I decided to do a photography experiment. I made my best guesses on focus, ISO, aperture and shutter speed, then spent about 45 minutes trying to anticipate the most active part of the sky to point the camera at. With the camera hand-held and set on continuous burst mode, I fired off 1300 frames, hoping for the best. Really. 1300 frames.

Of those 1300, only about 40 had any hint of light in them at all, and just three were shots that I consider good enough to show. I’m very happy with these results, but thank goodness for the digital age, as this experiment would have cost a fortune in film!

When I opened the garage door this afternoon, I discovered a dragonfly that had been bumping around in there all night. Despite the open door, he kept smacking into the back wall, and was dangerously close to a spider web. Poor, stupid, softhearted goof that I am, I decided I should help him.

So I stood on the top step leading into the house and gently, oh so gently, cupped my hands around the dragonfly.

By now, anyone familiar with me already knows what is about to happen.

With the dragonfly safely in my cupped hands, I turned to take him out to the flowerbed. Naturally, since I was concentrating so much on not hurting the dragonfly, I completely forgot that I was standing two steps off the nice, firm, concrete garage floor.

Yeah.

To my credit, my hands remained carefully cupped around the dragonfly, who came through the incident entirely injury free. Since I couldn’t use my hands to break my fall, I didn’t. Break my fall, that is. Eight hours later the feeling has mostly returned to my toes, and the badly scraped knee has almost stopped throbbing. By my standards, I came through it remarkably well.

I hope the dragonfly appreciates the assist.

This cute little critter was scooting around on my front porch this morning, and was kind enough to pause for a portrait.

I’ve photographed a famous model! How cool is that?

Caprock Canyons State Park, Texas

Clouds reflected in a pond.

Near sunset.

Exposed gypsum layers. Lots of these all over the place. Exciting for a rock hound like me.

Just slightly after sunset, with a longish exposure.

Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma

View of a nearby wind farm from Mt. Scott.

Lichen-spotted rock on Mt. Scott.

Elmer Thomas Lake, seen from Mt. Scott.

These berries were all over the place. I only ate a few. They weren’t as tasty as they look.

Bison by the roadside. He was not impressed with us.

Prairie dog. I think his name was “Eddie”. Yeah. Eddie. That’s a good name.

Red Rock Canyon State Park, Oklahoma

Rappelling grooves cut in the cliff edge.

MJ contemplating the next step.

Roaring River Fish Hatchery in Missouri

Whirlpool draining the source of the spring.

Feeding frenzy in the raceway.

Big trout in the headwaters of the Roaring River.

(Downtown Plainfield IL, July 19, 2009)

I don’t know if the three ladies were just looking at the girl, or if they were glaring at me because I was looking at the girl.

Either way, I bet the commentary would have been pretty entertaining to hear!

This past weekend we had an unusual warm spell. The bees were taking advantage of the nice weather, but couldn’t find any flowers. Luckily for them, I’m fundamentally lazy and still hadn’t taken down my hummingbird feeder. Apparently they were able to reach the sugar water!

Update: the following weekend had similar weather, and I got some much better photos:

 Honeybee #1 — Honeybee #2 — Honeybee #3