[Gimbal8]

It would probably be nice if there was some organization to all these but that would be too much of a pain. So here are a bunch of random things from Florida. I'll be adding to this thread from time to time. Lots to show. I also have some Viginia pics I'll probably show later on.

Just to give you an idea of where I'm located, here is a view of my house from space.

And here is my house.
I'm kidding of course. I don't know what this used to be but the overgrowth was just cool.

My brother's pride and joy.

My boss's pride and joy.

I used to have a car but I got rid of it since I only live about a block away from work. I ride my bike or walk.

What would a slide show of Florida be without at least one pic of an alligator?

Check out this little fella. Actually 'little' would not be a good word to describe this golden-silk Spider. Forgot to rotate the image on this one. They always hang facing downwards.

[Update}: "Our records indicate that you're using more than the allotted amount
of data transfer we provide for a free web site, which is 3 gigabytes
per month (measured on an hourly basis). That means that during the
past few days we had to temporarily turn your site off to keep the
bandwidth within this limit."

I hit a 3 gig limit? I only posted this this morning. Jeesh. I think they found I was hotlinking .txt images and shut me down.
I'll move the other images over to somewhere else when I get home.

[ April 05, 2002: Message edited by: Gimbal8 ]

[Gimbal8]

I don't usually stop to smell the roses because I think they are stinky, but these flowers in a pond where cool.

They wouldn't stop the car for me to take picture of this cool-as-hell junked cropduster (because I'm always saying to stop the car so they just ignore me now). So here is a drive-by-shooting of it.

There are plenty of exotics here is Florida that were probably once pets and let loose or blown in from hurricanes. I suspect that is why this Basilisk is here.

Mostly I have pictures of birds.

Lots of them...

I won't dare show them all.

There just isn't enough free hosting to fit it all.

But I'll try and pick some decent ones. All the pics here (except for the cars and satellite photo) where from a birding trip into Miami and the everglades last Saturday. Stay tuned for more random crap.

[ April 05, 2002: Message edited by: Gimbal8 ]

[edraket]

Cool man! Thanks man. Good stuff.
I like that old house. I wish we would have stuff like that in holland. But everything here has to have a purpose. If it's looks only remtely old they tear it down and build a big shiny building in it's place.

[Lunatique]

I see red X's.

[Rat]

Images are all broken.

[Gimbal8]

*sigh*
I'll try moving the images to some other source. I'm kinda swamped at work right now so I won't get to it for a few hours. Sorry about that.

[[Shizo]]

I can only see the Cobra one, but i cant ait to see the rest! WEEE

[Gimbal8]

There. Should be fixed now. Sorry about that.

[[Shizo]]

WEEE! Why are you all obcessed with old-ass racing cars? hehe Bike rulez them all!
Personally liked all pics except nature.. ughhh damn birds, they always poop oon your head when you least expect it.

[Gimbal8]

Actually I don't care for cars much. But I know some people like them so I figured I would show them. And if you don't like nature photos then you probably won't like most of my pics.

And if you don't like birds...well...um...You like lizards?

...Insects?

Or are you looking for more man made stuff...like my desk?

And you can see my chair-theiving cat at work there. Can't get up for a second without my cat taking over.

[Rat]

What, no rats?

Your desk is about half as bad as my room and infinite times better than my desk. Nice books.

[Gimbal8]

Rat: I know, I have a messy desk. I share it with my wife so it is both our clutter combined. And OMG do I ever need more book shelves. You can see one off to the side of the desk by the window packed with stuff, and most of the science/reference books in the hutch. But there are 3 other bookshelves in the house packed with even more stuff. I am going to so hate these books when it is time to move.
I have rat pics somewhere but it wasn't taken with the digicam so it is filed somewhere in a photo album I think. Lord knows where those might be at now. Actually, if you look on the bookshelf there at the top there is a black and white picture of my wife with a rat on her shoulder...not that you'd be able to tell that from this photo.

[Gimbal8]

Rats are cute and furry creatures that thrive on the fringes of civilization. Just like Raccoons.

We are all faced with choices in our lives. Some choices are easier to make then others.

Speaking of choices, looks like this tree had trouble making up its mind.

Shizo, I think maybe we can compromise: I like birds and you don't...so how about this pic?

I have an idea for a book called "Brother Squirrel". What do you think?

Anyone ever seen a white squirrel that isn't albino?

[ April 06, 2002: Message edited by: Gimbal8 ]

[Lunatique]

I can see!! Woo!!!

NICE pics!

Man, that house looks haunted. . ..

That junked plane is friggin' awesome!

That's your office at work? Damn cozy. what do you do at work?

Nice squirrel shots! Your camera takes nice pics!

[ April 05, 2002: Message edited by: Lunatique ]

[Rat]

Hey, it's Coaster! I sort of call him Squirrel sometimes. Don't ask. Strange story.

I must now go back to watching people give their lives for other people on TV.
Goodnight.

[Freddio]

These photos are great!!!

[Unsound]

Wow, very nice work

[ edit: I really like the grasshopper photo... do you have any similar pictures? ]

[ April 06, 2002: Message edited by: Unsound ]

[edraket]

Hey.
Can you explain more about how and where you took the animal pictures? Do you use special equipment like lenses or er..intoxicants?

[Daijoobu]

Wow Gimbal! These are really nice, you're an excellent photographer. The animal pictures are great! more!!!

[Dr. Bang]

Jesus Christ, these pic rule!! Thanks Gimbal8 for these pics!!!!

[Gimbal8]

Lunatique: If I could only have stopped to take some good photos of that plane. All the rust, grime and peeling paint...it was just a cool thing to look at. But no, that is not my office at work, that is my desk at home. I'll show my work place later I think.

Rat: Strange story? I'd imagine most stories about squirrel are. I wonder if I can find my article on crack cocaine squirrels...

Freddio: Thanks

Unsound: I probably have similar pics somewhere. I'll see what I can find after I get done with work today.

edraket: No special equipment really. Intoxicants? I have a glass of wine of rare occasions with a meal. That's about it.

I have an Olympus Camedia 2100 Ultra Zoom which has a 10x optical zoom lens (and image stabilization). The only other piece of equipment I have for it that I use mostly is a 1.7x tele-converter made by Olympus (and impossible to find these days) called the B-300. I also have a tripod I got recently but I haven't used it much. Even at full zoom with the tele-converter on (which is about the same as about 650mm) I can still hand-hold shots and get decent photos. But I have use it in low light conditions to try and make sure the pics doesn't blur using low shutter speeds.

As far as where, most of these are from various parks or wildlife preserves. The first two sets of pics where from my trip to Miami where I took the pics of the flowers in the pond and peacock in a retirement community. One of the people I go on birding trips with has a grandmother who lives there and we took her electric golf cart around the community on a little 5mph joy ride. We left there and headed west to a park in the everglades which is a huge, vast wetland area covering much of the southern end of Florida. That's where I took shots of the gator and Cormorants, who where in breeding plumage and during this time their eyes turn this cool looking turquoise color. Also the snake bird eating the fish was from the same park. The Golden silk spider and the basilisk was found on a trail leading to the abandoned and overgrown building. Even though there was a sign that read "Service Road Only" we walked all the way down to find some Hill Mynas (birds) that were reported in the area by other birders. We did find them eventually but none of the pictures were that great since there where in a really tall tree against the sun.

In the third set of pics: The lizard picture was taken from my back yard. Using just my camera and a big magnifying glass that I took of a broken arm lamp (You know the kind with the armature and springs and it has this magnifying lens attached to the end of the lamp?) Anyway, I put I held it in front of my camera at full zoom in macro mode and was probably a foot or so away from the lizard to take this shot. My depth of field at full zoom with the magnifying glass in front of the lens was probably 1mm or something very small.

The southeastern lubber grasshopper was in my driveway. I had the tele-converter on at full zoom in macro mode and was about 6 feet away. Just like a portrait shot to blur the background and reduce depth-of-field, lots of focal-length and large aperture opening. The bright part in the background are the sun hitting the street and grass from the other yard across the street (see pic of my brothers car, that's my driveway).

Any other questions feel free to ask.

Daijoobu: Thanks, but I have to credit my camera for the photos and nature for having such cool stuff to shoot.

Dr. Bang: They can't be all that, but thanks for saying so.

I'll see what else I can dig up and post more later today maybe.

[Gimbal8]

Oh, forgot to comment on the forth set of pics:

The raccoon was walking along the trail at Spanish River Park in Boca Raton Florida (a very good birding spot). He just kept walking closer to us as we were kneeling on the side of the trail trying to spot a bird someone saw fly into a tree. He was very curious what we were up to. But I fear people have been feeding him scraps to he might be used to human contact for food. That is a bad thing to do. But he sure was cute.

That sign was from a water treatment plant. Water treatment plants are usually another good source for birding because they sometimes have the big, dug out water retention ponds that they transfer water to and from for whatever reason. You have to go and check in at the office otherwise they will call the cops on you if they catch you out there trespassing. It is very hard to get into water treatment facilities now to check out the birds because of suspected terrorist activites or somthing. Anyway, the sign cracked my up.

The tree was somewhere in key west (little chain of island that run off the southern tip of Florida) that my wife spotted.

The flattened cardinal was found on the side of the road as we were going up a bridge to look into the retention ponds of a nearby water treatment plant we couldn't get into.

The squirrel was in Spanish River park (same day of the Racoon pic). The other squirrel was in someone's back yard up in central Florida. Years ago a canal was dug in the area there and it isolated some squirrels from a larger breeding population on the other side. The white fur and dark stripe are products of inbreeding by the isolated squirrel population there.

[Edit: Just realized after reading Jezebel's post that out of the two different spellings of raccoon I used without thinking, both were wrong. I'm such a numbskull.]

[ April 06, 2002: Message edited by: Gimbal8 ]

[Jezebel]

Awesome photos!! I love the squirrel, raccoon, grasshopper, and water lillies. All lovely.

=)

[[Shizo]]

I didnt say i dont like your photos, i said i dont like birds! ARR.
But photos are pro-quality. I can't imagine how you could even get so close to those things without them running away (unles syou have some x100 zoom).
More more more!

[antx]

Wow. After seeing these photos I spent hours and hours on the net to look for a digi cam. But the one you have there is not exactly the cheapest one and cams with 10x zoom are rare.
I really like the grasshopper. And the Squirll behind the tree is so cute .
What kind of skull is this upon your shelf?

[Gimbal8]

Jezebel: Thanks. Too bad I just totally ruined my photos recently. I'll explain at the bottom.

Shizo: I know you said you just don't like birds. But I do like birds, and that is why I figured a good compromise would be a dead bird.
Getting close to them is just a matter of reading their feelings and knowing when to move, how slow to move, or sometimes just where to wait. Other animals know instinctively how to read you body language, and you can also read theirs. For example, approaching an animal straight on will make them uneasy, but if you approach at angles to them they feel a little safer as if maybe you are just going to pass by.

antx: Well my digicam is a bit cheaper now then it was when I bought it. But it sure was worth it. The skull on top of my desk is a saber-tooth tiger replica.

---
Now the story of how I ruined my pics.

I've only had my camera for a little over a year or so. Never had a camera before so I didn't know how much I'd get into photography. Turns out I really enjoy it. But only taking pictures for about a year I feel I'm just a silly amateur and never had any real need to archive my stuff on a regular basis.

The software that came with the camera has a strange problem. When viewing the pics as thumbnails and you drag on drop a picture to some other folder, the picture remains there in the directory you dragged it from. At least it appeared that way since the thumbnail was still there and you can click on it and everything. But in reality the file was moved.

I dragged the pics from the thumbnail viewer to a temp directory where I converted the images to 640x480 (from the 1600x12000 originals) so I could post them. Since the pics still appeared in the thumbnail program, I assumed the originals where still there and I was just modifying copies in another directory. To my horror, I was wrong. When I restarted the thumbnail viewer I noticed my favorite images where not there anymore. It seems quite a few of my favorite pics are now forever at 640x480.



I thought I'd have to be a professional photographer before I ever had pics I really cared to keep. Now that I've screwed those photos up I suddenly realise how important they were to me. Lesson learned, thou shalt make backups...even at amateur level.

[edraket]

That sucks man. I'm sorry.
I think everyone has something like that happen to him/her in one way or the other.

[[Shizo]]

AND IT DID TO ME!
Canon people, you MUST use Downloader to download your pics, it's super-fast.

[edraket]

It's like me working on a 3d character for a week saving it in only one file the whole time....File corrupt..work for nothing..

Or like my hd crashing at work a few weeks ago and having to tell the management I hadn't backed up for more than a week.
argh...

[Gimbal8]

I guess the good thing is the pics aren't totally gone, they are just in a useless resolution for anything but posting on the internet.

For some reason that Monty Python song from the Life of Brian just popped in my head: "Always look on the bright side fo life [whistle, whistle, whistle}"

I have some pics of the beach nearby, the intracoastal waterway, and the lighthouse. I'm up against a deadline for some concept art so I need to get that done first.

Then, as a matter of policy, I will only manipulate photos from a backup CD. And while I'm at it I might as well back up my art directory.