Which Ultra Wide Lens?

Druids need to review the available information before any potential action is taken. It’s one of our behavioral guidelines. Yet realize this. All the available information may be put out by vested interests, liars or nincompoops. So the available information may not be any count. Jeez Louise!

Also, the available information may be dangerous if absorbed too fast. Like here’s an artist’s conception of an average photo buff who studied up on the available information regarding ultra wides too fast. Not a pretty sight.

Yet Crumby has now slowly studied all the available information regarding ultra wide lenses for Canon 1.6 crop mount and survived. So for the heck of it, let’s say ultra wide runs to 12mm at the wide end. If you multiply 12mm by 1.6 and then add the result, 7.2, to 12, you get 19.2mm. That, 19.2, is the same difference on a 35mm for those who care. Makes one wonder why Canon chose 1.6 instead of 1.5 or 2.0 like everyone else. Hmm. Crumby actually believes that the 1.6 multiplier is a good sign or indicator that Canon engineers know how to do arithmetic better than all the competing camera engineers.

At this very nonce, there is a whole troop of ultra wide lenses available for Canon crop 1.6 mount, 12mm or wider on the wide side. Crumby shall endeavor to list all of the ones that zoom.

Canon 10-22mm, f 3.5-4.5
Tamron 10-24mm, f 3.5-4.5
Tokina 11-16mm, f2.8
Tokina 12-24mm, f4
Sigma 10-20mm, f4.5-5.6
Sigma 10-20mm, f3.5
Sigma 8-16mm, f4.5-5.6

Seven is a great many to pick from. But obviously, if you are after Ultra Wide, there is a clear winner here. Yes. It’s the final entry above. That numero octo or 8 means you can frame a plentitude even close up. Say you need a pig shot. Pigs may be big and fat, but no problem if you have the Sigma 8-16 Ultra Wide. The same goes for taking a picture of an octopus. The Sigma 8-16 is uniquely designed for octopus photography. What about spiders? How many legs have spiders normally got? Do spiders ever spread those eight legs out Ultra Wide? Course they do.

In an earlier post Crumby implied that he was fixing to go for the Canon 10-22. But that was before he discovered the amazing capabilities of the Sigma Ultra Wide 8. Now Crumby has decided on the Sigma instead.

But what about the other options. What if you don’t require photos of big fat pigs, octopi and spiders. Let’s say you need to take a picture of a poorly lit comfort station interior. In that event, you might consider the Tokina 11-16. The Super Fast Tokina let’s in the most light. But there again, it may not be sufficiently, Ultra Wide, to include the entire stygian interior of that particular comfort station.

How about if you are yourself an imbecile and you consequently feel like your ultra wide lens needs to zoom all the ways out to 24mm? Well then, both the Tamron 10-24 and the Tokina 12-24 have you covered.

What if you are poorly funded? Well then. The Tokina 12-24, the Tamron 10-24 and the Sigma 10-20 f4.5-5.5 can all be had new for under $500. You pay your money and you take your chances. But that’s always true, no matter.

How about used? Well then. The leper lens vendor is rubbing up the wares, jest fer ye. Ha-ha-ha!!!!

Ooo! My new used lens has some dead skin or something on it.

The Dead Muth Society (DMS)

To get in and contribute to the DMS you need to be a dead moth photographer or a dead moth. Crumby is a living member. And while scouting around the CB in his capacity as living member of the DMS, Crumby found two dead moths.

Y’all want to join the DMS? Crumby queried the twain moths.

Yup. Sure we do.

So here they are.

(Apoda y-inversum) was found when Crumby had to dust the Parlor of the Goddess. That’s right. This slug moth was found stone cold dead on top of the what not cabinet.




Remember! Crumby has a love hate relationship with the muths that are also sometimes known as darts. But what about the 1962 Dodge Dart? Well. Ray and Crumby both had a love hate relationship with that interesting American-made automobile. Especially, the push button models.

And here is another dart (Nedra ramosula)

But this particular dart is a moth dart or dart moth if you prefer. Same difference. It committed suicide or was more likely stung by a spider in the Men’s Comfort Station. Crumby espied it’s pathetic corpse one morning as Crumby was fixing to perform some ablutions or secret Ovate rituals. Alas, it is missing one antenna. With twain antenna it would be a nice specimen of a moth. An important moth that is not even included on the voluminous Brackenridge moth list.

Capturing Images of your Various Motile Birds with an Olympus E 330 and 70-300

Crumby’s current, bird documentation, camera combo is the above. As a bird in flight (bif) combo it is next to useless for any but the most mundane documentation photos (see golden crowned kinglet below). But with a little help from Jasc PSP, an average amateur photographer can get a picture of a walking bird (wb). Course to snap such a picture in the first place you have to use manual focus. Autofocus does not actually work on Olympus cameras, not SAF, much less CAF.

Hold it. Sometimes SAF works. But only when the lens is aimed below the horizontal. If the lens is inclined above the horizontal, that’s when autofocus never works. Yet another reason to purchase mainstream camera equipment from a reliable, big name company as opposed to a pipsqueak company.

Praise the Goddess, the 60D should be here pretty soon. Crumby managed to borrow a portrait lens to test his new camera out with once it finally arrives. Then Crumby shall need to decide how much of the Olympus equipment to let go and replace with Canon gear. Crumby is a little misty-eyed wrt to his Sigma 150mm macro. But to continue to use it he would need to upgrade to a 12.3 megapixel, sensor Olympus camera costing a minimum of four hundred or so bucks. The new camera would still suck on cloudy or windy days though. Mercy!

Here’s what Crumby needs to go with his new 60D. Crumby needs a 10-22mm and a 400mm 5.6. Then, if he shucks his current macro gear,(Sigma 150 and Oly 35), he would also need replacements for that. In Canon mount there is every kind of macro lens an average amateur photographer could desire. And nearly every one of them is can’t miss good.

They Come Without a Lens?

As a matter of fact, they do Rayetta. You can get them without a lens or lenses either.

Well what good is a camera without a lens? Can you take a picture without a lens?

Sigh.

As everyone knows, Crumby’s aggravation with his one and only personal camera equipment company, Olympus, has been on the rise. That’s correct. And at last, Crumby felt like he needed to take some action. So Crumby decided to buy another Olympus body hoping to slog along with most of his current gear until la mordita take us all. That will learn them. I shall purchase another of their crappy dang bodies. That will teach Olympus to use me so.

But then something finally snapped. Yes. As Crumby watched, spell bound, he was outbid time and again by the deep-pocketed on EBAY. Mercy! This can’t be happening. These cameras I am losing to !***! are old tech and used to boot. Used, old tech, no warranty. Probably also the present owner is a leper. Maybe he is fixing to rub leprosy all over the camera before he boxes it up. This is crazy. Crazy I tell you.

You know. I don’t need to put up with this. Let’s see what I can do on a Canon 60D.

Practically just for ducks, with little hope of winning, Crumby bid on a brand new, USA, completely under warranty, Cameta camera, 60D, body only. Thirty minutes later, Crumby won, $896 shipped. Whoa! That was easy. Nothing about Olympus was ever that easy.

Easy is underrated. The switch is underway.

Total Moon Eclipse, Occluded

The clouds zoomed up from the south. At first Moon peeped through. Then more and more clouds zoomed up. Sadly, by the time of eclipse, Moon was entirely invisible, occluded by the zooming clouds. Crumby was the last to lose faith. He finally gave up around 1:15AM. This is exactly why an average Druid needs multiple hobbies.

Yes. Crumby could have chosen the path of despair. That’s right. After all, a total Moon eclipse on Winter Solstice is an incredibly rare event. Much rarer even than a Mercury passage of Ogma. Many may remember how Crumby botched the Mercury passage. Couldn’t blame the clouds for that.

But as Crumby gradually sunk to the depths of despair, recalling first this, then that, astronomical failure, he chanced to espy the banana feeder. Wait a minute. Maybe I don’t need to end life as I know it after all. There’s a four-legged spider in with the bananas.

How sad is that? A spider that has lost half its legs but still has four. See. There’s always someone that’s theoretically worse off than you, Crumby. And besides, the Druid religion clearly reveals that those who espied the total Moon eclipse deserved to espy it, while the rest got what they deserved.

So. Druid Dichotomy Time. Is a spider with four legs the same difference as a half glass of water?

Meantime, there are plenty of eclipsed Moon peektures popping up on the internet. Not the same as being there? But way easier on the nerves.

New Energizer Headlamp

Good Goddess! Rayetta went and broke my danged old Walmart headlamp. That Walmart headlamp lasted for years. It was indestructible almost, but not Rayetta proof. No. Not Rayetta proof. That’s fer sure.

It was a heavy instrument too, sporting 4 AAs. Uncomfortable? Yepper. Give you a headache. Yepper. Got my lifer Bufo houstonensis with that ‘un though. And plenty other nocturnal vermin besides. Good Goddess!

Mercy! The Walmart headlamp plus another of the flashlights, a red Mini Maglite, bit the dust the same week. Not acceptable. A man like Crumby must often penetrate the stygian darkness with his far, I mean near-sighted gaze. What would he do without flashlights? There’ he’d be, lying in his bed, many years from now, wondering if the English were fixing to sneak up on him.

Fortunately, one of Crumby’s habits is to always check out the flashlight offerings at the various stores. So when the CB flashlights got hit hard by this or that calamity, Crumby knew which stores featured a good flashlight selection. Like Target features plenty of flashlights and is easier to get to than Walmart.

OK. Now for the official review. Because Crumby is average in every way, he purchased the middle of the road model which also was the only one of the three models on sale. This model has four light settings 1) Two big lights in the middle light up. 2) Two smaller lights on the sides light up. 3) All four lights light up. 4) A couple of infrareds light up.Also, the light fixture can be rotated 180 degrees.

But, the trouble is, the only way to get, for example, infrared, is to cycle through the other three settings. Could get you lynched at a star party. Mercy!

OK. The new Energizer headlamp is very bright and also way more comfortable than the old Walmart headlamp. But it is too early to recommend. For one thing, it may cause irreparable red eye in the moth’s eyes. We’ll have to see. You may notice the professional yet anonymous model next door. The lamp is set on infrared. Infrared brings out the nose hairs.

Entomology, not for Everybody, or Coffee Either?

(Another Druid Dichotomy)

The truth is, an average person growing up has to learn to like coffee. The same is true of snuff. An average person must gradually adapt to these nasty drugs before becoming addicted.

Take Crumby for example. Baby Crumby did not like coffee. He did not like snuff. But as soon as he got addicted, he could scarcely do without either. The same is true of the Noctuinae, perhaps the nastiest of all the moth subfamilies.

For decades, Crumby resisted the lure of the bugs mainly because of the Noctuinae. That’s right. Initially, when Crumby contemplated bugs as a hobby or maybe even a career, images of Nocutinae flew at Crumby’s mind’s eye. Or maybe they crawled toward Crumby’s mind’s eye at a snail's pace. Yes. They crawled or were maybe curled around some grassy blade in a grassy glade. Ugh!

Yes all right. Crumby knew they were out there, lurking in the stygian darkness; the chewing teenagers, the banana sucking adults. Cutworms! Darts! Armyworms! Egad! Millions of them! But alas! An average Joe like Crumby can probably habituate to anything, even a cutworm or two.

Yes indeed. Back in the days of youth, these particular bugs we are presently discussing, put Crumby off. Maybe it was the eyes, glowing like infernal coals. Maybe it was how they fold one wing over another. Maybe it was the shape or the various sickly colors that left Crumby figuring. Why would I want to be seriously involved with these?

But now, Crumby likes them. He even makes excuses for them. Hector Protector! He even features one on the venue. Peridroma sauci

Winter Solstice, DY 7

The new year, Druid Year 6 (DY 6) is fixing to commence. This year, the faithful shall enjoy a full lunar eclipse on the first night or morning of the new year. That’s correct. Commencing at around 12:30 AM Tulsa time, Moon shall begin to turn entirely red. The whole eclipse lasts about 72 minutes so Moon shall go completely red in the neighborhood of 1:00 AM and a little bit. You bet we shall stay up for that, weather permitting.

Speaking of weather, no rain has fallen in these parts for more than two months. Yes. The wicked are being punished. But alas. The righteous suffer along with the wicked.

Anyway. Crumby would like to ovate that this Winter Solstice plus the accompanying eclipse shall herald a new age. During the upcoming age, billions of evil doers shall perish. But there’s a problem with this prognostication. And the problem is, the billions of evil doers may take too much time perishing, and thus, not do anybody any good. Yes. Crumby hopes most of the evil doers expire during the actual eclipse. However, that’s not likely.

But hey! It wouldn’t hurt to pray to the WG during this upcoming celestial event. You could like pray to the WG. Most beautiful and merciful WG, please, please please stamp an expiration date on all these evil doers. That’s what Crumby shall pray during this combo solstice/eclipse.

Oh! Remember too, it’s that time of year when the cooped up suffer Vitamin D deficiency. Terrible things can happen. Cannibalism! Deviant sex with pets and/or family members! Dry skin! Constipation! I could go on! So be sure to soak up as much of Ogma’s feeble rays as you can. Or take some vitamins.

The Genus Sphex, DY 5 at the CB

As everyone knows, we are working hard at the CB to identify our insects. Progress is slow but sure except for the bees. We are not making much progress with the bees. Bees are really hard.

Yet wasps are one example of exhibited good progress. Consider this. When we started our survey of the CB insects, we could not identify any wasp to species. That’s plenty sad
considering the vast assortment of wasps that live at or visit the CB and their obvious importance to life as we know it.

So presented here is a pictorial rundown of the genus Sphex in these parts. As may be readily discerned, they are fond of Solidago altissima. Yes. The most common plants are usually the best plants.

Sphex habenus








Sphex habenus female











Sphex ichneumoneus











Sphex lucae OOPS! This is actually more likely to be the similarly colored Prionyx parkeri. Yes. Crumby discovered a bunch more pictures of this one that better illustrate the golden hairs on its head and thorax. Sphex lucae is blacker overall. Also the palps are more like Prionyx parkeri. Learn along with Crumby.






Sphex pensylvanicus

Druid Special: Cold Season Hardy

Gracious sakes alive! We are nearly to the Winter Solstice. In these parts, the Winter Solstice for DY 5 shall be mean and miserable. We shall get nought but dry northers, the worst for everybody. No rain for weeks on end. Cold and windy. Mercy! All misery, right through the Solstice.

Could be worse? Volcano!

Yet consider the vermin that are cold season hardy. Freezing temperatures, drought, unceasing wind, human pollution blowing around does not fret these round-chested insects that we are presently discussing. Give them a banana, they do swell. No banana. OK anyway.

Let's start off with some serious vermin. Here we espy a group of blow flies. Blow flies! They are enjoying banana. The cucumber beetle is a hardy, blow fly companion.





Next we espy another blow fly (Lucilia) and the southern yellowjacket. Yes. The southern yellowjacket may get you year round if you don't watch out.





Here we espy a savage, ruthless yet small fly that may be practically unknown to what's left of the rapidly dwindling scientific community. Yes. But here it sits, eating a member of its own Order. Why can't it live peacefully? Why can't it enjoy a banana like everyone else?



Here's a bug going along on the roof of the porch. It's Menecles incertus a hardy bug that does not even need bananas to survive the wretched environmental conditions current in these parts.




Finally, for a change of pace, one of Crumby's bird shots with the E330 and the 70-300. With the now mostly defunct Olympus dslr system you're lucky to get such a shot.
Golden-Crowned Kinglet documentation.

Not shown are the cold hardy brushfeet butterflies persisting at the CB. Goatweed leafwing, question mark, red admiral. Plus there are more butterflies. Butterflies have plenty of hair. There may be plenty of moths too. Plenty.

Later.


OK. OK. OK. By popular demand, here is a cold hardy moth or muth example. What does Crumby mean by example? Well. The CB has many more cold hardy moths besides this particular moth. This one though (Anicla infecta)was chosed to be an example.

Spharagemon cristatum

This particular grasshopper was situated outside the back door of the CB in the St. Augustine. We have been unsuccessful with entirely killing off the St. Augustine. This grasshopper was sickly. Like it only made a feeble attempt at getting away. And look at those fibers its hind legs are tangled up in. Mercy! What kind of fibers are those?

The CB features a great many different or various grasshoppers. But this kind has been espied, just this once.

Crumby and Ray are very busy going through hundreds of photos they took for DY 5. Hundreds, mostly featuring the most obscure insects imaginable. No one even knows what Order many of these strange creatures should be placed in. That’s why the venue is getting neglected.

To Eat, or Not to Eat

That seems to be the question for this cute female jumper (Phidippus arizonensis). After awhile she decided the particular moth we are espying, probably (Acoolithus falsarius) was not for her. Maybe Crumby scared her off her feed. Later though, she turned up with a much bigger moth, three times her size. Mmm, moths.

No Fat Druids, Holiday Reminder!

As everyone knows, the WG likes leaner Druids, better than fatter ones. Especially, the WG is troubled when a Druid sports a big overhang of a dang fat belly. And what about bosoms, guys. Do you think the WG likes to see bosoms on old boy Druids? I don’t think so.

Yes alas. Today is another day to discuss an important health issue, reiterating upon that sad topic, fat Druids. And the topic today is, specifically, big fat guts. Like many moons ago Crumby was discussing this or that with a local goddess (lg). Suddenly the lg says, You know Crumby, you don’t have to sport that gut. There’s an easy way to get rid of it.

Oh yeah, says Crumby. How’s that? Anyway mines not so big. Plus I was just considering a sit up or two, maybe. Sit ups are just the thing for stomach exercise.

Hmm. It may not seem so big, but did you know there is as much fat on the inside of your stomach muscles as on the outside. All that fat surrounding your stomach muscles can’t be good. In fact, too much fat accumulated on your gut can crimp your intestines shut or eventually squeeze your heart so tight it won’t be able to beat. Yes Crumby. The gut muscles are probably the least exercised muscle group in the male human body and the most susceptible to fat build up. That’s right. The least exercised muscle group, but also the very muscle group that needs the most exercise, due to proximity to vital organs. Like right at this very nonce, I bet your liver or one of your bladders is getting squeezed mercilessly by all that fat.

Mercy! Jeez Louise! What can I do to save myself, lg. I should do some sit ups, Right?

No Crumby. There is a better exercise than sit ups. Sit ups are hard on your anus and may cause hemorrhoids. What I am proposing is much, much easier? Plus, you can do them anywhere, anytime, whether standing, walking, sitting or reclining. You can also do them continuously if you need to.

All righty, lg. Crumby wants to know. What are these most convenient of stomach calisthenics?

They are known as gut sucks. All you do is suck your gut, in and out, continuously, for as long as you can stand it. If I were you, Crumby, I would do a tousand or maybe two tousand a day to start.

Yepper. That is the true story of how a smart lg started Crumby off on one of his habitual behaviors, gut sucks. These days, Crumby can thank gut sucks for a somewhat slender physique with hardly any overhang or overburden. Plus, gut sucks have lots of entertainment value for an old person because another habitual behavior, counting, blends in nicely with the gut sucks.

Take it from the Crumby Ovate. If you desire to lose that big fat gut which now precedes you, try gut sucks, the most care free, commodious or convenient of all the stomach calisthenics.

Another Mystery (Fly) Solved, Maybe

Many may recall how excited Ray became when he first discovered the hairy legged flies covering up the Verbesina and Solidago a fall or two ago. Yes. Those flies were scarily abundant. Well. Maybe they were not super scary because they were also tiny. Tiny may not generally equate to scary.

Since that first discovery we have also found the same flies in the spring, on Ilex, even on Nemophila and the like. But they are not so abundant in the spring. And curiously, they were not so common this fall either. They may have outbursts.

Anyway, we may have discovered the genus of these flies. Maybe even the species if the Bugguide entry is reliable. Perhaps these flies are Empis clausa.

Riding Along

Bicycles are the finest of all the means of transportation. That’s because most of the best thought the world has ever known was thought on a bicycle seat. Consider the many great inventions, such as refrigeration. Refrigeration was invented on a bicycle, probably. Then too, you don’t have to spend a lot of time maintaining your bicycle, compared to a pony, burro or llama.

As Crumby rode along today, his noggin brimmed with notions, fantasies, conceits and opinions. He also had a brilliant idea or two. But why should Crumby share his brilliant ideas? What good would my brilliant ideas do anybody? No. Their fate is sealed, potted meat, for export.

Yes. Potted meat for export is the best hope for those many Americans who can’t or won’t work. Anon, their ship shall come in. Anon, once that ship is loaded, it shall metaphorically set sail or depart for the various ports of protein starved Asia. Mercy! Those protein starved Asians can and will work. But they need potted meat to boost their productivity even more. Goodness!

Does anyone dare suggest that some of the potted meat could wind up on, uh, the dark continent, uh, Africa? Well it could. Maybe a stray can or two could fetch up on a sunny beach of the dark continent. How ironic would that be?

Personally, Crumby does not feel like potted meat is exactly like cannibalism. Potted meat comes in a can. You have to employ a machine to open the can. That’s not cannibalism. That’s civilized.

Anyway, no since Crumby sharing brilliant ideas with future potted meat, civilized or not.

Crumby Kicks Ass

Kicks ass translates as old timer can still ride bicycle.

Today, just a little while after Crumby’s 63rd birthday, we almost ran out of crackers at the CB. Mercy! At the CB, running out of crackers is a minor emergency. That’s because Red, and by extension the rest of us, only eat Krispy Crackers. Well honestly. We will eat other kinds of crackers. But considering the regular saltines, we only eat the Krispy brand.

So when we like to run out, everyone was amazed that Crumby volunteered to go get the Krispy Crackers. That’s because the Krispy Crackers are vended exclusively at the HEB in these parts. Goodness! The HEB is hard to get at in a great vehicle. And harder to get back from for Goddess’ sakes in a great vehicle. Plus, the HEB is a fer piece. So everyone was totally surprised when Crumby offered to go. Plus flabbergasted when the ancient Ovate actually set sail for HEB. Yes. We all watched as Crumby pedaled off in the general direction of HEB on his red bicycle.

Ha! Those fools don’t realize what an easy trek this shall be. I have scouted the route. Once I get to Brodie, there are sidewalks, both sides of the road, all the way. Buh-huh-huh. I shall be a hero. We, Red included, shall have Krispy Crackers on the menu, for ever.

Yet Crumby reckoned without the stiff southerly breeze. Dang it. This dern wind is a trial and tribulation. Suddenly, Crumby heard a ripping noise. Oh no! My dang pants leg is caught in the dern chain.

Yet fortunately, getting his pants leg caught in the chain was Crumby’s only sin. Plus it pulled right out, only leaving a medium to small rip. Not bad.

OK. I am arrived at this miserable yet wretched, gigantic, grocery store. I need to purchase some more items besides twain boxes of the Krispy Crackers. This journey needs to be epic. OK. Canned peppers, canned salmon for croquettes, generic Alka Selzter, rechargeable batteries made cheap by a three dollar off coupon, and a Tecate tallboy. Tecate tallboys are delicious. Maybe I should get one for my bosom companion, Ray, too. Nah. The extra weight and the hurricane-like winds of these parts might undo me.

In the end, Crumby rode all that great way on his Spalding Blade bicycle, toting all those groceries all the way back, so that the many of the CB could survive a while longer and not starve to death. Crumby kicks ass.

Hey Crumby! Where’s my Tecate tallboy?

Crumby Tries an Experiment

These here scale insects were photographed September of 2009. The plant is probably tall goldenrod. Crumby has not noted these particular scales since. Matter of fact, DY 5, or 2010 if you prefer, has been a poor year for scale insects.

But the point is, Crumby has cropped and resized the image so that it is here presented at 560 pixels at its widest. Can we espy anything of the subject vermin?

Yes we can. So there is hope that they could also be fairly espied on another yet similar venue.

Crumby believes that the white tubes depicted are part and parcel of the lifestyle of these particular scales. But Crumby did not spend a lot of time watching the scales. He could be wrong, again.

Yes. It's true. A 63 year old has had plenty of opportunity for error, misdeed, misadventure, wickedness and sin. For example, an innocent person would have stuck with those scales for hours, maybe days, attently watching every move they, er, made. Yes. An innocent person would have documented those scales actually entombing themselves in those either cottony or waxy tubes. But not Crumby. Crumby allowed sin to intervene. So he's not sure where those tubes came from and only has an opinion.

All righty then. Here's another one; same methodology. This one's a long horned bee. Can we espy the wing venation?