Monday, April 6, 2009

Get Online

Even though I complain about the hours a day I spend getting my face blasted by whatever a computer monitor emits that makes me an old grouch, you just can't beat some of the great contacts you can meet online.
This butterfly photo was taken just this past Friday and I uploaded it to a website without having a clue as to what the common name of the critter might be, so I titled it "Who Knows?" and explained my predicament; Grandkids still on Spring Break and no time for research !
Wildlife Photographers are supposed to give you the names of what they shoot. common as well as the scientific name. This butterfly lives in Southeast Asia, India and maybe even in Australia. It likes pine trees and places where there's alot of rainfall. It flies fast and in a zig-zag pattern, so to get a good shot at it, you're going to have to wait until it lands. They even fly 5000-7000 feet above sea level.
There's a great website I use for identifying butterflies in Japan and I got it from a contact I met at JPG Magazine. The only problem is I'd have to squint through about 3000 postage stamp-sized images to try and find it. If you guess at a name and you're wrong when you post it, the whole world will let you know about it ! So, my plan was to wait until next week sometime and do the research when all the house guests I have are back in school.
To my surprise, this morning when I fired-up my laptops and visited the dozen or so contacts I have, "BINGO" my butterfly was named ! And this time it was another contact at JPG Magazine, living in the good ol' USA.
When you learn how to keep the amount of contacts you have on different websites down to a number you can handle, they become invaluable. You admire and comment on each other's photos and share ideas, and actually learn from each other.....

I smell popcorn burning/ gotta run... more later

2 comments:

Audrey Kanekoa-Madrid said...

That is what I love about the amazing contacts I've made through various photo sites!! I've learned the identification of things, settings and techniques, and great places to submit too...thanks Mike!!:)

RyukyuMike said...

The house is still standing; just Grandkids set the microwave timer for 30 instead of 3 minutes !
My hearing aint that great, but I can smell popcorn burning 1/4 mile away !