Mediterranean House Gecko

Mediterranean House Gecko

The Mediterranean House Gecko is a non native species that as been introduced in the Phoenix metro area and other parts of Arizona. They are found close to human habitation in the hotter months of the year, usually around lights at night.

We’ve had them at our house in Phoenix for many years where they can be seen occasionally near the front entrance, but usually at higher spots or in darker areas than I can easily deal with photographically. This gecko was a nice exception last night (5/12/13) just outside the front door and visible just above eye level near the outside lamp.

I decided to try for a usable photo even though it involved a lot of compromises I usually manage to avoid. My first decision was to take the shot from inside through the window glass rather than risk spooking the gecko by going out the front door. I mounted my old 105/2.8 macro lens o a D300 body – a compromise on focal length because the 200mm macro that would have been better is only an f/4 lens. With the 105 set wide open I still needed to crank the ISO up to 1600 to get a marginal shutter speed of 1/100th second. This was just fast enough to allow me to hand hold the lens (I much prefer to work from a steady tripod).

To get the proper angle I needed to shoot through the glass at about a 45 degree angle – much worse than shooting directly through the glass perpendicular to the flat surface.

The light was bright enough, but it came from a CFL bulb shining through glass with a strong yellow color, so the raw images looked like they were bright lemon yellow.

Finally, I had to make a significant crop – this is only 17% of the full frame. The 200mm lens would have permitted using 68% of the frame – a substantial improvement.

I’ve got to say that I am quite pleased with the results given all those compromises! The subject is sharp and properly exposed. I was able to correct the color in raw conversion by neutralizing the yellow out of the stucco, allowing the true color of the gecko to be revealed.

According to A Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles n Arizona by Thomas C. Brennan and Andrew T. Holycross, this is

A small (to 60 mm or 2.4″) peach or light pinkish tan lizard with dark reticulations, spots, or crossbars and translucent skin. The pupils are vertical. Whitish tubercles on the back, prominent toe pads, and lidless eyes distinguish it from Western Banded Gecko.

I don’t know why this individual doesn’t have the dark spots shown in the field guide.

If it shows up in the same spot again I’ll set up the 200mm lens and a good tripod and try to find an angle that avoids the junk my wife has hanging in the window. And if it stays put I’ll also try to get outside for an even better shot.

Just for Fun

Five Window Coupe

I’ve had a fondness for old cars since I was a young kid back in Pennsylvania, even though there weren’t  many to see in our little town far away from anything. Ending up in Phoenix, AZ, so many years later has given me a chance to see lots of old cars on the roads. I guess that’s one of the few benefits to this very dry climate where cars don’t rust away.

1950 Ford

I like to keep a camera handy wherever I drive and I use it whenever possible to grab a record shot. These don’t tend to be well composed, but at least the auto exposure and auto focus systems in my Nikons assure I’ll get something from the effort.

I keep a body behind the seat, usually with my 18-70 zoom mounted, although at times I’ve tried the cheap light plastic 55-200 or even my ancient 50/1.8 lens. The ISO is set to 400, or rarely to 800, and the camera is always in aperture preferred auto exposure mode. And with the wide angle zoom I can sometimes just point the camera in the general direction of my observation for fire the sutter.

Chevy Truck

A lot of the shots I take are of cars sitting in parking lots where I find them, like this Chevy panel van. I’ll stop my car nearby and open the window for a clear shot, or sometimes get out with my camera and walk around for a better angle.

1930 Ford

Backgrounds are almost always less than ideal, but my real interest is with the car.

Studebaker

At other times I’ll shoot from the driver’s seat while stopped at a light, as with this 50′s Studebaker that surprised me coming around the corner. I wish I had the 18-70 mounted for this instead of the 55-200 that I wasn’t quick enough to zoom for a better frame.

Chevy Coupe

This Chevy Coupe was caught exiting the freeway while I waited for the light. Since it was white already I decided to go monochrome with my image.

Ford Pickup

One of the most popular vehicles I see is a 50′s era Ford pickup like the one above.

1957 Chevy Pickup

Chevy pickups seem to be a bit more rare.

I’ll post another batch here soon.

 

 

 

Handicapped Parking Violation

Handicapped Violation

First, my apologies to regular visitors to this blog: I know it has been a while since I’ve added any posts. There have been a lot of things competing for my time over the past six months or so and my photography has suffered as a result. I’ve had good intentions to shoot more and process more and blog more, but the days have been slipping by remarkably faster than I imagined they could.

One of the many things taking my attention has been my wife Carol’s health, which hasn’t been great in recent years. She has more trouble walking these days, and we’ve had a handicapped parking hang tag for five years now to use when she can get out. Today was one of those days when she felt good enough to go out to a decent Mexican restaurant a few miles away. The restaurant has two handicapped slots at the front door, plus three or four regular slots and plenty of other spaces farther away in the main lot.

When we arrived today all the close spaces were taken, including the two marked for handicapped customers. One slot contained a pickup with a handicapped tag hanging from the rear-view mirror as it is supposed to be displayed. The second slot was occupied by a nice expensive black C320 Mercedes sedan. The Mercedes didn’t have a handicapped plate nor a hang tag on the mirror or laying on the dash as I sometimes see them.

It is possible that the driver of the Mercedes had a valid hang tag and just forgot to display it. But I doubt it. I’ve seen lots of people grab the convenient handicapped slot just because they are selfish and lazy, and I’ve had a number of heated “conversations” with many of these creeps when I catch them doing it.

There’s no excuse for this sort of behavior. Handicapped spaces are prominently marked with the painted blue and white wheelchair emblem, and they also have a similar sign on a post directly in front of the slot. If a driver can’t see either of these then that person is too blind to be driving.

Handicapped Violation

A less polite person than I am would have deflated a tire or two, or perhaps keyed the nice black paint. A guy entering the restaurant even offered me his pock knife if I wanted to slash a tire!

I wasn’t able to observe the person from the Mercedes to have my usual discussion and the car was gone when we came out and found the slot empty. At least I was able to bring our car over to collect my wife.

Okay; I’m done with my rant. I’ll try to find more time to post some nature photos here soon.

A short visit to the Water Ranch

Raccoon footprints

I was motivated to visit the Gilbert Water Ranch on Wednesday morning by the report of a Swamp Sparrow seen the previous day. That’s a species common in the east (I saw them regularly in my NJ days) but not on my Water Ranch list. I didn’t find the Swamp Sparrow – I couldn’t even find the small flock of white-crowns it was keeping company with when first discovered. But it was a nice visit and good exercise for the 90 minutes I was there.

My favorite shot of the day was the Raccoon footprints I found on the edge of one of the mostly dry impoundments. I really took the photo so I’d be able to compare it to the illustrations in one of my field guides at home and confirm they belonged to a raccoon. I was equipped with my usual birding gear – a 300/2.8 and 2x on a Nikon D300, all mounted on a big tripod with gimbal head set-up. If I had taken the trouble to slip my small, light, cheap “plastic” 55-200 zoom in a pocket on my water pack I’d have used that on the D300 and taken my time here. Instead I grabbed my hand-me-down iPhone 3GS and bent over as far as I could without toppling to take 3 quick frames. I often take multiple frames lie this when I’m not confident I’ll avoid blurring the image (I really like working from a tripod).

I was quite happy when I transferred the shots to my iMac and looked at them on the larger screen. I did some modest tweaking of brightness and contrast, and cropped  a little from the left and bottom for this result.

Bottom line: the camera in the iPhone is very handy and can produce excellent results. It has saved me a few times in the field when I haven’t had an appropriate lens along or when I don’t have the D300 with me at all.

RAV R.I.P.

RAV4 on flatbed

I know it has been longer than usual since I posted. My only excuse is other distractions that took priority. And here is one of them.

I took delivery on my 2001 Toyota RAV4 in March of ’01 after waiting a couple months for it to get build to spec. It replaced my 1996 RAV4 that took us all over AZ and central NM and southern CA. After driving only manual transmissions since I got my license in 1964 I’d decided it was time for an automatic, partly because it was easier to do bird photography from the car if I didn’t have to deal with the manual transmission.

There have been a lot of difficult times for us since March of 2001, but one of the good things was this little 4WD wagon that fit our need so well. I never tired of any aspect of it – size, controls, comfort, performance, appearance, and especially utility. I had hoped it would last forever. I’d traded in the ’96 with 117,000 miles on it; the ’01 still felt almost new at that same point. But in the last 18 months or so I started having bigger and more expensive repairs, but not big enough or close enough together to make me want to get rid of it. I even started thinking it would get me to 200,000 miles.

RAV4 Final Miles

But I didn’t make it. On September 25 I got a dreaded “Check Engine” light and the transmission was barely able to transmit power to the wheels about a mile from home. When I got it into the dealer service department the next afternoon I expected the worst, and they told me the following day that the transmission was toast and probably the Engine Control Module as well. I decided not to spend the $5000 the dealer wanted to start the work.

Instead I decided I’d better do a couple repairs on our other car and make it suitable for birding and photography. One repair was simple: $50 for a pair of pneumatic struts and 15 minutes with my socket wrench to fix the tailgate. The second repair needed a $100 regulator and motor and about three hours in my garage to fix a window that wanted to drop open on its own. I paid close attention to the video I found on YouTube that demonstrated the same repair on the same car.

RAV4 on flatbed

It was difficult making the decision to part with the RAV4 after so many years and so many miles. I decided to make a clean break with a donation to our local PBS station. I know there’s still value in my old servant so that PBS will get some benefit from it.

But I know I will miss this one more than any other I’ve ever had in the 44 years I’ve owned a car, and I’ll always remember it when it was still ready to take me anywhere I wanted to go.

2001 Toyota RAV4