The moon was full at 3:30 am on February 27, 2021. I got the full moon at dawn on February 27, 2021, just above the horizon, falling behind some trees.
A foot
Tag: Cats
Sunset for Leo
Leo was a cat everyone would like to have had, and he was a cat for everyone. Sadly, Leo passed on today at the age of 14. The last couple of years he had to deal with a hyperthyroid, and Tristan did a very good job of diagnosing his condition and treating him with drugs prescribed by our vet. But like our Najar and Lola before him, Leo finally succumbed to his chronic condition. But his first 12 years were full of fun and vitality. Not only was Leo a super-loving kitty, he always had something to say about most everything. You can check out this post from 2012 called Leo Sez: https://wp.me/p1yQyy-102. We all loved Leo so much. We miss him greatly.
Leo puzzled over why on earth Tristan would take a shower and get all wet. Doesn’t she know to go outside, roll in the dirt and then lick herself clean?
Leo tested out the security of the door into the common area between the bedrooms.
Leo the lover boy.
Leo would listen…
Give you cute eyes…
…and then tell you what he thought about it.
Leo loved to play. Even when he was not feeling well he would not turn down a good round of play.
A Frayed Knot
The state of the cats’ scratching post reminded me of a very old joke I heard last century:
A string went into a bar and ordered a beer. The bartender told the string that he didn’t serve strings. The string left the bar, tied itself in a knot, fluffed up its top, went back in the bar, and ordered a beer. The bartender looked sideways at the string and asked: “Aren’t you that string that was in here a few minutes ago?” The string answered: “No sir! I’m a frayed knot!”
The cats have enjoyed their scratching post so much they have frayed the knots.
A frayed knot
Loki
Gwendolyn
Loki
Loki and Gwendolyn
Loki
71.4% Waxing Gibbous
Feline Follies
Loki shapeshifting
Marble
Glenda
Silly Silver
Glenda reaching out to touch the phone
Sasha on a cold day enjoying warm air blowing on her.
Gwendolyn being a bit intense.
Spunk chilling on a warm countertop.
Lokii: “Leave me be stupid paparazzo!”
A Turn To Gray
Clouds blowing over the Sandias before sunset.
The sun’s last attempt to shine through the clouds before slipping below the horizon.
Mama Owl and Daddy Owl looking gray back to their favorite spot.
“I’m Silver, not Gray” You’re really quite gray Silver.
Suffering Succotash, Birds!
“Suffering succotash! Do I see birds?”
18% waning crescent moon February 7, 2021
Of Cloudscapes and Cats
The clouds over the Sandias this morning made beautiful cloudscapes, some with rainbow colors made by the rising sun reflecting off ice crystals in the thin clouds. Other clouds cast shadows as the sun rose above them.
Sasha
Silver
Loki
Spunk
Gwendolyn
Intermission
Marble
Ice crystals reflecting colors in the clouds.
Glenda
Moon in the western sky before sunrise.
Moon behind Mama Owl before sunrise
Mama Owl at sundown
Daddy Owl watching the birds flit around below him at sunset.
Mama Owl hopped over to another branch so I could get a shot of her from the levee after sunset.
Gwendolyn
Gwendolyn is more adventurous than Glenda, but not into modeling like Glenda. She doesn’t hold still for long unless she is napping in a cubby or lounging in some other difficult to photograph location. She is always playful, but when I get the camera out she skedaddles under the bed, behind the couch, under a chair, wherever she is out of camera range. This afternoon I got her to come out from under the bed and give me some cute poses. Thank you, Gwendolyn.
Intermission: The wild sky this afternoon.
Moon in the rough. January 23, 2021.
Spunk Approves
Murder over the bosque
Lavinia asked if I had used a telescope to photograph the moon last night. Lavinia never lets me down on being observant and asking questions when something seems different like a whole lot of detail in the moon photo. As I answered her, I did not use a telescope, I used a 400mm lens that is equivalent to a 640mm lens on my Canon 7D Mark II body. I have been considering getting a long telephoto lens for quite some time.
I was originally looking at the Canon 100-400mm lens, which is one of Canon’s best telephoto zoom lenses for mere mortal photographers, such as myself. However, the 100-400mm lens is ƒ/4.5 to ƒ/5.6, which is a little slow for as much low light photography as I do. I really needed a faster telephoto lens. I seriously considered both the Canon 400mm ƒ/2.8 and the Canon 300mm ƒ/2.8 lenses. The problem with those lenses for me is their weight. The Canon 400mm ƒ/2.8 weighs in at 12 pounds, and the 300mm ƒ/2.8 weighs 6 pounds, 1/2 the weight of the 400mm ƒ/2.8, but still a heavy lens.
I ended up compromising on speed for lighter weight and bought a 400mm ƒ/4.0 DO lens with Refractive Optics, which enables Canon to put a 400mm ƒ/4.0 lens in the same body as the 300mm ƒ/2.8 lens, shaving 2 pounds off the weight in the process. At 4 pounds, the 400mm ƒ/4.0 DO is easy to handle, and fast enough to get decent images hand held in low light. In the photos of the owls below, we could only see outlines of the owls with our bare eyes like in the first photo, but not nearly as close up. The new lens is able to focus on the owls in relative darkness, through the branches and get an amazing amount of detail.
Spunk loves my new lens
Preening
Spunk’s a lens hugger
Intermission photographed using a Fuji XE-1 with 27mm ƒ/2.8 lens
“Who are you calling a ‘lens hugger?’ Stupid Paparazzo!”
RAW image of the owls before I cropped the image and adjusted the exposure, contrast, color balance, etc.
“Oh my! The paparazzo found us again.”
Mirroring
The streak photographed using a Canon 5Ds with a Canon 70-200mm ƒ/4.0 lens
A little over half a moon on 01/21/21
Through The Glass Looking
Spunk
Gwendolyn and Glenda
Loki playing
Silver
Glenda
Sasha
Loki
Marble
Glenda
Glenda
