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Alexander S. Kunz
@alexskunz@mas.to
mastodon 4.7.2Landscape photographer, and photography & Lightroom instructor, teacher, tutor, expert in San Diego, California. (originally from Germany)
Certified Chaparral Naturalist, class of 2015. Introvert. Loves dogs, native plants, ambient & electronic music. Doomer. Tries to steer clear of politics on social media. Hates cilantro. Nov '22 dead bird site migrant.
Born at ~3.8B world population & trying to accept things as they are. He/him.
Most posts auto-deleted after 2 months.
1935 Followers
235 Following
50 Posts
Joined November 05, 2022
Homepage:
Photo Archive:
"Baker Blues" for #MountainMonday
Koma Kulshan (Mount Baker) in the blue haze of wildfire smoke; Washington, September 2022.
6 more photos in my recent blog post: https://www.alex-kunz.com/mount-baker-impressions/
#Mountains #Landscape #Washington #MountBaker #MountainPhotography #KomaKulshan #LandscapePhotography #Hiking #BlogPost #PhotoBlog #Berge
For #MountainMonday: Indianhead Mountain (aka Chief Rain in the Face) with a rainbow, seen from the alluvial flat at the mouth of Hellhole Canyon in Anza Borrego Desert State Park, California.
This isn't the best angle to photograph the mountain to really see the "Indianhead" but who could resist the combination with a rainbow?! :)
#Landscape #Desert #Rainbow #AnzaBorrego #SouthernCalifornia #FotoMontag #Pride #PhotoMonday #PrideMonth #SanDiego #Photography #LandscapePhotography #Landscape #Mountains
Solanum americanum (American Black, Common, Small Flowered or White Nightshade) is an herb in the nightshade family (Solanaceae) that can be annual or perennial. Photographed near Ramona in San Diego County, California in May 2022.
The two common names American Black Nightshade and White Nightshade might contradict each other. However, the "black" refers to the ripe fruit (a berry, unripe it is green), and the "white" refers to the flower itself.
#Wildflowers #BloomScrolling #NaturePhotography #CloseUp #Florespondence #SanDiego #California #NativePlants #MacroPhotography #Macro #Nature #Flowers #Plants #Herbs
"Waterfall Light" for #TextureTuesday
This rainbow formed in the spray of Upper Rainbow Falls of the San Joaquin River, at Devil's Postpile National Monument near Mammoth Lakes in California's Eastern Sierra. I loved the combination of all the textures and colors and the somewhat abstract quality that the combination of it all took on.
#Texture #Rainbow #Pride #Water #IntimateLandscape #Photography #PrideMonth
PLANT SEX!
Clematis lasiantha (Pipestem Clematis) has separate male and female flowers. In this photo are the male flowers, with many pollen-producing free stamens. The counterpart are the pistillate (female) flowers (not in the photo).
Photographed in a part of the San Mateo Canyon Wilderness that's in Riverside County, but the plant also grows in San Diego County.
#NaturePhotography #BloomScrolling #Plants #NativePlants #Florespondence #CloseUp #SanDiego #California #Flowers
Non-native Centaurea melitensis (Tocalote or Maltese Star Thistle), an annual herb native to the Mediterranean region of Europe and Africa. Interestingly, this plant is considered rare on the Maltese islands. Photographed at the Manchester Preserve, Encinitas, California.
https://photos.alex-kunz.com/-/galleries/photo-archive/plant-archives/introduced-plants-in-san-diego-county/-/medias/019fa004-7a3a-7379-b8d4-5910246f2bce
#NaturePhotography #BloomScrolling #Flowers #Florespondence #CloseUp #Herbs #Malta #California #SanDiego
#ThrowbackThursday to May 2016, when I had the opportunity to use a friend's infrared-converted camera (and had fun with it😁).
The invisible IR light is "shifted" into our human range through white balance, so anything goes with regards to color — there's no one "right" way for it to look...
Therefore, it's common to use black and white, or to swap the red & blue channels, in order to get a blue sky (what I did here).
Variations: https://www.alex-kunz.com/cottonwood-variations-infrared/
"Always On The Move" for #WildlifeWednesday & #MeerMittwoch
Twentyone Sanderlings and an incoming wave. These little birds (winter visitors to our beaches) forage in the intertidal zone, pulling small creatures out of the soft sand. They are always on the move, running away with each incoming wave, and then straight back in.
#Birds #NaturePhotography #SanDiego #BirdPhotography #SolanaBeach #BirdsOfMastodon
Meet Eriodictyon parryi, aka Poodle-Dog Bush.
Pretty, but touching the leaf or stem of this plant will cause severe skin irritation and unfortunately, the inflorescence (flower) looks very similar to other plants also in the Eriodyction genus. (the clear giveaway to identify Poodle-Dog Bush are the leaves.)
#Flowers #NaturePhotography #Plants #NativePlants #BloomScrolling #Florespondence #CloseUp #SanDiego #LagunaMountains #California #Irritant
I'm not usually one to share cat content, but...
#ForestFriday from the northern California redwoods, where stately Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) is surrounded by a dense forest understory of ferns, sorrel, and little shrubs.
Photographed along the Boyscout Tree Trail in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park last year in May. The trail is ~5 miles out and back if I recall, and leads to an impressive old-growth tree before it ends at a little waterfall. Worth the hike!
https://photos.alex-kunz.com/-/galleries/portfolio/color-work-current/-/medias/019b5e97-1953-7b08-a02c-221446f705c1
#Forest #NaturePhotography #NorthernCalifornia #SequoiaSempervirens #IntimateLandscape #Forests #Nature #Photography #ForestBathing #ShinrinYoku #Hiking
“…we do not understand how much time has passed on this planet and we have no concept of our limited place in the enormousness of that time.”
More thoughts on this in my blog post: https://www.alex-kunz.com/the-enormousness-of-time/
#LandscapePhotography #Desert #AnzaBorrego #SanDiego #Twilight #Badlands #Quotes #LouiseErdrich #Landscape #Photography
"Driftwood After Sunset" for the lonely #SunsetSaturday hashtag theme.
Blended from two exposures: 8 seconds @ ISO 64 for the immediate foreground (without filter) + 60 seconds @ ISO 500 for the water & sky (with ND filter).
Photographed in Crescent City, California.
https://photos.alex-kunz.com/media/019df56a-9c57-7075-a843-44a07dea5467
#Sunset #Photography #Seascape #NorCal #SunsetPhotography #SeascapePhotography #SeascapeSaturday #LongExposure #Driftwood #Beach #BeachesPlease #CrescentCity #FineArtPhotography
#PhotoBlog with nine photos: Close-ups, intimate landscapes and grand scenic vistas from a desert hike in the Coyote Mountains Wilderness in Imperial County, California.
https://www.alex-kunz.com/desert-day-coyote-mountains-wilderness-december-2022/
#NaturePhotography #LandscapePhotography #Desert #SouthernCalifornia #Photography #BlogPost #SanDiego
"Sycamore Patriarch" for #TreeTuesday and #ThickTrunkTuesday
An old Western Sycamore (Platanus racemosa), photographed at the Whitewater Preserve near Palm Springs in the Southern California Desert.
#Trees #NaturePhotography #Sycamore #California #PalmSprings #Desert #SouthernCalifornia #Nature #TreesOfMastodon
Charming Centaury (Zeltnera venusta, in the Gentian family) poking its vibrant pink flowers out from between the dead and brittle twigs of an old shrub; Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, San Diego, California; April 2026.
https://photos.alex-kunz.com/media/019de1eb-4949-752e-9c0e-03f34db71f80-charming-zeltnera
#FlowerFriday #BloomScrolling #Flowers #NaturePhotography #CloseUp #Pink #SanDiego #Florespondence #FlowersOnFriday #FridayFlowers #FloralFriday #Nature #Resilience #Beauty
I wrote a few (read: too many) words about the ancient art of bracketing 😉 and this is the photo that goes with the article — made last month on a trail near our house when a lovely foggy morning brought temporary relief from the March heatwave here in Southern California.
https://www.alex-kunz.com/the-lost-art-of-bracketing/
#PhotoBlog #NaturePhotography #PhotoTech #Exposure #Bracketing #LandscapePhotography #Fog #Chaparral #SageScrub #SanDiego #California #Spring
Voice-robot phone menus should simply be outlawed, in the name of public health.
None of the options match, haven't spoken to a human yet, and my blood pressure is already at 180.
(on top of that, the hold music now is way too loud and clips.)
But "your call is very important to us" it says. Yeah, right. That's why I have to jump through those silly hoops and say "I'd like to speak to a human" ten times.
Acmispon prostratus (Beach Lotus, Nutall's Acmispon) is a rare California native plant in the pea family (Fabaceae) that is threatened and endangered due to habitat lost to coastal development. Imagine my excitement when I unexpectedly found it growing in a coastal dune restoration area!
#NaturePhotography #CloseUp #BloomScrolling #NativePlants #RarePlants #Plants #California #SanDiego #CANativePlants #Florespondence #Yellow #Herbs #Lotus #Threatened #Endangered #Photography #Conservation
The internet monopolist in our area just raised the price from US$90 to US$100. An 11% price increase without any notice because "fuck you, we can, customer".
This is for a meager 500 down/20 up connection; internet only, nothing else. One hundred bloody bucks.
But yeah, "I'd rather have a private plan", capitalism, free markets, murrica, yada-yada... tough luck when there's no competition.
#Spectrum #Internet #ISP #Inflation
"Dirty"
Yep, that's the brand name of potato chips which are being recalled for potential salmonella contamination...
Replying to
@elaterite@mastoart.social hmmmm, you can't quite replicate tonality of IR — it does exceptionally well in high contrast situations because very little IR light is in the blue of the sky for example, while foliage on the other hand reflects a lot of it.
If you have the camera and don't have any other use for it, professional conversions aren't *that* expensive, and it's great if you like black & white, strong contrasts, and making photos in direct sunlight.
@antongorlin@mastodon.art
Replying to
@antongorlin@mastodon.art when I look at IR photos I always wish that I had an IR camera again... as soon as I have it, I quickly realize that it is pretty much a one trick pony, and don't find it that interesting anymore... :P
Replying to
@NunavutBirder@mas.to there’s a dt fork called “Ansel” that I know nothing about (other than its existence) but I liked the description.
https://ansel.photos/en/
Replying to
@Gugel@hessen.social we all have those photos but here's the secret: just don't mention the regrets! ;)
RE: @aredridel@kolektiva.social
I do have to say that listening to "Nothing Else Matters" is quite painful indeed.
SCNR 🤪
(EDIT: yes, I do consider myself a fan of Metallica, nevertheless... I just like their older stuff better; EDIT2: the original post is very good & helpful, I'm obv just a silly idiot)
Replying to
@drdirtbag@mountains.social yep, that effect initially attracted me to long exposure photography! Over the years I've also learned to appreciate how this balances the "business" of a frame and composition.
Found in the feature list of an online website builder:
"Hardware accelerated software"
Replying to
@TomaszSusul@mastodon.social thanks! Coincidentally standing in the right place at the right time helped. ;)
Salvia columbariae (Chia Sage or Desert Chia, growing unusually isolated out of granitic gravel in a wash at Joshua Tree National Park, California in spring.
This is not the plant from which the chia seeds that we consume nowadays are harvested (that's Chia hispanica), but the seeds were used in similar ways by Native Americans.
https://photos.alex-kunz.com/-/galleries/photo-archive/plant-archives/herbs/-/medias/019f6e6d-cbde-72a6-bf63-336114f32d1d
#FlowerFriday #BloomScrolling #NaturePhotography #Florespondence #JoshuaTree #Desert #California #Salvia #Sage
Replying to
@wtfismyip@gnu.gl running "A Boldogság Minden Reményét Elragadták" through a translator says it's Hungarian, maybe it helps?
(translates to "All hopes of happiness were taken away", oof)
Replying to
@tangledwing@ohai.social great, thank you. I didn't mind the text (it was helpful indeed to draw attention) but I'm always curious about the source, to see more.
Replying to
@Starfia@mastodon.social I guess it might also depend on how you share it and who picks it up. Maybe an @ mention to flag someone with good reach who cares about these issues would be helpful.
Replying to
@Starfia@mastodon.social Thanks for beating the drum!
I looked up H.R. 8250 and found a "Prognosis: 1% of being enacted" here:
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/119/hr8250
Early opposition won't hurt nevertheless!
Replying to
@tangledwing@ohai.social sorry I meant the website. The dots at the bottom indicate a “slider” or slideshow of images and this is just one of them. I’d be interested to see the others.