All posts by Justin Montemarano

February Arthropods

icy-spider-2-1-2009-4-49-57Last weekend, at George Metro Park, I found several small swarms of midges that, in all likelihood, had just emerged from the nearby Cuyahoga river.  The swarms were hovering around the park’s boardwalk, so I snapped a few photos of individuals that were resting on the boardwalk posts.  They were so small that it was difficult to hold the camera steady, but, from the picture to the left, you can see their thick, feather-like antenna (the effect is not motion blur).

Later, I came across the spider on the right hiding inside a small snow cavern, kind of like a spider igloo.  Although it was a relatively warm day (perhaps just above freezing), I thought the pressence of these two animals was interesting.emerging-flies-2-1-2009-3-59-37

There is no theme

dandelion-falls-2007-05-26-3-05-02-pmIf it appears as though the posts on this site don’t have a theme, it’s because they don’t.  Most posts are basically just a random picture I come across while browsing my collection.  This particular photo was taken at the Leicester Falls, which I attribute as the birth place of my interest in photography.  Soon after I purchased my first digital camera, an Olympus D-100, I began photographing the Leicester Falls regularly, usually with Mike Valentino.  This photo wasn’t taken with my good ol’ D-100, but it was taken with my second digital camera, a Canon PowerShot a530, which is the camera the majority of my pictures were taken with so far.

Collembolan Orgy

collembola-orgy-11-27-2007-3-20-00-pmCollembola are an insect-like arthropod common just about everywhere.  In forest leaf litter, many species of collembola graze on fungus as the fungus decomposes leaves and sticks.  During the fall, some will come together in mass quantities to breed.  I caught one of these breeding events at Kent Bog and snapped this photograph.  Horny little buggers.

Patches and Chelsea

Some introductory images of Patches (the miniture horse) and Chelsea (the Haflinger).  They’re kind of like gigantic dogs; you can get them all excited so they run around in circles and attempt to jump on you.  I think the only difference may be that they can’t put their tail between their legs while they run around.

A Bitterly Cold Day

Although these images don’t depict it, when I took these photographs of Blue Hen Falls in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the temperature was in the single digits and the windchill made it feel much colder.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a photograph of my face or Allison’s face (she was with me at the time), since the red on our cheeks and nose would convince anyone that it was a bitterly cold day.  Today’s temperature reminded me of the hike we took when these photographs were shot.

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Juicy omelet

Matt prepared himself a delicious second omelet during tonight’s Wednesday Night Dinner.  He graciously shared this simple recipe with us:

  1. Heat a skillet with oil to 450 F (it’s best with extra virgin olive oil)
  2. Add freshly shredded colby and pepper jack cheese
  3. Add minced peppers and onions
  4. Fill a glass half full with orange juice from gigantic pot of ‘from concentrate’ OJ
  5. Add to skillet and boil down until the product is of the consistency of a slime mold
  6. Enjoy!

Alleg(h)any

morning-fog-8-31-2008-12-59-57-pm cliff-jumping-8-31-2008-2-05-22-pm While camping at the Alleghany Reservoir on the border of Pennsylvania and New York, each morning was filled with fog.  The fog would retreat up the hills as the sun came up and warmed the land and air.  The picture on the left was taken one morning from the rocky beach by our campsite.

Later that day, Jenn, Matt and I decided to jump off a nearby cliff for nearly 3 hours.  Using my height as a standard, I estimated the point on the cliff we were jumping off to be nearly 17 feet from the water’s surface.  Fun stuff (both the jumping and the calculation).