[Grall]

Not cool on a universal scale I guess, or even in any sense that matters in the big scheme of things, but anyhow... I stood on Gustav Adolfs Torg today, it's Culture Festival week in Göteborg right now so the square is filled with food stands from all over Europe mostly (plus one where they sell Australian Kangaroo Burgers, of all things! ), and it was DAMNED crowded, when I felt a small impact on my chest.

Looking down, I noticed a pretty large dragonfly calmly sitting on my T-shirt, watching me (and most everything else I have to assume) with its compound eyes.

I let it be for a little while, thinking that soon it'll get tired of me and fly off, to continue going about its dragonfly-business, whatever that might be. But it didn't do that, it just sat there. While it was sort of nice wearing a damned cool insect as a sort of badge of honor, I thought I'd better make it reconsider, so I gently prodded it a bit with my finger, but it would have none of it! The dragonfly seemed as content as could be, so I tried picking it up, thinking that would make it feel threatened and leave. I was able to make the thing move most of its legs over to my fingers, but its two front legs were hooked pretty good into the cotton fabric of my tee, and I couldn't make it let go without risking the other legs letting go of my hand instead...

So, gently pinching the dragonfly's upper body, I pulled, and finally the hooks let go of my shirt. I let the dragonfly settle on my hand, it was completely unperturbed and seemed quite calm. Then I realized I was making a huge opportunity literally slip through my fingers, so I fiddled up my iPhone out of my pocket and snapped a couple stills. In retrospect I could have shot some video too, but I was too filled with childish joy to think of that right then, and then, apparently having finished resting, *poof*, it flew off... Leaving me all by myself.

I just finished looking at the pictures. Two or three turned out pretty good I must say.

[homerdog]

No pics?

[Grall]

I don't have an account to upload them to... Got any recommendations?

[Dr Evil]

http://www.aijaa.com

It's in Finnish, but should be quite easy to use.

Kuva = Picture
Selaa = Browse
Lataa = Upload

So just press "selaa" first and after you found the right picture press "lataa"

I'll try one!



(© 2006 Josh Hillman)

Can u say cute?

[Dr Evil]

I want to see that dragonfly once I wake up tomorrow mkay?

[bigtabs]

Every time I look at that ducks face it looks like it's got a mobile phone sticking out of it's pocket.

[homerdog]

Lol or if you don't want to go all Finnish, ImageShack seems to work well enough.

Dr Evil I 1up your ducks with.. Two Worlds 2! (sorry about the aliasing. I need a new GPU)

[Sxotty]

Originally Posted by Dr Evil

http://www.aijaa.com

It's in Finnish, but should be quite easy to use.

Kuva = Picture
Selaa = Browse
Lataa = Upload

So just press "selaa" first and after you found the right picture press "lataa"

I'll try one!

(© 2006 Josh Hillman)

Can u say cute?

Mighty fine picture, maybe we should start a thread of photos we took
I actually tried your site, which is in english btw when it detects you are not in finland, but it did not work right away, so I ignored it.

[Grall]

Test:


Ok, it worked. Lol... Here it is. Thanks to Sxotty for giving me the idea to use guggle, so I wouldn't have to register at any new site. Didn't know they had online photo publishing, but I guess it's only logical they do. That company's become an octopus of krakenic proportions, so to speak.

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Originally Posted by Grall

Test:

Ok, it worked. Lol... Here it is. Thanks to Sxotty for giving me the idea to use guggle, so I wouldn't have to register at any new site. Didn't know they had online photo publishing, but I guess it's only logical they do. That company's become an octopus of krakenic proportions, so to speak.

That looks like a type of damselfly (they come in normal and large size, that one is normal I think). They are known for being smaller, but more camera friendly than dragonflies because the damselfly (as you've discovered) will sit still as it's approached. Dragonflies are larger, and tend to pelt around at a great speed, usually over water as they defend their breeding territory.

[Grall]

Yeah, I guess you're right, I did some reading on wikipedia after I made the post and discovered about the damsels. The eye configuration seems to be the major giveaway, as actual dragonflies apparently have their eye pods close together.

I have encountered dragonflies over water occasionally when I've been out on a walk, they're not very common around where I live unfortunately, but every time it's really cool as they're awesome flyers. Apparently they have a full six degrees of mobility because of their unique wing configuration, so they can hover and move like helicopters in any direction.

Years ago I stumbled on a dragonfly that was resting on a leaf in a sunny spot, it had the most awesome green-shimmering carapace, and its upper body was really big and chunky like a body builder's, to give room for the flight muscles I would assume... I wish I'd had a camera back then.

[Dr Evil]

Originally Posted by Grall

Test:


Ok, it worked. Lol... Here it is. Thanks to Sxotty for giving me the idea to use guggle, so I wouldn't have to register at any new site. Didn't know they had online photo publishing, but I guess it's only logical they do. That company's become an octopus of krakenic proportions, so to speak.

Stumbled upon a dragonfly yesterday at our summer gottage, when I was testing the video recording on my Galaxy S2. I stupidly changed to camera mode at a wrong time and I didn't get the moment it flew away on "tape". Samsung takes pretty good video once it's focused.

[Alexko]

Pretty good? From a phone, that's amazing!

[Dr Evil]

Youtube downgrades it a bit also, but yeah it's good. It is vulnerable to shaking and quite often it has focusing issues, but if you keep it steady and are in good lighting conditions the result is good.

The quality of the recording and the camera itself is maybe the main reason I bought this phone instead of the updated Galaxy S Plus, which one carrier in Finland offers for about 217e, yes you are tied to a contract, but you can choose a contract that has only 0.66e monthly fee and no other costs unless you use it. So the total price for the Galaxy S Plus would have been 217e + 24 x 0.66e and no sim locks.

I bought the S2 from that same carrier for 456e + 24 x 0.66e and use my old contract from different service provider. It truly is a sweet phone.