Rhosgobel: Radagast's home: June 18, 2004: Hourly Pictures

Sunday, August 15, 2004

June 18, 2004: Hourly Pictures

Today was our last full day with my colleagues, and it began with an extended hike around the island. My SO and I were determined to try to photograph (and catch) some of the few grasshoppers that we had been hearing and seeing on the island, so we kept hanging back from the group to try to spot them. Eventually we heard some from afar in a large open area, so we told the rest of the group to go on ahead while we hunted. We ended up spending at least 30-45 minutes tracking the grasshoppers before we finally got close enough to photograph them, since they were incredibly cryptic, and when they flew it was often for a very long distance (we watched one fly 200+ feet before entering a stand of trees).

After lunch the other members of our group decided to take yet another trip to yet another island, but my SO and I were exhausted from the busy week and decided to stay behind to spent the afternoon reading and sleeping. We woke up just as the group was returning, walking like zombies up the dock platform. That night I sorted through my pictures and gave a "best of the island" picture show.

Today has some of my favorite hourly pictures from the trip. The driftwood textures (1200) came out as I'd hoped, and my picture of the sunset through the trees (2100) is my favorite recent sunset picture.

Today also has a good example of the tides in the area: the 1300, 1815, 1910, and 2100 pictures are all of the same location (though with varying camera angles). This little bay used to house the dock for the island, so at low tide the island was inaccessible.

Last, look at the 1100 picture to see some of the lichen 'forests' that were growing on the island. Lichens are slow-growing creatures that are mutualists, a combination of a fungus and either an alga or a cyanobacterium (depending on the species). Typically (in the southwestern US, at least) lichen are found in thin layers on rock, so I was excited to find them growing in carpets 2-4 inches high over much of the island.

Our hourly pictures from the day are below. (This text was written after returning from the trip).