Retired and All That Jazz

Not Enough Time!

2012-01-31T15:31:00.000-08:00

Again, sorry for the months of not posting. I have been so busy with taking photographs and life in general I just haven't been able to keep up here. I went to the Everglades, the Keys, and all over Florida this winter taking photographs. Here is one a little closer to home that I took yesterday. Nothing exotic about the subject matter but I liked the interplay of light in the golden sand with rocks. The duck was very curious about the camera so I included him.

I took some really beautiful shots in the Everglades and Keys. Most of them are posted at my website Fine Art America.

Cumberland Island, Georgia

2011-06-12T17:48:00.000-07:00

To begin with, if anyone is interested in purchasing a print or greeting cards of my Cumberland Island photographs, including others I did not put on this blog, go to my commercial website Fine Art America Website.
They do fantastic work! You can customize your print by size, type of paper, and even have it framed and matted.

As I always say, commercial wildlife photography is not for wimps! I took a 45 minute ferry over to Cumberland Island, a beautiful Georgia barrier island with a lot of history and tons of wildlife. I braved the heat for the day and took some fascinating shots there.

One of the main attractions on the island is the Dungeness manor ruins. This mansion was used as a winter home by the Carnegie family until 1925. It burned in the late 1950's but you can still see traces of grandeur for a bygone era.

When the Carnegie family abandoned the main mansion there they released their horses. Today there are around 114 feral horses roaming the island from this release. Here is a cute foal relaxing in the shade

and here is a horse who is obviously very happy!

In addition to the marvelous horses on the island there are other wildlife such as this wild turkey roaming around.

Though the land is very dry now we did see a few tough flowers such as this white prickly poppy.

I highly recommend Cumberland Island as a day trip for those who love to explore. If you visit the island I strongly suggest carrying sunblock, insect repellent, and lots of cold water. Conditions are somewhat rugged and amenities are lacking but the animals and interesting ruins make it a worthwhile adventure.

Sneaking Up On Me!

2011-05-25T15:55:00.000-07:00

Here is an alligator at the edge of a swamp close to my house. As I was photographing him the alligator was busy sizing me up for a meal. I hope he found a more suitable dinner after I left.

My wife cracks up

2011-05-01T16:13:00.000-07:00

While we were walking around a park I asked my wife Karen if I could take her picture. As she was posing rather stiffly I made a very off color proposition to her. This is the result!

Where Does the Time Go?

2011-04-05T21:41:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have been neglecting this blog for so long. My photography has occupied a lot of time and I have yet another cat! That makes 13 and we have officially gone past saturation here. A month ago I came home to find a little black cat waiting for me in the driveway. I named her Laila, which means "dark beauty", and I've been working to tame this very shy girl.

Last week I got special permission to photograph some animals at the private St. Augustine Wild Reserve. They normally do not allow photography so this was a wonderful chance to capture some beautiful cats and other animals there. They take in animals that are confiscated or are surrendered by owners. Here are a few nice shots I took there:

A beautiful cougar in a pensive mood.

An arctic fox once owned by Michael Jackson. Though very shy, she wanted to be friends and she came up and licked my hand.

A rather irritated black panther. I had to watch myself with this one as I suspect she wanted to rip my throat out.

I white tiger in a very playful mood. She rolled over on her back and I snapped this shot while standing over her.

I hope you enjoyed seeing these as much as I enjoyed capturing these magnificent creatures. I will post a few more shots from the reserve in my next post as there were just too many good shots to cram all of them into this post. Until then, all the best to you!

Charles and Clint

2010-12-05T18:16:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we added two kittens to the menagerie here. Please let me introduce Charles and Clint. They were discovered living in a backhoe by a former coworker. She contacted me and asked if I could do anything to find them a home. I originally intended to foster them but you know how that goes! They are now members of the gang here and as you can see in the photo they are very happy and spoiled.

This is Charles. Since we got them at about 4 weeks of age they were emotionally insecure. Charles likes to latch onto my neck and dry suckle. This is the first time I've faced that behavior but I put up with it. Despite having a heart murmur Charles is very active and playful, though he is more contemplative than his brother.

...and here is his brother Clint. You can just tell from his look that Clint is looking for trouble! He is very affectionate but at the same time Clint is always getting into things here. I have nicknamed them "The Manic Twins" because they are constantly flying around the house and wrestling with each other. They get along great with the other cats here. Clint has taken up with Sam the Man who will undoubtedly teach him how to be a major troublemaker. Charles has a girlfriend, our 12 pound white girl Luvey. He is quite a Romeo and has her licking his head at times.

So that is the news here on the cat front. Later I will write about my latest photography trips and share some photos from them.

Further Thoughts on the TSA

2010-11-19T08:47:00.000-08:00

Just a followup to the last post. A large number of people in the U.S. are apparently as upset about our giving up rights and freedom as I am. Several internet groups have sprung up that are lobbying Congress and the White House to introduce a little sanity back into airline security. Also, 18 airports so far have kicked out the TSA and put into place their own private security. I am not certain how much effect this will have on the situation since the private groups still have to go by TSA regulations. Perhaps there is enough wiggle room in the wording of the documentation that the private groups can return to a more sane approach. With any luck enough airports will opt out of the TSA that the government security group will lose money and disband.

One thing I expected but still can't understand is that when challenged about this mess the supporters of it simply say "Don't you remember September 11th?". Yes I do remember it and I fully support a comprehensive security upgrade for all aspects of our infrastructure that could be attacked. As a society that has prided itself on defending personal liberty I also believe the litmus test for any changes in security has to ask the most important question, "In what ways can we defend our society from these nuts without giving up our freedoms and making our society more repressive than those we are fighting." In other words we should not give in to our fears and give our freedoms up to a small minority in our country who are using this as a pretext to gain more power over the citizens of this great nation.

What Are We Turning Into In The U.S. ??

2010-11-16T22:15:00.000-08:00

I don't normally pontificate on political type matters but this entire TSA "enhanced patdown" thing at the airports has really gotten to me. I had not flown in years until this summer. Frankly I thought that having to take off my shoes was silly and demeaning but it is nothing compared to what some people are currently being subjected to. The nude scanners and intensive frisks violate some of our most basic human rights. Who decided to take this Draconian approach at airports? Our illustrious political body, with a little help from judicial bureaucrats. Please allow me to point out something about this extreme form of keeping us "safe":

Any person with a little ingenuity could make a component type of bomb that would easily pass through both nude scanners and frisking. Simply break the parts down into small pieces and hide them inside common items in take-on luggage and on your person. Disguise wires and minimize the use of wire and metal parts. Once on the plane, put the parts together. This is not brain surgery, folks, and it is not a task beyond the skills of a bright teenager. Why haven't we seen this so far? We have some really stupid terrorists out there. These frisks and nude scanners might catch people like them but these approaches will not deter a talented bomber with a death wish.

So what do we get for our money with these scanners and frisks? We pay more for our tickets, we get to stand in longer lines, and we don't have to worry about people with an average I.Q. of a doughnut smuggling onboard submachine guns or sticks of dynamite taped together with "have a nice day" stickers plastered on them. Since people are opting out of flying and are driving on trips now due to all of the hassles the gas prices are skyrocketing. This should make the oil companies, all of whom have the same politicians who are vigorously pushing for this garbage in their pockets, very happy. Hmmm... If I were a conspiracy oriented person I would be thinking that perhaps the politicians are doing this as a sneaky way to jack up the gas prices for their oil company pals.

Why are we allowing our country to be turned into a nation that may soon make the Nazis look downright liberal by comparison? When did we lose our sense of liberty, justice, and decency, and let people rule our lives who are bullying thugs? Why do we so blithely give away our freedoms for the fictitious promise of flight safety. Where do we draw the line? Nude screening by walking down an aisle in front of other passengers? Forced body cavity searches? Having to provide documentation of your ethnic purity before boarding? Giving up freedoms is a very slippery slope once you start.

Ballad of the Cat Wrangler

2010-10-03T16:51:00.000-07:00

That is the title of my new video, hot off the press! Watch it to get a glimpse into the strange and humorous world of my menagerie.

The link is "Ballad of the Cat Wrangler".
I had a ball making it and I think the cats enjoyed it too.

New Guana Preserve Trip

2010-09-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

Here are a few shots I took recently at Guana Park. My commercial website with these and many other wildlife and nature photographs is Kenneth Albin Wildlife/Nature Photography.

Evil Space Kitties!!!!

2010-09-16T11:04:00.000-07:00

A new video by the Cat Wrangler. It is demented and cute!
Evil Space Kitties

Willie Green

2010-09-08T19:53:00.000-07:00

Willie green is a roots Delta blues player in Florida. He was rediscovered in recent years and has been a very active performer. His gritty singing, along with his excellent harmonica and guitar playing, has endeared him to his audiences. Here is Willie at a recent concert in St. Augustine. He was really on fire!

I posted a couple of photographs of Willie on my website. Here is the one you see above: Willie Green, Bluesman. It would make a great framed photograph for anyone who truly loves the old blues masters. You can literally see the blues etched in the lines on his face.

Kitty In A Box!

2010-09-07T16:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I originally planned on having a humorous video of our cat Sam the Man playing in a box. Another cat of mine, Beau, had somewhat different plans for the way this video would go. I laughed so hard I literally cried. To this day I still have no clue how Beau managed to fit through that tiny hole! Watch them and I hope you enjoy the mayhem. Kitty In A Box!

Sam The Man!

2010-09-05T20:45:00.000-07:00

Sam has a new Facebook page now at Sam's Facebook Page. Here you can check out the latest news on The Man himself and view his fantastic videos. Drop by and become a fan. Sam expects it!

Anatomy of a Music Video

2010-08-31T13:13:00.000-07:00

Here is the Southern Kitties video.

I thought some of you might find it interesting how I made this demented, funny little music video so here are the basics:

1) I storyboarded the original idea to get a feel for what would be needed to put this thing together.

2) Worked on the drums, banjo, and bass using a MIDI program. Once this was transferred to .wav format I burned it on a CD for further use.

3) I added live vocals and background acoustic guitar while monitoring the CD. After putting all tracks on a program called Kristal I added a prerecorded jaw harp and balanced everything for volume. I also added a little reverb and compression to a couple of the tracks. I then mixed down and recorded the result as a single .wav file to be used in the video.

4) I went through hundreds of cat photos to get a few that would be suitable. The main cat photo was touched up with a paint program and made into a series of photos showing the mouth opening. I had to add a tongue and teeth cut out of another photo to make these look realistic. Otherwise all you would see would be a gaping black hole for a mouth!

5) Now comes the tedious part. Each photo was converted to transparent .GIF photos and stratigically placed over a background photo of a field. Each photo had to be lined up in the proper sequence and place to show the mouth opening and closing in time with the singing. I did this one or two frames at a time over thousands of frames. This step took about 2 long days of work.

6) I then added peripheral touches like the other cat heads and flying bird and placed them in proper locations on the screen, moving them in the desired direction using the Adobe Premiere motion feature.

7) One day of fine tuning and fixing goofs in the movements and it was done. I then converted the whole thing to mpg2 format using Premiere and put it on YouTube.

I hope this helps any aspiring videographic animators out there. The result was crude but serviceable and the cost was 0$ since I already had Adobe Premiere and the other programs were free. I used a program called Audacity to record the sound and Kristal for sound mixing.

All the best from the Cat Wrangler! Now I need to get back in the field and take some nature photos.

Where I Am Right Now In Life

2010-08-26T20:52:00.000-07:00

Hi all! It's been awhile blogging because I have been so busy pursuing my photography, making videos, and caring for a sick cat. Let me catch you up on my life, if anyone out there is still even remotely interested.

Well, my former principal at Bartram High School, Brennan Asplen, has managed to scare the crap out of most of the faculty so they will not even talk with me. You see, he and school superintendent Joiner are afraid that I will tell some of the garbage that goes on behind the scenes in what passes for education in St. Johns county. Joiner and his minion Asplen decided that the best way to muzzle me is to cut off all communication between myself and my former coworkers. The funny thing is that I really couldn't care less what they are up to. I have too much of a full life here without picking through their dirty laundry. I guess that is how paranoid public officials act when they have a lot to hide. It is both humorous and tragic at the same time.

Our 13 1/2 year old cat Sebastian has been fighting a tremendous battle with calicivirus, a virus that attacks his gums and trachea. He developed pneumonia and spent time in a hospital in Jacksonville. He has just finished a 2 month course of antibiotics and has been going to our local vet daily for medication to help his nausea and lack of appetite. He is a tough little guy and is hanging in there.
Here is a recent photo of him.

I have been making new videos about our cat menagerie here. My favorite so far is a music video I made about Sam The Man. I think you will enjoy it!

I have also been taking lots of photographs in my second career as a wildlife/nature photographer. Here is one of a robber fly:

and here is one of a least tern:

My commercial website has these and a lot more photographs I have been taking this summer. It is Kenneth Albin Wildlife/Nature Photography. I have greeting cards, posters, and framed portraits of my best work there.

So that is pretty much what I have been accomplishing so far this season. I will try to update this blog more often but with so much going on it will probably be hit and miss. Take care and hope everyone is doing well.

Porpoise Point

2010-07-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

The other day I hiked with all of my equipment to Porpoise Point to shoot the protected nesting grounds of the least tern, a bird I did not have in my portfolio. It was a real eye opening experience! These tiny birds had the attitude of hawks. They did not like me intruding into their territory so they made every effort to drive me off. This included divebombing me, trying to poop on me, and charging my tripod across the sand.

You have to admire the spunk of these little guys. It was a challenge to capture these fast fliers as they swooped down at me and ran across the sand.

My work is on my commercial website at Kenneth Albin Wildlife/Nature Photography. You can order framed prints, canvas, posters, and greeting cards of the beautiful Florida wildlife and nature scenes I have captured. There are more than 120 images to choose from and they are divided into galleries to make it easy to find a particular type of image. I am very happy to be able to share a little of native Florida with the world. Wildlife in Florida is wonderful and it is sad to see that it is vanishing with the oil spill and the encroachment of civilization.

Back to the Rookery!

2010-05-27T21:09:00.000-07:00

The St. Augustine Alligator Farm bird rookery is not a typical zoo type of establishment. It is an open swamp where migrating wading birds raise their young. They build nests in trees over the alligators so they are protected from land predators. If you ever pass through St. Augustine, Florida I would highly recommend seeing this magical place.

The rookery is in full swing now. There are more than 150 nests with noisy baby birds. The predominant types of birds there are great egrets, wood storks, snowy egrets, and tricolor herons. There are also a small number of green herons and roseate spoonbills this year.

I have a large number of wildlife photos, including many rookery photos, on my commercial website, Kenneth Albin Wildlife/Nature Photography if you or someone you know would like one of my photographs to hang on your wall. They can supply the photographs as framed or unframed prints, on canvas, as posters, and on greeting cards.

Here is an interesting photograph I took several days ago at the rookery of a pair of tricolor heron chicks who seemed determined to outshout each other!

Sibling Affection

2010-05-21T09:54:00.000-07:00

Great egret chicks in their nest.

The Cutest Tricolored Heron Chick!

2010-05-19T16:01:00.001-07:00

I was lucky enough to capture this chick today at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm bird rookery while on a photo shoot.

Laughing Gull

2010-05-17T23:29:00.000-07:00

I followed a little laughing seagull around at Guana State park in Ponte Vedra, Florida. This is a mini pictorial essay of him.

Here is the gull hunting for dinner around the lake shallows. It was low tide and there were schools of fish splashing everywhere.

He caught a fish and carried it to the edge of the water. Here he worked at turning the fish around so he could swallow it. I felt sorry for the poor little fish but I guess the gull needs to eat too.

After eating his dinner the gull became fascinated by my camera and tripod. He walked over to where I was and studied me and the camera. He was obviously a little puzzled by this strange guy who was taking photographs of him! A cute little guy, isn't he?

Do animals feel love?

2010-05-15T17:45:00.000-07:00

Look at the photograph I took of a mated pair of great egrets and then you tell me if animals can express love. This and many other wildlife and nature photographs are for sale on my website Kenneth Albin Fine Art Photography. My photography there can be bought as framed prints, on canvas, as posters, and as greeting cards.

New Rookery Photographs

2010-05-10T12:49:00.001-07:00

My commercial work, approximately 150 wildlife and nature photographs are for sale at Kenneth Albin Photography. The company does beautiful work transferring my art to canvas, greeting cards, and framed archival prints. If you are looking for wildlife or nature art to hang in your home or business please take a look at my site.

Here are some of last week's photos from the St. Augustine Alligator Farm bird rookery. Nesting is in full swing now!

Three great egret chicks.

The great egrets even talk while flying!

Closeup of a tricolor heron.

Great egret ballet.

St. Augustine Rookery Photo Shoot

2010-04-27T06:59:00.000-07:00

I have a new commercial photography website. It is Ken Albin Fine Art Photography. The website company does excellent printing and framing work and I highly recommend them. If you are interested in a nature or wildlife photograph or canvas please check out my site. I currently have more than 140 photographs there. Many of them are placed into specific galleries to make it easier for you to find something specific you may be looking for. I hope you enjoy my efforts to show the beautiful scenery of Florida.

Last week I went to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm wild bird rookery to take some nesting photographs. It was a humbling experience shooting next to professionals from National Geographic and several other famous magazines. I certainly learned a lot being with them and had a great time with this opportunity to capture some images of these beautiful birds. The rookery is a swamp where herons, egrets, and storks come to raise their young. They have the natural protection of a group of alligators under the nests who keep ground predators away.

A great egret mom and her chick.

A roseate spoonbill in flight.

A wood stork. This is an endangered species.

Restoration of the Color Organ! (Part 1)

2010-04-13T14:03:00.000-07:00

40 years ago my folks bought me a 3 channel color organ. With my fuzzy memory I had thought it might have come from Radio Shack but I can't find one that looks like it in any of their old catalogs. I believe it was a Christmas present so who knows where it really came from. All I can tell you about this color organ is that it was one cheap piece of equipment but it did put out a really cool set of colors while the lights were off and "In a Gadda da Vida" was playing! This is one of the few things that made numerous moves with me over the years, residing at the bottom of a closet for the past 30 years. It was too much a reminder of my youth to ever throw away.

This is the back of the color organ. The first thing you see is a large transformer. The original one was small and very cheap. It died after 6 months so my dad wired in this larger one he had in his parts box. The outer shell is just fiberboard and you can see the simple controls. It does not have a microphone so has to be wired into one of the speaker outputs from an amplifier to work.

Here is the front and as you can tell it is a total disaster! The plastic translucent cover with Moire design to scatter light is long gone. Over the years it became yellowed and brittle so I tossed it away about 20 years ago. The little bulbs had colored plastic covers on them. The heat from the bulbs melted most of them so I tossed them in the trash as well. There really isn't much to it, just a small circuit board with a couple of transistors and a few other parts on it. The bulbs are removed in preparation for the restoration. I also removed the cheap cardboard reflector with a thin aluminum coated paper glued to it.I attached leads from the color organ to my stereo and to my shock it still works!

Here are my plans for the restoration. I do not want to use those cheap plastic colored caps on the bulbs so I ordered a set of 6 high powered 6.3 volt wide angle colored light emitting diodes with bayonet mounts to use in place of the old bulbs. That way I won't need to fool with color filters. These came in yesterday and looked really cool but one of the diodes is bad. A replacement should arrive in a couple of days. I also ordered some Moire etched plastic which should be here in about 4-7 days. In place of the cheap coated cardboard reflector I will probably use some plastic pieces with a layer of aluminum foil attached to it. I also have a stack of junk CDs and I am pondering ways to cut and attach some of these to the aluminum foil to reflect and scatter the light like a prism. Those are the plans as they stand now. I will be posting periodic updates on how the project is going. With any luck in a couple of weeks I will have a working color organ that is better than the original.

Please Help Save Harvey's Life!

2010-03-31T18:29:00.000-07:00

It would be illegal to copy an entire newspaper article on a blog so the photo is just the first part and I will explain the rest of the story. Apparently the military have been secretly training rabbits to act as guard animals similar to Dobermans. They are bred for aggression and trained to attack any intruders attempting to penetrate sensitive sites that worry Homeland Security such as nuclear plants, nuclear waste facilities, and government buildings at night. Their small size and silent, secretive nature makes them potentially ideal guard animals.

Harvey was one of the first attack rabbits in this experimental program which was jointly sponsored by by the Pentagon, Homeland Security, and the League of Republicans for U.S. Patriotism. He was stationed inside the perimeter fence at the Hampton nuclear facility when five off duty soldiers came by outside the fence. They began taunting the rabbit by beating on the fence and yelling. Harvey apparently became so enraged by this that he finally broke his rigid training, scaled the fence, and leaped at the soldiers. According to preliminary autopsy results three of the soldiers died almost immediately from the carotid arteries and jugular veins in their necks being ripped open while the other two soldiers died of blunt force chest trauma caused when Harvey hit them in their chests with his hind feet. During the trial the defense attempted to show that this incident was the fault of the military for initiating this foolhardy training program for rabbits and that Harvey was not to blame. This defense did not sway the verdict since the general consensus was that any rabbit who could be this violent had to be held accountable for their actions. Many pieces of evidence the defense attempted to enter into the record were blocked by Homeland Security on the grounds that it would violate national security. Harvey was given a 20 years sentence in solitary confinement at Boulder Penitentiary. He is now back in his kennel under heavy guard while the case is being appealed on the grounds that rabbits rarely live past the age of ten years. Since Harvey is already 2 years old this is effectively the same as giving him two terms of life imprisonment.

Here is where you can help. If you feel that Harvey is being unfairly punished for this please send a letter to the following address telling them why this is such a cruel travesty of justice:

Homeland Security, Experimental and Covert Division
21406 West Arlington Boulevard
Washington, D.C. 78209

You can also go to the ASPCA website and sign their petition to free Harvey. Their URL is http://www.aspca.org/

PETA also is organizing an email campaign for this cause. You can get more information on how to participate in this worthy cause at
http://www.peta.org/

PLEASE HELP HARVEY! He should not be given this cruel treatment for something he had no real control over. Animal lovers everywhere need to unite before it is too late for Harvey. If you love animals you need to help send the message to the government that we will not tolerate mistreating animals this way.

Thank you and please respond soon. Harvey's time grows short.

Oh yes, just one more thing. APRIL FOOL!!!!!!

Rough 3 months healthwise

2010-03-13T08:29:00.000-08:00

I am still fighting the eczema problem. After I went back to the dermatologist and got the cortisone shot, prednisone pills, and steroid cream things started clearing up about 50% before plateauing. The steroids lost their effectiveness and I started having huge flareups. This atopic eczema or atopic dermatitis as it is also called is very nasty in its severe form. I have it on my arms, feet, underarms, neck, and groin region. It follows the pattern where an area will turn scarlet and burn intensely, followed by peeling and then turning dark purple. Then it all starts over again. I have not been able to move around much or get out of the house except for doctor visits. Putting on clothing is agonizing and at this point the skin is so sentitive that even moving around is extremely painful. I have been practically living under a vaporizer and have been moisturizing the skin several times each day. Nothing much has helped so went I went back to the dermatologist March 10th he was pretty stumped. He took a punch biopsy in one of the red areas to send off for analysis and I went in the next day for blood tests. He isn't sure it really is eczema at this point but from what I have read about it I think it looks like a classic case of severe, chronic atopic eczema. I go back next Friday to learn the test results. In the meantime I am in agony. It feels like my body has been dipped in battery acid. Imagine the worst case of sunburn you have ever had and triple the effects and you will have an idea of what I have been living with. The doctor put me on the top dosage of the immunosuppresant drug cyclosporine. This drug has recently been used on severe eczema when other drugs fail to control it. It will probably take at least 2 weeks before I see any improvement. I am very nervous about the dangerous side effects of it but really do not have much choice if I am to recover from these daily flareups. Otherwise I am doing all of the things that are recommended by authorities on the disease but with no real benefit seen.

Incredibly Stupid!!!!!

2010-03-05T00:43:00.000-08:00

I can't believe this. State Senator John Thrasher of St. Augustine is pushing a couple of bills through the state senate about schools and teaching. One of the bills links teacher salaries to student scores on a standardized test. Another bill takes away teacher tenure based upon experience. Teachers will be on annual contracts and will only receive continuing contracts if their students excel on this standardized test.

Let me point out a couple of things. While on the surface these bills make sense if you think about it a moment the flaws are apparent. In my teaching blog I kept harping about pressure being placed upon teachers to "teach for the test". What do you think this is going to do to finish driving them in that direction? A teacher would be crazy to not teach for the test if this passes. Their job will depend upon it. True education and creative teaching will be a thing of the past. Another thing is the potential for abuse of this by principals and superintendents. I have already talked about the pressure placed upon me by my old principal Brennan Asplen of Bartram Trail High School when I dared to say anything contrary to the party line. Imagine the pressure he could bring to bear upon teachers like me if their job depends upon a standardized test! Just change the teaching assignment and give that teacher poor classes and they will be certain to fail and be kicked out. It really frightens me to think that someone would have that amount of power over the lives of people they control, able to wipe out their lives on a whim just because the teacher doesn't always strive to make the principal look good. Under those circumstances I can't blame teachers if they all acted like sheep and blandly followed whatever lead the principal dictated.

The Bartram teachers already had been told about this proposed legislation. Could that have anything to do with why they suddenly cut off all communication with me?

I would also like to point out that Thrasher is good buddies with our superintendent
Joseph Joyner, the same guy who was behind the pressure for me to not say anything negative about the school system's policies in my blog. What would the passing of these laws do to increase the power of people like Joyner to coerce people into his "image is everything" model of education? Frankly I think it would mean the end of true learning. All the teachers would simply become shills (many already are to a great degree) who struggle daily to make the administration look good by having students excel on one silly test at the expense of true learning. Scary, isn't it?

The Stupid Things People Do

2010-02-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

It's been a long, long time since I posted anything about my old workplace Bartram High School in St. Johns County, Florida. I thought that part of my life was finally behind me but I guess I was wrong. On several occasions I asked the assistant principals and the principal, Brennan Asplen, for a letter of recommendation so I could update my resume. At the time I did not think this would be a problem. After all, I am retired from teaching now and I did have excellent evaluations from all of them. After the assistant principals initially said they would be happy to do so they suddenly ceased having any contact with me and will not even answer my repeated emails politely asking for these letters. Recently my former coworkers have also stopped answering my emails to them.

Now I have heard a rumor, completely unsubstantiated, that Brennan has called teachers I worked with or had previously talked to into his office and that he has instructed them not to have any contact with me. I do not know if this is true or not but it would certainly explain why my friends have suddenly begun pretending that I do not exist. In education teachers always live with the fear that they are going to be attacked by the administration. I am speaking in general terms and not just my school. Most teachers who survive in education for any length of time learn to 'play the game' and suck up to the administrators. The talk you hear about cooperation between teachers and administrators is usually a pile of bullshit. Unfortunately what sometimes happens is the principal will implicitly or explicitly threaten teachers into doing what they want them to do. This usually entails making the principal, the superintendent, and, less importantly, the assistant principals look good. After all, image is everything! I do not know the truth of why everyone is suddenly refusing to talk to me. All I can say for certain is that I have my suspicions. If what I suspect is true then Brennan may in some warped way be trying to punish me for my old blog comments that he and the superintendent deemed critical of the administration. Of course this may not be the case but I can see no other reason for the odd behavior of my former coworkers. On the other hand how petty would someone have to be to hold a grudge for this length of time and to try to retaliate even after I have long since retired? It almost sounds like some type of paranoid movie plot, doesn't it?

Well, I can live without my so-called friends I used to work with. If they have caved so easily into pressure of this sort then they certainly are not friends of mine. I know from many, many conversations with them over the years that they are paranoid and just plain scared to death they are going to be attacked by the administration for some perceived slight. They have gone out of their way to fall in line and to try to make Brennan look good any way they can. Heaven forbid they would actually stand up and say or write something that might cause them to get slammed by the administration. Teachers can many times have the spines of jellyfish when it comes to being truthful in education. They sell their souls and their integrity just for the privilege of having a job. Never is this more true than in these hard economic times when teacher cutbacks are spoken of often in our county.

So what is the bottom line here? Yes, to be truthful to you all my feelings are deeply hurt to have my friends all abandon me like this. Why are they doing it? I have speculated about this earlier in this post but I may never have any solid proof of what I suspect. These types of things are usually covered up well so the person is not exposed to repercussions. That is why dealings like this usually happen in back rooms out of sight and hearing of others. It reminds me of cockroaches scurrying around in the darkness, avoiding the light at all costs. You see, some principals have their own paranoia and fear of being booted out because people view them as incompetent or at least as not promoting excellence in their roles as principals. It is not always like this. I have worked with principals before whom I respected and who dealt with teachers honestly, openly, and as equals. Unfortunately that has not always been the case. What exactly is behind the pressure to ostracize me from people I worked with for years? Is it old grudges driving this? Who the hell knows. All I know is that I am doing quite nicely anyway and in spite of my hurt feelings I will continue to live my life well and to speak as truthfully as I can about all aspects of it. It some people don't like that, and I imagine a couple will not like what I have written here, they can print out this post, roll it up, and shove it up their ass. I do have some regrets that I can't go back to Bartram and eat lunch with the old gang and talk over old times but I do not have any say over what is happening. If there is some type of stupid vendetta against me after all this time, whether the driving force is the principal or the superintendent, on one level I am very amused by it. Obviously some people must have a lot of time on their hands if they are going after a former teacher who was well respected in this manner. Is this type of stupidity and morally bankrupt behavior just found in education or is it common in all types of jobs? I suspect the latter is true. All I can tell you is that in the past I have stood up and supported these former coworkers at the risk of my own job security. I would have expected the same from them but that is not the reality of things in the world today.

So I move on. I am happy to have gotten this out of my system by writing about it and I hope I did not bore anyone who took the time to read this rather long post. I like the philosophy of John Kay who once wrote that he forgives but he doesn't forget. Bitterness takes a lot of energy and is not productive so I intend to forgive these people over time. I will never forget, though.

Why do we seem to have so much trouble finding school administrators and superintendents to hire who are capable, honest, and caring people? Are they really that scarce a commodity? In our county I suppose the blame should be placed upon us, the voters. After all we voted in the school board and they appoint the superintendent who in turn appoints the principals. As citizens we really need to take a hard look at the people we have been voting into the school board positions. These are critical jobs that affect the tone of the entire county's education and we let ourselves be swayed by smooth talk, promises, and a huge election advertising budget. We actually do have a couple of school board members here who are wonderful people. Notice I said a couple. It should be all of them and we have let ourselves down by electing some people for our school board in St. Johns county who should not be given any authority greater than as bag people at the local supermarket. (I apologize to all of the bag people out there. I know you probably have a hell of a lot more integrity than some of our board members here.) We have let education down by putting some people into the school board positions who have only their own self esteem and power in mind when they make critical decisions. Ultimately we should not be surprised when educational standards slip and the only value treasured is having a good image. Of course image won't help to support a student when they are out in the world but hey, it looks great for the school. That's the most important thing, right? Let me hear everyone shout "image is everything!". Amen. Thank God I am out of education. I am selfish that way. I just can't stand the odious smell of hypocrisy and bullshit. It's a hell of a way to run a railroad if you ask me, but then again, no one is asking me.

Please note that nowhere in this post did I actually state that my suspicions were true. In fact I just could be totally mistaken about the entire thing. I will let the readers draw their own conclusions on that.

Sorry for the long delay

2010-02-07T22:10:00.000-08:00

I will try to catch up on what has been happening the past month. First and most importantly, we lost our sweet little Iona who I had been working so hard with to tame. In the 8 weeks she was with us she turned into a very sweet girl who loved petting and who learned how to play with toys and with the other cats. She was really enjoying herself for the first time in her life. We think that during the surgery to place the pin in her leg she picked up an infection we did not know about. This bacteria spread slowly into her bone and then all through her body. Her other health issues we were dealing with masked symptoms until it was too late. She stopped eating and we took her to the vet. The two antibiotics they gave her did not help so we took her back in 3 days. The vet knew she had to have a stronger antibiotic even if there were risks involved if we were going to save her. He gave her an injection of gentamycin. She was allergic to this drug and she suddenly collapsed and stopped breathing. They gave her oxygen and tried to stimulate her to breathe. I gave CPR. All this did not help and in a few minutes her heart stopped. We buried Iona in the front yard next to a small lemon tree where she used to look out the window. The vet thinks the germ was already systemic throughout her body and in her weakened condition the gentamycin pushed her over the edge.

I have been extremely distraught over her death as I had become so close to her. Shortly after her death I developed eczema and had to go to the dermatologist. He said that it was the worst case of eczema he had seen in his 40 years of practice. He gave a cortisone shot, prednisone pills, and the strongest steroid cream made. I have been dealing with this for the past 3 weeks. It is about 75% cleared now and hopefully in another week or two it will clear up completely. I've been sleeping an hour or two at a time before waking up with the dryness, burning, and itching. If anyone out there needs a great moisturizer I can recommend Cerave lotion. It is very gentle on the skin but helps to lock in moisture better than any other moisturizer I've found. Even with this my skin absorbs it quickly and I have to put it on several times each day and then sit under a vaporizer.

That is pretty much what my life has been like for the past month. Hopefully after I finish healing I will be able to get back to my photography. In the meantime here is the last photo taken of our sweet Iona. Even that last evening she still managed to play with Sam through the baby gates, slapping playfully with him. She enriched my life and I miss her so much.

What I Really Want For Christmas!

2009-12-18T11:50:00.000-08:00

For years now I have wanted the infamous leg lamp from "A Christmas Story". With Iona the rescue cat's medical bills we aren't buying any Christmas presents this year so here is my take on the lamp. At least I sort of have one now. Merry Christmas and be careful or you'll shoot your eye out!

Hoppy Holidays!

2009-12-07T16:38:00.000-08:00

I would like to take this opportunity to wish the hoppiest of season's greetings to my dear friends on the internet group PetBunny. I love you all!

Ken Albin

3 Weeks Working With Iona

2009-11-19T10:23:00.000-08:00

I've been totally tied up with taming Iona lately. It's been a real challenge but I've seen tiny improvements daily. She has now figured out how to play with her 'ball in a ring' toy. Iona is more relaxed and she is also starting to put a little weight on her bad leg. Here is a photo I took today of her resting in the window with her little stuffed toy. The surgical scar where they put the pin in is evident. I estimate she will take several more months of work before she is completely tame.

Iona Has a Godfather

2009-11-14T21:11:00.001-08:00

Her godfather is Goldy McJohn, original keyboardist of Steppenwolf. He loves cats!

Here is Iona today. Notice her sling is gone now and I've been working with her a lot this week. She has mellowed out a lot from the totally feral cat we took in 2 weeks ago. She is doing great and will just get better over time. She took some treats from my fingers today!

Iona Update

2009-10-30T14:57:00.000-07:00

I've been completely tied up this week working with Iona. She went in for a check at the vet Thursday. He thought he could get her out of the carrier by wrapping her in her towel but he changed his mind when she started hissing and growling. He looked her over in the cage and said everything looked good so far. Next Thursday she goes in for x-rays to see how the healing is progressing.

Working with a completely feral cat is quite a challenge. It took a few days before Iona would use the litter box regularly. She still greets me with a hiss most of the time but I think she is starting to gain a little trust that I'm not going to grab and harm her. I am feeding her Wellness kitten food. It is probably the best canned food, containing no additives or byproducts. She is about 10 months old but only 5 pounds due to malnutrition so I'm trying to build her up with good nutrition. She is eating very well. Iona has made tiny increments of progress. She touched noses with a couple of our cats through the baby gates so far. Here she is today giving me that famous "eat poop and die" look that she uses when she thinks I am going to get too close.

After the surgery

2009-10-27T19:48:00.000-07:00

The vet put in a pin to hold the broken humerus. The shoulder popped back in as he was working on the humerus and seems to be stable so he left it alone. Iona was bandaged and the arm was placed in a sling. She was given a long term antibiotic and a pain patch. She ripped off the E-collar about 30 minutes after she got back home but has not been picking at the bandages. Iona is eating well now and she is apparently feeling ok since she hissed and growled at me when I brought in her evening meal. She goes back to the vet for a checkup Thursday.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

2009-10-23T20:34:00.000-07:00

While I was at my chiropractor this week one of the workers told me about a cat she was feeding behind the building who had a badly hurt leg. I could not turn away from this poor feral kitty so I brought a trap to the chiropractor and got the cat Wednesday. She was so feral she was throwing herself against the cage violently so I took her to the closest vet there. She scratched the vet, pooped on the floor, and tried to climb the walls before they sedated her. They took x-rays and found she had a dislocated shoulder and a fractured humerus, probably due to being hit by a car. They also treated her for hookworms and fleas. I then took her to my vet to evaluate her for possible surgery. We have a good orthopedic surgeon there who said he could do 2 surgeries in 1 day. Monday he will pop the shoulder joint back into place, holding it by moving a muscle and putting in a plate. He is then going to rebreak the old humerus fracture and put in another plate.

We named her Iona and have her isolated in a room at home. She is completely feral and I have started working to gain her trust. So far she hisses and growls a lot and has not figured out how to use a litter pan. She is at least eating well so that is a start. It may take months to get her somewhat tamed since she has never been touched by a human before. Here is Iona's first photo at home.

The total cost of her medical bills will be around $2000. As a retiree on a limited income this is really draining our bank account. We asked our vet to let us put in a donation jar but they refused. I am asking for your help. Please buy a nature photograph or greeting cards from my site at Fine Art America. It will go to help pay for Iona's medical bills. I know she is only one feral cat but it is everyone's responsibility to care for these poor creatures. Please help.

The Toilet Bowl Incident

2009-10-15T20:49:00.001-07:00

The other morning after I suddenly woke up with Sam's claws in my feet I went to the restroom. When I raised the toilet seat Sam the Man promptly jumped into the toilet. I dried him off and he immediately chased another cat through the house. Here is Sam after he finally collapsed from exhaustion.

Silver Springs - Last Photo Set

2009-10-08T05:50:00.001-07:00

Here are the last of the better photos taken recently at Silver Springs, Florida. It was a very enjoyable outing though I am sad that the park was almost totally vacant. The economic collapse has really hit parks like this one hard and I only saw about 10 cars there. My fear is that places like this will fold up over the next year and we will lose some of the true nature gems in Florida.

My photography is available as framed,matted prints and greeting cards at
Fine Art America.

Yes, llamas have an attitude! You can see the smugness in the face of this guy.

This rhea certainly was not shy. She followed us around and was very curious about the camera.

Yes, I know they were just enjoying the morning sun but I can't help but think of this as a reptilian conga line!

Flocks of migrating white ibis were just starting to fly into the park.

Though it's not a nature photo I couldn't resist throwing in this shot taken from a glass bottomed boat. It is a set of underwater statues used in several of the old I Spy television episodes. They also wound up in a James Bond movie as well, serving double duty. They are fiberglass but the scene reminds me of those photos you see in National Geographic of sunken Greek statues.

Silver Springs #2

2009-10-06T08:58:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are 4 more shots taken at Silver Springs, Florida. My nature photography is available at my website on Fine Art America as prints or greeting cards.

This set includes a cormorant, a goat with a smug attitude, a screech owl that was injured and could not be released back into the wild, and a giraffe. Hope you like them!

Silver Springs Trip #1

2009-10-04T15:24:00.000-07:00

All of the photographs seen here can be purchased as greeting cards and prints at my website hosted by Fine Art America. Of course the art site photos are higher resolution. Please consider supporting a starving retired teacher by purchasing a nice nature photograph professionally matted and framed.

Well, I took a day trip to Silver Springs, Florida Friday. It's been ages since I've been there and I knew I could get some interesting photographs. In fact I have an embarrassment of riches in the number of nice captures so instead of choking the post with a large number of photos I will break them into several posts of 4 shots each.
Please bear with me as I share these over the next week and I hope you like them.
The first set is a flamingo, crocodile, barn owl, and yellow-bellied slider turtles.

Washington Oaks and Big Talbot Island Parks

2009-09-30T14:37:00.000-07:00

I've been a busy photographer this week! First I went to Washington Oaks Park. Here are some shots from there. My photos can be purchased at http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/kenneth-albin.html

This motorized parachute was cruising above the beach.

The beach has a strange set of eroded coquina rocks there that make for a very artistic view of the ocean.

The algae covered rocks there were fascinating

and this little sandpiper was happily looking for morsels along the beach.

Next I went to Big Talbot Island and fed the mosquito population there. Wow, 95 degrees never felt so hot!

Here is a pretty little zebra longwing butterfly I found.

There is a funny story behind this ghost crab shot. I was trying to get down an embankment to the beach. The sand gave way under my feet and I slid on my tush the last 6 feet, winding up directly in front of this startled guy. I grabbed the camera and got a few good closeups of him before he recovered his senses enough to scurry away.

Speaking of crabs here is an Atlantic horseshoe crab I found at the edge of the water.

This poor osprey never did find a fish for lunch while I was there.

We will say goodbye to the beach there with this closeup of one of the dead oaks laying along the beach. There are hundreds of them there due to erosion, giving this section of beach its nickname "the Boneyard".

Till next time have a good week!

Another Nature Walk

2009-09-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

Hi all! I've been going crazy the past week because my Nikon D5000 had a recall to fix a potential power problem so I have been without my baby! It's back now so I spent yesterday hiking 4 miles along a local nature trail. Here are three photos I took. As always, my photos are available as prints/greeting cards from my Fine Art America website.

This photo is of berries from the possum haw shrub, found near swamps. It adds a bit of color to the drab summer landscape.

and this one is another flying great egret. I never get tired of watching these beautiful creatures.

This last photo has a little story behind it. The poor male grackle spent 30 minutes fluffing his feathers out and loudly singing to a nearby female. She completely ignored his advances. Ah, the neverending story of love!

Oooh, a cool snake!

2009-09-13T11:29:00.000-07:00

I ran upon this guy while traveling down a local nature trail. It is a dusky pygmy rattlesnake, a very poisonous snake with a reputation for being extremely aggressive and vicious. It rarely kills humans but can cause intense damage of tissue and loss of digits.

I am attuned to wildlife and my wife has nicknamed me Dr. Doolittle. I think they can sense that I don't mean them any harm so animals are almost never aggressive towards me. When I saw this little guy sunning himself I slowly dropped down and worked my way up to him until I was less than a foot away. He showed no aggression or nastiness and did not even rattle. Their rattle is a high pitched buzzing sound similar to a flying bee. He very obligingly posed for this shot. Lovely golden eyes!

You can purchase any of my photos as prints or greeting cards at Fine Art America.

Another Visit to the Guana Preserve

2009-08-23T18:52:00.000-07:00

The nature photos shown here are available from my gallery at Fine Art America as prints and greeting cards.

My better half Karen accompanied me to the preserve this time. I had great luck with the bird photography but not much in the way of insects since it was cloudy. Here are a few shots:

This is my favorite shot, a beautiful snowy egret in the shallows of Tolomato River.

and here is a nice shot of a seagull skimming the water. Flying birds are very difficult to capture without blur. I used a shutter speed of 1/1600 sec to get this one.

I also like this closeup of the much maligned thistle. This is a white thistle flower.

Karen wanted to say hello to everyone. She is still bandaged from the dog attack I talked about in an earlier post, but the stitches are out now.

Pet Photo of the Month

2009-08-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

OK ladies and gentlemen! Ellen needs your help so she can appear on the channel 17 TV station this month. PLEASE vote daily for her. You have to register but it is quick and they do not share information with others. Thank you so much for helping to put cute little Ellen over the top in this contest.

Horror

2009-08-12T23:30:00.000-07:00

Well...how to begin this. Last weekend I was outside taking photographs when I heard the neighbor scream "No, oh my God!". I didn't know what was happening but I knew someone was in trouble so I ran over there. The person in trouble was my wife Karen. I did not know that she had gone next door to ask them if they knew anyone who might be missing a cat that was recently found down the street. The neighbors have a large mixed breed dog they normally keep inside an invisible fence. That afternoon they had the dog out in the backyard letting it run around. When Karen arrived the dog ran up and attacked her, ripping open her left arm and taking out a large chunk of flesh. I ran inside and grabbed a roll of paper towels to wrap the arm in and rushed her to the emergency room. The xray showed no bone involvement so they cleaned out the wounds, stitched up most of the wounds, leaving the largest one partially open to drain, and bandaged everything up. A tetanus shot, antibiotic, and pain medication completed the visit and we went back home. Monday she went to our regular doctor who restitched everything, trying to close the wounds better. She went back Tuesday to check for infection. The wounds are healing slowly but with no infection so far. She will have some bad scars but no nerve damage or movement problems once it heals in a month or so. I watched the cleaning out process and saw how bad it was. The large wound with missing tissue tore through the fat layer. One of the puncture wounds went through the muscle layer almost to the bone. She took the week off because as the city chemist she did not want to get the wounds around some of the nasty germs she works with. She also wanted some time to heal and let some of the swelling and bruising go down. Fortunately there has not been a great amount of pain after that first day. Karen is just taking it easy this week. She is going back to work next week and the stitches come out in about another week.

Here are my thoughts about all of this. The neighbors were both very shaken up by this and wanted to euthanize the dog. We both asked them not to do this because we did not blame the dog. In his mind he probably thought he was defending his home from an intruder. No, we are not going to sue the neighbors. They are kind people who we have known for years. I do think that no one has a need to have a vicious dog like that as a "pet". They got it at the local shelter when they found out it was scheduled to be killed so their hearts were in the right place. It was a horrible accident that should not have happened. The only thing I really blame them for is not knowing their dog well enough to anticipate something like this happening. Too many people are like that these days. Part of the "Southern good ol boy" mentality is that dogs are not really family members. For that reason the neighbors spend a lot of money on keeping up shots and getting the invisible fence and not enough time working with the animal to get it accustomed to strangers. If they aren't going to better civilize the dog then it should stay inside the fence at all times. I would rather see them work with the dog so it is not half wild. So many people are ignorant that way and bad things often happen as a result. When it does they are shocked and blame the dog. I blame the owner for not doing a better job. Dogs and cats left outside with minimal training will always remain feral, or something close to it. My dad was the same way for years. Dogs and cats were considered to be more like livestock than pets and you didn't form a close bond to them. It makes me upset to see this but it is the norm rather than the exception. I know from experience with taming feral cats that almost any animal can be civilized if you are willing to put in the time for it and have a high degree of empathy for animals. We have taken cats into our home who were so wild they would try to claw our eyes out if we touched them. Every single one of these cats are now a part of our family and are well adjusted. Yes, a couple of them are still shy and have to be approached on their terms to pet them but none of them were untrainable.

I have real concerns about raising dog breeds that are naturally aggressive. There are probably some individual dogs out there that I could never adequately civilize. Why would anyone want an animal like that except as a some type of warped status symbol of power? This dog does not seem to fit into that limited category. I really think that with proper training and incorporation into the family this could be a very nice animal. He appears to want to please his owners and that is a good sign. I just hope they follow through and work with this dog. In the meantime Karen has learned the hard way not to assume that other people regulate and train their animals properly. I think if she goes next door in the future she will call first.

Best 2009 Photography

2009-08-08T06:40:00.000-07:00

I was recently honored by the Boulevard of Photographers in their photo challenge. They have selected my "Sandpiper on a Golden Beach" for inclusion in their Best of 2009 Photo Anthology book. This is a competition judged by a staff of professional photographers and my photograph was selected out of thousands of submissions. I am very proud of this achievement as a semi-professional photographer. If you are interested in purchasing greeting cards or a framed/unframed print of this photograph you can do so at Fine Art America

New Gallery Opening!

2009-08-06T18:06:00.000-07:00

Boy, these posts are starting to sound like a ton of self promotion! I am just so excited that my photography has taken off so well please forgive me for updating about it. I have sold several framed prints so far. It gives me a great feeling to know my work is appreciated. I opened another gallery at Fine Art America. They have a huge assortment of frames and mats to choose from for each of my photographs. They also have excellently done greeting cards that you can customize. You can save quite a bit by purchasing larger packs of cards. The photo here is a new one I took of a spittle case from the 2 lined spittle bug. The detail is amazing. I am always in awe of how these little insects can make something as intricate as this.

Labels: landscape, nature, pet, photography, sales, wildlife

New Gallery!

2009-08-01T12:33:00.001-07:00

I have just opened a new gallery on the internet. Click on this Link to Imagekind to get to it. The nice thing is that you can order my photos as matted prints or greeting cards with no muss or fuss. The prints are very high quality, coming from uncompressed png files from 12-29 mb in size. I have been uploading photos all day to it and since they are so large it takes forever! It will make for prints of the highest possible quality and I took special care to reduce noise and balance the colors and lighting of each photo before uploading them. So far I only have 6 photos uploaded but they are some of my best work. I will be adding to the galleries as fast as I can over the next month so check back and look at the new material that shows up. The photo at the top is a low resolution version of one of the pet photos on the site. It is our Ellen shortly after we adopted her and she is a cutie! Think of my photos when you have the need to buy a unique gift for birthdays, holidays, etc... I get a small percentage of each sale and it would really help to supplement my meager retirement pension from teaching. I love photography and I think it shows in these pictures.

I will still have my photos for sale by digital upload in a somewhat compressed form for use on websites, greeting cards, and whatever else you can think of for them. In a later post I will give you another link to many of my other photos for sale to be uploaded. You can contact me at albink@bellsouth.net if you are interested in any of them.

I Kan Write But I Kan't Spell!

2009-07-30T21:12:00.001-07:00

Here is a female writing spider, Argiope aurantia, found in my back yard this morning. This species has always been a favorite of mine. I know some people are terrified by spiders but this one won't bite unless provoked and is a great spider to control insects in the yard. You may also appreciate the fact that the female is a great parent, protecting her eggs from other predators until she dies during the first hard freeze.

Road trip!....Well, beach trip anyway

2009-07-28T17:29:00.000-07:00

I dedicated a morning to Vilano Beach photos this week. Getting up early and down there by 5:30 AM hurt but I wanted to get some predawn shots, dawn shots, and general daylight shots of what I could find interesting. I used the new Nikon D5000 for the photo shoot and the 55-200mm lens for most of the photos since they were almost all distance shots. I plan on going back for some macro shots of beach debris at a later date. I took 192 photos and have been going through them. I came up with 9 good photos from the bunch. Here is a sampling. Remember that these are lower quality jpegs and the originals are large files that have better sharpness.

Early dawn Vilano Beach jetty

Sand Piper running from the waves

Dawn at Vilano Beach

Hunting breakfast at dawn

Indian blanket wildflower

I never get everything I am looking for on a photo shoot but I think these shots capture the spirit of the beach pretty well while I was there. As always, high quality versions of these and many of the other photographs on this blog are available for digital upload for use on websites, greeting cards, etc... for $6.00 each in 4-6 mp jpeg format or $20.00 for 35-70 mp uncompressed high quality TIFF files. If interested contact me at albink@bellsouth.net for details and to arrange the upload.

I will have some exciting news in about 8-10 days to post about a way to purchase my photos on canvas, professionally matted and framed, as well as on greeting cards. Think 'unique gift' for special occasions! Till next time I hope all of your dreams come true.

Lord of the Dragonflies!

2009-07-24T05:22:00.000-07:00

You've heard of Lord of the Flies. I am starting to feel like the title. I must have done something good to a dragonfly in an earlier life because every time I go out to take photos they come up and pose for me. This one flew up to me on a photo excursion to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm two days ago. I went to take alligator and bird photos and I got a few nice shots I will post later but this little female amber wing dragonfly came up and demanded that I take her picture so I obliged. Amber wings are tiny guys on the order of an inch long. They are fairly common in nature but since they tend to hang out over swamps and ponds a lot of people never see them. To combat their tendency to be bird lunches they have developed the skill of imitating wasps. They fly and sit more in a manner similar to wasps than dragonflies and this fools many predators into leaving them alone.

I took 180 photos at the alligator farm and weeded them down to 5 great shots. One nice thing about digital photography over film photography is you are not always worrying about saving film. I have a 6gb card in my D5000 camera so I can take more than 1000 full size photos. The battery only lasts for around 500 shots before recharging so shot capacity is not a limiting factor and you can snap as many extra shots as necessary to ensure you find that perfect shot.

One thing I found out quickly is that I really need a more powerful telephoto lens. My 18-55mm lens is wonderful for closeup and portrait shots but I missed some potentially wonderful shots of birds because they were just too far away. This weekend I am going up to get a 55-200mm lens so I can cover those far away shots as well. Other than that I am very pleased with the new Nikon D5000 camera. I am still learning the intricacies of it but a lot of my earlier photographic knowledge learning in the stone age film era still applies to this new era of digital photography.

I have a new artist web page to sell photographs at Fine Art America. Right now I am just privately selling uploads of my images for use on websites, magazines, and other use. In the near future I am going to also be selling through their website so I can expand my sales. If interested in a photograph you can contact me at albink@bellsouth.net and I can easily arrange an upload of it for you. I will post a seperate blog post for this at a later time. I am very excited to be able to offer the type of photos I am best at taking rather than just sticking to bland stock photographs for sale on microstock sites. I enjoy taking the type of photos that I would be proud to see framed on my walls so this is what I am offering.

That's about all for now. I am going to be finishing my current batch of photos today and uploading them. Till next time!

Karen

2009-07-20T17:59:00.000-07:00

I was fooling around with the Nikon D5000 this evening trying to learn more about it. The better half was on the computer so I asked her to turn around for a quick shot. She had just come in from work not long before and was not "made up" for this but I think it is a nice offhand shot of her nonetheless.

An Inquisitive Anole

2009-07-15T18:48:00.000-07:00

These little lizards hang out on the house sunning themselves in the afternoon. This guy was very curious about the camera and not the least bit shy.

Dragonfly Closeup

2009-07-12T08:52:00.000-07:00

I am still playing with the new Nikon D5000, trying to get comfortable with it and learn all of its capabilities. Here is a backyard shot of a cooperative dragonfly. It is one of my favorites so far but not anything the stock photo companies would be interested in. Why is it that my best pictures are not marketable? Something is warped with what people are buying from web-based companies. Personally I want to stick to making photos like this one.

Flashback Time!

2009-07-11T10:32:00.000-07:00

I am sitting here watching a Bachman/Cummings DVD and it reminded me of a time I briefly met the Guess Who. The year was 1970. Our economics class was on a field trip to the airport in Chattanooga, Tennessee (don't ask!) when a group came off of a private Lear jet and walked into the lobby surrounded by staff. Mom had always taught me not to talk to strangers so I was rather freaked out when this long haired bearded guy in a fringed buckskin jacket and jeans came up to me and said "Hi there. How are you doing, man?" Several minutes later I found out that they were the Guess Who coming to town for a concert. The guy who spoke to me was one of their guitarists, Greg Leskiw. He was a replacement along with Kurt Winter when Burton Cummings left the group for a solo career. I found out later that Greg stayed with them for a short time and then moved on to several other groups. This was my introduction to the hippie era. I had a signed photo of the group I got from them there but it was probably thrown away in one of our moves and is gone now.

New camera/ thoughts about stock photography

2009-07-09T23:05:00.000-07:00

Well, I found out in a hurry that my submitted photos were not what stock companies were looking for. Even my best, most artistic work was rejected. I then went back and looked through several site's "best photos" to see what mine were missing. What I found was that they are not looking for photos you could hang up in your living room. They are using photos of objects with white backgrounds that can be utilized as illustrations in books, magazines, and websites. They also are sometimes interested in extremely color saturated photos of surreal scenes with people. If I am going to be successful I am going to have to devote at least part of my creative energy to making stupid shots of objects on a white background that can be cut out and used. For that reason I just made a light box for photographing small objects with no shadows on a white background. A little Photoshop work will clean up any remaining problems and leave me with a sterile looking photo. Oh well, if I want to sell then I will have to give them what they want.

I also realized that my little camera was not going to have the quality and low noise necessary for this type of work so I invested in a Nikon D5000 as shown above. It is a nice 12 mp camera with all sorts of bells and whistles and a reputation for great photos. I could not afford a $5000 high end Nikon so I went hunting for one in the $800-1000 range that would be the best buy and give the sharpest, cleanest photos. It was close but the D5000 won in the reviews I went through. I have been playing with it this week and still have a lot to learn. Here is a closeup test I took of a grub on a tree stump in my yard. It is not anything the stock companies would be interested in but I was impressed by the sharpness of the image. It is somewhat degraded in this compressed jpeg photo but is still a nice shot of the little monster taken at an approximate distance of 4 inches.

Wild Kingdom

2009-07-08T13:49:00.000-07:00

I wish I could have captured this one photographically but it started sprinkling and I didn't want the camera to get wet. While mowing I saw a 4 foot long corn snake slithering around in the back yard. I stopped mowing for a few minutes and sat a couple of feet away from it. We checked each other out and then it was time to get back to mowing.

Oh Lord I Feel Like I'm Dying!

2009-06-30T12:48:00.000-07:00

With apologies to the Allman Brothers. I've been starting back walking. With all of the stuff happening my last year of teaching I let my walking lapse, resulting in a nice pot belly. One of my goals after retirement was to lose weight and get back into shape. Whew! I had forgotten how rough it is to walk for extended periods of time. I started at about 3 miles and today made it to 4 1/2 miles. I would like to slowly get into shape and back to the 6-7 miles I used to walk. It is great exercise but you have to be careful in the summer to pick your times wisely so you don't overheat. I just finished my 4 1/2 miles and am cooling off and resting my aching feet. It will probably take several weeks to get back into shape.

In the meantime I have been going through a few thousand photographs and picking the best ones. I intend to submit them to a number of stock photo services. This should give me a couple of thousand dollars extra per year to supplement my lousy pension.

How Not To Mow 2 Acres

2009-06-27T08:29:00.000-07:00

It's been about 10 years since I mowed these 2 acres we live on. The land is basically flat with tough pasture grass and pines with large roots exposed in places. I did the weed eating and then did the main cutting with a 19.5 horsepower Craftsman mower. It's not fancy but it does get the job done quickly. Anyway, I was near the end of mowing when I heard a horrible clanging sound and the mower quit. Checking under the mower I found that I had bent one of the blades on a tree root. I had to get another set of blades and put them on. The moral of this story is to raise the mowing height when working around large roots and other exposed items on the surface. After the blade change I checked the belts and did a test cutting. All went well. By the end of the summer I will have saved enough money not hiring our former lawn guy to pay for the mower as well as the gass for this season. I think they call this 'sweat equity'.

On a similar note I have been doing what I can to economize. Finances here are going to be tight as most of my years of investments are in the toilet until the market rises again. I will get about 40% of my teaching salary and will supplement it with interest off of investments. For the next year or so the investments won't be much help so it is time to watch my pennies. I have been looking closer at coupons for grocery shopping and avoiding extravagant purchases. I also need in the next week to start switching invested funds to CDs and other stable sources. The problem right now is that the typical CD is now paying around 2% interest. Hopefully that wlll improve. Until the market improves I am pretty much holding on to my stock funds and bonds and just transferring money from bonds as they mature to other sources.

The Transition to Retirement

2009-06-25T11:08:00.000-07:00

One thing I've quickly found out is that when you have been teaching for as long as I taught it is very difficult to wind down. Your brain and body are telling you that you must be doing something! Relaxing is going to take some practice.

I have decided to not have any further mention of the St. Johns County school system except to respond to news reports. Getting into a pissing match with individuals won't improve the schools here so why bother? I would like to say that my last year at Bartram Trail we earned another "A" on the FCAT test that Florida has as a mandatory test. What does this mean to me personally? About half of my lawn equipment will now be paid for! Other than that, not much.

I am sitting here with our little tiger Sam, who we nicknamed 'Sam the Man' because of his feisty nature. Here is a photo of Sam one of the few times he has been relaxed.

It Takes a Thief

2009-06-22T08:02:00.000-07:00

I got my camera out of the top drawer to download photos. When I came back to put up the camera old guy Beau was raiding the drawer for any goodies. When he didn't find anything he wanted Beau spread out in the drawer for a nap. Luckily I still had the camera in hand so I took these sequential shots. Boy, does Beau like drawers! This is perhaps the 10th time he has raided a drawer here!

The joys of yard work

2009-06-21T16:28:00.000-07:00

In my last post I mentioned I was not the great outdoorsman and today I proved it. We were dragging pieces of a fallen tree to our wood pile when my foot was caught in a vine and down I went, the tree limb skewering my arm. This is what it looked like after I cleaned it up and added an antibacterial ointment. I finished the job before cleaning it so there was blood on the clothes. They were treated with an anti-stain liquid and thrown in the wash. It's memorable to me as being my first yardwork wound after retirement.

Henry David Thoreau With Lawn Tools (not!)

2009-06-20T12:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've done any major yard work. My teaching duties just took up too much of my time and energy to allow for taking care of the 2 acres we live on. Therefore it was with some excitement and a little trepidation that I signed for the implements of destruction commonly called lawn tools that we ordered recently. The lawn tractor did not want to start at first but with a little coaxing and swearing the engine finally kicked over with a huge belch of white smoke. Once the initial theatrics were over it ran great. I drove it up into the shed and then unpacked the weed eater and chain saw. Yesterday afternoon was spent mostly going over all of the booklets. We have a medium sized tree that fell a month ago so I decided to slice it into manageable pieces that could be tossed onto the brush pile in back. I ran through the startup procedures with the chain saw and cranked it. And cranked it. And cranked it. I cranked until my shoulder was sore. It finally started up and I proudly took it over to the fallen tree. Unfortunately I forgot about the safety switch on it and when I released the throttle momentarily it died. I proceeded to flood it and pulled on the starting handle for about 30 minutes until I was gasping for breath. By this time the mosquitoes had found me so I called it a day and put the chainsaw away. Last night I went back to the manual and discovered a couple of things I was doing wrong. This morning I tried to start it again and after about 20 pulls it started up. This time I did not let it stall and cut the tree up in about 15 minutes. Though covered with wood chips I did keep my body parts intact. This outdoors stuff isn't as easy as the guy on the PBS home show makes it look! I'm sure that with experience I will get better at it.

Appreciate What You Have

2009-06-17T22:14:00.000-07:00

We all take what we have for granted, including me at times. The other day the wife and I were cleaning about 15 years of junk out of the utility shed. Since I have more time on my hands I am going to save money by doing my own yard work now. In the past we have hired it done because we simply did not have the time to devote to 2 acres. While I was teaching I put everything I had into the job and was always completely exhausted each evening and weekends. We bought a new riding mower, weed eater, and chain saw to put in the shed. It will pay for itself in about a year so the long term savings will be substantial.

This morning I looked out the window and saw a young couple in a small truck stop next to the trash we had put out from the shed. They spent around an hour going through every box and bag looking for usable items. They took a couple of old plastic tarps, a rusty vice, two old broken weed eaters, a car battery charger I had replaced with a much better model years ago, boxes of old electrical components, a hand sprayer, a rusted grinder, and other odds and ends. When they were finished going through the garbage they put the remaining stuff neatly back into bags and then into the trash cans.

Where I saw a large pile of junk I should have disposed of years ago this couple saw treasures. From their appearance they seemed to be rather poor. This couple was beaming as they took our trash and loaded bags of it into the back of their truck. They acted as if they had just won the lottery. What could they possibly do with this stuff? a couple of items might be cleaned up and fetch a few dollars at a yard sale. Items like the tarps might come in handy for covering outdoor belongings. The point they drove home to me was that they really seemed to appreciate getting the junk I wanted to get rid of. We are certainly not wealthy as we live in a mobile home and lead a simple life but in their eyes we must have seemed like millionaires.
This couple was so young they looked as if they were just starting out together so they probably did not have much in the way of material goods. It really made me kick myself for taking things for granted that they only dreamed of having at this point in their lives together. In the future I will make every effort to value the few things we have here. Others have so much less.

Another death

2009-06-17T04:17:00.000-07:00

It seems like every year I taught I lost at least one student. Yesterday a former Anatomy student passed away in an auto accident. He was trying to avoid a dead animal in the road, overcorrected, lost control of his vehicle, and hit a tree. He was not driving recklessly or drinking. Emergency maneuvers are more difficult for young drivers due to inexperience. Since many schools have eliminated driver ed courses due to budget cuts the students have even less training. We lose good kids every year this way and it is so sad.

Learning to relax

2009-06-17T04:12:00.000-07:00

I am still in "teacher mode" where I feel like I should be doing something every moment. It's going to take awhile to retrain myself and give myself permission to relax. 30 years of living in a high stress environment is a lot to overcome.

Lots of work and a little more teacher stuff

2009-06-16T15:44:00.000-07:00

We spent the morning cleaning 15 years of junk out of the utility shed. It's being cleaned in preparation for mowing stuff. I have been paying someone to keep the 2 acres of yard trimmed but with what I pay him in one year I can get all of equipment I need and do it myself now that I have the time and energy. This afternoon we purchased a riding mower, chain saw, and weed eater. Yee hah!

I know I promised to end the teaching posts but something came up that I just have to blog about. This past Sunday the local paper posted a list of all school retirees. It even had several interviews with the teachers. Guess who was the only person not listed? Yep, you got it in one guess. I emailed the Human Resource person in charge of retirees about it. She wrote me back apologizing, saying she would send me an invitation to the retirement dinner I did not get and a listing of my jobs in the county. It would have been nice to have actually attended the dinner and had the information published in the paper. It crossed my mind that the superintendent of schools has been pretty pissed off about remarks I've made in the past on my teaching blog about things happening at the school that he seemed to feel reflected badly upon him. He even had his hired law firm threaten me with legal action if I did not remove a funny video I posted concerning the pitiful ESIS grading program we were forced to use after the school system spent a huge amount of money for this program that would not even correctly average grades at times. The supposed reason for the threat was that I allegedly used a proprietary photo of their sacred ESIS program in my video parody. Would you say that he was looking for absolutely anything to use in retaliation against me for my posts telling the truth? Surely he has a better character than that so it must have just been a coincidence. Would he also be so petty as to have my name removed from the published retirement list or am I just imagining things? Hmmm... no one else I am aware of was left off of the list, so why was I the only one? I'm sure it was just an honest error. Aren't you certain as well? Of course you are. Isn't educational politics an interesting sport? Now that I am not affiliated with the school system any longer I will have more freedom to post an occasional tidbit to keep the educational system honest. I talk regularly to a number of teachers so I'm sure I will be hearing all sorts of interesting things during the upcoming school year and I will be more than happy to verify them and then pass them along on this blog as time permits. I know how much the "powers that be" at the St. Johns County, Florida school system value the truth so I look at this as a public service on their behalf, though it will certainly not be the main focus of this blog.

Boy Have Computers Changed!

2009-06-13T15:10:00.000-07:00

My earliest memory of computers was when I accompanied my dad to the TVA Widow's Creek steam plant in 1962 one weekend. Dad was called in to work on a crashed computer there and he thought I would be interested in seeing a power plant in operation. I distinctly remember the huge drum memory that held about as much information as a good programmable calculator today. When he was finished he showed me around the control room and I marveled at the "typewriters" that spewed out writing on long rolls of paper without anyone typing. While he worked I flipped through some magazines there and saw an ad for the first desktop computer I had ever seen. The price of this new computer was $10,000 and it had 16K memory. At that time I told dad that some day they would have computers for the home that will be much faster than this one and will be relatively inexpensive so anyone could purchase one. Dad laughed and told me I was probably right. Now I am sitting here typing on a computer that is several magnitudes faster than the one I saw in the ad and has 3.4 GB memory! It's funny how the future sometimes unfolded the way I imagined it.

An Ending and a Beginning

2009-06-11T11:50:00.000-07:00

As promised I have retired (pun intended) my teaching blog and now will travel down new paths. Here is the first new item. His name is Sam. Yesterday I saw an email by a coworker telling how her neighbor who works at a restaurant found a kitten eating in the restaurant's dumpster. I contacted her and said that we would take the cat. Today I picked up the supposedly female cat whom I had named Samantha and found out it was a "he". Samantha became Sam and I took him to our vet for a checkup, tests, and parasite treatment since he had grown up outside. Sam is 1.4 pounds and around 5 weeks old. He had a horrible case of fleas which were treated along with a preventative dose of medicine to kill intestinal parasites. Other than that the vet said he was in great health. Sam is isolated in a room at home now and there are four cats peeking at him under the door. He is a feisty little guy who loves to play. After dealing with him awhile the vet just shook his head and told me that I was going to really have my hands full with this alpha cat in training. He has already learned how to play with a ball today and is napping some and exploring the room. I know I am crazy to accept cat #9 but he may have wound up at the pound otherwise so I have few regrets about it so far. Sam is adorable with his huge ears and frantic playing.