A standout grasshopper photo.

The first time I saw it, I thought it was a mechanical toy! Such fantastic details of a grasshopper was captured by Vivian Bvivian using a FUJIFILM-Fine-Pix-J 100 digital camera.




Photograph courtesy of Vivian Bvivian. Published with permission.

Brown pigeon, bato-bato

Bird	Geopelia striata
Common Name	Brown pigeon, Zebra Dove, Kurokurot,Batobatong Katigbe
Camera	Fujifilm hs25exr finepix bridge camera
Location/time	near U.P. Clarkfield
Date/time	February 5,2013, , 10:59 A.M.
Settings	1/350s, f/8
Phtographer	Dr. Ernesto P. Adorio
Host	Facebook
Reference	Birds of Alabang HIlls

Photo owned and copyright by Ernesto P. Adorio.

Brazilian candle flowers

First time to see another candle flower which is not a lutea.

Plant/Flower	pavonia multiflora x gledhellii.
Common Name	Brazilian Candle Flower Plant
Location	Negros Occidental
Camera	Samsung ES110
Photographer	Al Claud Jr.
Attributions	Al Claud Jr.(common name), Penny Quilter (scientific name)
Reference

Photograph owned and copyright by Al Claud. Linked with his permission in this blog.

Tree with showy blue flowers: the Jaracandra tree

Plant/Tree	Kingdom(Plantae),unranked(Angiosperms, Eudicots, Asterids), order(Lamiales), family(Bignoniacea), genus(Jacaranda), species(J. mimosifolia)
Camera	Panasonic S3 Digital Camera
Location	Australia
Photographer	Susan Estrope Dicker
Attribution	Identification(Susan Estrope Dicker)
Reference	Wikipedia

Photograph owned and copyrighted by Susan Estrope Dicker of Australia.

Simple tools for image manipulation in Shotwell

I am sometimes impressed what you can do with Photoshop which is a Windows application. For us Linux users, the free photo manager Shotwell provides simple tools. Here is an original image.




And here is a post-processed image obtained by a little straightening and a little adjustment.



So If you are short of funds in buying Windows powered computers and Photoshop software, LInux provides simple tools in Shotwell. The following are available:

Enhance, Crop, Straighten, Red-eye, Adjust.

Enhance will try to improve the contrast. Crop allows to select a region in the photo, Straighten allows to straighten photos, Red-eye will remove red eye reflections in photos which used flasth and Adjust allows setting the Exposure, Saturation, Tint, Temperature and Shadows. The best thing to do is to install Shotwell, which is already standard in Ubuntu based Linux distributions.

Indian tree and bird.

I saw the bird atop the Indian tree and photographed it in zoom mode with my HS25EXR camera.Details are lost in the bird but at least we can see features! These types of scenes yield USABLE photos instead of high RESOLUTION photos. Someday we may be able to catch the same bird much nearer to make a clearer photo, which I suspect to be a wild pigeon,but which my friends say is a shrike.




We will post more photos of the Indian tree.

Here is a photo with a lovely sunset as backdrop.

Plant/tree	Polyalthia longifolia chinensis
Common name	Indian tree
Camera	Fujifilm Finepix HS25EXR camera
Location	(first photo) UP Clarkfield, Pampanga; (second photo) Petron Station, NLEX, Bulacan
Date	(first photo)Feb. 19, 2013,(second photo)Feb. 28, 2013
Photographer	Dr. Ernesto Adorio
Attribution	Ella Bernales Jacildo(botanical name)
References	Stuart xchange, Wikipedia

Seagull photo with a canon S95

An incredibly clear photo with rich details of a seagull taken with a Canon S95 digital camera.



I like the way the S95 camera captures and renders the colors.

Bird	Seagull
Location	Bay of Monte Carlo, Royal Gardens
Camera	Canon S95
Setting	F 4.5, ISO 125, Expo time 1/1000
Photographer	Penny Quilter of England

Photograph owned and copyright by Penny Quilter. Published in this blog with permission.

Rivina humilis, weed like with bright red berries

Considered a pest since it can crowd out other plants, this plant attracts birds to eat its berries and disperse it in some other places. In fact I saw an untamed brown pigeon one day in our family house in Sum-ag Bacolod City near this plant which has created a dense thicket!

Strangely though it is a common plant, it is not listed in Dr. Stuart's Xchange database for medicinal plants.

Plant	Rivina humilis
Full name	Plantae| Angiosperms |Eudicots | Order: Caryophyllales| Family: Phytolaccaceae|Genus: Rivina| Species: R. humilis
Common name	Pigeonberry, Rouge Plant, Baby Peppers, Bloodberry, and Coralito
Location	Bacolod City
Photographers	Susan Estrope Dicker(1st photo), Dr. Ernesto Adorio(2nd photo)
Camera	Pansonic S3(1st photo), Olympus VG110(2nd photo)
Acknowledgment	Dinah Canada (scientific name identification)
References	Wikipedia
Albums	Facebook (E.P. Adorio)

First photo (c), 2013 by SED of Australia.

Images are not to be used for commercial purposes.

Prickly Pear cactus, opuntia

Plant	Opuntia cochinellifera,Opuntia ficus-indica
Common name	Prickly pear,abakus, dila-dila, nopal, palad
Camera	Fujifilm HS25EXR
Location	Clarkfield, Pampanga
Photographer	Ernesto Adorio
Reference	Stuartxchange, Wikipedia

Mickey mouse eggplant, nipple plant, Solanum Mammosum

This funny looking plant "fruit" is the mickey mouse eggplant, found in the wild. According to some it is NOT edible, but stuart xchange says :
Fruit makes an excellent vegetable, the elongated kind is most cultivated, eaten before it ripens, before the seed hardens.Good source of calcium, phosphorus, iron, and vitamin B. The green leaves are a good source of vitamin C.

Plant	Solanum Mammosum
Common name	Mickey mouse eggplant, Cow's Udder Plant, Nipple Fruit
Location	Salvador Benedicto
Camera	Nokia C3
Photographer	Ernesto P. Adorio
Reference	Wikipedia, stuart xchange

"Deathly white" unknown plant flower at UP Clark

Some may like the flower, but I find it strangely solemnly sad to look at.


And it is not still identified, though it is commonly called IVORY flowers. I have posted the photo in Facebook and will give P100.00 to the first one who can properly identify it.


Identified today, February 13, 2013 as Calotropis Gigantea by Dinah Canada.

Plant/flower	Calotropis Gigantea
Common Name	Ivory Flower, bowstring hemp, calotrope, crown flower, crownplant, giant milkweed, madar
Location	Clark Field, Pampanga
Camera	Fujifilm HS25EXR camera
Acknowledgment	Ella Jacildo (common name), Dinah Canada (scientific name)
Reference	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calotropis_gigantea

Birds in sky formation

Taken with Samsung WB150F digital camera, 1/180s, f/3.7, ISO 80 In Sta. Maria, Bulacan, February 9, 2013.

Sweet scented mock orange flowers, Philadelphus

I was amazed when my Australian based FB friend posted a photo of a "mock" lemon or orange. Seems the name is appropriate since they gave off the same scents but never bear fruits. Wikipedia showed that it belongs to the genus Philadelphus with 60 members.

Plant/Flower	Plantae/Angiosperms|Eudicots/Asterids/Cornales/Hydrangeaceae/Philadelphus
Common Name	Mock Orange or Lemeon
Camera	Panasonic S3
Location	Gladstone, Australia
Photographer	Susan Estrope Dicker
Reference	http://Wikipedia entry

Image owned and copyright by Susan Estrope Dicker. Photo hosted in Facebook.

Delicate "ginger" lily blooms

Our Australian Facebook friend has posted a clear and stunning photo of a "ginger" lily like plant on her Facebook page. The buds look like nipples full of milk, I joked that it should be named nipples flower.

Here are some photos I took in Salvador Benedicto with my trusted HS25EXR camera.

Plant	Languas speciosa, Zerumbet speciosum
Common name	Shell ginger, langkawas na pula,
Location	Gladstone, Australia
Photographer	Susan Estrope Dicker
Camera	Panasonic S3
Date	Feb.18,2012
Reference	stuart xchange
Attributions	Common name: Ella Bernales Jacildo

First image owned and copyright by Susan Estrope Dicker.Linked with permission from SED.