iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

just an otter guy resting in the Salish Sea

a sea otter with his eyes closed, floating amid bull kelp

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

nota bene: the boat gave him (and all animals) lots of space, and I took these photos with a long lens and cropped them a little further.

160

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The naturalists said he probably came here from an area more crowded with male sea otters, to get a little space, and seems pretty content; they're hoping more follow, since the otters are really good for the kelp forests!

040

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

zoom in for an absolutely incredible face

a sea otter fluffing up his fur, with a mouthful of fur and a determined expression

4144

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

They sometimes offer community access wildlife-viewing trips, and I was lucky enough to get a spot. I learned SO much!

170

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

So this week I learned that there are TWO sea otters in the Salish Sea!!! This one is Dexter and I got to watch him roll around in the kelp and fluff his fur. (With major thanks to the Salish Sea School, a wonderful nonprofit that conducts wildlife boat trips and lots of community programs.)

a sea otter peeking up from a patch of floating bull kelp, with gulls and a distant mountain in the background

5528

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

she had to lounge on the passenger seat while waiting for M’s doctor appointment to conclude. the passenger seat is not her preferred lounging surface. a small ancient dog should have uninterrupted lounging time on the humans’ bed.

060

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

While visiting family I spent many hours watching dragonflies on territorial patrol, trying to photograph them in the air. (On patrol they tend to fly in a regular pattern, which makes this a *little* easier.) Autofocus wasn’t locking in fast enough, so I focused most of these on manual override.

020

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Thank you so much! I was hoping to achieve a sense of dimensionality!

001

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

A piece created from this summer’s efforts at photographing dragonflies in flight. King of the Lilies, cyanotype on translucent gampi over raindrop paper, gilded and painted details on front and reverse.

Blue and silver artwork of a dragonfly flying over water lilies

2194

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I’ve finished a few pieces in this series while recovering. I started doing some textural embossing on the heavier under-layers of paper, and am pretty happy with the results. The gilding on the top layer of this piece is real sterling, which I hope will slowly patina to match the frame.

020

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

An intertidal piece, with some new techniques: Inverse Satellite, crystal jellyfish originally photographed beneath the ferry dock. Cyanotype on translucent gampi, with gilded details on the front and reverse, over embossing and watercolor on cotton paper. (In a vintage silverplate frame.) 🐡

Blue and silver artwork of a delicate jellyfish from beneath, with the sun shining through its bell.

1256

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

albuterol is both the absolute best and the absolute worst. (I once had to spend 15 minutes inhaling it through a nebulizer in a doctor’s office full of toy monkeys, and by the end I was sure that the toy monkeys were slowly converging on me.)

020

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

it happened to me: my cough was giving me a headache, so I used my inhaler, and my inhaler kicked off a wee migraine

450

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

the white-lined dironas are my favorite local nudibranch! they’re not uncommon but they’re so beautiful and ethereal, I’m excited to see one every time. the peachy-colored nudibranch is also one of them! it’s probably that color from eating the giant orange sea pens somewhere deeper.

010

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

nudibranch gender of “idk, vibes”

000

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

trina did u find the shrimp 🦐

110

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

the honor of fish shoe approval

000

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

(there’s also at least one other nudibranch species is this photo)

120

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

can YOU spot the secret shrimp?

white-lined dirona nudibranch underwater on a creature-covered dock piling

231

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

when you have sea lettuce in your bell and nobody tells you

egg yolk jellyfish adrift in turbulent water

0122

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

he got his shoes at a fly fishing gear maker that caters to the unusually-sized among us! (called “miss mayfly,” alas, but they seem queer-inclusive despite the name.)

010

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Thank you!! I love: modern medicine!

010

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

me, this summer: “i would really like to photograph one of those beautiful sculpins” 🐡 one of those beautiful sculpins:

a sculpin (fish) sitting atop my underwater shoe, glaring at me

2222

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

feeling well enough for boredom but not enough to do very much; hello, internet

160

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

one more chorus of guillotiiiiiiine

010

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

a sentence that recalibrated my benchmarks for human evil oh my god

At the mouth of the wastewater canal, a figure of 2 kg of mercury per ton of sediment was measured, a level so high that it would be economically viable to mine (Chisso later set up a subsidiary to reclaim and sell the mercury recovered from the sludge).

231

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

truly an illustration of what corporations do when under-regulated, which is “literally the most evil shit imaginable”

010

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

okay so this sent me to the wikipedia page for this stuff, through which I learned about the scariest historical case of industrial poisoning I’ve ever heard of

110

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

you’re right and you should say it

020

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

i once laughed when my husband told me that tim curry in muppet treasure island could get it. then i watched muppet treasure island and had to issue a formal apology.

1210

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

or like it’s a very solemn submission to america’s funniest home videos

040

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

why is so much video installation art filmed as though it’s a youtube how-to video about assembling an ikea dresser

230

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Micah interrupted my guilt spiral by convincing me to blame this on the seagull who juuuust missed pooping on his surgical clearance letter. If the seagull had had better aim (derogatory), it would’ve imparted good luck.

070

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

we need to reschedule what feels like our entire lives because of the flu, but it is difficult to do that with…the flu.

140

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

sorry unfiltered flu-induced grouchiness coupled with witnessing how hard you’ve been working

020

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

who do I need to dropkick into the nearest wastewater treatment plant

130

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

If this strain of the flu is what will be around during proper flu season, fyi, it is BAD. We both got tamiflu and are still in ROUGH shape. Worth masking in high-traffic spaces to avoid it. The only good thing I can say about the past few days is that I’ve been unconscious for much of them.

040

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

this shit moves fast; yesterday morning I felt fine and could climb a stepladder to extricate a kitten who had escaped onto a neighbor’s balcony, then fallen from it into the tall bush behind our apartment (everyone was fine). by evening I was very sick indeed. We’ll see what the Tamiflu does.

030

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

fyi, influenza A is circulating in AUGUST, which I found out by getting the flu. Things! Keep! Happening!

140