The Cheetah Conservation Station at the Smithsonian's National Zoo is the home to two adult female cheetahs and four males. This photo was used in conjunction with an article about the FONZ Photo club. I have been a member of the photo club for over a year.

I have also uploaded over 50 photos into the gallery from my recent trip to Montana in July.

IR Tree, originally uploaded by macmoov.

More Infrared photos have been posted to Flickr.

So please stay tuned.

In other unrealted news, I just learned that Siouxsie Sioux is coming out of retirement with a new album.

Siouxsie's new album is to be called "Mantaray" and is released on September 10th 2007, it features the new single "Into A Swan" (which is released digitally on 13th August and on CD, 7" and other formats on August 27th). [ more ]

Here is the first video from the new CD.

Laytonsville Graveyard in IR, originally uploaded by macmoov.

Here is another photo Infrared photo from the graveyard located next to the church photo from yesterday.

I found out where you can modify the CSS styles in the Flickr blog API and I'm giving it a try on this post.

Laytonsville Church in IR, originally uploaded by macmoov.

This photo was taken on my way home from the Rachel Carson Trail yesterday. The sun was just starting to set and the church spire was gleaming. I just had to stop and take a few shots from the parking lot.

I had the IR converted Canon 400D and took the shot above.

I'm also testing the Flickr blog posting API with this post as well. I have been thinking about doing a site redesign and moving the blog to another location on the site. If this Flickr API works, that means I will probably be posting more frequently.

Update: Well the Flickr API seemed to work ok. Some of the formating is a little funky and the EXIF tagging that I have built will not be filled out. However, most of the EXIF data is available up at Flickr via the photo link. I will leave this post as is and think about what I want to do going forward. I like the simplicity of the tool and it may allow me to post more frequently. It just means I would have to do a redesign.

This past weekend I purchased a bird identification book (Smithsonian Birds of North America) to help try and figure out all the birds I'm seeing in my backyard. We have been calling the American Robin's an Oriole and it took a long time for me to figure out that this bird was an American Goldfinch (Carduelis Tristis.) I have been calling it a goldfinch, but I didn't want to misidentify another bird again.

During Easter week I built a bird blind out of PVC pipe and some camouflage netting. So I setup the blind before sunrise to photograph the birds that have been visiting our feeders. I was hoping to get some nice warm light from the sunrise, but it ended up being a gray morning and there were even some snow flurries that drove me back into the house to get warm.

Here is a shot of an American Robin (Turdus Migratorius.) I wasn't that happy with many of the shots I received that morning, but I wanted to document my first attempts at backyard bird photography. I will post a few more over the next couple of days.

A macro shot of Pieris Japonica at Brookside gardens.

A shot of a Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata) at the National Zoo.

This is the first image of a test of my new Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM lens at the National Zoo. Technically its not the best photo of a bird, but I'm happy with the focus and the frame filling distance I was able to get with the new lens. This shot was also taken with the 1.4 extender so I was reaching out to 700mm. This particular bird was about 20 feet away.

I went to the zoo on spring break to give the new lens a test. I have several photos I will post over the next couple of days that were all taken with the new lens. So far I like the lens but I have found it does quite a bit of focus seeking. I will try to do a full review of the lens on my CanonPhotoNews.com website after I get more experience using it.