PF Photography: Tips, Tricks, & Photo Sharing

[larkspur]

My favorite spring flower - apple blossoms! I've got lots of apple trees on the property, and I'm going to have to prune some of the old ones pretty aggressively and spray them to keep the insect damage minimized. I use canola oil with a bit of detergent in a hose-fed tree sprayer, and it suffocates eggs, larva, and adults with no dangerous pesticides. We have a dug well and a drilled well, and I don't want pesticides anywhere on the property.

Lovely blossom Turbo!

 

[larkspur]

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/7568/p1010010ki3co2.jpg

Close-up view of a stray dog. Yes, this is a stray dog, not a pet. Sadly it disappeared about 3 years back.

Cute dog Defennder!

 

[turbo]

Lovely blossom Turbo!

And these lovely flowers will be sweet crispy apples in the fall. I still don't know what variety this tree is, but it produces the best eating apples I have ever had. My dad's Macs pale in comparison.

 

[larkspur]

And these lovely flowers will be sweet crispy apples in the fall. I still don't know what variety this tree is, but it produces the best eating apples I have ever had. My dad's Macs pale in comparison.

My apple trees already have apples bigger than golf balls. I can never seem to get ripe apples from them. They fall off while still green or have worms.:yuck:

 

[turbo]

My apple trees already have apples bigger than golf balls. I can never seem to get ripe apples from them. They fall off while still green or have worms.:yuck:

You may still have time to stave off some insect damage. Get a hose-fed tree sprayer and fill it with canola oil and a little detergent, and hose down the trees thoroughly. I start spraying as soon as the petals have dropped and spray every couple of weeks. The oil doesn't hurt the tree, and it smothers eggs, larvae, and even adult insects.

 

[larkspur]

You may still have time to stave off some insect damage. Get a hose-fed tree sprayer and fill it with canola oil and a little detergent, and hose down the trees thoroughly. I start spraying as soon as the petals have dropped and spray every couple of weeks. The oil doesn't hurt the tree, and it smothers eggs, larvae, and even adult insects.

Does it have to be canola oil or will peanut oil suffice?

 

[turbo]

I don't know if the type of oil is critical, but I looked at lots of dormant-spraying compounds (with some pesticides in them) and the main ingredient of most of them was canola oil. You can get it very cheaply in gallon jugs at discount stores. I figured that the pesticides were toxic window-dressing and tried the canola oil last year. It worked beautifully.

 

[larkspur]

I don't know if the type of oil is critical, but I looked at lots of dormant-spraying compounds (with some pesticides in them) and the main ingredient of most of them was canola oil. You can get it very cheaply in gallon jugs at discount stores. I figured that the pesticides were toxic window-dressing and tried the canola oil last year. It worked beautifully.

Canola it is then. Thanks Turbo!

 

[turbo]

Canola it is then. Thanks Turbo!

Good luck! You should spray not only during the growing season, but (as the name of the commercial sprays suggest) during the dormant season. Insect eggs and larvae can over-winter in crevices in bark etc, and it's important to kill them off by smothering them. I had good results last year, spraying as soon as the petals had dropped. If you don't get really impressive results this year, make sure to spray after pruning late this year and then get an early jump on it next year. It may be a bit late to start the spraying, after fruit has set on, but better late than never. I prune pretty aggressively, and that may help reduce the amount of apple-drop by limiting the resources that the fruits can sap from the trees. Apple trees can stand VERY heavy pruning, so don't spare the shears/saw.

 

[~christina~]

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8631/1000154qv3.jpg

The evening bite. I took this shot well after sundown on a lake in the Arizona White Mountains. The person in the boat is my son.

I like the reflection off the water. Beautiful

Now if only I could encounter a situation like this.

 

[~christina~]

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/7568/p1010010ki3co2.jpg

Close-up view of a stray dog. Yes, this is a stray dog, not a pet. Sadly it disappeared about 3 years back.

Hm..sad but I think it is someone else's pet. Probably just escaped or released by the person because they did not want it.

I had a situation like this with a dog that lived around here. It was a cute white german sheperd mix. it looked exactly like this => http://www.pvah.com/pics_2007/banditandally2.jpg My dad has a thing for strays so he allowed it to follow him home and then just put in our yard and fed it.(can you believe he fed it spare ribs that he especially bought for the dog?!) We tried keeping it inside and fed it, but it did it's business ALL over...so we just opened the fence and it left and disappeared and we assumed it's original owner took it back. Then we saw it in front of our yard a week later. We petted it and looked around it's neck and saw that there was a chain there this time. The thing was that, the chain was sadly a chain that holds the stopper in a bathtub! Well, we couldn't do anything for it so we just fed it some food and then left it alone and we hadn't seen it in awhile. Then a few years back I saw a man walking his dog but it looked familiar. I looked closer and saw that it was that same dog, but it was highly obese.

I did see a pair of stray dogs that would just walk around here, and one of them looked sort of like this one that you took a pic of.

 

[Ms Music]

You may still have time to stave off some insect damage. Get a hose-fed tree sprayer and fill it with canola oil and a little detergent, and hose down the trees thoroughly. I start spraying as soon as the petals have dropped and spray every couple of weeks. The oil doesn't hurt the tree, and it smothers eggs, larvae, and even adult insects.

Is there a ratio to mix at? I will be in the same situation as you next year and I will definitely take your advice. Maybe I will even try it on the mealy applied 100 year old trees at my current house to see how well it works!

 

[moe darklight]

Book Worm

I was reading out in my back yard, and this little guy did a bungee-jump on his web and on to my book. You can also see he pooped on my book.
http://noamgr.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/book_worm2.jpg
http://noamgr.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/book_worm1.jpg

 

[larkspur]

I was reading out in my back yard, and this little guy did a bungee-jump on his web and on to my book. You can also see he pooped on my book.
http://noamgr.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/book_worm2.jpg
http://noamgr.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/book_worm1.jpg

[/URL]

Ha! Great capture!

 

[larkspur]

Martin Guillome

I think that is how you spell this rose. The tag is buried beneath the thorns.

 

[Math Is Hard]

That's beautiful, Larkspur. It has such a Georgia O'Keefe feel to it.

 

[larkspur]

Thanks MIH.

 

[Defennder]

Hm..sad but I think it is someone else's pet. Probably just escaped or released by the person because they did not want it.

I had a situation like this with a dog that lived around here. It was a cute white german sheperd mix. it looked exactly like this => http://www.pvah.com/pics_2007/banditandally2.jpg My dad has a thing for strays so he allowed it to follow him home and then just put in our yard and fed it.(can you believe he fed it spare ribs that he especially bought for the dog?!) We tried keeping it inside and fed it, but it did it's business ALL over...so we just opened the fence and it left and disappeared and we assumed it's original owner took it back. Then we saw it in front of our yard a week later. We petted it and looked around it's neck and saw that there was a chain there this time. The thing was that, the chain was sadly a chain that holds the stopper in a bathtub! Well, we couldn't do anything for it so we just fed it some food and then left it alone and we hadn't seen it in awhile. Then a few years back I saw a man walking his dog but it looked familiar. I looked closer and saw that it was that same dog, but it was highly obese.

I did see a pair of stray dogs that would just walk around here, and one of them looked sort of like this one that you took a pic of.

That's an interesting story. At least you know the dog you used to care for is safe and sound. Unfortunately I can't quite say for certain for this dog, because you see, the veterinary authorities in my country started to cull stray animals (street dogs and cats) indiscriminately about some 5 years back. I can only hope that this dog found an owner and wasn't shot by them.

 

[~christina~]

That's an interesting story. At least you know the dog you used to care for is safe and sound. Unfortunately I can't quite say for certain for this dog, because you see, the veterinary authorities in my country started to cull stray animals (street dogs and cats) indiscriminately about some 5 years back. I can only hope that this dog found an owner and wasn't shot by them.

I have to say I hope so as well. The thing is that even when strays are "rescued" by those shelters, they are actually killed if no one adopts them, so I start wondering which is better, the streets where they actually may live longer or in the shelter where the chances of adoption are close to none for an adult dog.

 

[turbo]

More of a family snapshot than any real attempt at artistic photography. Here is my little brother with his daughter. They came over for a BBQ on the back deck with our dad for an early Father's Day (Sunday's weather looks to be crappy). She's a cutie, and smiled and babbled for hours, only fussing a bit when she was tired AND had a wet diaper.

 

[Borek]

Nothing special, but in a way funny. Yesterday during chat Andre told us he is going to take a picture of the sunset. It was too late for a sunset picture at my place, but nonetheless I went upstairs to do my best

So, that's the view from my attic. No Sun, but at least full Moon.

Bright dots and lines in the upper left quadrant are planes around Okęcie airport, around 20 kilometers from here.

 

[Andre]

Oh yes, those sun set pictures.

It was exceptionally bright. Unlimited vision, no haze, happens only once every 10 years

http://gallery.myff.org/gallery/279201/IMG_0107.jpg

with the Canon XSi at 1/60, f6.3, 800ASA 55mm shrunken to 25% x 25%

and

last second before totally disappearance of the sun

with the Panasonic FZ-18 at 18x zoom. 504mm equivalent. also 25 x 25% size.

The slightly rolling horizon are the dunes, the protection against the North Sea.

 

[Andre]

The same scenery this morning.

view to the south. On the horizon is Rotterdam (mid left).

 

[turbo]

Holy Moly! Can you say population density? You have more people living within view than our whole state contains.

 

[BryanP]

what a view!

 

[Andre]

Population density? Yes, from my Dutch residence I can see most of the local city (Zoetermeer) about 118,000 inhabitants, as well as Gouda (71,000), Rotterdam (584,000), Delft (95,000), The Hague (474,000), Rijswijk (48,000) and Leiden (117,000), all within some 15-20 miles. But that's still nothing compared to Tokyo or London or New York

 

[lisab]

Population density? Yes, from my Dutch residence I can see most of the local city (Zoetermeer) about 118,000 inhabitants, as well as Gouda (71,000), Rotterdam (584,000), Delft (95,000), The Hague (474,000), Rijswijk (48,000) and Leiden (117,000), all within some 15-20 miles. But that's still nothing compared to Tokyo or London or New York

Zoetermeer looks like a beautiful place, Andre!

When I was in Germany several years back, I noticed how the towns and cities are quite densely populated, but then all of a sudden the town stops - and it feels like you're on a farm or ranch. I like that, the way the towns separate with green spaces.

In the US, towns tend to be dense in the middle, then slowly get less and less dense. It can take a long time to get to a place that feels like you're really out of town.

 

[BryanP]

Zoetermeer looks like a beautiful place, Andre!

When I was in Germany several years back, I noticed how the towns and cities are quite densely populated, but then all of a sudden the town stops - and it feels like you're on a farm or ranch. I like that, the way the towns separate with green spaces.

In the US, towns tend to be dense in the middle, then slowly get less and less dense. It can take a long time to get to a place that feels like you're really out of town.

True. I'm from the city area in Los Angeles and I never really left the city to tell you the truth. It takes awhile to get out of the city so when you get out it looks so foreign. It wasn't until college (moving up to Northern California) where I realized all the empty space in between.

Seeing that picture of other places just gives me more incentive to travel once I get situated with my life.

 

[larkspur]

More of a family snapshot than any real attempt at artistic photography. Here is my little brother with his daughter. They came over for a BBQ on the back deck with our dad for an early Father's Day (Sunday's weather looks to be crappy). She's a cutie, and smiled and babbled for hours, only fussing a bit when she was tired AND had a wet diaper.

They are both cute Turbo. Nothing cuter than a sleeping baby and a proud papa!

 

[larkspur]

The same scenery this morning.

view to the south. On the horizon is Rotterdam (mid left).

It is gorgeous Andre!

 

[turbo]

Population density? Yes, from my Dutch residence I can see most of the local city (Zoetermeer) about 118,000 inhabitants, as well as Gouda (71,000), Rotterdam (584,000), Delft (95,000), The Hague (474,000), Rijswijk (48,000) and Leiden (117,000), all within some 15-20 miles. But that's still nothing compared to Tokyo or London or New York

Wow! There is no place in our state in which one could be surrounded by so many people!

 

[Andre]

Thanks Larkspur, the panorama is never boring.

Zoetermeer looks like a beautiful place, Andre!

I guess so. It's actually a rather young village. Although it is mentioned on medieval maps, until about 1965, the village had only a mere thousand inhabitants. Then it was designated as growing nucleus. They tried to design the city from scratch, and actually did a nice job. As a result the people come from all over to visit our shopping mall, overcrowding my parking area.

When I was in Germany several years back, I noticed how the towns and cities are quite densely populated, but then all of a sudden the town stops - and it feels like you're on a farm or ranch. I like that, the way the towns separate with green spaces.

Pretty much so too there in Holland (I'm in Germany now) too. Belgium (Flanders) though is the spatial nightmare (where is Marlon?), That's hopeless for visual navigators from the air; you only see houses everywhere, if the roof density increases temporarely, it may or may not the village on the map that you were looking for.

 

[larkspur]

East Tennessee Country Road

 

[turbo]

Very delicate lighting, larkspur! Lovely.

 

[Borek]

Wow, how soft light... Great shot.