Tom Moertel's Weblog: Category photography

My photo of British soldier lichen is now published!

Tom Moertel — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 01:05:00 -0400

I wrote in an earlier post that one of my photos of British soldier lichen was going to be published in an upcoming issue of a popular Pennsylvania magazine. Now that the issue is out, I can reveal that the periodical is none other than Milford Magazine. My photo appears in the August 2007 issue, on top of the second page of the lichen feature, “The Secret Lives of Lichen” (PDF).

Do check it out. This may be your only opportunity to read an article that celebrates lichen in interview form.

I kid you not.

I'm going to be a published photographer!

Tom Moertel — Thu, 31 May 2007 00:01:00 -0400

Earlier today I received an email from the editor of a Pennsylvania-based magazine. (I won’t mention the name of the magazine in case what I’m about to write next amounts to a spoiler.) He asked if I would allow the magazine to publish one of my photographs of British soldier lichen in an upcoming issue.

Of course, I said yes. (I’m always looking for ways to spread the word about British soldier lichen.)

My fee? I asked for a free issue of the magazine when it goes to press. They said it will be in my mailbox.

Cool.

Interesting stuff: matchstick moss (British soldier lichen)

Tom Moertel — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 16:39:00 -0400

Last week I was vacationing with the in-laws in upper Michigan. They live on Lake Huron in a wooded area. One of their neighbors pointed out an unusual growth on a nearby wooden fence: “matchstick moss,” he called it.

Intrigued, I grabbed my camera and tripod and took some pictures.

Man, are these things weird. And tiny. For scale, that’s a woman’s wedding band in the pictures below.

Some recent Googling revealed that matchstick moss not moss at all but rather lichen, in particular “British soldier lichen”, Cladonia cristatella.

Here’s some more information on the fascinating little guys:

Now that’s interesting stuff!

Macro photography: lady-beetle larva

Tom Moertel — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 16:44:00 -0400

Around my garden, there is no greater hero than the larva of the lady beetle. They patrol my garden and eat the nasty aphids that otherwise would suck the life from my plants, especially my precious tomatoes.

Today, I got some good shots of one crawling around on a Spirea japonica ‘Little Princess.’ For perspective, the larva is the size of a large grain of rice.

Lady-beetle larva

Ain’t she cute?

Night of the long-tailed beast!

Tom Moertel — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 22:39:00 -0500

When I let the dog out this evening, it didn’t take long for her to start barking. Figuring she had cornered the neighbor’s cat, I went outside and called her. Naturally, she ignored my order to come back into the house.

Angrily, I marched up to her, underneath the crabapple tree, and took her by the collar. I made sure to bend low and look her in the eyes, just to let her know that I was not happy about having to walk in the wet grass to fetch her. When I stood up to lead her back to the house, my head reached into the lower branches of the crabapple tree.

And then I saw it, inches from my face, looking right back at me.

Instinctively, I jumped back. What the hell was that thing? It definitely was bigger than a cat, and it had a freakish, rat-like tail. And it was looking right at me.

I took the dog back into the house. Then, regaining my composure, I grabbed my camera and tripod, intent on capturing the beast on film. By this time I realized that it must be an opossum. I had seen a few as a child when I lived in rural Pennsylvania.

Opossums are harmless and often act like they are dead – “playing possum” – when threatened. They actually go stiff. This one, for example, held itself completely motionless during the eight-second exposure that I used to capture the following photo without flash in the dark Pittsburgh night:

If you check the Wikipedia entry on Virginia Opossum, you’ll see a more ferocious looking specimen, which is how I imagine my opossum looked when I first saw it. Nevertheless, opossums are harmless. If you want to see them at their most cuddly, check out the photos on the PossumRescue.com home page, where I found this little guy:

Local copy so as not to take bandwith from PossumRescue’s server.
(Look at how cute he is. Could you take bandwidth from his server?)

More opossum tidbits:

Opossums are North America’s only marsupials. They carry their young in pouches, just like kangaroos do.
Opossums have opposable thumbs on their hind feet.
When opossums play dead, they enter an involuntary coma and emit a stinky, I-am-dead scent.

Opossums are interesting stuff.

Replacing the fan array in my HP ProCurve 4000M switch

Tom Moertel — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 21:42:00 -0500

The main network switch in my home office is an HP ProCurve 4000m, which has been running non-stop for over half a decade. It is a great switch, and even though it is getting old, it is still dependable.

A while ago I noticed that the 4000m’s fault indicator was lit. So I logged into the switch and checked the log: fan 1 was dead. The switch has built-in redundancy (three fans), and so I didn’t worry about it, but I did call HP ProCurve tech support.

The woman I spoke with was friendly and helpful. I told her what was wrong, and she said a new fan array would be on my doorstep within 48 hours. No charge. (I guess the ProCurve warranty really is worth something.)

Today, I installed the array. This meant opening up the switch, which is a fun thing to do. If you are curious about what is inside of a 4000m, I took photos of the operation.

During the process, I recalled why I love old-style HP engineering:

The replacement parts came with clear instructions that showed me how to remove the old array and install the new one. They were easy to follow and didn’t leave anything to guess.
The 4000m is solid – inside and out.
The electrical components are top quality.
The industrial engineering is superb. For example, all of the user-removable screws have non-stripping torx heads and are designed not to fall out and get lost; instead they remain attached to the module or panel you are removing. (See this photo of removed modules to see how the screws stay in place.)

Everything about the process made me think, wow, this is really well engineered.

The thing is, I know, as I sit here and watch the blinking LEDs on my now-restored 4000m, that my next network switch will probably be a Dell.

As much as I love the ProCurve engineering, the Dell price is compelling. Even if I expect the Dells to fail twice as often (and the Dell warranties are comparatively lame), I can buy twice as many Dells and keep spares on the shelf – and still save money compared to the equivalent ProCurve equipment.

I find the situation somewhat sad. I am an engineering guy to the core. So when I go for the cheaper product because it is so darn cheap, I know that much of the market will do likewise. That bodes ill for HP. Like HP’s calculators, the ProCurves too may pass into history.

Seeing small with digital cameras

Tom Moertel — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 12:00:00 -0400

One of the many great things about digital cameras is that they are surprisingly good for close-up photography. Most have macro modes and can focus on subjects only a few centimeters away.

Digital cameras also provide a partial remedy to close-up photography’s notoriously limited depth of field. When the subject and field of focus are nearly the same size – sometimes only a centimeter or two – it’s hard to focus on the entire subject. Slight errors result in severe blurring. The workaround is to focus (probably imperfectly) on the subject, back off a bit, and then take numerous shots while slowly moving closer to the subject. The best-focused shot will stand out later, during a full-sized review. While this kind of blanket bracketing would be expensive with traditional film, digital cameras make it practical. Shots are free; snap as many as it takes.

As an example of what is easily within reach, look at these backyard photographs I took earlier this week. The white clover is probably my favorite, but the honeybee in the Stokesia flower, where you can see the grains of pollen, is a close runner up.

If you have a digital camera, spend a few minutes with its manual. Figure out how to take close-up photographs. Go outside and photograph the things you usually overlook. You might be surprised by what’s out there when you’re seeing small.