Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage 2013 Day 2

(Click here for Pictures from Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage 2013 Day 2)

(Link to the Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage 2013)

The first session of the day was Wildflower Photography with Jack Carman ( author of Wildflowers of Tennessee) and Bob Hutson (co-author of Wildflowers of the Great Smoky Mountains). I didn’t realize who our instructors were and I wish I brought my books for them to autograph! This was an awesome session and I learned so much.

Contrast and Control Techniques
1. Full sun casts harsh/very hard shadows, requires contrast. Control to lower contrast.
2. Mixed sun/shade - need to lower contrast
3. Cloudy bright - no contrast needed
4. Deep shade - raise contrast

Contrast Control
1. add light to shadows and subtract light from highlights; use reflectors (crumble tin foil, paste on foamboard with dull side out) and get as close to the flower as possible so as to light the flower and not the background; sides or angles but not head on.
2. Diffuser - white rain umbrella, frosted vinyl shower curtain, sheer white cloth
3. Shading tools - black cloth over umbrella
4. Use friend’s body, hat, coat, newspaper
5. Blocking only direct sun will diffuse
6. Block all creates shade
7. Diffuser in sunlight all the time.
8. Sometimes wait for cloud to block the sun.

Background Selection
1. Zoom: use optical zoom not digital
2. Longest focal length
3. Telephoto lets you control background better
4. Choose background that is far away
5. Make subject stand out
6. Increase contrast between subject and background

Composition
1. Zooming is cropping
2. Move to change composition
3. Odd number of flowers looks best
4. Simplify - focus in on what is the most interesting thing
5. Bulls eye pictures are less pleasing.
6. Get your subject off center
7. Thirds rule
8. Don’t let subject touch edges of frame
9. Bulls eye work with symmetrically shaped subject.
10. Get in as close as you can.
11. Make horizontal and vertical photos. Most subjects will lend themselves to one or the other.
12. Look for geometric shapes such as diagonal lines, curves, s curves. Diagonal lines look better than straight up and down.
13. Most things look better from their level.
14. Stop and study from all angles.
15. Sweep the edges of the frame with your eyes and look for distractions.

Taking the Picture
1. Highest quality image setting
2. Set lens for telephoto
3. Work under optimal lighting conditions (cloudy bright)
4. Get helper, tripod
5. Use light modification techniques.
6. Use auto ISO setting - shutter speed at least 1/100 of a sec.
7. Compose using LCD on back of camera, not viewfinder
8. Autofocus on what is most important
9. Manual focus if autofocus doesn’t lock on what you want.
10. Manually focus at the distance that gives you the composition you want.
11. Use 2 hands.
12. Brace elbows against body and squeeze slowly.
13. Use autoexposure -either program mode or aperture
14. Use exposure compensation - check your image for blinkies to see if you have blown the highlights.

Wind
1. If flower is blowing in slight breeze, be patient.
2. Photograph early in the day when wind is generally still
3. Shield plant with umbrella or other device.
4. Check image on LCD screen for exposure, focus, composition, and wind before you walk away.

Other Tips
1. Do it Right in the field. Photoshop never as good.
2. Search for picture or good specimen. Spend more time looking than photographing.
3. Small groups or single flowers are easier to work with then large mass. A large mass works better for a carpet or scenic.

Ethics
1. Do not damage your subject or environment.
2. Gardening is the removal of things from the picture consistent with a natural look. Do in a nondestructive manner.
3. Use dead leaves to cover rocks and sticks and water to tone down/darken things.
4. Never remove or damage live plant material
5. Gently brush other vegetation out of the way or stake back if necessary.
6. Don’t remove all the leaves around the plant. Return everything back the way it was.
7. Think about what you are doing. Don’t trample other stuff to photograph something.

Our next session was on Bugs and Butterflies with Chuck Parker. Here are things we saw:

1. Millipede
2. Cranefly
3. Stonefly (characteristics are 4 wings, 2 prongs at end of abdomen, long antenna, mouth parts not well developed, wings specific)
4. Scorpion fly
5. Moth fly
6. Worm
7. Snail
8. Dark winged fungus gnat
9. Grasshopper
10. Caterpillar
11. Ground beetles
12. Rolled wing or needle stoneflies
13. Wasp
14. Caddisfly
15. Sowbug
16. Butterfly
17. Salamander
18. Carpenter bee
19. Tiger beetle - iridescent blue green
20. Adult mayfly
21. Saw flies - female ovipositor looks like saw blade.
22. Doll’s eye
23. Swallowtail
24. Beetle larva
25. Seersucker sedge
26. Sweat bee
27. True bug
28. True fly
29. Bee moth aka hummingbird moth
30. Crayfish
31. Leaf hopper
32. Lady bug
33. Water penny
34. Flatheaded caddisfly
35. Forester moth - day active; white belly, white stripes, black body
36. Caddisfly cases on rocks (if stuck - pupated)
37. Midge
38. Angelwinged butterfly
39. Black fly larva - look like bowling pins; can eat bacteria out of water.
40. Rhyme -
Sedges have edges.
Rushes are round.
And on grasses,
Nodes can be found.

Come back tomorrow to see my notes from Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage Day 3!

Original photo by Pat Hensley

Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage 2013 Day 1

(Click to see pictures from Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage 2013 Day 1)

(Link to the Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage 2013)

We began the day with the session Edible Mushrooms which involved a hike on the Engine Creek Trail which was led by Christine Braaten, a PhD student at University at Tennessee. I have to say she was pretty awesome! Not only was she very knowledgeable but you can tell she was enthusiastic about her subject. I got a lot of information and it made me want to learn more which makes me feel like it was a great session to attend. I like to end up wanting more and being inspired to learn. Here are some of the notes I took:

1. The trail is behind the Greenbrier Ranger Station and is about 5 miles long (which we didn’t do the entire trail). At the end, there is a train engine wreckage.
2. Peak time for mushrooms is late summer and early fall.
3. Mushroom hunting in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is legal. You can gather one pound per person per day as long as it is 200 feet off the trail. (someone might want to photograph the ones near the trail).
4. There are 3000 species of fungi in the park.
5. Trees to fungi ration is 1:5.
6. Lung lichen (Lobaria Pulmanarius) - sensitive to air pollution and probably won’t find any in Knoxville; air quality indicator
7. Mushroom - fungus, most of its biomass lives underground. Reproductive structure that produces spores is what we see.
8. Polypores grow off wood. Harvest young or it turns hard.
9. False morel (Gyromitra esculenta) might not be poisonous if parboiled (at least 3 times) (Correction from Christine: Gyromitra korfii a lighter colored false morel may be considered edible after par boiling and emptying the water each time, despite the name "esculenta" Gyromitra esculenta should never be eaten and its the only false morel that has been responsible for a death.)

10. Morels are toxic if eaten raw so don’t cut them up and put them in your salad.
11. Reishi - traditional Chinese medicine. Nonsteroidal and anti-inflammatory. Easy to grow. When fresh, boil them 1/2c. to qt. of water for 5 hours. Drink tea (tastes bitter)
12. Oyster mushroom - has gills
13. Milk cap (lactarius volemus) -
14. Russula - red cap
15. Morels can be found on eastern red cedar, hemlocks, ash, tulip poplar
16. Usnea - also called old man’s beard - antiseptic properties
17. Devils urn (urnula craterium)- black, tough, if found it is the right habitat and right time of year for morels.
18. Deer mushroom (plutious servinus) - putrid smelling, gills are white, spores are pink
19. Velvet tooth polypore (tricaptum) - little teeth, fresh after rain.
20. 75,000 fungi have been discovered.
21. Mushroom related deaths in the US- 2 (Correction from Christine: Also the North American Mycological Association (NAMA) after a 30 year study, reported an average of 1-2 deaths "Per Year" in the US.")

22. Death Cap (Amanita philloidas) - Avoid, imported from Europe
23. Elvin Blue Cups (Chloro Cyboria) - bluish tint on logs, no gills
24. Crimini and portabella mushrooms are the same thing.
25. Lichen - gets food from partnership with the algae; no mycelium hidden, what you see is what you get; keeps moss from growing on the rock, secretes acid
26. False Turkey tail - smooth back
27. Turkey Tail - You can feel the spores; make tea; can chew and eat when fresh (Sept.), thick and juicy
28. Trimides Elegans - bigger and smoother than turkey tail (looked like a clam shell to me)
29. Chicken of the woods - bread and eat like chicken fingers
30. Hen of the woods - don’t take if growing on pine, usually get off hardwood.
31. False Hen of the Woods (Mytaki) - stains black, tastes like liver
32. Cinnabar Red Polypor - not poisonous but pretty and red; shelving
33. Orange Parchment Fungus (Sterium complicatum) - orange crust on log
34. Bleeding Canker - black on the tree, looks like someone tried to burn the tree.
35. Orange Witches Butter - orange
36. Lion’s Mane is also edible.

The second session was on Bears and Wild Hogs led by David Whitehead, a TN Wildlife Resource Agency Manager.

Hogs
1. Hogs are non native to the US
2. Late 1800s - hunting clubs bring hogs back to hunt
3. Hogs like plants with rhizomous high carbs such as spring beautys.
4. Hog wallows attract salamanders but are detrimental because of the constant disturbing.
5. 1987 Congress appropriated funding for hog control in the park.
6. Hogs from coast show pseudorabies (kills dogs but not people) and Brucilosis (deadly to people)
7. Landowners can do anything except poison to control wild hogs; just needs to apply for exemption
8. Killing about 4000 per year.
9. Average litter size is 13-15 and 3 litters a year (in the wild, maybe 2). In the wild, bringing 6 to a year old is a successful litter.
10. Gives birth in Jan. and Feb.
11. Predators: man, bears, wolves, mountain lions. Bobcats and coyote eat babies.

Bears
1. Pregnant females will go in den.
2. 80% bears will den in a tree.
3. Males don’t sleep a lot unless it’s cold.
4. TN- 3500 bear including the park
5. Dens can be used over and over but not by the same animal.
6. Den used Oct. to April; bears have a fecal plug and their body recycles waste
7. Eat squawroot, berries, insects, yellow jacket larval bees, carion
8. Do not run from a bear!
9. Bears do not show aggressive behavior. They either attack or don’t’. They show non-defensive or non-aggressive behavior to scare you off (chomp jaws together, blow air, bounce up and down on paws, bluff charge). If it intends to attack there are no signals. If this happens, fight back. Nose is most sensitive part.
10. Babies -weighs 8 oz. when born, by April 5-10 lbs., in Dec. 30-50 lbs.
11. Hibernation now called winter sleep
12. Eggs fertilized, will float until Oct. and then attach. Used to be called delayed implantation and now called delayed development.
13. More bears killed on the coast than in the mountains.

Please come back tomorrow to see what happened on Day 2 of the Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage 2013!

Original photo by Pat Hensley

Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 4/26/13

Here are some interesting sites that I’ve found this week, thanks to my PLN. As a teacher, I feel we have to keep up to date concerning research in our field and current issues in the education system. I hope some of these inspire you, inform you, and even have you asking questions. Thank you for coming by and visiting!

Note: Each resource is labeled with a level and subject area to make it easier to use.


Levels: E: Elementary; M: Middle; H: High; G: General, all levels; SN: Special Needs; T: Teachers

Subject Areas: LA: Language Arts, English, Reading, Writing; M: Math; S: Science; Health; SS: Social Studies, Current Events; FA: Fine Arts; Music, Art, Drama; FL: Foreign Language; PE: Physical Ed; C: Career; A: All


Poetry Idea Engine - “this activity will allow you to write haikus, free verse, limericks, and more!” (L:G; SA: A)

Class Charts - “With Class Charts you get data rich seating charts and streamlined behavior management. You can even collaborate with other teachers and work as a team to tackle behavior.” (L:T; SA: A)

Story Starters - story prompts (L:T; SA: A)

Conservation Connection - “Students, check out how these weird conservation tools help make your favorite things.” (L:M, H; SA: S)

Nanospace - virtual amusement park that students can click through to find videos, games, and other short lessons about atoms and molecules. (L:E,M; SA: S)

Original Image: Tools by Pat Hensley

My Comfort Books

In Comfort books from Blue Skunk Blog by Doug Johnson

“Every few years, I also find I need "comfort" books* - books that I've read before and can relax in the re-reading of, knowing the plot and the characters…

What are your comfort books?”

When I get bored or if I’m stressed out, I need comfort books. They are like getting a hug by words. Some are paperbacks that have worn covers from so much rereading. Here are some of my favorites:

1. The Narnia books

2. Little House on the Prairie books

3. A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L’Engle

4. Books by Janette Oke

5. To Kill a Mockingbird

6. Harry Potter Books

7. Little Women

8. Charlotte’s Web

9. The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew

10. The Little Princess

11. The Outsiders

12. Romance novels for when I don’t want to think and just want a happy ending (some favorite authors are: Nora Roberts, Robyn Carr, Sherryl Wood)

What are your comfort books? Please share!

Image: 'Tome Reader'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33377700@N00/443545349
Found on flickrcc.net

Yes, You Do Matter!

In Teachers Matter from Angela Maiers, Speaker, Educator, Writer, Angela Maiers shares,

“After my presentation, a young man approached me and said, “This is my first year of teaching. I had pretty much made up my mind that this would be also be my last year of teaching. I now realize that teachers matter, and there is no way I’m giving up a job that matters.”

Teachers matter.”

Her post had me thinking about how much we don’t tell teachers that they matter enough. So, this is my way of sharing with all the teachers that read my blog - Yes, you do matter!

It seems like I tell my family how much I love them and how much they mean to me.

I tell my friends how glad I am to have their friendship.

I tell fellow church members how happy I am that we attend the same church.

I tell my neighbors how glad I am that we all live in the same community.

I tell my students how awesome it is to have the opportunity to teach them.

But I don’t tell teachers enough how much they matter. The media doesn’t share enough about how much teachers matter. They are quick to share info about the teachers who mess up, make mistakes, or commit crimes but there are more teachers who are making a positive difference out there than negative impacts.

I wonder if we start telling more teachers how much they matter that maybe they will stay in the profession longer. Maybe they won’t burn out so fast. Maybe they won’t be as frustrated. Maybe they won’t give up so easily. Maybe they will teach more effectively. Maybe they will enjoy their jobs more. Maybe they will make more positive changes in the teaching environment. Maybe they will impact other teachers so that they can be better at what they do.

So this is for all the teachers out there, the ones who read my blog, the ones who don’t, the ones that I teach, the ones who I’ve worked with, the ones who I come in contact with at meetings and conferences…

Teachers Matter!

Image: 'worth a thousand words'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/86251769@N00/403089292
Found on flickrcc.net