Alison Meier's photos with the keyword: july

I looked out at that same tree this morning and it was swarming with wax-eyes. These fragile wee birds disappear if great, gallumping sparrows come near. The wax-eyes were my original "hope for" yesterday, but they quickly flew away when the sparrows arrived. Wax-eyes are hard to catch - they move very quickly and "flitter" their wings often when feeding, like babies. There was a bit more light today, and less noise than the sparrow image yesterday. This wee one stayed on the apple long enough for me to catch her. Notice that the apple is much more hollowed out than yesterday and there is some light shining through the skin. Creation date: 2/07/2010 12:11 Camera: NIKON D80 Focal length: 230*mm*(equiv. 345*mm) Aperture: F5.6 Exposure time: 1/400" ISO speed rating: 400/27° Program: Aperture priority Metering Mode: Center-weighted average White Balance: Manual Flash: Flash did not fire

4 images modified with SNS-HDR lite, then minor levels, curves, high pass sharpen, convert to black & white.

An arcane fact of science fiction is that Darth Vader has a little brother named Earth. Earth Vader is a pacifist, much happier tending his cabbages and onions than he is conquering distant galaxies. He is seen here on a misty morning somewhere near Martinborough, New Zealand as he sets off to tend his vegetable garden along with his faithful companion, Clogs.