User: `Rhododendrites`

Long-time Wikimedian who decided, a few years ago, to try to take better pictures to contribute to Commons. I feel like I've learned a lot from this community, and continue to do so. Always welcome photography tips/constructive criticism.

Though I take pictures of lots of things, a few areas of concentration are the New York City area in general, protests, conventions (not so much in 2020), and birds (much more so in 2020). If you're in NYC (or coming to NYC) and want tips or to plan a photography outing, let me know. There are several Wikimedian photographers here.

My main camera is an Olympus OM-D E-M5 mark ii (micro four-thirds format). I like it, but don't know if I can recommend the format any longer. Olympus announced in 2020 that they plan to get out of the camera game. The future of its camera business seems unclear at the moment, possibly being transferred to another company, and Panasonic is the only other company making the gear (with some compatibility issues around the way they do their image stabilization). I hope it'll look up, but we'll see.

This is my main account for contributing to Wikimedia projects. From March-July 2021, I contracted with the Wikimedia Foundation, researching the impact of Suggested Edits on Commons. My WMF account is User:Rhododendrites (WMF), which is now inactive. Edits I make through this account are strictly as a volunteer.

Rhododendrites

rhododendrites AT gmail DOT com

(FP-VI-QI)

 
Featured Pictures - the birds
Image 1Palm warbler in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 2A rescued Eurasian eagle-owl
Image 3Red-tailed hawk, fearsome predator
Image 4Piping plover in Queens
Image 5House finch with a sunflower seed at a feeder in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 6American avocet
Image 7Juvenile American robin
Image 8European starling in Central Park
Image 9Winter wren in Prospect Park
Image 10Common grackle in Prospect Park
Image 11Immature herring gull manipulating a clam in Marine Park, Brooklyn
Image 12Semipalmated sandpiper at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
Image 13Chipping sparrow on a grave in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 14American tree sparrow in Central Park
Image 15Great blue heron on frozen pond in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 16American robin
Image 17Ospreys in a nest on Sandy Hook, New Jersey
Image 18Female brown-headed cowbird chattering in Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
Image 19Three ring-billed gulls in Red Hook
Image 20Dark-eyed junco in Brooklyn
Image 21Downy woodpecker with a leaf on its nose in Prospect Park
Image 22Tufted titmouse floofed up in Central Park
Image 23Yellow-bellied sapsucker in Central Park
Image 24Juvenile yellow-bellied sapsucker in Prospect Park
Image 25First winter laughing gull in Riverhead, New York
Image 26Marsh wren singing at Hammonasset Beach State Park
Image 27Bay-breasted warbler in Central Park
Image 28Pine warbler in Brooklyn, NYC
Image 29Northern waterthrush in Central Park
Image 30Eastern kingbird
Image 31White-breasted nuthatch doing its nuthatchy pose in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 32Red-tailed hawk rescue
Image 33Blue jay fledgling calling for its parent in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 34Western tanager which popped up in NYC, far from its usual range
Image 35Pine warbler perched in Prospect Park
Image 36Tree swallow on a nest box in Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
Image 37Golden-crowned kinglet
Image 38Great blue heron in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 39Ring-billed gull in a rainbow over Niagara Falls
Image 40Northern mockingbird on a fence in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
Image 41Juvenile yellow-crowned night heron at Plumb Beach
Image 42Snowy egret in Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
Image 43Red-necked phalarope at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
Image 44Eastern wood pewee in Prospect Park
Image 45Field sparrow in Central Park
Image 46Northern flicker looking out from its nest in the Central Park North Woods
Image 47Black-capped chickadee eating seeds in Central Park
Image 48Downy woodpecker foraging in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 49Great blue heron lurching its head back to swallow a brown watersnake in Green Cay Wetlands
Image 50Cape May warbler in Prospect Park
Image 51Canada goose gosling in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 52House sparrow mother with chicks
Image 53Fish crow cawing in Red Hook, Brooklyn
Image 54American coot in Prospect Park
Image 55Immature mute swan in Prospect Park
Image 56Snowy egret
Image 57Eastern wood pewee in Central Park
Image 58Gray catbird in Central Park
Image 59Black-capped chickadee at a feeder in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 60Broad-billed motmot at the Arenal Observatory
Image 61Piping plover chick in Queens
Image 62Female northern cardinal in Central Park
Image 63European starlings on a birdhouse on Staten Island
Image 64Glossy ibis in Queens, NYC
Image 65Western gull sitting on a boat in San Francisco Bay
Image 66Western kingbird at Bush Terminal Park
Image 67Killdeer at the South Cape May Meadows
Image 68Great black-backed gull in Quogue, NY
Image 69Purple martin in flight in Cape May, New Jersey
Image 70Close-up of a white-throated sparrow in Central Park
Image 71Northern cardinal female in Central Park
Image 72Song sparrow on Lookout Hill in Prospect Park
Image 73American oystercatcher family portrait on Fort Tilden beach
Image 74Yellow warbler in Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
Image 75Rufous motmot, Costa Rica
Image 76Male brown-headed cowbird in Prospect Park
Image 77Female hooded merganser resting on the Central Park Reservoir
Image 78White ibis in Ocean City, New Jersey (I kind of prefer the uncropped version)
Image 79Ring-billed gull preening/bathing in Marine Park
Image 80Black-and-white warbler in Prospect Park
Image 81Male northern cardinal in Central Park
Image 82Lesser yellowlegs at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
Image 83Common grackle showing off its iridescence in Central Park
Image 84Red-tailed hawk yearbook photo, class of 2022, Central Park
Image 85First-winter American herring gull, Brooklyn
Image 86Blackpoll warbler in a flowering dogwood tree in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 87American robin making a dog whistle-like alarm call in Prospect Park
Image 88Green heron in Prospect Park
Image 89Ruby-crowned kinglet in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 90Gray catbird watching a hawk fly overhead in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Image 91Semipalmated plover in Queens, NYC
Image 92House sparrows in Central Park
Image 93Black-crowned night heron in Prospect Park
Image 94Ring-billed gull in Red Hook, Brooklyn
Image 95Wood duck drake vocalizing in Central Park
Image 96Male black-throated green warbler in Prospect Park
Image 97Lesser yellowlegs wading at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
Image 98Short-billed dowitcher in the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge East Pond
Image 99Mandarin duck drake in eclipse plumage in Royal Lazienki Park
Image 100Great egret stabbing the water in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 101American avocet fishing in the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
Image 102Northern mockingbird in a "tail up" display in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 103Redhead in Central Park
Image 104Tropical kingbird in the rain by Lake Arenal
Image 105Blue-gray tanager in La Fortuna, Costa Rica
Image 106Female wood duck
Image 107Semipalmated sandpiper vocalizing in Queens, NYC
Image 108Female Blackburnian warbler in Brooklyn, NYC
Image 109Northern shoveler pair "shoveling" together in Marine Park, Brooklyn
Image 110Gray catbird in Prospect Park
Image 111Scarlet tanager eating a berry in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 112Northern rough-winged swallows in Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
Image 113Tufted titmouse perched in Central Park
Image 114Male northern shoveler in Marine Park, Brooklyn
Image 115Mourning dove perched in Prospect Park, Brooklyn
Image 116Juvenile Forster's tern calling for its parent in Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
Image 117Brown creeper about to be released at a bird banding station in the United States
Image 118Mute swan cygnet pontoon on a duckweed-covered pond
Image 119Male yellow-rumped warbler singing in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 120Veery in the Central Park Ramble
Image 121Female American redstart in Brooklyn, NYC
Image 122Ring-billed gull coming in for an unwelcome landing
Image 123Palm warbler perched in Prospect Park
Image 124Baltimore oriole (immature/female) in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 125Tufted titmouse with a seed in Prospect Park
Image 126White-throated sparrow in Prospect Park
Image 127Pine siskin in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 128Dark-eyed junco at Bush Terminal Park
Image 129A rescued American kestrel that couldn't be released so is now serving as an "ambassador" bird
Image 130House wren doing its best eel impression guarding its nestbox.
Image 131Male northern flicker in Manhattan, NYC
Image 132Warbling vireo singing in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 133Ovenbird in Prospect Park
Image 134Ring-billed gull in flight over Red Hook, Brooklyn
Image 135Immature cooper's hawk in Prospect Park
Image 136American woodcock in Bryant Park
Image 137Golden-crowned kinglet at a banding station
Image 138Brown thrasher (snow-nosed variety) in Central Park
Image 139Gray catbird with a chokeberry in Prospect Park
Image 140Mute swan and cygnets on a duckweed-covered pond
Image 141Lesser yellowlegs in Queens, NYC
Image 142Blue jay in Prospect Park
Image 143Cedar waxwing in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 144Male house sparrow in Prospect Park
Image 145Huge flock of gulls just after they were spooked by something during a horseshoe crab feeding frenzy in Cape May, New Jersey
Image 146Least sandpiper in breeding plumage in Queens, NYC
Image 147Marsh wren singing at Hammonasset Beach State Park
Image 148White-breasted nuthatch on a suet feeder in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 149Rehabilitated eastern screech owl
Image 150Western kingbird at Bush Terminal Piers Park
Image 151Lincoln's sparrow in Brooklyn, NYC
Image 152Cedar waxwing in pokeweed in Prospect Park
Image 153Juvenile eastern kingbird
Image 154Great kiskadee in La Fortuna, Costa Rica
Image 155Anna's hummingbird in Pacifica, California
Image 156Hermit thrush at Brooklyn Bridge Park
Image 157Apricot Mandarin duckling in Royal Lazienki Park
Image 158Palm warbler in a meadow in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 159American goldfinch in Green-Wood Cemetery
 
Featured Pictures - everything else
Image 1California sea lion nap time at La Jolla Cove
Image 2Triq San Patrizju facing the Basilica Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Valletta, Malta
Image 3Bee balm seedhead
Image 4TWA Hotel
Image 5Large milkweed bug
Image 6The Seaside Sanatorium in Connecticut
Image 7Sarracenia leucophylla
Image 8City Hall Station in Manhattan, abandoned since 1945 because it looked cool but didn't
Image 9Blue dasher with Arrenurus water mites in Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Image 10An island (with ospreys) in Trustom Pond in the fog
Image 11White (leucistic) eastern gray squirrel perched on a tree in Brooklyn
Image 12Razor clamshell dress from spring/summer 2001, in the Sleeping Beauties exhibition at The Met
Image 13Saint Christopher Street in Valletta
Image 14Duomo Firenze terrace
Image 15Rice paper butterfly with light shining through in Butterfly World, Florida
Image 16Mantled howler monkey with baby in Costa Rica
Image 17Rooftop farm on the Lower East Side
Image 18Eastern cottontail portrait in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Image 19Abandoned car in Marine Park, Brooklyn
Image 20Hudson Yards in New York, taken from the top of Hudson Commons (9-frame panorama)
Image 21Strawberry poison dart frog in Costa Rica
Image 22Eastern cicada killer perched on a black-eyed susan
Image 23Sukkah at Congregation Emanu-El of New York
Image 24Daubeny's water lily
Image 25A cavapoo dog chasing a malipoo dog with a ball
Image 26Left by Gucci/Dapper Dan, 2018. Right by Louis Vuitton/Kim Jones, autumn/winter 2018-19, Camp: Notes on Fashion exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Image 27Salix catkins
Image 28One World Trade Center through the Oculus
Image 29Cattlianthe Gold Digger ‘Orglade's Mandarin’ orchid
Image 30Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco (18-frame panorama)
Image 31Pipevine swallowtail
Image 32Ship in the San Francisco Bay fog. Got lucky with the dramatic fog on this one, which opened up just enough to frame the ship in light.
Image 33Crocuses in early spring.
Image 34Camp: Notes on Fashion at the Met
Image 35Pearl crescent on purple coneflower
Image 36Bluebells in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Image 37Open Ocean exhibit at Monterey Bay Aquarium
Image 38Two juvenile Nubian ibex
Image 39Alexander Hamilton Custom House Collector's Room ceiling. Had to be a bit obnoxious to get this one, setting up a little tripod in the center of a crowded room and actually getting down on the floor to frame it. Who doesn't like a nice ornate ceiling with a nautical theme, though?
Image 40Moss-covered oak trees in the Bothe-Napa Valley State Park
Image 41Fulton Center skylight
Image 42Toronto Reference Library interior from the top floor
Image 43Oculus
Image 44Pier 66 and Hudson Yards
Image 45Immature male blue dasher
Image 46Redbeckia occidentalis
Image 47Male familiar bluet
Image 48Meadow in the morning in the Great Smoky Mountains (with namesake smoke)
Image 49A mural of patients in the long-defunct Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital
Image 50Boston Public Garden
Image 51Chinese mantis ootheca in Marine Park, Brooklyn
Image 52Pond sliders (red and yellow) and a river cooter fighting for basking space
Image 53Orchard orbweaver
Image 54Nine-banded armadillo in Costa Rica
Image 55Crook Point Bascule Bridge in Providence. It's been stuck in the open position for 50 years. A local landmark, but slated for destruction soon.
Image 56Baird's tapir mother with baby in Costa Rica
Image 57Eastern chipmunk with stuffed cheeks in Prospect Park
Image 58Proboscis bats in Alajuela Province, Costa Rica
Image 59The Dyker Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn is known for lots of elaborate Christmas lights, earning the nickname "Dyker Lights"
Image 60Monarch butterfly caterpillar on butterfly weed
Image 61Female eastern amberwing
Image 62Eastern amberwing
Image 63Wonder Wheel sign on Coney Island
Image 64Lower Manhattan panorama
Image 65Frizzle sizzle
Image 66Male zabulon skipper in Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Image 67Red-legged grasshopper feeding on a flower in Tennessee
Image 68Male tiger swallowtail butterfly in Central Park (missing its tails)
Image 69Florence seen from the Duomo terrace
Image 70Group photo of four pears
Image 71Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge East Pond
Image 72Maroon Bells
Image 73Coleus
Image 74Maroon Bells. Easily one of the most awe-inspiring natural scenes I've experienced.
Image 75Common buckeye in Eagle Creek Park, Indianapolis
Image 76Waldemarsviken in Stockholm
Image 77Pond sliders in Prospect Park
Image 78Glass blower. This was moments before he accidentally dropped it. Heartbreaking (and vasebreaking). Talented folks here, though, and I actually went back a while later and took a class. Got a piece of lit up frozen spaghetti to prove it.
Image 79Fork-tailed bush katydid close-up in Walland, Tennessee
Image 80Stata Center at MIT
Image 81Moschino fall 2014 ready-to-wear ensemble in the Camp: Notes on Fashion exhibit at the Met
Image 82Coney Island Mermaid Parade
Image 83Northern elephant seals in Ano Nuevo, California
Image 84Hell Gate Bridge
Image 85Bow Bridge in Central Park (panorama)
Image 86Castle Square, Warsaw
Image 87Makhtesh Ramon
Image 88Staszic Palace, Warsaw
Image 89Panorama of the Apennine Colossus in Tuscany
Image 90Quarry in Makhtesh Ramon
Image 91Comme des Garcons at the Met
Image 92Defunct Chestnut Hill Pumping Station in Boston
Image 93Monarch butterfly
Image 94Eldridge Street Synagogue
Image 95Burberry rainbow cape at the Camp: Notes on Fashion exhibition
Image 96Manhattan at night, looking north from Rockefeller Center
Image 97Condenser at the defunct Chestnut Hill Pumping Station
Image 98Coney Island Mermaid Parade (no, this is not a picture of Rhododendrites)
Image 99Male monarch butterfly on Tithonia
Image 100Jun Takahashi dress for Undercover in the Sleeping Beauties exhibition at the Met
Image 101Black Lives Matter mural in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Image 102Familiar bluet in the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
Image 103Northern flatid planthopper nymph
Image 104Green iguana panorama in Palm Beach County
Image 105Great golden digger wasp in Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Image 106Eastern gray squirrel in Central Park
Image 107Male elephant seal resting between fights in Ano Nuevo
Image 108Arenal volcano
Image 109Ash tree behind a columbarium in Mount Auburn Cemetery
Image 110Tiger bee fly
Image 111Bigfin reef squid at Monterey Bay Aquarium
Image 112Clouded sulphur in Brooklyn, NYC
Image 113Panorama of the once-active waterfront of Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Image 114Quogue Village Wetlands Preserve
Image 115Raccoon in Central Park
Image 116White (leucistic) eastern gray squirrel with a peanut
Image 117Hell Gate Bridge, with a scow being towed along the Hell Gate section of the East River
Image 118Female Huron sachem in Brooklyn, NYC
Image 119Composite of a clementine with/without peel
Image 120Hell Gate Bridge walking path on Randall's Island
Image 121Sunset sky over Governors Island, NYC (panorama)
Image 122Prospect Park Vale of Cashmere covered in lesser celandine, with a leucistic white squirrel in the distance
Image 123Abandoned building in Floyd Bennett Field
Image 124Small milkweed bug in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Image 125Magnolia x veitchii bud
Image 126A mural of patients in the long-defunct Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital
Image 127Sasheer Zamata at a Time's Up event during the Tribeca Film Festival
Image 128Male eastern amberwing dragonfly in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Image 129Red admiral butterfly on purple coneflower in Brooklyn Bridge Park
Image 130American lady butterfly on a purple coneflower
Image 131A [pretty dodgy] bridge along a cliff path at the edge of Makhtesh Ramon
Image 132California sea lion in La Jolla. My first experience seeing wild sea lions in person. It was ... loud. This one just looked downright majestic in the sun.
Image 133Memorial to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting, taken just after Stonewall Inn was designated part of a National Monument
Image 134Twice-stabbed stink bug on meadow anemone
Image 135Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Katowice
Image 136Northern dog-day cicaca exuvia on a flower in Green-Wood Cemetery
Image 137Red squirrel in Lazienki Park
Image 138Abandoned van by Gerritsen Creek
Image 139Window in a cafe in San Gimignano, Italy
Image 140Lincoln Center during Pride at dusk
Image 141Juvenile Nubian ibex on a wall at the edge of Makhtesh Ramon
Image 142Optical illusion on the floor of the Florence Cathedral
Image 143Algal mat in Marine Park, Brooklyn
Image 144Monarch butterfly