First snails for 2022
As you’ve seen here many a time, land snails are common in central Texas. This year I photographed my first pair of them in Luling on March 28. The soft congregation of vapors near the bottom of the picture pretended to be another snail but I wasn’t taken in: two’s company, three’s a cloud.
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Picasso went through his Blue Period and his Rose Period. Me, I went through my Infrared Period from 1976 through 1983. During those years I extensively used black and white film that could record light in wavelengths the unaided human eye can’t see. I even showed one of my vintage infrared nature photographs in a post here ten years ago. Now the cleverly satirical publication The Babylon Bee has come out with a story headlined “Pride Flag Switches To Infrared Spectrum After Running Out Of Visible Colors.”
MALIBU, CA—Organizers of the Transgender Day Of Visibility unveiled an updated pride flag this week at a ceremony in Malibu. After running out of colors in the visible light spectrum, the new pride flag features colors that are only visible with special infrared goggles.
“Human beings are only capable of seeing around a million different colors with the naked eye,” said designer Wesley Arturio. “Obviously there’s, like, way more than a million different genders and sexual orientations, so we moved to the infrared spectrum, which is about 3,000 times wider than the visible light spectrum.”
You’re welcome to read the full story.
© 2022 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
They went thataway——>
Steve Gingold
April 7, 2022 at 5:15 AM
That slender leaf offered a pointer on using an eccentric element in a composition to good advantage.
Steve Schwartzman
April 7, 2022 at 5:21 AM
It looks like a snails’ race to the top.
Peter Klopp
April 7, 2022 at 9:10 AM
What benefit they get from reaching the top remains a mystery. We might wonder the same thing about the race to the top that some people engage in.
Steve Schwartzman
April 7, 2022 at 9:53 AM
LOL, the ways of snails are mysterious. The snails in my previous garden used to sometimes climb the walls of the house. They’d get quite high, and this was even more surprising given that our house was pebble-dashed with quite sharp-edged crushed stone.
Ann Mackay
April 9, 2022 at 1:30 PM
Snails are small enough and weigh so little that I don’t think they’re affected by the degree of sharpness that would hurt us.
Steve Schwartzman
April 9, 2022 at 3:49 PM
With a wind flag to let them know which way it is blowing! 😀
circadianreflections
April 7, 2022 at 11:05 AM
Speaking of wind, we had an almost constant supply of it yesterday that made taking wildflower pictures harder than it should have been.
Steve Schwartzman
April 7, 2022 at 11:39 AM
Here too! But, I didn’t go out to do any photography.
circadianreflections
April 7, 2022 at 11:40 AM
We traveled an hour and a half to get to our destination, so either I dealt with the wind or I wasted my time, photographically speaking.
Steve Schwartzman
April 7, 2022 at 12:09 PM
Looks like you made lemonade with your travel! 😀
circadianreflections
April 7, 2022 at 1:06 PM
Or more properly floralade.
Steve Schwartzman
April 7, 2022 at 2:39 PM
What a clever rephrasing: “three’s a cloud,” indeed. The cloud reference reminded me of a certain song, so I melded the lyrics with your rephrasing and got this:
“I’ve looked at crowds from both sides now
From near and far and still somehow
it’s crowds’ delusions I recall —
I really don’t like crowds at all.”
What I do like is the photo. The angular stem and leaf, combined with the round snails, is terrific.
shoreacres
April 7, 2022 at 8:59 PM
If I replaced a crowd with a cloud, it’s only fair you should go in the other direction. The bright blue sky that morning did a good job of setting off the snails. And there’s the contrast you mentioned between round and angular.
Steve Schwartzman
April 7, 2022 at 10:58 PM
OH MY! I should have known better than to stop and read! I should not be surprised though. There are SO many flags out there nowadays. No one can keep up with it all. It seems as if they invent new genders and sexualities, whether or not they actually exist, just to create more colorful flags. Sadly, if our American flag were out on the road, it would get vandalized.
tonytomeo
April 7, 2022 at 9:09 PM
Your comments are unfortunately true. Lots of people make up lots of things and insist we believe them.
Steve Schwartzman
April 7, 2022 at 11:00 PM
The very few people with whom I am acquainted who ‘should’ appreciate these colorful flags do not. Most find them to be objectionable, by drawing attention to something that needs no publicity, and promoting divisiveness. Their gender or sexuality does not define them any more than it defines others. There are plenty of other qualities to be proud of.
tonytomeo
April 7, 2022 at 11:48 PM
I know people who share your attitude. Unfortunately there are plenty of loud activists who don’t.
Steve Schwartzman
April 8, 2022 at 8:02 AM
Loud activists do not need to agree with me, but they should respect others as much as they want to be respected.
tonytomeo
April 9, 2022 at 2:07 AM
What? Crazed ideologues respecting people with different viewpoints? I’m afraid that’s not a feature of this world.
Steve Schwartzman
April 9, 2022 at 7:22 AM
Well, I respect theirs, even though they accuse me of being intolerant, abusing women and enslaving Brent’s ancestors.
tonytomeo
April 9, 2022 at 9:44 PM
The snails look as though they are getting ready to launch into space. Apparently they do quite well as astronauts. https://www.seeker.com/what-happens-to-snails-in-space-1765199358.html
Gallivanta
April 7, 2022 at 9:59 PM
That’s an interesting article on a subject I hadn’t heard about. Snails in space move at a snail’s pace.
Steve Schwartzman
April 7, 2022 at 11:04 PM
Neither had I until your image made me curious about snails in space.
Gallivanta
April 8, 2022 at 2:11 AM
Then we’ve both benefited.
Steve Schwartzman
April 8, 2022 at 8:16 AM
Your fantasy about the cloud pretending to be a snail is haunting me. Cirrus, stratus, molluscus? Oh, and regarding the “there’s, like, way more than a million different genders” reference, that seems like too much of a stretch of–well, never mind.
krikitarts
April 8, 2022 at 5:27 AM
I like your “molluscus” coinage. Elevated from the earth to the heavens: why not?
As for the Babylon Bee’s satire, it’s not too much of a stretch to let it speak for itself.
Steve Schwartzman
April 8, 2022 at 8:19 AM
8<)
krikitarts
April 9, 2022 at 1:33 AM
Thanks for the link – the page is opening now.
That image reminds me of an artfully-designed garnish on a 5-star restaurant’s serving plate!
Last week I photographed a few snails that were crawling up some trees in the bosque.
Did you know that Snail Kites and Limpkins are ‘specialized’ feeders that ‘fish out’ the snails? The kites’ beaks have a special shape as if the kites and the snails were created in the same labratory to pair with each other for eternity!
Playamart - Zeebra Designs
April 9, 2022 at 2:35 PM
I’ve never heard of a limpkin. The Cornell website amplifies what you said: “The Limpkin’s bill is uniquely adapted to foraging on apple snails. The closed bill has a gap just before the tip that makes the bill act like tweezers. The tip itself is often curved slightly to the right so it can be slipped into the right-handed curve of the snail’s shell.”
Steve Schwartzman
April 9, 2022 at 4:31 PM
Oh, to live where the Limpkin’s nocturnal yelps stretch through the night – it’s an amazing experience – one that people either embrace or curse! They are very elusive in the daytime, but at night they announce their locations!
Playamart - Zeebra Designs
April 10, 2022 at 12:54 AM
While walking around with my iPhone I announce my location, too.
Steve Schwartzman
April 10, 2022 at 8:06 AM
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