nature

There are annual cicadas. Then there are 13-year cicadas. And 17-year cicadas. Then there are days like today when 13 and 17 year cicadas emerge from the ground around the same time, creating a fairly odd event in our backyard.

My daughters are helpfully pointing out a few of the thousands of holes in the ground around our yard—sites where cicadas have been emerging for the past two weeks.

Almost every day there's a new batch that starts climbing up the garden, the trees, the house, the barbecue grill, the kids toy box, the toys the kids leave in the yard... pretty much everything.

And then for a day or two you see them shedding their old skin, emerging, walking around a bit drunkenly, then eventually flying up into the trees.

This is one of those weekends where it's hard to put down my camera—there are so many beautiful trees in the neighborhood, and today's probably the last great day for leaves on the trees, as we're having 40+ mph wind gusts all day, knocking off all the weaker leaves!

Nikon D750, 85mm 1.8G @ f/2.8, ISO 100, 1/640

I posted a set of more fall pictures from around my neighborhood on Flickr.

Interestingly, an Apple tree we planted earlier this year decided it was time to start flowering... in the fall? Ah well. Hopefully I'll get some apples in a year or two!

During last week's record-breaking snowstorm in St. Louis, I was not motivated to brave the 10+ inches of snow and -20 (and lower) temperatures to get pictures outside of the comfort of my climate-controlled home. I did, however, snap some pictures of birds eating from the feeders in my backyard, which my wife wisely filled the day before the storm.

For a while, there was only one small bird eating from the sunflower seed feeder (there were a bunch of goldfinches on the thistle feeder):

I'm not quite sure if this is a sparrow or finch, as the colors and contrast were affected quite a bit by the volume of snow falling between my lens and the feeder! This picture is retouched with a ton of extra contrast after the fact.

Whatever the bird, he was quite persistent!

Here in St. Louis, we're going into our second week of 100°+ temperatures, and even the birds are doing all they can to keep from burning alive! Case in point:

Nikon D7000 - 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 1/4000, ISO 800

This robin was sitting splayed out like this for at least five minutes outside my window. Another robin came over and started to do the same thing, but they both flew off after I accidentally hit one of the window blinds and they noticed my hulking 70-200mm lens.

Hummingbirds are also constantly popping back to the feeder my wife has very kindly kept full and fresh for the past couple weeks; I'm amazed these birds aren't just dropping dead in this crazy heat wave!

During today's Mass of Priesthood Ordination at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, I was waiting for the procession to start outside the entrance, and decided to stand in the garden between the Cathedral and the rectory for a few minutes, even though the sun was beating down (93°F in the morning!).

I was rewarded with a wonderful shot of this interesting little bug:

I haven't done a lot of flower/closeup photography in a while, but it seems this picture turned out just right, without any work. It was a nice little moment in a rather hectic day.

I'll be posting tons of pictures from the Ordination on Flickr soon. Working on processing them now (I've already whittled down over 1,000 photos to 450ish).

Video on YouTube of a lightning strike @ 9,000 frames per second - it's amazing how many 'little strikes' and sparks make up one single visible lightning strike!

The video below is a montage of clips from Newport Aquarium in Newport, KY. I finally had some time to compile the clips, and back them with some ethereal music I had sitting on my drive. The video includes some jellyfish (even a tiny one that lights up its back somehow), turtles, coral reef plants, and a few other fish, big and small. All clips were recorded with my Nikon D90 at 720p, with a 50mm f/1.4 lens (it was DARK in there!).