The 8mm Fisheye, What’s it good for?

Like Crumby, many may be asking this question: The 8mm Fisheye, What’s it good for?That’s because, as lenses for dslrs go, these are mighty cheap, and may, due to their cheapness and odd perspective, tempt many. But what’s cheap if good for nothing?

Crumby has never had much success taking pictures of medium to large sized plants (botanical). So Crumby thought, I need a lens that will close focus and yet have most of the plant in focus, top to bottom, front to back.

Because 8mm fisheyes are billed; close focusing and larruping depth of field, Crumby finally gave in to the urge and purchased a clone of the Samyang; the cheapest that could be had at the time on EBAY. Lately, as a consequence of that purchase, Crumby has been fixing to figure his new lens out.

As everyone knows, there is no electricity flowing through this type of 8mm fisheye. And without electricity, there is scant hope that the lens and camera may communicate. Divine intervention might have them communicate. Yet given the failure of the camera/lens combo to communicate, the average amateur photographer must estimate how far one is from a subject, turn the distance wheel accordingly and also set the desired f-stop manually. These procedures may be too vexing for many. Plus, many may forget to do one or the other and thus mess up a shot or two.


But enough of all this mumbo jumbo. Here’s an example of a fairly large plant (botanical), a Silphium no less, in a big bucket. This, alas, is one of Crumby’s best efforts to date.

Sawflies Maybe (with an important addendum)

When Ray took Ento 101, the professor in charge, was a mite expert. But he was a humble man and admitted that there was much more to learn about mites. If each one of you was tied to this building with a 100 foot long rope, each one of you wandering as freely as your tether would allow, could easily discover a new species of mite.

Ray still enjoys that image in his mind’s eye, 80 or so presumptive entomologists, tethered to the Heep Building with ropes, collecting new species of mites. You know, many might feel like people, or Aggie entomology students, tied to buildings and required to find new species of mites is degrading. But not Ray.

Apparently, sawflies are the same difference as mites. There are just too many of them for modern science to deal with in an orderly fashion. Yet now, everyone with a digital camera and a macro lens is fixing to take pictures of sawflies with a resulting glut of unidentified sawfly pictures on Bugguide. Plus, Crumby is just as guilty as everyone else having delivered a picture of sawfly larvae on bedstraw to id request. If you grow it, you might have a better chance of identifying it. Hmm.

Doubtless the same is true of this larva which is busy eating up Red’s Rhus aromatica or trilobota. But this one is fairly interesting because apparently it somehow piles its poop, combined possibly with additional ghastly secretions, onto itself. Maybe this strategy keeps the parasites(always a problem for worm types) away.

Oops! Once again we have misled ouselves. The depicted is actually a leaf beetle larva of the genus Blepharida, probably Blepharida rhois. This is the second time we have mistaken leaf beetle larva for sawfly larva. Ugh!

Crumby and Ray are more likely to raise this one than the other one because this one actually was found at the CB, whereas the other one on the bedstraw was actually residing in Manchaca. And so far, despite having searched some, no worms have been found on the CB’s bedstraw or on any of the nearby bedstraw across the street.

Fecal Matter

Innocent nearly as a lamb, Crumby tried to figure out one of his worm pictures. But figuring out sawfly larva type worms is still, especially given the booblican ascendancy, well nigh impossible. (Does everyone agree that our current pres makes General Eisenhower look like a commie?) But crazy talk aside, sawfly larvae may be beyond the capacity of mere mortals.

These sawfly larvae are eating up the skunkbush sumac. Soon as they consume vast quantities, they sh** it all out onto their backs. Maybe this strategy keeps the parasitic wasps and flies at bay. Mercy! Nasty!

Update to (RC-300 Shoot) Review

Whoa! There are a few additional facts one might wish to learn of before purchasing this item. First, consider the available instructions, not included in the box. The instructions are the same as for the wired release, (Lock the button for long exposures or continuous shooting). Alas, this is the same instruction provided with the Shoot wired remote which actually does have a button you can lock.

There are three settings plius Off on the wireless remote. But knowing which of the three does what is not intuitively obvious. However, according to the directions, You can choose single shot, continuous shooting, or delay shooting. Hmm.

Although, if all you need to do is trigger the camera remotely, even from far off, or through a wall, it works for that. Not so sure about accurate focusing with half press.

Scorpions Sleep Under Cow Patties

As Crumby waited for Ogma to set or go down, Crumby needed to do something to keep his spirit up. I know, he thought. I shall espy what’s under some of these cow patties.

Turns out, scorpions sleep under the cow patties. Yes. Those scorpions attach themselves to the bottom of the cow patties then go to sleep. They don’t even wake up when you turn the cow patty over. You have to poke them so they wake up.

After Crumby fooled with the scorpions awhile he then decided to take landscape pictures, familiarizing himself with the workings of the shutter remote and new wide angle lenses. But the trouble was, those dang clouds were getting ever closer fixing to totally spoil Crumby’s anticipated starry night photography.

Dang it. That dern cloud is fixing to f*** me around, Crumby predicted. Sure enough, pretty soon the sky was 90% occluded. Dang! Crumby spent $25 on gas to get to these dern parts so he could take some pictures of stars. Boo! Crumby had to give up and go home.

Ray's Exciting Day

There Ray was at work. But there were all these six legged distractions. There were worms (asiring to six-leggedness)eating the Galium aparine. There were colorful bug nymphs on the Galium aparine. There were interesting weevils on the Nemophila phacelioides. And to top it off, Ray thought he had a lifer butterfly in the seed house. Turns out though, Ray just plain didn't remember the falcate orangetips (Anthocharis midea)we espied a few years back while doing bird surveys. Ray clean forgot about those. So he tried to make this one into something it isn't. And we still don't have a picture of a male falcate orangetip.

Magnify the picture to the max and you may espy the tricky Neanderthal brow ridge sported by this species.

By the way. Many fly in but few fly out of the seed house. However, red admirals fly out. Are red admirals smarter that other butterflies?

Upcoming, the Worst Summer Ever, fer These Parts

Sometime during the previous brutal winter the rains stopped. Yet the wind blew and blew. The wind blowed! Consequently, there is no moisture in the soil. So, anticipating little or no rain, and dust dry soil, these parts are fixing to make Hades seem cool as a cucumber. Mercy on me! Only the air conditioned and irrigated shall prosper.


This cultivar pleach, the tree is half plum-half peach, knew something was up and commenced to flower weeks ago, sucking up almost the last of the moisture in its parts. Crumby kept thinking, This is crazy. It’s fixing to come another freeze. Is this pleach, nuts, or what?

Hemaris diffinis on pleach cultivar, plum flowers. Now the peach part is flowering. But the petals are deformed.

The Skunkbush is in Flower!!!!

Almost as exciting as Ant Day, the just past most important secular holiday in these parts, is flowering time for the skunkbush sumac, (Rhus trilobata) which many may know as (Rhus aromatica).


Here we espy a typical insect inhabiting the flowering skunkbush. Matter of fact, casual observation found this was about the only insect, other than some tiny no- see- ums, on the skunkbush. Which is odd, considering the profusion of luscious blooms.

Well. The luscious blooms would have been more apparent if Crumby had not blown the highlights. Also, seems like we identified this particular beetle once upon a time. But by now, we have forgotten. Or maybe not. It's the sumac flea beetle, (Blepharida phois), maybe.

SHOOT

After spending a dang fortune on Canon electric camera gear, mostly used, Crumby decided to go slumming for his dern remote triggers. Enter the picture, SHOOT, from Red China, the People’s Republic. Crumby has no qualms about trading with communists, or what passes for communists too. Heck. Communists, or even pretend communists, are people too. No worse and no better than the average capitalist roader, so far as the Goddess is concerned. SHOOT!

OK. An average terminal consumer here in the capital city of the Tejano Booblico can hook up with Emily and Lily on EBAY to purchase the SHOOT products. For $19.50, including shipping, you get both the wired and the wireless SHOOT remotes. Also, both remotes were easily delivered to the CB by the USPS. When will our fearless governor finally deep six the federal mail service? The gear arrived safely, well-packed in nice, tiny boxes. One of the boxes may be worth a dollar or two. It features strange pictures of dolls.

This gear is little. Tiny. Lilliputian. Like this picture features the wireless remote and all its parts. It’s little. See. That's a dime and Swiss Army knife for scale.

The wired remote (not pictured)was employed for taking the picture of the wireless gear. All of it works great. Works good as the remote on the actual camera. Amazing! Go figure. A bunch of dern communist Chinamen or maybe ladies or children.

Course. I have only taken a few pictures and have not dropped either one of the remotes in the bathtub while trying to get a shot of a troubling boil. Yet, generally, if these gizmos work out of the box, they are good to go for many moons, even in high humidity environments.

So, exhibit little fear while purchasing the cheapest remotes on EBAY, the SHOOT remotes. They work swell. Just make sure you figure out which ones fits your camera. The 60D, Crumby’s camera, uses the same remotes as the Rebels. So, what do the Rebels use?

June Bug-O-Rama

Course it's not yet June of the Julian. Yet the June bugs are romping and stomping. Thousands, maybe hundreds congregate at night lights. Trouble is, there are plenty of different June bugs and little correlation between the Brackenridge and Bugguide lists for the genus Phyllophaga, the main June bug genus.

Crumby is making slow but intermittent progress with all the new camera gear.

And then the Great Horned Owl

Crumby seldom employs optical devices for bird watching or as some would have it, birding. No. Crumby prefers to birdwatch, or bird, employing only his goddess provided eyeballs plus spectacles; also provided exclusively by the WG, but circuitously through Pearl Vision. The methodology Crumby employs filters bird noise and bird gestalt through Crumby’s noggin for correct bird identification. Or maybe not. Maybe the identifications are all wrong. But since the identifications make Crumby happy, so what.

Anyway, once upon a very recent time, Crumby was going along, happily identifying the various little birds, primarily sparrows, employing the methodology, bird noise plus gestalt, when suddenly a real birder appeared in the same habitat. And the real birder pointed out an active great horned owl nest to the unobservant Crumby. Goodness! It’s right there. And there’s an owl on it. Mercy!

Well. Since then Crumby has been fixing to take pictures of the owls. Right away he got a picture of an owl on the nest. Then naturally Crumby got to fretting. What if that poor owl is fixing to try and raise babies alone? Where’s the mate? I got to see if there’s twain great horned owls.

Crumby’s fret was satisfied the very next day thanks to the dang crows. Yes. Crows are ever on the alert for owls. Look! Those twain crows are fussing at that owl on that nest. But then those crows switched their fussy behavior over to a nearby tree. And lo, a great many more crows joined the original twain crows so that there were ten crows.

Hmm. Speculated Crumby. I reckon the other owl is over yonder.

Crumby circled around and eventually took this picture of the other owl that was loose and not on the nest whereas the other owl, not shown, was still on the nest, making for twain owls.

Taking pictures of owls is hard work, not helped by the chromatic aberration.

Missed Opportunities

There I was, ensconced in my Lazy Boy, watching TV, probably listening to the music as the credits rolled for Alice in Wonderland, a four star movie. The back door was cracked open, just wide enough to admit the largest of the small pets. Suddenly, a cat burst through the door with another cat on his tail. The first cat belongs. But the second cat, a fuzzy yet rampaging black one, does not.

Crumby hollers in panic. What the dern heck? The black intruder cat turns on a dime and is out the door before Crumby’s heart can start beating again. Must have thought, Whoa! How did I get here?

Then too, earlier Crumby was howing the switchgrass. Hard work. But there was a mourning cloak butterfly exhibiting interest in the leavings. Mourning cloaks like sap.

Well. Sadly, because Crumby wasn’t ready, he missed opportunities to photographically document both the rampaging cat and the new mourning cloak. Too bad, especially because the extant mourning cloak documentation is low quality.

Hyphantria cunea revisited

The growing season in these parts features pecan trees leafed out. The pecans are among the last trees to leaf out. They leaf out just about the time the majority of migratory warblers come through, the concealing herbage rendering those warblers more difficult to espy. However, since those leaf gleaning warblers would not be in a leafless tree in the first place, who should care? Well. It's just fancy. Many have speculated how nice it would be for the warblers to assemble in leafless pecan trees for the benefit of the birders.

Hyphantria cunea festoons the pecan trees with unsightly webs. Inside the webs, or bags, the caterpillars, or worms, make themselves at home, contentedly digesting the ingested pecan leaves. The bagworms are trying to oblige the birders. But their timing is off since the warblers and the birders have long since departed. Another example of "better late than never" not working as anticipated by the old wives or common sense.

Generally, the moths may be noted in the spring. They are small, white moths resembling the larger Spilosma moths, but lacking the colorful splotches on their abdomens. On those occasions when a great many moths are on the wing, the English sparrows assume the attributes of flycatchers or maybe falcons, taking moths in mid-air. However, English sparrows are only imaginary flycatchers or falcons, inefficient yet comical. Hark! These twain introduced vermin probably carry out the same seasonal activity back in the old country.

Until recently, Crumby has had to rely on an artist's conception for the appearance of Hyphantria cunea. But now, at last, we may have an actual photo or two.

Chromatic Aberation

Crumby's Canon 400mm f5.6 lens exhibits lots of CA under some conditions. Here is an example. Note the purple fringing on the tree branches. Crumby is fixing to have to learn how to deal with this. Purple fringing for Goddess Sakes!

Well. Since you have a 400mm lens, why not take pictures of aeroplanes. Crumby is a minor stockholder in the featured.

The Dernal Vernal

Spotted cucumber beetle on Mexican plum.

These dern parts. The very cold winter stopped on a dime. Then, all of a sudden, seemingly overnight, spring stepped forth from the suddenly arrested great vehicle. Ah. The perfume of the wild plum flags the warm breeze as the great vehicle door slides open. It's like the great vehicle is a mini-van that stopped on a dime. You know, with a sliding door.

The peaches and plums are in full bloom at the CB. Matter of fact, they have been blooming up a storm for a couple of weeks now. Yet it is barely March of the Julian for goodness sakes. Reckon a hard freeze is fixing to undo all this dernal vernal fancy, maybe?

Alas. Crumby's job is apparently over for good. But the good news is, Crumby got paid. So no short term money worries. The pet dog gets to share Crumby's grub instead of the other way round. Wonder why your dog prefers your food? Try the dog food. You'll see why. It's too bland. Isn't it.

Crumby's Favorite Photos

At least two species of Osmia frequent the CB. This is the other one. They seem to prefer arborescent legumes.