We took a day trip to Callaway Garden, about two hours south of Atlanta Georgia. It was 68 degrees and perfect weather for a five mile walk.
The highlight of the garden was the Raptor Show (raptors = day active hawks, eagles and falcons).
Did you know that hawks see 80 frames a second? That means that television will never interest them. The TV paints images 30 frames a second, fast enough for our brain to think we are seeing moving images. But to a hawk the images look like a slide show, a very slow slide show. Their ability to see 80 frames a second means that it can see a humming bird's beating wings as still images.
Some other interesting things about the hawk:
A big thrill of this bird show was feeling their wings swoosh by, just a inch above our heads.
The butterfly exhibit was very peaceful. You can't chase butterflies. You need to sit and let them come to you. I think of them as the cat personality of the insect world.
Toward the end of our tour through the garden I snapped a few frames and created some HDR images from them. (HDR = High Dynamic Range) You can see a slide show of some HDRs here.
...dave
We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever. - Carl Sagan
The highlight of the garden was the Raptor Show (raptors = day active hawks, eagles and falcons).
Did you know that hawks see 80 frames a second? That means that television will never interest them. The TV paints images 30 frames a second, fast enough for our brain to think we are seeing moving images. But to a hawk the images look like a slide show, a very slow slide show. Their ability to see 80 frames a second means that it can see a humming bird's beating wings as still images.
Some other interesting things about the hawk:
- It eats 6-7 field mice a day
- It can read a newspaper from a football field away. (However, it's comprehension isn't great.)
- It's eys are shaped like mushrooms (stem side out) so they can't rotate them like ours.
- It's neck has 14 vertebrae, which enables it to turn in a 270 degree radius. (This is important, see above.)
- If our eyes were a big as an owls they'd be the size of grapefruits and weigh five pounds each.
- Barred owls make the sound "who cooks for you, who cooks for you all" when it calls. (So don't get it confused with your mom's challenge.)
- Their ears are asymmetric (not in the same place in their heads). The left ear is low on their head and faces downward, the right side ear is high and faces upward. They can hear your heart beating from hundreds of feet away.
A big thrill of this bird show was feeling their wings swoosh by, just a inch above our heads.
The butterfly exhibit was very peaceful. You can't chase butterflies. You need to sit and let them come to you. I think of them as the cat personality of the insect world.
Toward the end of our tour through the garden I snapped a few frames and created some HDR images from them. (HDR = High Dynamic Range) You can see a slide show of some HDRs here.
...dave
We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever. - Carl Sagan
Labels: HDR, illustrated journal, photography, sketch
April 11th - illustrated journal 2009
0 Comments Published by Dave on Monday, April 13, 2009 at 4/13/2009 02:10:00 PM.
April 4th - illustrated journal 2009
0 Comments Published by Dave on Saturday, April 11, 2009 at 4/11/2009 02:08:00 PM.
Write just one minute a day...
0 Comments Published by Dave on Friday, April 10, 2009 at 4/10/2009 06:18:00 AM.
You have 1440 minutes in each day. Why not dedicate one of them to writing?
Write online, in a journal, on a throw-away card, or just respond via a comment to the daily writing prompt at the site. Use the handy little timer on the page.
So this post represents one minute of writing.
Go to the blog to get your inspiration each day.
Still, this IS a very short post.
(AFTER the one minute: It took another five minutes to re-write some of the sentences. I wanted to write more but ran out of time. I will tell you, one minute will NOT be enough. The one minute writing exercise will catapult you into writing beyond a minute. You have been warned.)
...dave
Enough about me, let us talk about you. What do you think about me?
Labels: design journal, illustrated journal, writing
Work Journal Sketching
0 Comments Published by Dave on Saturday, April 04, 2009 at 4/04/2009 07:06:00 AM.
I've been sort of overworked these days and haven't done much sketching. I start work at 7:00 a.m. and finish at around 6:00 p.m. I have even been working right through lunch. So not a lot of free time. It's rather ludicrous these days. But, don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have a job. Really.
But the truth is, I rarely get out like I used to and sketch at the mall or at Borders during lunch. That's a good time to do some sketching.
As I sat at my desk yesterday, bummed about not being able to sketch, I looked down at my work journal for the next To-Do to accomplish and then it hit me, I've been sketching everyday, in the work journal.
Well, it's true, it ain't people, or buildings, it's more of a design sketchbook, but a sketchbook nonetheless.
So I paged through it looking at some of the stuff in the last couple of months and scanned a few. (There are some notes at flickr.com on the pages itself if you click on any of the pages here.)
I can't go a day without drawing some idea in the book. The book is not really for reviewing the day, although at the end of the week I use it for my status report. But I really use it to help me stay focused on the task at hand.
It's amazing how useful it really is, not just to myself but to my team and even my boss. The other day I was in a meeting when she asked me to pass over my book wherein I'd drawn a diagram of screen design. She copied the sketch into her notes so that she could share with her boss.
In the back I keep an index by subject and what page(s) in the notebook I can find the information.
The numbers are created using an auto-numbering machine I bought a OfficeMax. That way, I can buy my favorite book size and format (8.5 x 11 blank pages please) and add my own numbering.
Page 995 had some notes from a meeting I attended about coaching my team. Occasionally I'll refer back to them for reminders.
(More design journal pages here.)
...dave
I'm not writing it down to remember it later, I'm writing it down to remember it now.
Theoretically Related Posts
But the truth is, I rarely get out like I used to and sketch at the mall or at Borders during lunch. That's a good time to do some sketching.
As I sat at my desk yesterday, bummed about not being able to sketch, I looked down at my work journal for the next To-Do to accomplish and then it hit me, I've been sketching everyday, in the work journal.
Well, it's true, it ain't people, or buildings, it's more of a design sketchbook, but a sketchbook nonetheless.
So I paged through it looking at some of the stuff in the last couple of months and scanned a few. (There are some notes at flickr.com on the pages itself if you click on any of the pages here.)
I can't go a day without drawing some idea in the book. The book is not really for reviewing the day, although at the end of the week I use it for my status report. But I really use it to help me stay focused on the task at hand.
It's amazing how useful it really is, not just to myself but to my team and even my boss. The other day I was in a meeting when she asked me to pass over my book wherein I'd drawn a diagram of screen design. She copied the sketch into her notes so that she could share with her boss.
In the back I keep an index by subject and what page(s) in the notebook I can find the information.
The numbers are created using an auto-numbering machine I bought a OfficeMax. That way, I can buy my favorite book size and format (8.5 x 11 blank pages please) and add my own numbering.
Page 995 had some notes from a meeting I attended about coaching my team. Occasionally I'll refer back to them for reminders.
(More design journal pages here.)
...dave
I'm not writing it down to remember it later, I'm writing it down to remember it now.
Theoretically Related Posts
Labels: design journal, illustrated journal, work