Home on Stephen Fell

Relaunching my website

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 10:55:54 -0800

stephenfell.net is relaunching!

I’m relaunching my website with a new design and a new focus on sharing my sketches, drawings, and photography. I want to share my work with friends and followers without chasing algorithms or training models with my content.

I’ve switched from WordPress to Hugo because I was tired of all the plugins and constant updates and having my site hijacked to send spam. I want to have a simple, fast, and secure site that I can control and maintain without worrying about all the overhead of WordPress.

Birds!

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Listening to and seeing birds offers proven mental health benefits, reducing anxiety, stress, and paranoia while enhancing mood.

In early February, I put up a bird feeder that I got for my birthday - it’s one of those ones that has a camera in it so you can login and watch the birds dig through the seeds, finding the ones they like best. Every day since, there has been a feeding frenzy of redpolls, red breasted nuthatches, chickadees, Steller’s jays, European starlings, magpies and the occasional squirrel.

Latest Updates

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Link to my full Adobe Lightroom Gallery

Chickadee dee dee

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The other day I put up the bird feeder that my wife had given me for my birthday last month. It’s one of those feeders with a camera so you can see the birds up close.

Within 2 hours, we had a squirrel and shortly after that, chickadees, nuthatches and redpolls. I’m getting more than a hundred pings each day with all the hungry birds that come to feed.

Here’s a drawing of one of my visitors, a chickadee who came to rest on one of the lower branches of our oak tree. I drew this on a sticky note to save time and show that you can draw with any kind of supplies that you might have lying around, even when you’re taking a short break at work :-)

If fish were people

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Last summer was the first time we’ve been dip-netting in almost 11 years. So we’ve been eating our haul of salmon almost once a week this winter, which is probably a net positive for our health. We’re already making plans to go again in the summer, but I couldn’t help but think, at least for a moment, what if the fish ate people?

Time lapse of a fish vacuum packing people.

The secrets of self expression

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

One day I was in the bathroom, washing my hands and with a quick glance down at the sink, I realized that the spacing on the cold and hot water faucet handles appeared to be about the same as one’s eyes. And at that moment I began imagining myself wearing the faucet on my head, almost like a pair of goggles. And I began to think about the symbolism of the water creating a feedback loop from the brain to the eyes and back into the mouth. Maybe I’m drowning in my own thoughts? I don’t know. I will leave that up for interpretation.

Recent sketches from the creek

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

As I walked out onto the Campbell Creek trail, from the entrance near our house, there was a twittering cacophony of birds. The snow crunched beneath my feet, but the sound was no longer audible. I pointed my camera at the chokecherry bush, holding my breath for steadiness and to prevent moisture from my breath condensing on the now cold glass - the temperature was hovering somewhere just above zero degrees Fahrenheit.

Let's draw a kingfisher

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hi everyone. Here’s a quick sketch of a kingfisher that I saw a couple of weeks ago when it was about zero degrees Fahrenheit and most of the water was frozen. The cat tail pond, fed by warm runoff was open and active with ducks and this kingfisher. I saw him swoop down over the water several times to get minnows and other small fish.

I spent about 10–15 minutes on this sketch, and the DaVinci Eye app made the whole process so much faster. It helped me lock in the proportions right away—something that would’ve taken much longer if I’d used a grid or other traditional techniques.

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Stay Connected - No Algorithms, Just You & Me

Sign up for my free newsletter and get updates, ideas, and stories straight to your inbox. No spam, no fluff - just thoughtful content without the noise of social media.

The waxwings are here

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In midwinter, Anchorage’s Campbell Creek corridor becomes a lifeline for fruit‑eating birds. The trail entrance at Greenhill Way, where residential plantings meet native trees, often holds onto berries longer than the deeper forest sections. This overlap creates a seasonal buffet that draws in nomadic flocks like Bohemian Waxwings—sleek, masked songbirds known for their synchronized movements and soft trilling calls. When the fruit peaks in sugar and softness, waxwings descend in coordinated waves to feed, turning quiet branches into a flurry of motion.

Drawing weird things in Paint

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I had a weird dream last night so I sketched it in pencil first, scanned it into Microsoft Paint and then added lines and colors, exporting the progress frame by frame into the animation above.

The whole process didn’t take too long - in the morning I sketched while drinking my morning coffee and later on I spent about an hour and a half doing the animation.

It’s kind of fun to do these!

Robins and Dippers

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I got some more photos of some robins and dippers today along the Campbell Creek trail. Unfortunately I lost my glasses while crawling in the snow by the riverbank - let me know if you find them.

A Severed Subsea Cable

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We were at the beach earlier this fall at Pt. Woronzof in Anchorage and came across a rather thick cable sticking out of the water.

Here we see a thick braided copper cable with a flexible polymer insulation layer and an outer jacket. My guess is that this cable carried power over to Fire Island at one point in time.

Then kids started throwing rocks at the piece of cable sticking out of the water and I managed to capture one splash right at the base of the thing… and I imagined it like a worm coming out of the water… because I really like Dune.

About Me

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hi! I’m Steve. I’ve lived in Anchorage since 2007, and somewhere along the way this place became home — family, routines, the whole thing.

During covid, I picked up a sketchbook and rediscovered a part of myself I hadn’t touched since childhood. Drawing turned into a habit, then a practice, and now it’s something I want to share. I’m not here to chase algorithms — just to put my sketches and drawings out into the world for anyone who enjoys them.

An American Dipper

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

While out on a walk today, I saw a peculiar bird doing a little dance by the edge of the water and actually swimming down under water. Apparently, these birds are not all that uncommon, but it was my first time seeing one.

A bird that walks underneath the water, the slate-gray American Dipper is North America’s only truly aquatic songbird

I do not consider myself a birder or a bird person - but it is another reason to carry a camera with me and get outside. And I do have the Merlin app on my phone to identify birds by their calls and songs or by a photo, and I think that’s also interesting and fun sometimes.

Playing with Pixels

Fri, 28 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve recently been dabbling in digital tools as part of the creative process. Below are a few of examples of how I used photography and digital image processing to achieve something that I think feels a little different.

Here’s some #pixel art from my walk today. I wrote a python script to pixellate a picture from my phone and remap the colors to a limited palette. I also used Microsoft Paint to manually add some of my own color.

Drawings, paintings and Sketches

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Fall Leaves

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Fall is a short, but magical time of the year.

For this drawing I used a fountain pen with a bent nib - to be able to color in large areas at a time. The foreground is dark with detailed leaves and gradually transitions to light through a few ripples in the water with the trunks of a few trees.

I would be lying if I said this was completely my original thought. It is based on a photo that I took, which was in turn inspired by an M.C. Escher print, which was included in a biography about the artist that I have kept in my possession since I was a teenager. I was recently re-reading this book to help me fall asleep at night - something it does very well because it is almost as dryly written as a history textbook.

Turnagain Arm

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Fishing Vessel

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Self Portrait

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Self Portrait

Childlike Experience

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Sketches from home

Sun, 31 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Here are a few sketches from my sketchbook from a recent trip home to Alabama.

The old oak tree

Parents back yard

Another sketch of the oak tree

Luna

A quick beach sketch

Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s a quick sketch of the beach from memory with no references used, drawn with pencil in my traveler’s sketchbook. When you’re drawing a place, it almost feels like you’re at that place. I probably could have spent more time, but I really just wanted to get the idea on paper as fast as I could.

Bird drawing practice

Sat, 17 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A drawing of a cardinal

Mt Spurr

Tue, 13 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s a shot of Mt. Spurr taken 2025-03-31 from the Glenn Alps trail head overlook. We took my old “boss” David up there for some sightseeing.

While we were there, a paraglider landed next to us. She was very nice, answering all of our questions that she’s probably been asked a thousand times from other bystanders. And funnily enough, we actually had a mutual friend in common.

On the beach...

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s one from our trip to Seward last weekend. This is on the beach in front of Miller’s Landing. I recorded a YouTube short for it here.

Tugboat and Barge

Sun, 16 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

https://youtube.com/shorts/59JW8Kt2giQ?si=ow9JLhk43oR07vkF

Hey Everyone

Here is a sketch from a photo I took on my phone back in 2021. We must have been on a walk or something on the coastal trail and I decided to take a picture of the barge in the water.

I think it may be two vessels - a tugboat and a barge sitting next to each other.

Anyway, I used a 0.5mm mechanical pencil with a graphite hardness of ‘B’, blending stump for the clouds and a 3B pencil for the dark spots down in the deadly mud flats below.

Let's draw a squirrel on the fence.

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hey everyone, Steve here for another drawing session. If you’re an artist, I’m going to let you in on a little secret - get a camera and keep it handy. It can be the one on your phone or something more advanced. Take a lot of pictures, and try to get a feel for what makes a photo interesting because a lot of that skill also applies to drawing.

Over time, your photo library will grow and you’ll have a lot of material to work from - it feels a lot less like cheating when you reference your own photos.

Mountain sunset sketch

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hey everyone,

Thanks for tuning in. It’s a sunny, but lazy Saturday so let’s do a quick sketch here in my sketchbook. For this one I’m using a 3H pencil and a 12B faber castell matte pencil. The scene I’m drawing is along the turnagain arm just south of Anchorage. You can see a few chunks of ice sitting in the frozen mud.

Also a quick thank you to everyone who came to my birthday party last week and for the thoughtful gifts and wonderful artwork, I am grateful to have such good friends.

A Self Portrait

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Me Drawing Me

Is it weird to draw yourself? Every drawing is a form of self expression, but this is the most direct form of that expression. For me, drawing is a hobby and I tend to focus more on the skill than the creativity, but the result is the same, the manifestation of an extension of the self that persists afterwards. And that is one of the reasons I keep doing this.

Inkvember Doodles

Thu, 14 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A doodle from my noodle. New Video on YouTube.

Another Squirrel Sketch

Sun, 06 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Squirrel Sketch

I’ve got another drawing of our squirrel friend. Here she is eating some almond flakes, strategically placed on the fence where I could snap a reference picture.

This drawing was done in a small sketchbook with various wooden pencils and a fine eraser. I started it a few months ago and left it unfinished for one reason or another.

Here is my YT Short, finishing up the sketch.

Isometric Cityscape

Sun, 06 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

An isometric cityscape, the likes of which I might have drawn as a kid, contains elements from real life - a reflection of random thoughts on paper. In the upper right corner is a garden that we built this summer in our front yard. It was designed to match the neighbors’ garden. On the left is some industrial process equipment, similar to things I’ve seen on job sites when I worked in the field. There’s also a train, because in the future there will be more trains.

Turnagain Arm

Thu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

One day a few weeks ago, we were driving the Seward Highway and had to stop for a rock slide. I decided to take a picture and later I drew it in my sketchbook.

Let's draw a squirrel.

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

https://youtube.com/shorts/3MeinFKztDU?si=sM_FxXzakXVWte9M

Just a quick sketch here. This winter, I watched this squirrel run back and forth across our fence in the back yard, getting peanuts from the neighbors’ yard to take back to her nest. She’s a hard worker!

Drawing a fox down by the creek in my sketchbook.

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

https://youtu.be/1VHN4HAMu6w

Drawing a snowy sunset scene in my sketchbook.

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

https://youtu.be/l-mm5ydi1tY

Drawing: Finishing up a snowy scene in my mini sketchbook.

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

https://youtu.be/u7mF_HziDD0?si=Rh8dyMyUewR0RNp8

Sketchbook Tour

Fri, 05 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

https://youtu.be/dWnb0tQ5oMQ

Extracting the actual date of a LinkedIn Post

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Copy paste friendly:

from datetime import datetime

def extract_unix_timestamp(post_id):
    # BigInt needed as we need to treat post_id as 64 bit decimal.
    # Python uses arbitrary-precision integers, so no need for explicit BigInt.
    as_binary = bin(int(post_id))[2:]
    first_41_chars = as_binary[:41]
    timestamp = int(first_41_chars, 2) / 1000

    # Convert Unix timestamp to a readable format
    readable_timestamp = datetime.utcfromtimestamp(timestamp).strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
    return timestamp, readable_timestamp

# Example usage:
post_id = 7089460991175901184
timestamp, readable_timestamp = extract_unix_timestamp(post_id)
print(f"Unix Timestamp: {timestamp}")
print(f"Readable Timestamp: {readable_timestamp}")

Historical Solar Activity

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Training @ Siemens

Fri, 22 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

2021 Alaska Drilling Activity

Sat, 27 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A 50,000 year old stick.

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Browse by Category

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Home on Stephen Fell

Relaunching my website

Birds!

Latest Updates

Chickadee dee dee

If fish were people

The secrets of self expression

Recent sketches from the creek

Let's draw a kingfisher

Subscribe

Stay Connected - No Algorithms, Just You & Me

The waxwings are here

Drawing weird things in Paint

Robins and Dippers

A Severed Subsea Cable

About Me

An American Dipper

Playing with Pixels

Drawings, paintings and Sketches

Fall Leaves

Turnagain Arm

Fishing Vessel

Self Portrait

Childlike Experience

Sketches from home

A quick beach sketch

Bird drawing practice

Mt Spurr

On the beach...

Tugboat and Barge

Let's draw a squirrel on the fence.

Mountain sunset sketch

A Self Portrait

Inkvember Doodles

Another Squirrel Sketch

Isometric Cityscape

Turnagain Arm

Let's draw a squirrel.

Drawing a fox down by the creek in my sketchbook.

Drawing a snowy sunset scene in my sketchbook.

Drawing: Finishing up a snowy scene in my mini sketchbook.

Sketchbook Tour

Extracting the actual date of a LinkedIn Post

Historical Solar Activity

Training @ Siemens

2021 Alaska Drilling Activity

A 50,000 year old stick.

Browse by Category