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You know....amusingly, been so long from Finland..I actually often think in english....

ORIGINAL: Lecivius

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You know what? I've been told there are people who think perfectly well without using spoken/written language at all. I suspect we all do at times, but some do it normally. Me, I can hear my own voice in my head when I'm thinking; I'm talking to myself! Sometimes when I'm alone I even mouth the words or just say what the flip and whisper it or even louder than that. The only language other than English I tried to learn (other than the French I was taught in kindergarten) was Deutsch. I think on very rare occasions I've managed to think in that. Don't ask me to hold a conversation in it with anyone else but myself. [:D]
I can still sing "Frere Jacques" and "Alouette, gentille alouette" and I remember that Polly's mom's name is Tina. Door may to vous too.

Here is a creature I saw on a milkweed plant I've been growing for the Monarchs. My camera only has auto-focus and it can be a challenge sometimes. I know some entomologists but I'd be embarrassed to send them such a poor pic. If any of you know what this is please post.
You're only seeing the rear half of it here.

I just made this target to hang from the camera tripod to help me focus so this doesn't happen again.

[:)]

I'm going through a bit of a mental challenge myself. I am told people 'think' without language, but people 'reason' in their native tongue.

Heck, what do I know, I'm just a simple hillbilly [:'(] You started this thread [;)]

ORIGINAL: Lecivius

[:)]

I'm going through a bit of a mental challenge myself. I am told people 'think' without language, but people 'reason' in their native tongue.

Heck, what do I know, I'm just a simple hillbilly [:'(] You started this thread [;)]

Reason in their native tongue? You must be one of the few blessed by not knowing any lawyers. (Don't give me a hard time, Bill, I'm joking). They reason in a dead tongue called Latin. [:'(]

Medical doctors use Latin some and Greek. Most of them don't know the difference, I fear.

ORIGINAL: Lecivius

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Reminds me of Woody Allen's braille pornography joke, which I won't repeat here. [8D]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Reason in their native tongue? You must be one of the few blessed by not knowing any lawyers. (Don't give me a hard time, Bill, I'm joking). They reason in a dead tongue called Latin. [:'(]

Medical doctors use Latin some and Greek. Most of them don't know the difference, I fear.

Who me?

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Here is a creature I saw on a milkweed plant I've been growing for the Monarchs. My camera only has auto-focus and it can be a challenge sometimes. I know some entomologists but I'd be embarrassed to send them such a poor pic. If any of you know what this is please post.
You're only seeing the rear half of it here.

If your camera allows adjustable settings like an old fashioned SLR, setting to use the smallest possible aperture will give you better depth of field.

Bill

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I just made this target to hang from the camera tripod to help me focus so this doesn't happen again.

Your previous pic is not suffering from just a lack of focus, there is also motion blur from a shutter speed that is too slow or a hand that is to unsteady. Try a tripod or brace the camera against a window or wall.

Whenever you take a long focal length shot (zoom) you allow less light into the camera. This means that your shutter compensates by staying open longer to allow more light for correct exposure.

This is why photographers who do this for a living use the massive wide f2.8 400mm lenses. It is then very tough to get focus if your subject is moving, so many use the technique of setting focus on a spot and allowing something to move to that spot.

I was using the macro mode on the camera (Nikon L340) and it was mounted on a tripod and the lens was less than a foot away from the subject (to your movement suspicion, there may have been a slight breeze, but I could see the AF focus perfectly and keep going, couldn't get it to stop at perfect). It just can be devilishly hard to get that AF to work. About 15 years ago I had a beautiful Nikon camera (the kind that used film) and a nice set of lenses (that I lost in a burglary). My absolute favorite was a 50mm lens that could do macro zooms and the pictures were just amazing. But I could choose to focus manually and much of the time I did.

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I was using the macro mode on the camera (Nikon L340) and it was mounted on a tripod and the lens was less than a foot away from the subject (to your movement suspicion, there may have been a slight breeze, but I could see the AF focus perfectly and keep going, couldn't get it to stop at perfect). It just can be devilishly hard to get that AF to work. About 15 years ago I had a beautiful Nikon camera (the kind that used film) and a nice set of lenses (that I lost in a burglary). My absolute favorite was a 50mm lens that could do macro zooms and the pictures were just amazing. But I could choose to focus manually and much of the time I did.

Maybe we just have to drink enough of our favourite beverage to counteract the blurriness!
It might help if you could tell us whether you were looking at a butterfly or a beetle or a suntanning neighbour.

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I was using the macro mode on the camera (Nikon L340) and it was mounted on a tripod and the lens was less than a foot away from the subject (to your movement suspicion, there may have been a slight breeze, but I could see the AF focus perfectly and keep going, couldn't get it to stop at perfect). It just can be devilishly hard to get that AF to work. About 15 years ago I had a beautiful Nikon camera (the kind that used film) and a nice set of lenses (that I lost in a burglary). My absolute favorite was a 50mm lens that could do macro zooms and the pictures were just amazing. But I could choose to focus manually and much of the time I did.

Maybe we just have to drink enough of our favourite beverage to counteract the blurriness!
It might help if you could tell us whether you were looking at a butterfly or a beetle or a suntanning neighbour.

Well this "neighbor" is part orange so she must be using the fake stuff.

There is an orange and black flying beetle that I used to see a lot on the in-laws farm. It seemed to show up around this time of year in fair numbers but disappeared when the weather cooled. Can't recall what it was though - I no longer have my "bug book" to ID those kind of things.

EDIT: Found something on the Internet - a milkweed beetle.

The colors are dead on, but I thought what I was seeing with my eye was twice as long(as though I can tell) and the wings or carapace half the length of the body. But it makes sense that whatever feeds on the milkweed will have the same orange and black coloration which means it is mildly toxic (it doesn't taste good) to predators.

BBfanboy is reminding me of the time I was a city kid (Pittsburgh) and we were visiting my maternal grandparents on their farm. It was the dusk hour and everyone looked at me and somebody said "time to bring the cows in". I had no idea how that was done but I walked out to where they were (about 500 yds distant I would guess) and they started mooing more than they had been and crowding toward me and just followed me in, back to the barn. And yes, I did at some point learn how to milk a cow, and no, no opportunity ever presented itself for me to use that knowledge in "real life". [:(]

edit: for context, I don't think I was more than seven years old at the time.

ORIGINAL: geofflambert
And yes, I did at some point learn how to milk a cow, and no, no opportunity ever presented itself for me to use that knowledge in "real life". [:(]

Lecivius, you are a prevert. [:D]

edit: The first time I know I typed "prevert" but, now I know 'cause the spell check just did it again and changed it to "pervert".

The farmhouse was one of those with the wrap-around porch like the one I picture here, but bigger. Three stories. And my grandfather smoked a pipe and I remember liking the smell and knowing which rooms he used from the smell of them.
That wrap-around porch had two of those swinging benches, you know the ones you were supposed to sit on with your date at the end of the date. [:D] It had all the other accoutrements as well, like tables to play chess on. The magic of childhood.

That is a nice looking house.