Minor post updates

How to do screen captures on Apple iOS devices

Since my last blog post, I discovered it’s possible to record a movie of the screen display for Apple iOS devices that features both video and audio.

As you know, when you swipe down from the upper-right corner of the screen, the “Control Center” menu appears. Tap and hold the “Screen Recording” button and the following sub-menu appears.

Apple iOS | Control Center | Screen Recording / Microphone On

Tap the “Microphone” button to toggle recording on/off. As you can see, my iPad mini 6 is currently set for “Microphone On.”

This feature could be useful for creating instructional videos that show and tell how to use apps such as “RadarScope” (shown in the background of the preceding screenshot), my favorite weather app.

Comedy of errors

Going back to mid-March 2023, my blog post entitled Comedy of errors included the following composite image. Did you notice the dark blob on the coin? I did! It’s located in Theodore Roosevelt’s imaginary line of sight, above the horse’s neck. Once you see the blob, you can’t un-see it.

Composite image created from 192 of 328 photos.

The discoloration was a mystery to me, since I washed the coin with soap and water (twice) in preparation for the photo shoot. I’m happy to report the mystery was solved, by accident, when I was watching another YouTube video recently.

Turns out the dark blob is a chemical reaction that can occur on some coins as they age. In this case, the quarter is made of silver (in part) and the simplest explanation of the dark blob is it’s a place where the coin is tarnished. It’s not exactly the same thing as tarnish, but you understand.

Some coin collectors refer to the discoloration as a “burn.” In most cases, a burn doesn’t reduce the value of a coin, but in some rare cases it can add to the value substantially.

Related Resources

• How to Record iPad Screen With Sound, by Howfinity (2:43)
• Value of 1968 Kennedy Half Dollar, by BigDCoins (6:26)
• RadarScope app – a blog post by Walter Sanford

Copyright © 2023 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

How to do screen captures on Apple iOS devices

Still photos

Most people know how to take a screen shot of the display on an Apple iOS device by pressing a combination of buttons on the device. For example, simultaneously press the Power button and either one of the audio volume buttons (up or down) to take a screen shot using my Apple iPad mini 6.

Video

Did you know you can also record a movie of the screen display? If you swipe down from the upper-right corner of the screen, then the “Control Center” menu appears. Press the “Screen Recording” button, highlighted by the red square (shown below), to start recording the screen after a three-second countdown timer. Whatever you do with the device will be recorded in a movie that is saved to the “Photos” app by default.

When you’re ready to stop recording, press the small red button in the upper-right corner of the screen (highlighted by a red rectangle, as shown below). A pop-up window appears on screen; click the “Stop” button (also highlighted by a red rectangle). Your movie is saved to “Photos” automatically.

Related Resources

• How To Screenshot On iPad mini 6! (2:06) by LoFi Alpaca.
• How to Record iPad Screen With Sound (2:43) by Howfinity.
• How to customize Control Center on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch – Apple Support (0:53)
• Post update on 11 April 2023.

Copyright © 2023 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

How to shoot time-lapse videos on Apple iOS devices

Regular readers of my photoblog might remember when I experimented with using my GoPro HERO4 Black to record time-lapse videos. The process I used is simple and straightforward and works fairly well.

Did you know the Apple “Camera” app can record time-lapse videos on iOS devices? I didn’t. (More about that in “Tech Tips,” below.) As it turns out, the process is simpler than using my GoPro.

How to shoot time-lapse videos on Apple iOS devices

How to shoot TIMELAPSES on iPhone (7:15), by Matthew Vandeputte, time-lapse guru, is a helpful how-to video that provides step-by-step instructions for shooting time-lapse videos using the “Camera” app on an iPhone. The same process works for Apple tablets too.

Testing 1, 2, 3 …

I devised a simple test for Matthew’s directions using my Apple iPad mini 6 and my older iPad mini 2. I used the “Camera” app on my iPad mini 6 to record a time-lapse video of the real-time display of the “Alarm Clock” app on my iPad mini 2. Clever, huh?

The following time-lapse video shows approximately five (5) minutes of elapsed time compressed into 23 seconds of video (0:23).

YouTube video (0:23).

As you can see, the process works and works surprisingly well. Exactly how it works is almost magical. Matthew Vandeputte’s video provides an overview of research done by Dan Provost. For more details, be sure to refer to Dan’s article.

Tech Tips

User interface

The following image shows the default screen for the Apple iOS “Camera” app. The camera lens is covered in order to help the viewer focus on the user interface for the app.

Three options for setting the camera appear along the lower-right sidebar (from top to bottom): Video; Photo; and Square. Is there any indication there are more options for setting the camera? In a word, no. I suggest this might be a good place for a scroll bar.

Apple iOS “Camera” app (default screen).

If you scroll down, then you should see “Pano” …

Apple iOS “Camera” app (scroll down).

… and if you scroll up you should see “Slo-Mo” and “Time-Lapse.”

Apple iOS “Camera” app (scroll up).

Who knew all of these options are available? Not me. I realize Apple has fallen in love with “clean” user interfaces but when form impairs function it’s time for a reality check. I’m just saying, in case Apple is actually listening.

“Camera” app video settings

By default, the Apple iOS “Camera” app is set for “High Efficiency.” High Efficiency Video Encoding (HEVC), also known as the H.265 video compression standard, might be the standard of the future but is currently incompatible with some social media platforms.

I prefer to set the “Camera” app so that it will record movies using the H.264 video compression standard, also known as .MP4, one of two video formats recommended by Facebook and YouTube.

Video settings: Apple iPad mini 6

Navigate to “Settings,” select “Camera,” then select “Formats.” Change the default setting from “High Efficiency” to “Most Compatible,” as shown below. Note: “High Efficiency” is the default setting.

Set “Record Video” for “1080p at 30 fps.”

Video settings: Apple iPad mini 2

The following screen capture shows the camera settings for my Apple iPad mini 2. As you can see, the default settings for “Record Video” just work.

Related Resources

• How to shoot TIMELAPSES on iPhone (7:15), by Matthew Vandeputte.
• How Does the iOS 8 Time-lapse Feature Work? by Dan Provost.

Copyright © 2023 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

More resources for editing GoPro video

Sometimes I’m a content creator; sometimes I share content created by others, especially when the content is better than I could create myself.

Apple iMovie: Magic Movie

The latest version of iMovie includes a new feature called “Magic Movie.” Although I’ve never used “Quik,” the GoPro pay-to-play app that makes it easier for beginner videographers to create movies, I think “Magic Movie” targets the same demographic and does essentially the same thing as “Quik.” Both “Quik” and “Magic Movie” enable the user to quickly combine photos, video clips, and music into a punchy little movies.

How to make a Magic Movie video in iMovie 3, by Roman Loyola, Senior Editor, Macworld explains how to use Magic Movie on iOS devices including iPad and iPhone. The article features detailed, step-by-step directions that are richly illustrated with an embedded video and lots of screenshots.

Apple QuickTime

Don’t sleep on “QuickTime,” a versatile free utility from Apple, that’s capable of doing some of the same things that were covered in my last two blog posts.

Grab a Single Frame from a Video in QuickTime X, by Jeff Geerling explains how to use QuickTime to do a frame grab from video, including video shot using a GoPro action camera.

QuickTime can be used to do simple video editing, as demonstrated in the following excellent video by Michael Kinney.

Copyright © 2022 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

Common Green Darner dragonfly (external female reproductive anatomy)

For some species of odonate exuviae, sex is indicated by a form of remnant reproductive anatomy. These external structures don’t look exactly the same for all species of dragonflies and damselflies, but their function is identical.

As far as I know, this is true for all species in the Family Aeshnidae (Darners) such as Common Green Darner dragonfly (Anax junius).

Common Green Darner (Anax junius) | exuvia (ventral view)

The following photograph shows a ventral view of a female Common Green Darner dragonfly. Notice the external reproductive anatomical structure on abdominal segment nine (S9) is virtually identical to the remnant anatomical structure on S9 of the exuvia, shown above.

Original photo used with permission from Louisa C. Craven.

The Backstory

My dear friend Louisa Craven discovered the lifeless adult dragonfly while on vacation with her family in Nags Head, North Carolina USA. Louisa is an accomplished wildlife photographer who developed an interest in odonates as a result of many photowalks with me.

Related Resources

• Sexing odonate exuviae (Anisoptera)
• Odonate Exuvia
• Puzzle solved: Anax junius exuvia (female)

Copyright © 2020 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

Fawn Darner dragonfly (male)

A Fawn Darner dragonfly (Boyeria vinosa) was spotted, netted, and released unharmed along the Little Patuxent River in the North Tract of Patuxent Research Refuge, Anne Arundel County, Maryland USA.

02 SEP 2012 | Patuxent Research Refuge | Fawn Darner (male)

This individual is a male, as indicated by the secondary genitalia (hamules) located on the underside of abdominal segments two-three (2-3).

02 SEP 2012 | Patuxent Research Refuge | Fawn Darner (male)

Thanks to Louisa Craven, my good friend and photowalking buddy, for holding the specimen in the first two photos while I used her Apple iPhone 4S to take photos. This was our first “stream walk” in search of dragonflies and damselflies and both of us were afraid to carry our camera gear as we waded in the river.

02 SEP 2012 | Patuxent Research Refuge | Fawn Darner (male)

The Backstory

I posted these photos in my Project Noah Nature Journal two days after an Audubon Naturalist Society field trip to the North Tract of the Patuxent Research Refuge, led by Richard Orr, renowned expert on odonates of the mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

Some of the photos from the Project Noah “spotting” were added to my photoblog in order to backfill my Life List of Odonates to include a record of an adult Fawn Darner.

Related Resources

• Fawn Darner dragonfly (male) – Project Noah
• Audubon Naturalist Society Nature Classes and Field Trips

Copyright © 2019 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

Walking tour of CAHH parks

“Hollin Hills is a development in Fairfax County, Virginia, about 10 miles outside of Washington, D.C. It has about 450 houses. It was designed by Charles Goodman and developed by Robert Davenport.” Source Credit: “Hollin Hills” website (no longer online).

The Civic Association of Hollin Hills (CAHH) owns and maintains seven small parks in the community: the Wildlife Sanctuary; Sutton Potter Park; Brickelmaier Park; Charles Goodman Park; Paul Spring Park; “Mac” McCalley Park; and Voigt Memorial Park.

All of the parks are located along streams except Sutton Potter Park and McCalley Park. The Wildlife Refuge/Sanctuary extends from Woodlawn Trail to the dogleg in the road at Boswell Avenue and Delafield Place. Two parks straddle creeks that are tributaries of Paul Spring, a stream that runs along Paul Spring Road: Brickelmaier Park runs from Popkins Lane to Paul Spring Road; Goodman Park runs from Marthas Road to Paul Spring Road. Paul Spring Park runs along Paul Spring from the intersection of Rebecca Drive and Paul Spring Road to the intersection of Rippon Road and Paul Spring Road, directly across the street from McCalley Park and Voigt Park. The upstream end of Paul Spring Park is near White Oaks Park, a mid-size park maintained by Fairfax County Park Authority.

Sutton Potter Park was featured in an article that appeared in Washingtonian Magazine, “Best of 2004: Sledding Hills.” I shot two photos from a viewpoint about halfway up the long hill: one looking downhill; another looking uphill. Trust me, neither photo provides a sense of the true steepness of the hillslope — a sled ride downhill could be either extremely exhilarating or very terrifying! The park entrance is located at the 7400 block of Range Road; another entrance is located behind the townhouses along Windbreak Drive.

The Wildlife Sanctuary is (or was) a good place to look for Mocha Emerald dragonflies (Somatochlora linearis). Peak activity was observed during July. A segment of Paul Spring, a stream located in Paul Spring Park, is (or was) good for Needham’s Skimmer dragonflies (Libellula needhami); the entire length of the stream is good for damselflies, including Ebony Jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata) and Variable Dancer (Argia fumipennis)/Violet Dancer (Argia fumipennis violacea).

The Backstory

During Fall 2010, I used my Apple iPhone 3G and an app called “EveryTrail” to create an interactive map showing the location of the entrances to the CAHH parks. At some point, I noticed the hyperlink to the interactive map stopped working.

As it turns out, ownership of “EveryTrail” transferred to “TripAdvisor” in 2011; EveryTrail was acquired by “AllTrails” in 2016.

All of the interactive trail maps that I created eight years ago survived two ownership transfers, much to my surprise! Some of the interactivity of the original maps was lost in translation, but hey, all is not lost. “Walking Tour of CAHH Parks” is the current iteration of the interactive map, available from AllTrails. See also “Walking Tour of Huntley Meadows Park (Ver. 2).”

Tech Tips

The “EveryTrail” app was used to record a GPX file that traces the route I walked.

Photos were shot at selected waypoints. All photos featured in both interactive trail maps were taken using the built-in camera of my Apple iPhone 3G; the photos were geotagged automatically by the iPhone’s GPS receiver.

Mocha Emerald terminal appendages (female)

A Mocha Emerald dragonfly (Somatochlora linearis) was spotted by Andrew Rapp in Henrico County, Virginia USA. This individual is a female.

Terminal appendages

All female dragonflies have a pair of cerci (superior appendages) that have little or no function. The hind wings of female Mocha Emerald dragonflies are rounded.

21 JUL 2017 | Henrico County, VA | Mocha Emerald (female)

(See a full-size version of the original photo, without annotation.)

21 JUL 2017 | Henrico County, VA | Mocha Emerald (female)

(See a full-size version of the original photo, without annotation.)

Notice the subgenital plate shown in the preceding photo.

subgenital plate: plate below S8 that holds bunches of eggs when enlarged; variable enough in shape to be of value in identification. Source Credit: Paulson, Dennis (2011-12-19). Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East (Princeton Field Guides) (Kindle Locations 11723-11724). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.

“S8” refers to abdominal segment eight. Remember that all dragonflies and damselflies have a 10-segmented abdomen, numbered from front to back.

Oviposition (egg-laying)

The following Apple iPhone 3GS “raw” video clip shows a female Mocha Emerald dragonfly laying eggs by the process of oviposition. The process typically lasts a few seconds to a few minutes. This individual was spotted on 16 July 2011 during a photowalk through the “Wildlife Sanctuary,” one of seven small parks in the community of Hollin Hills, Fairfax County, Virginia USA.

Mocha Emerald dragonfly (female, ovipositing) [Ver. 2] (0:23)

Related Resource: Mocha Emerald terminal appendages (male).

Editor’s Note: Sincere thanks to Andrew Rapp for permission to use his still photographs.

Copyright © 2017 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

Macromia illinoiensis exuvia

Post update: Macromiidae exuvia

When this blog post was published on 19 April 2016, I was a novice at identifying odonate exuviae and I was just starting to get serious about studio macro photography. At the time, I was satisfied to be able to identify the dragonfly exuvia as a member of the Family Macromiidae (Cruisers).

What’s new?

I’ve learned a lot since then, including the identity of the specimen to the genus/species level. This is a Swift River Cruiser dragonfly (Macromia illinoiensis) exuvia that was collected along the Potomac River in Fairfax County, Virginia USA.

The first annotated image shows several characters that were used to identify the exuvia to the family level, including a mask-like labium featuring spork-like crenulations and a horn between its pointy eyes.

Swift River Cruiser (Macromia illinoiensis) | exuvia (face-head)

(See a full-size version of the original photo, without annotation.)

The following dorsal view of the exuvia provides enough clues to identify the specimen to the genus/species level.

Swift River Cruiser (Macromia illinoiensis) | exuvia (dorsal)

The lateral spines of abdominal segment nine (S9) do not reach the tips of the inferior appendages (paraprocts), and if you look closely at the full-size version of the preceding photo then you should see a small mid-dorsal hook on abdominal segment 10 (S10). These characters indicate the genus is Macromia.

Notice the lateral spines of abdominal segments eight and nine (S8-9) are “directed straight to rearward,” indicating the species is illinoiensis.

Identification Keys to Northeastern Anisoptera Larvae

Where it all began.

The last photo shows a teneral male Swift River Cruiser dragonfly clinging to the exuvia from which it emerged — the same exuvia featured in this post! Matt Ryan collected the exuvia after the adult dragonfly flew away from its perch. When Matt gave the exuvia to me several years later, he was unable to remember where it was collected. As soon as I was able to identify the exuvia to the genus/species level, I remembered seeing the following photo posted in one of Matt’s spottings on Project Noah.

Photo used with permission from Matthew J. Ryan.

With a little detective work, I was able to solve the mystery of the specific identity of the exuvia as well as when and where it was collected. Like I said, I’ve learned a lot since I published the first blog post related to this specimen!

Editor’s Notes: A funny thing happened on the way to the forum. I rediscovered the “Key to the Genera of the Family Macromiidae” (p. 27, shown above) while paging through the document Identification Keys to Northeastern Anisoptera Larvae in search of the “Key to the Genera of the Family Corduliidae” (page 28). One look at the line drawing at the bottom of p. 27 and I knew the specific identity of the cruiser exuvia.

I need to refresh this blog post with more annotated images of the Macromia illinoiensis exuvia, including one that clearly shows the mid-dorsal hook on S10, but I was so eager to update the old post that I couldn’t wait to shoot and post-process the new images.

Related Resources

• Vimeo video: Identifying dragonfly larva to family (8:06)
• Anatomy of a Dragonfly Larva, annotated illustration courtesy Jay Smith
• Identification Keys to Northeastern Anisoptera Larvae, compiled by Ken Soltesz: Key to the Genera of the Family Macromiidae, page 27.
• Swift River Cruiser on exuvia – Macromia illinoiensis – Male, by Matthew J. Ryan
• Odonate Exuviae, by Walter Sanford

Copyright © 2017 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

Monarch butterfly chrysalises

Let’s continue the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) theme by flashing back to a time several years ago when my best camera for photowalking was either an Apple iPhone or whatever camera gear I could borrow.

Patuxent Research Refuge

A Monarch butterfly chrysalis was spotted on 02 September 2012 at the Patuxent Research Refuge, Laurel, Maryland USA. The chrysalis was attached to a telephone callbox outside the Visitor Contact Station, North Tract. The chrysalis was located near a bed of milkweed plants. I observed Monarch butterfly caterpillars (larvae) feeding on the same milkweed on 26 August 2012.

02 SEP 2012 | Patuxent Research Refuge | Monarch chrysalis

The next image is a closer crop of the preceding photo, taken using a loaner Canon EOS Rebel XTi DSLR camera.

02 SEP 2012 | Patuxent Research Refuge | Monarch chrysalis

Hollin Meadows Elementary School

A Monarch butterfly chrysalis casing was spotted during a photowalk on 09 October 2010 at the Children’s Garden at Hollin Meadows Science and Math Focus School, Fairfax County, Virginia USA. The chrysalis was attached to the outside of a classroom window near a planting of Scarlet milkweed (Asclepias curassavica).

I observed Monarch butterfly caterpillars (larvae) feeding on the Scarlet milkweed plants during late August through early September 2010. Sometime later, during the pupal stage of its life, one of the caterpillars created a chrysalis on a classroom window in order to transform from larva to adult. I discovered the empty casing after the adult Monarch butterfly had emerged from its chrysalis.

09 OCT 2010 | Hollin Meadows Elementary School | Monarch chrysalis

(See a full-size version of the original photo, without annotation.)

The photo was taken using an Apple iPhone 3GS and annotated using Adobe Photoshop.

Copyright © 2017 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.