New e-book: Birding 101

6FPS V4#10: October 10, 2022

Subscribe & Archives: chuq.me/6fps

Welcome to the new issue of 6FPS.

Welcome to October! Fall hit hard here and we’re well under 12 hours of daylight a day. The speed at which the length of day changes here in Washington is fascinating to me as a native California person, and it really feels like I woke up one morning and the sun had shifted so all the light is now angled and in that softer, fall configuration — the smoke from the Bolt Fire has helped that feeling, because while our air isn’t bad, there’s definitely a bit more gold color from the smoke haze that’s been covering much of the state.

I was able to get my second e-book of the year out, and I talk about it below. Birding 101 is the first one I’ve done that is primarily writing instead of photography, and I’m rather proud of it. I came into 2022 intending to do my annual chapbook and two e-books, and both of them are now available and ready for you to read and enjoy.

What’s my next project? I’m not starting another e-book until next year, and I’ll produce the chapbook of 2022 images starting in January and then decide on the e-book for 2023 topic. These e-books are a fair bit of work; the Merced book needed most of my free time for about a month and a half, and the Birding 101 needed a lot of rewriting, so it was my free time project for a bit more than two months, plus, of course, all of the time over the last 2 and a half years where I was writing the initial content that was integrated into it and rewritting. The Birding 101 e-book is about 11,000 words, but it and the Merced e-book are things where I really feel like I was able to produce what I wanted to the quality level I wanted without making any real compromises along the way.

So I’m really happy with the results. How are they being received? I actually don’t track analytics on downloads, but since release, the online version of Birding 101 has seen about 100 unique users visit, and I’m good with that.

By not just diving into another e-book project, this means my weekends can be used for other things, like more blog writing, going out with the camera, and since it’s fall migration and the winter birds are arriving, getting out and exploring the birding here in the region.

Two e-books in a year, plus the chapbook, sucks up a lot of free time, and while I felt it was important to focus on these projects, I am not unhappy to be “off the clock” and able to do other things, including just going out and exploring new places around here without feeling guilty about a project I “should” be working on…

Right now, finding some good quality time with the camera and finding things I can point it at seems like my primary interest, and that’s what I’m going to focus on for now.

iPhone 14

Remember how I said last issue that I wasn’t intending to upgrade from my iPhone 13? Well…

About three months ago I dropped my iPhone, and while I keep it in a case, it hit the ground just perfectly and I chipped the glass very slightly down in the lower left corner of the phone. I will admit to cussing once or twice, but it was clear that the damage was just cosmetic and I’d be fine as long as it didn’t spread. And yes, you guessed it. Last week I noticed some spidering cracks coming off the chip, after a couple of months of nothing happening.

So I have a new iPhone 14 pro on order, and it’ll be here by the end of October. Not the Max model. I’m not trading in the 13, and I’m not currently planning on replacing the glass face, but I will be turning it into wifi-only webcam for one of my systems and I’ll experiment with those new capabilities and see how things go. If I do end up needing to get it repaired, I will, but for now, I think I won’t have to worry about that for a while.

As someone who, as far as I remember, has never needed to get a phone repaired, well, my luck ran out. Lest you consider me seriously lucky, I’m also the person who dropped an iPad on the pavement, and three weeks after paying for the repair, dropped the the replacement in almost the same way with the same result, getting to pay the doofus fee twice in less than a month. But in general, while I don’t baby my hardware, I’ve done pretty well at not destroying it, either.

Free Prints to Subscribers

I mentioned this a couple of issues ago, and I’ve decided to try it and see what happens. 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 October, as quickly as I can make the prints and get them packaged up.

Shop Update

A number of you (first in: Josh Marinacci, my old Palm cohort) suggested a way to get the shop moving forward was to break it down into smaller tasks rather than try to deal with it all at once. I agree, and so that’s what I’ve started doing. One thing I did was buy another couple of rolling tool chests and spend an hour getting everything that was stuffed on the workbenches or any other horizontal surface into a the chests. Removing all of that clutter makes it easier for me to start breaking down the workbenches I need to remove, and makes me less stressed at how cluttered the space is, and now I’m starting to put up some wall storage so I can start hanging things on the wall and get them off the ground (or out of drawers again). I’m currently prioritizing my photography over this, so I haven’t put a lot of time into it, but it’s making progress again, so thanks for the ideas. Once it starts raining here.

No Travel Yet

I ended up, for various reasons, deciding not to go out and travel in September. One reason was that I won’t be getting the new Covid Booster until mid-October, and I’d rather have that in place before I start visiting random places.

I’ve also had landscapers on the property on and off for much of September as the sprinkler project got enthusiastic and expanded in scope: we ended up completely redoing three sets of circuits and removing about 70% of the low flow surface piping in favor of in-ground pipes and pop-up sprinklers, and while we were at it, replaces the controller and all of the valves. This turned it from about a 1 week project to a 3 week project for the two guys doing all the digging, and raised the cost a good bit, but it also means that almost all of the property we irrigate will be handled by systems that shouldn’t need any maintenance for 10-15 years. They should have the work done by the time you read this, but while they don’t need me supervising, I did need to be around to answer questions and make decisions on how best to do things.

If I go out, it’s likely towards the end of October, and I’ve simplified the plan somewhat. I may actually go out twice in the next couple of months, taking a couple of days to go out to Ridgefield NWR and overnight there one or two nights, since it’s about 2 1/2 hours away and at my preferred limit for day tripping. The other trip I’m considering is to base myself for a day or two in Astoria and explore the areas around the river mouth, and then return home via Gray’s Harbor and the refuge there to check it out.

All of this, of course, is super tentative right now.

Hello, T-Mobile

Also, as noted last issue, I have shifted our devices from AT&T, my cell vendor since I was working at Apple, to T-Mobile. I’m happy to say the shift was painless and I was very impressed with the support people at T-Mobile that helped me make this happen. Also, now that I’m fully shifted over, I can say my monthly bill is going down almost $60/month and I get Netflix for free as a side benefit, so… $70ish a month I’m not spending, which is a nice chunk of change. And I don’t have data caps on usage any more. So I’m really happy to have finally made this switch.

What do you want to hear about?

Since I’m done with the e-book projects, I expect to put more time on writing for the blog again, and while I have a number of topics in the to-do list, are there things you want me to talk about and write about? I have been asked recently about how I produce the e-books, and that’s on the list, but what else do you want me to cover? Drop me an email and let me know.

And with that, see you next issue!

What's New from Chuq?

New e-book: Birding 101: Hints and Tips for New Birders

I am happy to announce that I’ve released my second e-book this year (and eighth overall): Birding 101: Hints and Tips for New Birders. I wrote this book specifically for the new birder or the person who’s become interesting in birdwatching but hasn’t yet decided if they want to get serious about it.

If you are new to birdwatching or know someone who’s interested in birds and are curious about the idea of joining the birding community, then download and read this book. I hope it will help answer questions you have about the birding lifestyle and why we do some of the things we do, and shorten your learning curve to becoming a better birder yourself.

It contains about 11,000 words, about half of which started out as blog posts or emails I created answering questions during It compiles many of the things I learned as a new birder, and tries to answer many of the questions I was asked during my time leading groups for Santa Clara Valley Audubon and running their online reporting list South Bay Birds. Everything was completely rewritten for this book while I updated them and made them relevant to a birder anywhere and not just for those birding back in Silicon Valley.

It is available both as an online version and as a PDF you can download and read on any of your devices.

Recent Photography

As I create new images and re-process older ones, I post them on my site in the Recent Work area. Additionally, every Wednesday is Photo Wednesday on the blog, where I post one of my non-bird images, and the bird images are posted on the blog each week as part of Feathery Friday. Here are a couple of images I am really happy with that are new to Recent Work:

I have to admit, I’ve struggled a bit trying to get started again at my landscape/wide-angle photography, feeling kind of intimidated and generally not confident about my ability to produce. But the more I look at that thistle image, the more I feel like that’s a real starting point to some new work I can be really proud of — and am interested in producing.

I’ve also been finding that some of the more historic districts around me are places I want to explore. I was in Port Gamble last week, where they’ve preserved an area of traditional buildings and there are some interesting compositions I’ve found there, but the lighting was all wrong, and one of the compositions I liked most had a delivery truck parked in it. But I’ll be back. And old downtown Poulsbo is another streetfront with a lot of fun character I want to try to document. Another place like that I need to return to is Fort Worden State Park new Port Townsend.

One thing that does feel clear to me is that what I’m going to shoot moving forward is going to be different in ways than what I used to shoot, but I’m not entirely sure what that means yet — but I’m starting to figure it out. Do not be surprised if you start seeing ferry pictures, too.

For Your Consideration

Photography

Birds and Birding

Science and Technology

Interesting Stuff

Recommendations

This month let me recommend to you a couple of photography resources.

First, I’ve signed up for the new class by David duChemin, The Photographer’s Voice. This is a class about figuring out how to create images that are recognizable as being from you: what many people call style. It’s also about learning how to build collections of images that together tell a story in a way individual images can’t. I’m just getting started, but this has been an area of interest and I believe I’ve gotten a lot better at this since starting to put out my e-books, but I felt I was ready to get some teaching and feedback from someone I’ve long considered a friend and mentor. By the time you read this admission to the class will be closed, but he tends to offer his online classes for a limited time every year. I recommend instead subscribing to his newsletter, the Contact Sheet, and if you haven’t followed his work or his teachings to date, listen to what he has to say and teach and see how it might help your photography down the road.

The other item I’ll recommend is a new book by master photographer William Neill, The Photographer's Portfolio Development Workshop: Learn to Think in Themes, Find Your Passion, Develop Depth, and Edit Tightly which is a book structured as a workshop to help you define and improve your skill at putting together a portfolio or a set of bodies of work to tie your imagery into a set of topics or themes. Neill is a long-time photographer known for his intimate landscape work in and around Yosemite, and someone I’ve always wanted to do a workshop with in the park, although I never was able to fit it into my schedule before I moved north.

It is not a coincidence that the work I did producing my Merced NWR e-book got me really thinking about the ideas behind these two items and caused me to want to spend some time studying portfolio management and creation and how that can tie back into my photography and images that I create

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.

Some links in this newsletter may point to products at Amazon; these are affiliate links and if you use them to buy a product, I get a small cut of the sale. This doesn't make me rich, but it does help pay my web site bills. If you use the link to buy something, thank you. If you prefer not to, that's perfectly okay, also.

Know someone who might want to subscribe? Send them here. You'll also find the archives there if you want to look at previous issues.