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holyschist ([personal profile] holyschist) wrote in [community profile] shutterspeed2010-10-24 11:40 am

Heron dreams (and some more stone)

After eyeing a Black-crowned Night Heron through binoculars for several minutes, I turned around and holy crap! There was one preening in a palm right in front of me. There were some stairs across from it, so I decided to quietly walk up them, turning back if the heron looked agitated.

The heron went to sleep.

King's Shops - Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)

Personally, I am very glad not to have to sleep standing on one leg on a swaying palm frond, but the heron seemed quite happy.



King's Shops - Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)

A few days earlier we took a guided hike out to see where lava is flowing into the ocean from the Puʻu ʻŌʻō vent. On the way, we crossed fields of very fresh (a few months to a few years old), largely unweathered pāhoehoe. Unfortunately, it was getting dark and I only had a long lens, so I only got a few halfway decent pictures, but it was gorgeous. Fresh pāhoehoe has a spectacular number of amazing textures which I had never seen in weathered lava before, and it's a deep, almost metallic shiny black.

My favorite was the part that looked like folded fabric:

Kalapana - Fresh Pāhoehoe flows

Kalapana - Fresh Pāhoehoe flows

Kalapana - Fresh Pāhoehoe flows
omens: sun shining through leaves (misc - summer love)

[personal profile] omens 2010-10-24 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)
very cool! i love the 2nd to last one, especially.
darkemeralds: Manga-style avatar of DarkEm with caption Hee (cartoony me)

[personal profile] darkemeralds 2010-10-25 03:26 am (UTC)(link)
The light on the breast feathers of the sleeping heron in that first shot is just ravishing.

And you win on the Stone prompt for photographing the brandest-newest rocks on the planet! Pahoehoe is such a fun word to say.
turlough: red gate in water, torii at IItsukushima-jinja, Miyajima, Japan ((other) tranquility)

[personal profile] turlough 2010-10-25 04:03 pm (UTC)(link)
I love the second and third photos. The composition of the heron and palm frond is exquisite, and the lava folds are spectacular.
jesse_the_k: text: Be kinder than need be: everyone is fighting some kind of battle (LUCY old and no longer)

[personal profile] jesse_the_k 2010-10-26 11:01 pm (UTC)(link)
All beautiful!

The middle stone looks like it came out of a pastry bag. Does it still have the sulfurous smell?