Familiarity

6FPS V5#5: May 8, 2023

chuqvr@gmail.com • @chuqvr@fosstodon.org • chuq.me
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Welcome to the new issue of 6FPS.

Spring is here. Bird Migration has kicked into gear, we’re seeing birds pounding down food at the feeders in preparation for sitting on the nest to hatch their eggs, the weather has gotten a bit warmer and drier, and we even see the sun once in a while here in Kitsap, Washington.

Oh, and the bears are awake and we’ve lost our first feeder of the season to a daytime raid. I’ve just reconciled myself to losing one here and there.

The yard has moved forward nicely. We had a crew come in, remove the old, failing, ugly wire fences around the veggie garden and put in a nice cedar one instead. We left a couple of posts tall and added some bird houses, which may or may not get used but look nice. The front drive now has 45 azaleas lining it, which will look awesome in bloom. The majority of what we wanted to do this year is now in the ground, mulched and starting to take root. It’ll look nice this year, it should be awesome.

We’ve had some chipmunks move in to join the squirrels and raccoons sharing the ground feeders. Yes, I named them Chip and Dale.

Works been keeping me busy, and we are probably going to put out a job notice for a tech writer to come work with me at DomainTools soon. It’s keeping me busy, but in good ways.

A few days after this issue comes out, I’m headed off to Lake Crescent Lodge in Olympic National Park to unplug and unwind and explore a bit. Really looking forward to it.

And beyond that, everything just seems to be moving forward.

Free Prints to Subscribers

Anyone who’s interested in a free 8x10 print of one of my images si welcome to it. All you need to do is check out the images in one of the four portfolio galleries on my photography page, and then send me an email with the request, including the title of the image (or URL to the image), your name and a mailing address. My only requirement is that the email the request comes from must be a subscriber to 6FPS when I get the request. I will mail these out at no charge worldwide for any request I get during November, as quickly as I can make the prints and get them packaged up.

And with that, see you next issue!

What's New from Chuq?

Familiarity

I’ve been thinking a lot about why I’ve felt like I’m struggling both with my photography and my birding — and the answer, it turns out, is that Birding and photography are hard.

I’m not sure I really understood that until recently, and it all comes down to moving to Washington. Back in California, I’d lived in Santa Clara for decades. Most of the places I visited: Yosemite, the Wildlife Refuges, Morro Bay, etc — were places I knew quite well, and so understanding how to explore them or where and when to go to get a specific bird or a good picture, were almost habits.

Here in Washington, it’s all new. New birds, new birding locations, new vistas. I’m having to learn them before I can really understand how to visit and photograph them.

I’m starting to figure it out, I think. My “species seen” year list for 2023 is almost double the number of species I had at this time in 2022. I’ve started finding some photographic ideas here that I need to explore; you’ll note I’m looking both at Mt. Ranier and Mt. Olympus and scouting locations where both can be interesting compositions with the right weather and light.

I had not really thought about how much the time I’d invested in learning these locations made everything easier. It brings to mind something I’ve seen happen at times in the tech world, where one person is trying to figure things out and some other techie plays the “Hey, what’s wrong? it’s not rocket science!” card on them.

Well, yeah. If you’ve got ten years experience in something, it seems easy. But for those that are new to it, well…. that kind of put down is really uncalled for, and when I’ve seen it done in my presence, I’ve usually called them out on it.

This revelation has given me a new appreciation for how hard finding things is, and has me considering new ways for how I do it, and how to explain to others the things that work for me…. For the photography, 99% of it is getting out there, scouting locations, and working out times and angles to make an interesting thing work. So one of the things I’ve set as a task for myself is to do that, and start using the iPhone as a scouting camera so I can capture intersting things so I can plan when to go back and consider the location for compositions with the Sony gear.

For Your Consideration

Photography

Birds and Birding

Science and Technology

Interesting Stuff

Recommendations

This month let me recommend to you a book: Steven Brust has released his latest book in the Vlad Taltos series, Tsalmoth. It is the 16th book in the series, and it’s one of the few ongoing book series where I’ve read every title that’s been published. I love Brust’s writing style and I’ve enjoyed his writing for decades.

Tsalmoth is, more or less, current-day Vlad telling the story of the time in his past when he and Cawti are together and planning their wedding, while Vlad, of course, gets involved in some really complicated stuff with lots of people pissed off at him while he sorts it all out and figured out how to extricate himself alive.

It’s a very fast and energetic read, as the best of this series has been. I will admit the previous couple of books slogged a bit for me and I was starting to wonder if I’d run my course with the series; Tsalmoth, though, pulled me right back in and has me looking forward to the next book.

Strongly recommended, although if you haven’t read this series yet, you will probably benefit from starting. The first three books (Jhereg, Yendi and Teckla) are all available in a combined volume, and that would make a great entry into a fun fantasy romp featuring this sorcerer assassin who has a penchant for ending up in way over his head in Big, Serious Affairs of Great Comport, and then somehow figuring it all out well enough to get away with his skin mostly intact.

About 6FPS

And with that, I'll see you in the next issue. I'd love feedback on this, what you like, what you want more of, what you want less of. And if you have something interesting you think I might want to talk about, please pass it along. Until then, take care, and have fun.

Chuq

6FPS (Six Frames Per Second) is a newsletter of interesting things and commentary from Chuq Von Rospach (chuqvr@gmail.com).

Coming out monthly on the 2nd Monday of the month, I will place in your inbox a few things I hope will inform and delight you. There is too much mediocre, forgettable stuff attacking your eyeballs every day you're online; this is my little way to help you cut through the noise to some interesting things you might otherwise not find.

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