It says the same thing but more pleasant to look at than...

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

The drive is the entrance to a local estate. 'The Big House', which is behind the camera, was built in 1904 and I assume that the Beech trees are of a similar age.
As nothing is forever, a few years ago the owner planted young trees parallel to the existing ones. You can see two or three to the left of the picture ready to take over when the others reach the end of their natural lives.
Unfortunately if, as seems likely, the Government goes ahead with the building of a new high speed rail link from London to Birmingham (HS2), then those at the end of the drive furthest from the camera, will be flattened and a huge concrete viaduct will be built there.

Well, that's something to look forward to.:rolleyes:

That was a very ice pic, Carruthers.

Wish I'd taken it.

Because, then, I'd have been there, instead of having been here.

A friend got a USB "microscope" camera for Christmas, but couldn't use it because it's not compatible with Macs (contrary to the specifications listed on Amazon.) So he "returned" it to Amazon, who refunded his money and told him to keep it rather than ship it back. So he gave it to me.

It's kind of neat. It a lot like those Magic Eye cameras that you could connect to the tv. It has a macro lens and a ring of LED lights to illuminate the subject. It's not really a microscope but does take impressive macro shots.

Here's a detail of the border of a five dollar bill. I never knew those little lines were actually printing.
Attachment 50196

And here's a $20 bill.

I also took a before and after shot of my whiskers before shaving, but I won't subject you to that.

Attachment 50197

MOAR

Hey, the five has barbed wire loops. :haha:

here are rolled oats
Attachment 50200

steel cut oats
Attachment 50201

and oat bran (hot cereal)
Attachment 50202

And white rice
Attachment 50203

Here's a kind of hook and loop strap for tomato plants
Attachment 50207

a dirty eraser
Attachment 50204

a ginsu style serrated knife
Attachment 50206

And the strike surface of a matchbox
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The fabric of my pants.
Attachment 50208

My eight o'clock shadow
Attachment 50211

100 grit aluminum oxide sand paper
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A pencil tip
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Very cool

That is way bitchen.

Keep them coming!

It's a fun toy, but it's more difficult than you would expect to find interesting stuff to look at. Most stuff is boring under magnification. And the thing is attached to the computer with a 2-3 foot cord, so it's not something you would want to carry around into the outdoors, even with a laptop. So I keep looking for small items I can carry to it, and hope they look fascinating. Most don't. But I'll post anything that looks cool. I bet fresh veggies would be good, but our kitchen is kinda empty right now.

Also, the shutter button is on the side of the microscope, and when you press it, the whole thing vibrates a little, making stuff more blurry. I'm going to try doing a screen grab next. What keystroke combination does a screen shot of the active window? ctrl-Prnt Screen? Something like that, I think. That would eliminated the movement from the shutter button.

I had one of those I traded a cheap Soviet microscope for. I agree with all of your comments about the difficulty of non-portability, short cord and that damn shutter button. Also it's a short depth of field so finding cool shit to scope is work.

Oh, and the plastic toy appearance limits bragging rights to the resulting pictures, rather than the scope. ;)

And it looks like I'm done with it anyway. I had 3 old XP laptops in my closet that were gathering dust because they were too slow to do anything online, and I offered one to my friend so he could use his microscope camera gift with it. He took a few days to get back to me and just responded that he would love to have a free crappy old laptop and his camera back. So I'll be giving the camera back in the next day or so, and getting rid of a computer as well.

Any requests of something to see up close? I've pretty much run out of ideas.

a sponge
a coin
a pillow
a pillow on fire
ten pillows on fire


sorry


alt+ print screen gets the active window. I think you taught me that. I was cropping the shift prtsc shots

not macro, but zoom zoom ... from this am.

Glatt, I would like to see the difference between brown rice and the white you just showed.

tha's a cool pic classic, very cool. catching birds in flight, not just soaring, is super hard. great catch

would this help?

usb extension cord that's a ten footer. but they're available longer. how long do you need?

Aw, he's just showing off his new fancy-ass feeders. :haha:

The long USB just puts you further from the computer you're interfacing with.

toothbrush
Attachment 50242
Attachment 50243

thanks V. I am loving the new feeders XOB. I'm gonna move the suet though. Every time the woodpeckers land on it, they're on the behind it from my view. I may make one that gives them something to land on comfortably and at the same time forces them to one side only so I can see them.

Lamplighter
 

Nail a cat on to the back side.

Not terribly neat, but my own ...http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15...6bbd863ff7.jpg

Sent by thought transference

Khasret Sultan?

Purple haze...

I thought it might be Ararat, or Elbruz. Somewhere round that way, anyhow.

Sent by thought transference

Ararat was my first guess, but I figured I'd look at your food thread to see where you are now.

I took the pic out of the plane windows somewhere over the Caucasus mountains.

Sent by thought transference

I don't see Noah's Ark so not Ararat.

Mr. Blue Jay appreciated the peanuts in the 2 degree weather.

I just imagined a tiny, bluebird-sized EpiPen.

My Red-bellied woodpecker.

Great pictures!

thanks. I'm really enjoying them and I'm getting better photographing them with a little help... shoutout to BigV.

Maybe, with any luck, he'll choke to death on that peanut. I hate a goddamn bluejay, screechy sons o' bitches.

Rather harsh, old chap.

Not only that, but, I hope he suffers, too.

I'll put a .22 pellet through all their blue heads at 1600 feet second, if'n they'll sit still for about two seconds.

Did you get a note from Mommy Jay saying Jr is peanut tolerant? We don't want to be hearing from Canwi, Phuckem, and Howe.

Goldfinch (winter colors)

Nuthatch

What was your name again, Audubon? Ha, he should have been so good.
Those pictures are phenomenal! The only pictures I've taken of birds was just trying to get something clear enough for someone who knows birds to ID it... and that was fucking near impossible. :haha:

Ha, thanks. Keep in mind, I'm not posting all the others that are garbage.

That may be, but in a real world setting, not a cage in a photo studio, one in a thousand sounds about right. ;)

My birds are fairly difficult to photograph.

I'd be satisfied with 1:1000.

Believe it or not, I had my first Robin's visit the feeders this week. Seriously, it took almost two months for them to check it out. The basically live in my front yard, wth?

I think robins eat mostly worms/insects.

This winter they'll eat seeds and like it. :haha:

For whatever reason, robins don't hit our feeders.

Also, on a bird note, our blackbirds have just about disappeared. What we call 'specklebellies', and 'blueheads', starlings, and grackles, respectively, just haven't been around. For a while.

ETA: We seem to have a larger-than-normal number of mockingbirds, and damnable blue jays, lately.

They are all in my backyard. F*ckers are decimating the feeders. All of them are emptied within an hour of their arrival. Totally pissin me off. :mad2:

Correct
When its as cold as it was, Correct.

Actually they were eating the dry cat food I threw out there.

That is nice.

Very pretty, a little sad... or maybe somber is a better word.
But don't worry Digr, she'll come back to you in the morning. ;)

outside of New Hope Pa

Attachment 53810

Very nice, good eye. :yesnod:

nice

JIM!!!! Quick, go check the base of that Tulip Poplar for shrooms.

Pretty. Artistic too.