David's Images of the Day Photoblog
No Birds of the day in my backyard today. So I have included one from six-years ago today of a Whiskered Tern at the mouth of the Yangon River in Burma.
Daily Electric Energy Used (72.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (25.9.0kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and clouds but warmer. Deficit of 46.8 kWh.
Everyone had to be back on the ship by 22:00. We remained docked in Yangon and didn’t depart until the following day which was a class day. The moon was full (or nearly full) so I had the opportunity to take pictures of folks appearing to be looking at or holding the moon. I stood back some distance, and used a telephoto lens so the size of the moon would appear to be relatively large. What I wasn’t able to do was have both the person and the moon to be in focus, so the images are composites. The low light also required that I increase the ISO to 6400 for the images.
Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.
Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey
In addition to the wildflowers, I also planted some seeds for Water Bottle gourds (also known as Calabash, Opo, or Burma Boo Thee). It took nearly a month for the seeds to germinate inside. As such they didn’t get transplanted outdoors as soon as I would have liked. The plants started slow, but the electric fence kept the deer away. Finally, the vines started growing much faster and trying to climb as high as possible. At this point they produced some very big leaves. The first white flowers didn’t produce any fruit. The flowers opened at night, and closed once it got hot the next day. Finally, some of the flowers did develop some green gourds. When they got to be about the size of zucchini, the fruit turned brown and rotted. Finally, I did get a few that didn’t rot. They are not as long as the 40 inch long ones that my parents grew in Florida last year. The vines are still producing white flowers every night, but it is much too late in the season to expect anything larger. Once I turned off the electric fence, the deer came in and started eating the vines. Next year, I will try to germinate the seeds at least a month earlier, and make sure they get transplanted to a warm spot with lots of sunlight.
Holding the moon with the Magician lurking behind. From the aft deck of the MV World Odyssey at dock in the port of Rangoon. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 55-200 mm VR lens (ISO 6400, 55 mm, f/5.6, 1/30 sec).
Dawn in Bagan waiting for a Sunrise Hot Air Balloon Ride. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and Boyer 8 mm fisheye lens (ISO 640, 8 mm, f/2.8, 1/30 sec).
