed from the trails and the board walk is nearly complete again.  

.The remains of the forest are everywhere.  Fallen trees drifted in the flood waters until they became tangled among the standing trees of the forest.  There are now piles of wood everywhere.  The forest floor started to sprout but it still doesn't provide any cover for wildlife.  

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I hear many more birds than I see.  This song sparrow was one of the few birds I was able to approach closely enough to photograph.

A spider has built a web in stalks that remained from last year.

Dew covers a new growth of grass.

The shoots and leaves of this vine will soon cover their host - a tree that didn't survive the flood.

Flood on the Missouri - August 2011

The Fontenelle Forest wetlands were under up to 12 feet of water for the entire summer of 2011.  The wetlands were officially closed and the access road to them was blocked off. The entire area was off limits to boat traffic and flooded tracks forced the railroad to close.  I managed to hike down from the hills above the wetlands on trails that hadn't been used for months.

The trails to the wetlands were overgrown.  Spider webs crossed the trail every couple of feet.  I stopped to photograph a Red Spotted Purple butterfly on the side of the trail.

When I reached the railroad tracks, I found that the wetlands had become a tranquil lake.  The distant trees looked like the shore but the trees were actually standing in feet of water. 

The two story viewing stand that looked over the lake was now surrounded by it and  nearly level with the water.

The distant view was beautiful but a closer inspection showed death and destruction.  There were deer bones on the tracks.  The deer may have been a victim of the flood.

Several Turkey Vultures were on the tracks waiting for victims of the flood to float by.

A large snapping turtle lay dead in the grass along the side of the tracks.  It had apprently slipped on the grass trying to get to land and the thick grass had prevented it from turning back upright.

A Barred Owl watched me as I hiked back home.

Fontenelle Forest - April has Arrived

I was able to visit the Fontenelle Forest wetlands this April 6th afternoon.  It was a mild but windy day.

The visit started out with a welcome surprise - a Great Egret.  They are occasional visitors in the spring so it was a real treat to see it.  Egrets and herons are extremely difficult to approach in Nebraska.  I put a 1.4 extender on my 800mm lens and still needed to severely crop this photo.

A bluebird has returned.

Because of the flood and the beavers, the forest is receding and the grassy swamp areas are expanding.  Red-winged Blackbirds have been common at this point of previous springs.  I've seen a couple but not the normal numbers.  The reason may be that the flood destroyed the vegetation that they normally use for nests.

Fontenelle Forest - March 28

I visited the Fontenelle Forest wetlands on March 28.  More trees are starting to get leaves.  The forest floor is still very bare, but grass covers the ground in areas outside the trees.  Even with the fresh grass, the deer continue to avoid the area.

 .Robins are searching for worms.

A red tail Hawk patrols overhead.

 This muskrat is the first mammal I've observed back in the wetlands this year.

 Insects are starting to reappear.  I observed a couple of dragonflies starting a family.

How Hard Can It Be To Focus An Autofocus Camera?

The new Canon 5D Mark III is touted as having a much improved auto focus system compared to the 5D Mark II.  My test shots confirmed that it was fast and accurate.  Yesterday, I took it to my sister-in-law's 60th anniversary celebration to make the first of its photos that I intended to keep.  When I downloaded the results I found that I had the largest percentage of out of focus shots in recent memory.  How hard can it be to focus an auto focus camera?

The shots were made in a room that had a wall of windows on one side.  When I pointed the camera in that direction, I had to change settings to keep from having silhouettes.  Other than the windows, the room was fairly dark, so I kept 35mm lens set at f1.4.  A 35mm lens is usually pretty forgiving about focus but not at f1.4.

I've have plenty of plenty of practice focusing cameras.  You place the focusing spot on the sensor over the area you want to focus and press the button.  The camera makes a beep when focus is achieved and then you snap the photo.  In the case of the 5D Mark III, the camera also makes a red flash in the viewfinder at the time of focus.  It should be idiot proof.

Idiot proof solutions only work until you find a better idiot.   I guess that I qualify because I had trouble seeing the focusing spot in the first place.  I guessed and focus was confirmed with a brief flash and a beep.  When I downloaded the photos I found that the point of precise focus was not exactly where I intended it to be.

Today, I tried to analyze why I had difficulty.  

First, its very hard to see where the camera is set to focus.  The viewfinder is optically clear so the center is not visually different.  Second, the center is marked with a series of narrow black dashes.  The dashes show up fine against a white background but are hidden in many other situations.  The focus points are black squares.  The lines in the squares are a bit thicker than the lines around the circle, but they are difficult to see as well.

Second, focus confirmation only lasts a split second.  The black square changes to red when focus is achieved.  The red flash is an interesting touch, but it adds additional confusion when you don't know exactly where the black square was in the first place.  If you can't see where the black square is when the background is black it doesn't help to make the whole screen red when you are looking for a red square.

Third, the focus square changes back to black immediately after focus is achieved.  As a result, it is as hard to see as it was in the first place.

I work with software development for a living so I completely understand how easy it is to find design problems during testing.  If you don't spend enough time testing or don't listen to the testers, you end up with a product that fails in production.  If I find this problem the first time out, you would think that one of the Canon testers would have noticed it as well.  I don't intend for this to be a rant.  If Canon can't improve this problem with a firmware change, I'm sure that I can learn to live with it.  I am disappointed.  How hard can it be to test a camera to verify that an individual who has focused cameras for forty years can also focus this new improved model?