Groundhog Day Retrospective

GNC Visitor's Center

I took Lucas and Loudon to "Moms and Kids" at Gorman the other day, Feb. 1.  "Moms and Kids" is wildly popular weekly program offering presented by Merrill Tawse.

Merrill Tawse

This from the GNC website about Merrill:  Merrill is now semi-retired from the park district, but continues to teach the youngest of Gorman Nature Center's visitors.  His incredibly popular "Moms and Kids" programs  are on Wednesday mornings.  Merrill specializes in insects, animals and is a real expert on bats.

Since it was the day before Goundhog's Day, Merrill chose to discuss the groundhog with the little ones.  He displayed some of the resident taxidermy.  This one, he said, might have been donated by a local bar.

Marmota Monax

The story of Groundhog day that Merrill shared was not dissimilar to the one I learned growing up.  If the groundhog sees his shadow there will be six more weeks of winter.  If he does not see his shadow, spring is just around the corner.

He concluded the lesson with a search for groundhog holes near the Visitor's Center.  We saw hole which were too small, a little larger, abandoned and one humongous active one.

Groundhog Hole

It was under some kind of bush and had much dirt which was excavated by the rodent.  It impressed me.  Merrill said that we should observe the hole the next day starting at about 6:45 AM.  Those instructions sounded like a "snipe" hunt to me so I disregarded them.  I did go back to photograph it.  

Groundhog Hole

 For me, Groundhog day has always been a special day.  I was taught about it as a child.  I think that the adults among whom I grew up, having an agricultural background, looked forward to getting out into the fields for spring planting.  I learned that same, "cabin fever" point of view in the winter.  As I recall, Groundhog Day was always discussed with a slight smile.

At one point in my life I made Groundhog Day Cards and mailed them to friends.  As I look back, I wanted to celebrate the fact that spring was only "just around the corner" or "six weeks away."

I think that the whole thing is about winter being half over.  It is a glass half full thing.  We look forward to spring instead of back six weeks to the beginning of winter.  On a year when winter has, so far, been unusually mild,  The cabin fever thing is not so intense but still I look forward to spring.  Now that I know where he lives, I will look for the groundhog, maybe each day!

I wonder what Lucas and Loudon remember about the Groundhog and his/her day.  I will ask them when I see them again.

Thanks Merrill for the lesson.

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Benefit of HDR

GNC Frog Pond

I made this shot using one exposure.  I actually made several, each time looking at the histogram on my camera, to watch for blown highlights.  This is the exposure that I settled on.  There are still some blown highlights but it was a compromise between that and the rest being too dark. 

GNC Frog Pond

Following the above, I shot a series to be processed in HDR software.  I thought that the change in effect was dramatic.  There are still very high end highlights.  The tonality of the rest of the image came up to a level which makes it express more accurately the time of day.

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More Lava

Green Inclusion in Lava

This rock has a green quartz like inclusion that I thought interesting.

Lava Layers

This one tells a story of molten rock cooling and then more molten rock on top.  I think that this probably occurred on the surface of the earth.  At the base I see what appears to me like "standard" lava.  Maybe the quartz like rock in the middle dripped onto the lava and then cooled.  Probably the lava had cooled first.  After all this, the top layer was deposited, ran and cooled.

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Rock Mountain

Rock Mountain

This is another rock from the "tumbler mix" I bought last summer.  It kind of reminded me of the Matterhorn.  I thought that it might look even more like it with some clouds in the background.  The clouds were shot late in the spring of 2004 when we were having dramatic afternoon clouds on many succeeding days.  I could not pass up the chance to photograph them.

Rock Mountain

I thought that I must be careful to choose clouds where the light on the rock and the clouds was similar.  I think that this one has the most consistent light with regard to direction.  I am not so sure about color temperature.

Rock Mountain

I found that flipping the clouds horizontally would help correct the light direction issue.  I think that I should have done so on this one.  I still can if I decide to make a print.

Maybe it needs more shadows on the rock.  Maybe more directional light.  What do you think?

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Thin Ice Series

Thin Ice

This is my newest "Thin Ice" image.  Close examination will reveal leaf like shapes in the ice.  It was a cloudy day.  I used off camera flash near the ground to reveal the texture.

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Steve McKee

Steve McKee

This from the Richland County Park District GNC website:  Steve is our long-time director of the Richland County Park District, and he is just getting warmed up with 30 years experience.  He considers all of the Mohican area his own backyard, and would like to share it with you.  Steve's specialties are botany and birds.

I have known Steve for several years.  I worked with his wife, Debbie in the city schools.  I think that I might have met him through her.  I remember going on nature walks with him and thinking that it would be neat to know a lot about nature.  I am glad for my retirement, a time in which to learn.  Steve is always helpful when I have questions.  Thanks, Steve!

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Volcano Ejecta II

Volcano Ejecta

Another colorful rock.  This one contains the distorted lines.  It is porous.  The porosity and the color says to me lava.  I have some samples of lava and it sure looks like the same thing to me.  

Volcano Ejecta

What a Hodge-podge of rock!  This must have been formed by high pressure and heat.

Light Box Setup

I use a 20 inch cubic light box.  It creates nice soft light on the subject.  I set a custom white balance.  I like this setup because it is comfortable for me to use.  As I do the macro work on the computer, I can zoom in to the individual pixals, 100%, and see lots of detail in the rock.

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