The following photographs show the observation tower located along the boardwalk at Huntley Meadows Park, Fairfax County, Virginia USA. My viewpoint is a meadow east of the tower, facing west toward the central wetland area.
Copyright © 2013 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.
An Oval Circumscribed Halo and 22° Halo observed from the Hollin Meadows Swim & Tennis Club, Fairfax County, Virginia USA.
The circumscribed halo is typically a brightly coloured oval around the sun. It is tangential to the inner 22º halo directly above and below the sun and it is brightest there. Sometimes local brightenings of the 22º halo are the only sign of it. Its shape depends very much on the solar altitude. Source Credit: Atmospheric Optics
I used a fence post to block the disc of the Sun and shot the photos at -3 exposure value (ev). The camera LCD was so dark it was like looking at the Sun through welder’s glass! Photo 2 (of 2) also shows a contrail.
Tech Tips: The following camera settings were used: ISO 100; focal length 4.5mm (25mm, 35mm camera equivalent); -3 ev; aperture f/8; shutter speed 1/2,000 second.
Copyright © 2013 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.
The Fairfax County Fire & Rescue boat located at Pohick Bay Regional Park, Fairfax County, Virginia USA.
Copyright © 2013 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.
The following slideshow features a female Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) calling its mate. The nesting pair of Osprey was spotted near Riverside Park in Fairfax County, Virginia USA.
Females usually show dark necklace across white breast. Source Credit: Osprey, “All About Birds,” Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Related Resource: “Osprey calling its mate (amplified)” – an audio recording of the same bird shown in the preceding photos.
This post includes a link to an audio recording of bird calls by the same Osprey shown in the photos! You may be wondering, “How did you do that?” I used the free “Voice Memos” app on my Apple iPhone to record the bird call in situ. Next I used “Audacity,” a free audio editor, to amplify the recording on my Apple iMac. Finally, I uploaded the amplified version to “Audioboo.” Audioboo is a free tool for audioblogging. (Did I just coin a new term?) Try it yourself — it’s easy!
Editor’s Note: Audioboo provides three options that may be used to embed a player in blog posts: Standard (HTML5); WordPress.com (Flash); and “If all else fails.” For this blog, the Flash version (shown below) is the only option that displays properly on an Apple iMac computer; none of the options displays properly on an Apple iOS mobile device such as iPad.
WordPress.com
Copyright © 2013 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.
It’s official: Posterous will turn off on April 30, 2013. My new photoblog will be hosted on WordPress. I will post a notification here when walter sanford’s photoblog goes live. I hope you will follow me to my new home. Please stay tuned.
walter sanford's photoblog 