@alameth@sfba.social
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

alameth

@alameth@sfba.social

Dad, husband, computer geek, photographer, genealogist. #BackyardBirds, #BloomScrolling, #Walking, #Trains, #SilentSunday, #StairsSunday, and #Gardening. Pictures are my own. He/Him. Proud member of the Woke Mob.

Avatar: white male in brimmed hat. Banner: man in a hoody taking a picture of a city bridge.

Please understand, my toots are public and hashtagged but I only accept followers I know in real life.

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alameth, to Bloomscrolling
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Random flower spied in the groundcover in a besidewalk (verge).

“Where's Dad?” “Taking a picture of a flower. Again.”

alameth, to Birds
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Hello old friend! So glad to see you back!

(Actually, this is a fledgling, and although chattery as ever still very skittish. The first year I got serious about watching my birds, I panicked when all the chickadees vanished in March and April. Then I realized they were busy making more chickadees.)

alameth, to Bloomscrolling
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The macro lens has forced me to rethink pretty much everything about photography. Which at my age is a Good Thing. I will learn patience, even if it takes me forever.

Today's lesson: what qualifies as “ideal” shooting conditions. I didn't even notice there was a breeze until I set up the camera. And no, the boxes didn't help much. It was tempting to look for a cardboard tube and stand that up around the flower. (Canon 70D, Tamron 105mm macro with a 31mm extension, ⅟400 f/7.1. And literally everything was moving.)

A camera mounted on a tripod and pointing straight down, surrounded by boxes and a wooden shelf in an attempt to block the wind.
A rather out-of-focus picture of a bright yellow flower. The flower was about 1cm across.
A rather out-of-focus picture of a bright yellow flower. The flower was about 1cm across.

Catlynn, to random
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A dawdler, a malingerer, a hanger-on. This sparrow is having a hard time saying goodbye and hitting the road. There are still a few around but the sound of squabbling sparrows has mostly given way to the sound of squabbling finches. Don’t worry buddy, we’ll be here waiting for you in the fall ☺️

alameth,
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@Catlynn The white crowned seem to be all gone here; we still have a few golden crowns, tanking up at the nyjer feeder. They seem to arrive later and leave later. (Pics are from Monday.)

image/jpeg

alameth, to dadjokes
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Of everything that was invented in the 1970's, the dry-erase board is the most remarkable.

alameth, to Bloomscrolling
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A riot of pink and white for a soggy cold

alameth, to Bloomscrolling
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Who can use a small purple flower today? I really need a small purple flower.

(These are growing all over my “lawn,” almost invisible from eye level. They're about 5mm across.)

alameth, to Bloomscrolling
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Another of my wife's plants from the front porch. I always thought thought it looked rather drab until I saw it with my macro lens. 🙂 (This image is about 3cm tall.)

#BloomScrolling #Flowers #FlowerPhotography #MacroPhotography

alameth, to Bloomscrolling
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The squirrels completely ate the middle out of this succulent last summer; all that remained was two rows of the large red-tipped leaves.

This is how it grew back. 😮

alameth,
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Our squirrel-assaulted succulent is blooming for the first time ever, and it's AMAZING. 🙂

(This started out as a cutting my wife picked up off the concrete at her uncle's condo three years ago.)

A close-up view of the tiny yellow daisy-like flowers growing on the flowerhead of a big succulent.
A close-up view of the tiny yellow and green flower buds on the flowerhead of a big succulent. The buds look like spiral-shelled acorns.

alameth, to Bloomscrolling
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The plums are blooming, too, and they were feeling neglected. So here's a branchful of plum blossoms for . 🙂

alameth, to Bloomscrolling
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More cherry blossoms for 🙂

alameth, to Bloomscrolling
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Everything is coming up !

(First effort with a and the macro lens.)

alameth, to Birds
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Geese over San Francisco Bay at sunset.

alameth, to Birds
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I very much doubt I could make friends with any of the critters in my yard. There is too much competition here in the shruburbs, and too many dangers. When I put out a plate of Lyric Fruit & Nut mix in a far corner, the crows approached it with great caution, and always kept a lookout posted atop the utility pole. Never did I see a crow approach the food without a lookout.

It was then I realized I have never seen a crow alone in the yard: they are always in twos or threes.

An American Crow, standing on a sloped roof, cautiously approaches a small plate of feed resting atop a redwood fence.
An American Crow cautiously uses its beak to grab feed from a small plate atop the corner of a redwood fence. A wood utility pole stands next to the fence.

alameth, to Flowers
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Fall in California are all about small, delicate, and very determined. 🙂

Tiny bulbous magenta flowers on top of a dark green stalk.
Small intense red flowers shaped like palmate leaves emerge from stalks on top of a small branching plant with green, red, and yellow leaves.
Dozens of small marigold-like flowers with bright yellow centers and orange petals, growing on a wood stalk.

alameth, to Bloomscrolling
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Amazon Water Lily at the Conservatory Of Flowers San Francisco. Yes indeed, those enormous circular leaves all support the one flower in the center.

(As long as I was already here, I thought I should share some photos of the lily itself.)

A pink and white flower with many petals — an Amazon Water Lily — floats on a pond surrounded by its own gigantic leaves.
A pond covered with the giant circular leaves of an Amazon Water Lily.
A close-up of a single leaf of an Amazon Water Little. The leaf is over 2 feet across, a perfect circle with a 3" lip at the edge. The lip is covered with nasty looking spikes to ward of predators.

alameth, to Bloomscrolling
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Amazon Water Lily pond at the Conservatory Of Flowers San Francisco.

alameth, to Bloomscrolling
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I think this guy is just being next-level lazy: doesn't have to move a bit to be always facing the sun.

alameth, to random
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alameth, to Bloomscrolling
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My largest tallest sunflower still hasn't bloomed, but I did find a delightful surprise in its still tightly closed head this morning.

alameth, to PetBirds
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I've been referring to the neighbor's hens as “the girls”; maybe that would be more appropriate for the small flock of young house finches that have descended in my back yard?

(Yeah, this is my lawn. California. Brown is the New Green and all that.)

A female juvenile house finch forages in a patch of weeds.
A female juvenile house finch forages in a patch of weeds.

alameth, to Trains
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BART, like Caltrain, kinda still looks like a refugee from the 1960's... because it is. But some of the BART stations are strikingly beautiful, especially at night. This is Colma Station, taken from its own parking garage.

alameth, to hiking
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Prickly Pear Cactus, upriver from Parker, Arizona.

A lot of desert mountain was blasted to build “the bypass,” a highway to route impatient drivers around the congested area paralleling the Colorado River. There are many wide places you can safely park a car, scale the man-made cliff face, and take a short walk to find vast desert vistas that most of the people below don't know exist.

alameth, to photography
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Using my Descanso Gardens set from September to shake down my new photo editing workflow.

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