Some fun & Close...

 

I thought I'd have some fun on Sunday with my Lego Castle set.  I wanted to do more than just a few neat shots like the one below.

This is Clarence, he is one of the Castle Guards. 

After this shot, I thought it would be really fun to try a 'stop motion'. I did it the old fashioned way without an app to help. I guess there is an app you can install on your phone to do this and there is also and AI app called NaukNauk which will take a still video of a minifigure and make it into a short animated film.  It is slick as all get out. I feel like it is a cheap cheat, even though I've seen little videos that are pretty fun.

But it isn't true stop motion like I learned as a kid. I learned from the artists at my dad's office as they did animation. It was careful step by step drawing or using a photograph. I learned the old fashioned way.

I enjoyed this so much, it was quite a bit of fun.

In this castle there is a skeleton that has been locked in a cell. Obviously, the guards must have forgotten to feed him!

Looks like he is happy to have escaped!

After the last storm I had to go check for more downed trees. There was one. What a year for falling trees!

I of course had an idea for something fun to shoot while checking.

I used battery powered mini-lights and strung them out on a deer trail then placed my space people in the path and viola!

I didn't even think of a follow up to this shot...but I imagined the minifig in the orange saying to the other astronaut: See! I told you I saw strange lights!

I was just happy to quickly set things up and grab the shot and be on my way back home.

Though I did find these....

They were way passed their prime of course but I think they could have been some sort of Boletes. When they are fresh, they look rather beautiful.

There were more 'False Coral Mushrooms' popping up in one area of the forest that I had to backtrack through as the original ridge trail now has been blocked by fallen trees from the last few storms. No fence damage, but it is a pain to climb through or go around.

My Monday was a success. I called all the places I had to call and did all the boring things I had to do, then took some time to sit on the porch and watch the birds and think about the upcoming heat wave. This part of the summer is not my favorite.

By evening the air was breathless. However, I did still see lightening bugs! They must really love heat and humidity and ... still nights. I think my Grandmother used to describe weather like this as: Close.

Close: a weather condition when the relative humidity and the temperature are both the same. Often with no breeze where the air feels stagnant and heavy making it hard to breathe.

The A/C will get a work out for the next few days. It will be 'close'.

Wild Things

These are not my photos but photos from the Trail Cam I have set up on a trail in the woods.

As you may be able to tell, we all use the same path right here. It is the only way around an old oak that fell across the 'ridge road' as we call it. I had someone who said he'd clear it for me. Yeah, that didn't happen. More about that on another post perhaps....

So we walk around it.
I was surprised by the 'critters' I caught coming through here. 

The blur in the second shot is a Robin!
It is interesting too, to see the temperatures on these days. I don't know exactly how accurate the readings are though.

This looks like a young coyote or one that is a bit scrawny. Interesting to see it in the midmorning hours.

And a few minutes later....

Then I come through with the kids.

That evening a doe and her fawn pause for their photo to get taken.

I used to have the camera lower on the tree. It seemed that every critter had to put their nose on it to sniff it. I had a lot of smeary photos of globs last month. So many mule and fawn globs!

I think this is a good spot for the camera now.

And here comes a nice little buck that we've seen on the other camera. I think it is pretty cool to see their antlers growing.

I think this is the same fella.
My old camera only takes in Infrared. That camera is about 8 years old.
It still works and has a good position in the Buckthorn Forest on a very well used trail.

I have an appointment with the young Entomologists today again. 

My young charges want to go 'buggin'. 

Uffdah. This morning it was like walking in pea soup. The temperature and dew point are nearly the same with humidity at 90 something. My grandma would say that the air is Heavy.

We had an orange sunrise and fog laying across the meadows. The air movement is zero....