The Post – An Unlikely Fish Count
January 5, 2011The Post – The Challenge of Animal Cams….
January 5, 2011Animals are like kids – it’s a major challenge to get a good photograph of them. When I got this photo for “Hey Baby!” I must have shot almost 200 photos. Either he wasn’t positioned right, or he moved just as I clicked the shutter, the lighting didn’t highlight him right or I screwed up and used the wrong ISO or lens, or I used aperature priority when I should have used auto. Then of course, you can’t tell a fiddler crab “come on baby, work we me, yeah, flick your hair, turn, smile….” And of course, the times he was in perfect position waving his claw, I was just in the middle of something else with no camera handy and by the time I grabbed the tripod and set up the camera, he was doing something else. Suffice it to say tt was a major challenge getting one shot that he looked good in that was in focus, lit right etc.
I kept wishing I could have put my camera in the tank but too distracting and upsetting for Admiral Byrd and too awkward for me….not to mention I didn’t have one of those waterproof housings and my camera was too big for the tank.
I would have loved one of those smaller cameras you can just set up – a “fiddler cam.” Ultimately that is the answer to good pics I think….at least in terms of spontaneity and not upsetting him, but who knows if the kind of cam I could afford would focus well etc.
However, when I saw the following video I didn’t feel so bad. If professionals could have problems, I guess I didn’t do so bad. What I encountered was nothing compared to what the BBC group photographing polar bears went through, and they even had robotic cameras… For your viewing pleasure: Polar Bear video
I’ll just stick to fiddler crabs…. 🙂 have a nice day.
The Post – A Different Kind of Undersea Video – But Amazing!
January 3, 2011I love ocean creatures – I frequently paint them. Never could scuba dive – ear problems – but I love undersea documentaries, and Jacques Cousteau was my childhood hero.
In that vein, here’s a Showtime Short video that’s “real” in how the animals act and hunt and move, but “unreal” in origin. I could watch it for hours and I admire the amount of creativity that went into it.
Here you go – from Showtime Shorts. What a neat piece of work. Enjoy!
The Post – Maybe this is why we like animals…even when we’re not so sure about humans?
January 3, 2011Just a neat study done a couple years ago in NYC and it was such a pleasure to see that the power of the human heart still prevails, at least sometimes…..And this may be why we find animals such a joy, even little fiddler crabs, when humans drive us crazy? 🙂 Click here
Enjoy the story of the Tweenbots! (See a picture)
The Post – Hey Baby! …. A Tribute to Admiral Byrd.
January 2, 2011
He was always there – strong, intrepid, fearless, hopeful. He never stopped waving his claw even when he was the only crab left. We’d come back from being out and would peer into the house from the garage door and we could see him – standing on his tank rock, the dark kitchen lit only by the light of his tank, all alone in the house, tank, world, and still, he was waving.
Fiddler crabs wave their claws to catch the attention of passing females in the hopes the female will choose the home they have made, instead of some other male’s nest. They also wave them to warn other males to stay away.
Admiral Byrd was the uncontested master of his world – the 10 gallon tank in our kitchen. He was one of three fiddler crabs we bought over two years ago. In that time he outlived Peter Lorre, Rhett Butler, Scarlett O’Hara, Melanie Hamilton, the Three Muses and a couple other males who didn’t live long enough to be named. He was the only one of them who was ALWAYS out exploring his tank – the females rarely emerged from the inside of their rock and the other males just sat in their rocks. He was always marching about the tank, even when he was brand new and he had no idea if this aquarium place was a deathtrap or a blessing. Admiral Byrd was the first, the best, and eventually, the only. There was only one Admiral Byrd and he lives on in our heart.
I buried him outside, just as I’ve done with the dogs, gerbils, hamsters, and rat. Because he was such a special creature in spite of being our smallest pet, I buried him in my meditation corner, right next to my statues of Buddha and Mary. (They’re a story for another day).
Now, to commemorate what a tremendous spirit he had in spite of being such a small creature, I honor him with this image of him in classic Admiral Byrd pose – out and waving. He is the logo picture for my Cafe Press store, and I have a whole line of products – mugs, T-shirts, note cards. I even have a case for my iPhone 4 that carries his picture. The “Hey Baby!” quote captures his unbreakable and commanding spirit. Humans could take a lesson from his never giving up.
So with Hey Baby! on my storefront to remind me never to give up, I can always keep his spirit in me as I work my online store. And as I sip tea in a Hey Baby! coffee mug, I can still have Admiral Byrd with me in spirit, waving at me from the cup. But most of all, he will live on in our hearts forever. 🙂
PS If you would like to read the history of all the fiddlers, their antics, pregnancies, lives and deaths, just click here, or on the right sidebar page titled: And What’s the Deal With All the Fiddler Crab Stuff
The Post – 2010 in review
January 2, 2011The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.
Crunchy numbers
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 5,300 times in 2010. That’s about 13 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 3 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 320 posts. There was 1 picture uploaded, taking a total of 34kb.
The busiest day of the year was August 6th with 66 views. The most popular post that day was The Post – Extra! News on Preparing the Fiddler Crab Nursery.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were en.wordpress.com, google.com, search.aol.com, student-loan-consilidation.com, and mariaozawa2u.blogspot.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for pregnant crab, pregnant fiddler crab, fiddler crab babies, faith is believing when common sense tells you not to, and pregnant crabs.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
1
The Post – Extra! News on Preparing the Fiddler Crab Nursery February 2008
4 comments
2
The Post – Pregnant Scarlett O’Hara and the Proud Father February 2008
2 comments
3
The Post – Faith is Believing in Something When Common Sense Tells You Not To June 2008
4
The Post – How Long Do Fiddler Crabs Stay Pregnant? February 2008
1 comment
5
The Gift – A Fiddler Crab Extra!! Meet the Babies! March 2008
1 comment
The Post – I think I did it!
December 22, 2010After much struggling last night and today, I think I got my Cafe Press site working. I must admit it is weird but satisfying to see my photo image on T-shirts, sweatshirts, yoga mats, baby clothes and even a thong! 🙂
The Post – The confusion that is Cafe Press and Photoshop!!!!
December 21, 2010I set up a shop for myself on Cafe Press – Debra Bailey’s Art & Nature Creations. That way I can sell prints, T-shirts, calendars, mugs, and baby clothes etc. that has my art work on it. Fine, no problem. BUT, I selected one of my photos and want to put a caption on it. Photoshop is fighting me from putting a caption on my picture and Cafe Press doesn’t appear to offer a way to do it. HELP!!!!! I got the picture up there just fine. But HOW DO I GET THE LITTLE GUY TO SPEAK?
(Trademark pending)
Soul Mosaic 
