Foggy Down Below

One of the advantages of living on a ridge top is getting to see the ever changing view of the valley down below. This morning when I awoke the valley was filled with bright white fog. It made it look like a white lake. Along the edges the fog drifted into the trees with the sun streaming through it all. A great way to start the day.

God's blessings to all,

chris

Deer in the Dark

OK, I'll start off by stating the title is a little off. But it feels that way. Most every time I have photographed deer lately it has been in dark mixed light in the forest. This morning wasn't any different. First I went and worked out at the gym with Lenore and then on the way home I thought I would stop by a location where I have been seeing deer. When I found them they were fairly far off of the road in dark shadows mixed with bright sunlight. I then made a couple of images. One of the buck looking at me and the other of a doe lying in a patch of sunlight. I was pleased with the results.

God's blessings to all,
chris

Common Buckeye Butterfly

For some reason I always come back to photographing butterflies. I have plenty of images of them. They are like flying wildflowers.They are so much fun to photograph and they are beautiful. This afternoon when I got home from church I went out into the backyard and prefocused on this sunflower and waited until a Common Buckeye settled onto the sunflower and i created several images of it in various positions until it floated away. You can't ever have enough butterfly pictures.



God's light and love to all,

chris

Midnight Madness

The past two days I have had photographers block. I just couldn't get inspired to create any images. So late tonight as I was passing the kitchen table going to bed I noticed my son Jay's Airsoft Guns lying there ready to go for the big Airsoft battle tomorrow with all his buddies. Hmmn.. that pistol looks pretty cool. So within five minutes time I was pulling out the lights and stands and gathering camera equipment. I ended up creating two renditions. Which one do you think looks better? Let me know.

God's blessings to all,

chris

Dog Days of August

The past two days have been almost unbearably hot in the afternoon and evening. It was 105 degrees fahrenheit yesterday when I drove past the bank in big downtown Willits. Our dogs have been climbing into our garden fish pond to cool off. Yesterday Lance our big Yellow Labrador dug up the flower bed in search of cold damp soil. Needless to say I wasn't too pleased about that nor was Lenore when she spotted the damage done to her flowers.




This morning when I let the dogs out Lance went to the side deck where there was a little bit of a breeze to cool down. I took a few images of him enjoying himself there in the morning light.

God's blessings to all of you,

chris

Wine by Candlelight

Just did a simple stock image this evening of wine by candlelight. What is nice is that you get to drink it when you are finished.

God's blessings to all,

chris

Oh Deer! Not Again

This morning I went out in pursuit of making some images of a blacktail buck. I got off to a late start and as a consequence the lighting was pretty tough. I found three bucks but the lighting was too mixed to work with. I did however find the fawns in some more open light and it was a delight to make some photographs of them.

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God's ight and love to all,

chris

Survivor

While driving down our road early in the morning I noticed a lone stalk of grass reaching up toward the sky in a small shaft of light. It was sort of symbolic of surviving against the odds as it was growing upright all by itself away from the sanctuary of all of the other grasses. An independent spirit risking it all and striking out all on it's own.

God's light and love to all,

chris

Bring on the Butterflys

This morning I restocked all the humming bird feeders and then watered the flowers. After watering the flowers the butterflies began showing up in force. It was a hot day and they wanted moisture. I immediately grabbed my camera as I couldn't resist taking a few images of them. As long as I moved slowly and carefully the stayed put. Any fast motions sent them skittering off into the sky. What a fun way to spend an hour in the morning.






God's blessings to all,

chris
All comments are appreciated.

Not My Intention or Not Dogs Again

It was my goal this morning to get up early and photograph some deer. But alas I was up too late being creative and I slept in until way past seven. So by the time I headed out the door it was heading towards eight and the lighting was way to harsh for any kind of serious buck photography. Being optimistic though I headed out the driveway. Lo and behold sitting right across our road was Badger our dog lying in the dirt in a patch of sunshine. He looked really beautiful so I just had to stop and take a few images of him.





I called Badger to the car and continued on my way. I found a few deer and made a half hearted effort to photograph them but the lighting was just miserable and the deer looked pretty sad in those type of conditions.

God'sblessing to all,

chris

Wine,Bread and Cheese

Yesterday while eating a piece of cheese I envisioned this image of a simple meal of wine,bread and cheese by candle light. This is the result.
God's light and love to all,

chris

Please let me know what you think. I really appreciate your comments.

Going Plum Crazy

Tonight I did some stock photography with water and plums. My first attempt at it turned out great. I see some room for improvement but that will come with time. Let me know what you think of the result.

God's blessings to all,

chris

The Fog Has Returned

Today I awoke to a beautiful sunny day. By the time I finished breakfast that all changed with the arrival of the fog off of the ocean. We live on a ridgetop roughly eighteen miles inland from the coast. Which in simple terms means that we sometimes get fog also called the "Marine Layer". When we first moved here it was almost a daily event during the summertime. Now it seems to come in less and less. This summer it has only been foggy about ten times or so. It's funny that the fog just comes in just far enough to cover our ridgetop. I can get out of the fog into the sunshine by just heading a hundred yards to the east. Simply amazing!



I went for a short photo hike down the ridge earlier but since then I've been being domestic by doing the recycling and putting together some storage cabinets for my office.



God's light and love to all,
chris

Going Slow or Eaten by Mosquitos

This morning I was awoken by the angry chatterings of a Douglas Tree Squirrel outside. I poked my head out the window and looked down below. Sure enough there was a one jealously guarding the knothole feeder from a Western Gray Squirrel. I crawled out of bed still bleary with sleep and grabbed my camera gear.



Before going outside I set up the camera on the tripod with the legs fully extended and the camera ready to go so there would be no fiddling with it. I went out into the backyard and slowly approached the feeder a few feet at a time. Every time the squirrel would go down into the feeder I would move a few steps closer. I got closer and closer. Taking a few images as I went. Suddenly I began to notice that while I was photographing the squirrel the mosquitos were feeding on me. Yikes! I stubbornly kept at it for a few more images and then I fled to the safety of the indoors.



God's light and love to all,

chris

Lifestyle Image

Jay and I finished building the deck yesterday so in celebration I decided to create a lifestyle image to celebrate its completion.



God's light and love to all,

chris

Out the front Door and on the Run

This morning I was in a bit of a hurry to get out the door and down to the gym for my workout. However, when I looked out the front window I could see the fog coming in from the coast. Looking out the back widow I could see the sun streaming in over the valley. These were perfect conditions for what I call "Angels Breath" which is the sun streaming through the fog. The fancy fifty dollar scientific name for this atmospheric effect is "Crepuscular Rays"



In any case as I already noted I didn't have a lot of time. So I grabbed my camera, tripod and a wide angle lens and walked down our road. I captured a series of images of the sun streaming through the fog and trees that was purely magical. A great start to the day.

God's blessings to all,

chris
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Getting Anything Done?

Today I had trouble getting anything accomplished. I went to the eye doctor today for the usual routine exam. For some reason when they dilated my eyes today they stayed dilated for an awfully long time. I found out from this that it is awfully hard to accomplish anything with really dark sunglasses on all afternoon. I need bifocals to do any close up work so the sunglasses were pretty much useless for that. When I would try to use just the bifocals it was so blindingly bright I started to get a headache immediately. So what's a fellow to do but shut ones eyes and take a nap.



This evening I put in a little bit of time on the deck and I included a self portrait. I wanted the blurred effect so the deck would stand out more.I closed the camera down for a 2 second exposure to achieve the effect.

God's blessings to all,

chris

Evenings Last light

The last few days have been spent sporadically building a new deck on the back of our house. These things sometimes just catch you by surprise. About week ago I walked out onto the back deck and it felt squishy. If that sounds like an odd description for walking on a deck it is. So I pulled up one of the boards and found the joist holding it up was completely rotted all the way through. The more boards I pulled up the more dry rot I found. Time for a new deck! Ouch.
So today as the sun was going down I realized I hadn't taken a single image all day long. I walked out into the front yard and I saw a fern that was silhouetted by some of the last rays of the setting sun. it was a perfect image for the ending of today.

God's blessings to all,

chris

Fawns and Quail

This morning I went for a drive with the intention of photographing a big Blacktail buck. I knew where to go from past experience and some previous scouting trips but it was not to be. On the way down from the ridge top I spied a couple of fawns and does in a small meadow that had been recently mown. They were having a grand time munching on the free hay that was created. As a bonus there was a covey of quail feeding on the knocked down seed as well. By the time I got through taking portraits of the fawns and the quail there wasn't a buck to be seen anywhere.

God's light and love to all,

chris
Any comments you have on my blog would be appreciated.

Playing With Scorpions

Scorpions have always fascinated me. They are such an incredible ,improbable looking creature. Where I live up on the North Coast they are commonly found in woodpiles and under things like boards and trash cans. Under my trash can is where I found this one.



When I worked as a middle school teacher we used to take a three day outdoor education class. One of the activities we always included was an insect unit where the students would gather and identify insects. It always amazed me that some of the kids would capture scorpions by grabbing them by the stinger. I've never gotten up the nerve to do that. Something about that sharp stinger just makes me not want to do that.




Today I got up early and created a simple set up so I could photograph the little critter in natural light from the window.
I photograaphed it first on a rock and then I simplified it even further by using a sweep of tagboard. Let me know what you think of the result.

God's blessings to all,

chris

A Vanishing Breed of Men

Today when I was dropping off the recycling I noticed a loader unloading logging trucks full of Redwood logs at the mill. I made a mental note to take some images of it when I finished the recycling. Luckily for me they were still unloading when I got done and I was able to get a few images.



You don't get to see that much logging activity around here that much anymore. At one time there were eight mills in operation in the area where I live. Now there is just one and it is a specialty mill that produces special order timbers and redwood lumber only. So jobs and a livelihood in the timber industry are now passing into history. We have moved onto tourism and other green forms of industry so it's good to grab a few images of what soon may be history.

God's light and love to all,

chris

Rocky Mountain Wildflowers

While in Colorado's high country a few weeks back Lenore and I got to see a lot of wildflowers. We photographed a few of them. Now in looking back I can see that we probably should have taken more time to photograph the profusion of flowers that were there. Here in Northern California right now the flower season is coming to a close. Whereeas in the Rockies there are many just coming into bloom due to the high elevations involved and the snowfields melting away.
Here are some of the flowers that we did take the time to photograph.

Sincerely and God bless,

chris