Solar Eclipse

There was a total solar eclipse in Ohio April 8, 2024. I don't live in the totality zone, but I didn't have to travel far to get into it. I used my old camera in case I made a mistake and blew out the sensor. Doing so meant lower resolution, but I had no experience and didn't want to take a chance of ruining the newer camera. I also used an older 200mm zoom lens instead of a 300mm zoom, so the sun is smaller.

I'm surprised by and pleased with the results. Here's the best shot, taken just as totality was ending:

f/6.7  1/1000s  ISO-800  -2.0EV

That was also the last shot, and I'd figured-out that I should reduce the exposure. At home, I reduced the exposure by an additional 3 EV and got this:

f/6.7  1/1000s   ISO-800  -5.0EV

Here's the second-to-last shot, with no exposure compensation:

f/6.7  1/30s  ISO-800

Here's the same shot with two stops less exposure:

f/6.7  1/30s  ISO-800  -2.0EV

Sid's Move

In the previous post I included a shot of Sid, a Linnaeus's (Linnie's) two-toed sloth, being carried by a keeper. Here's more of the story.

There's a shelter in the yard where there is sometimes a sloth,  capybaras, or other animals. There's a sloth basket just under the roof. When I arrived, Sid had made his way to a front post of the shelter, near the fence.

Sid shinnies down the post.

From here he can reach the fence.

Sid makes his way along the fence.

He was not supposed to do that, so a keeper hung him back up. His basket is at the top left.

Sid makes his way to the other post near the fence.

Sid reaches for the fence.

Sid clambers along the fence.

 

Sloths are not made for the ground.

A different keeper--the one in the previous post--came out to hang Sid up again. She wasn't sure why he was doing this. His food had been changed, and he liked it, so maybe he was trying to go inside to get some.

2023 Part 5: Different

Sometimes I'm not so animal-focused.

Okay, there's an animal here, but the interesting thing is sloth transport. (In my backlog, I have photos of Sid leaving his basket and going where he wants to go. Here, the Columbus Zoo keeper returns him to its basket. See post.)

turkey vulture on top

Equipment envy

My camera shoots 8 frames per second at its fastest, and I got lucky with the puck in the net but still in the air.

Toledo's North American river otters do backflips, and the kids love it!

Pumpkin chomp for the Toledo Zoo's hippo heads.

Autofocus found the crud on the polar bears' glass in Toledo. I decided to call it art.

2023 Part 4: Creepy

 Creepy, crawly, and squishy things from 2023.

a Malagasy leaf-tailed gecko's foot (Columbus Zoo, focus stack of 2 images)

Fall webworm (focus stack of 9 images). It has that ghostly look that the focus-stacking software can produce, but the individual shots look like this.

female eastern carpenter bee, I think (focus stack of 11 images)

male eastern carpenter bee (focus stack of 6 images)

male eastern carpenter bee (focus stack of 3 images)

Giant prickly stick insect (Toledo Zoo). If I recall correctly, it's about 3 inches long.

Pacific sea nettle (Toledo Zoo)

2023 Part 3: Reptiles

smooth-fronted caiman (Columbus Zoo)

Weber's sailfin lizard (Columbus Zoo)

west African dwarf crocodile (Minnesota Zoo)

Komodo dragon (Toledo Zoo)

western diamondback rattlesnake (Toledo Zoo)

southwestern speckled rattlesnake (Toledo Zoo). I took a group of pictures of this snake, trying to get the color right and couldn't do it. The snake is not white, but this is the coolest of the group.