Ray's Many Thoughts for the Day - Rainfall Update

Rainfall Update. There was 0.51" in the gauge this morning, possibly accounting for rain that fell over the last several days or nights. That’s more rain than I figured had fallen. I was very surprised to espy all that water in the gauge. So the current CB total for DY 1 is 0.51" + 9.97" = 10.38", Praise the Goddess!!!!

Rayetta is now allowing me to attend the camera lessons on a trial basis to see if I can behave myself at a camera lesson that Crumby is also attending simultaneously. The twain of us, that is, Crumby and me, are not allowed to comment upon or question any of the topics that come up in the lesson. Nor are we allowed to communicate back and forth, either vocally, or utilizing any secret Druidic finger spelling. We are, however, encouraged to pay close attention to the lesson, and afterwards, Rayetta questions us in Druidic fashion about what all we should have learned if we had paid attention. Then we have camera lab, practicing the lesson.

I have been practicing on basal rosettes. My goal is to have a full-frame picture of each basal rosette I encounter. Since basal rosettes vary in size, a lot, I must constantly do this or that with the camera and its associated equipment to get the basal rosette filling up the full frame, more or less. Caution, it’s a generally round plug in a square hole scenario.

Here’s a practice example of a little basal rosette about the size of an actual quarter. (Draba cuneifolia), maybe, notice the hairs are branched. You may also notice the Geranium on the left. In these parts, a geranium is likely to crowd into every basal rosette photo one takes. The C5060 WZ can take these kind of pictures without any supplemental attachments, employing manual focus, plus automatic focus, plus aperture priority, plus macro mode. I can’t remember if this was cropped after or not, dang it. Hold it. Photo Paint tells me this information. Yes it's slightly cropped.

More exciting basal rosette photos are upcoming, anon, someday.

But now I am distracted and wish to discuss (Veronica arvensis), also known by a great many vulgar appellations including “neckweed”, but you may know it as a speedwell. It’s one of the most common lawn weeds in these parts. Veronica arvensis flowers are fairly tiny, maxing out at 3mm in diameter. So its hard to get a good look at one of them. But if you have an old 50mm /f 1.7 film camera lens you may be able to hook it up backwards on your digital and get a nice closeup. The image next door is uncropped.

Now, I have learned, thanks to the excellent Mr. Wrotniak, that the frame size of my camera sensor is 5.3mm x 7.1mm. So I can now figure out what part of the frame this flower takes up using the particular equipment used to take the photo.

Addendum: This last rainfall entry is troubling and may be an indication that somebody forgot to empty the gauge. Oh, there was some rainfall, just not 0.51" maybe. On the other hand, maybe not, there were no dead bugs in the rain gauge so maybe the new total is correct after all.