Months in the Making

Some images require some advance planning to make them happen. These bluebird images were months in the making. In late winter I put up five bluebird nest boxes out at the Burris ranch.This spring the bluebirds chose one of the nest boxes to use. Of the other four swallows have taken up residence in two of them. One was knocked down by the horses using it as a back rub! The remaining nest box wasn't used by anything.
I have been monitioring the bluebirds progress. Just this week I put up a meal worm feeder nearby the nest box. I also added a knothole front piece of bark to the box once I found out the bluebirds were feeding thier young. Yesterday I set up a photoblind and slowly moved it closer and closer to the nest box during the day. So it took a few months and the bluebirds help to create these images.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Baker's Meadowfoam A Rare and Endangered Plant Species

Today I photographed some Baker's Meadowfoam (Limnanthes bakeri). A rare and endangered plant endemic to Mendocino County, California. Currently this plant is a hot potato for the ranchers in the Little Lake Valley and Cal Trans which is planning on building a highway through the valley and has to mitigate the wetlands it will destroy in the process with other pastureland in the valley. It will be interesting to see how this all falls out in the end.

God's blessings to all,

chris

My Favorite Guest Photographer

Call it nepotism because my favorite photographer filled in for me today. I stayed home today and worked on images for my book while Lenore, Annika and one of her friends went to the tidepools at McKerricher. The wind was howling and there were ten foot swells coming in. From the images its apparent that they had a really good time. Thanks Lenore for filling in today. I love the images you got.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Red Shouldered Hawk

Today it was raining so I went out to the Burris Ranch to check and see how my mealworm feeders were working for the Bluebirds. I discovered that they were working really well. In fact there were three bluebirds bringing food to the nest box. I screwed on a bark knothole front to the nest box and I walked back to the gate to see what the bluebirds would do. While I was waiting a Red Shouldered Hawk suddenly swooped down and landed on something close to the nest box. I grabbed my camera from the car and watched as the hawk flew up from the field with a vole in its beak. A beautiful sight to see! I hung around for awhile longer and waited for the bluebirds to resume their feeding which they did. A successful day all the way around in spite of the rain.

God's love and blessings to all,
chris

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today was one of those days where you need to look around and take a short break. I slept in and then went out and restocked the bird feeders. I checked on the bluebirds and found that the babies have hatched and are being fed. So I set up a mealworm feeder aabout six feet away from the nest box on a post. I guess we'll see what happens. When I got home I whipped up a double batch of chocolate chip cookies. I was really well beahaved and only had one.

God's light and love to all,

chris

Rainy Day Outside

The heavens opened and I played inside as I'm sick today. Some sort of hopefully 24 hr. flue. Headache and body aches etc. I took out some LED light banks, colored gels and some toy cars. I then tried out some new textures on the images . This one ended up being my favorite in black and white.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

The Many Faces of Mango

Annika has a great cat named Mr. Mango. He is mostly a lap lover. He is very expressive though and really lets you know what he wants. Today when I came home I walked in the door with my camera in hand. Mango was in one of our red chairs relaxing in the way that only cats can. I stopped and photographed a whole series of just his facial expressions. He's a grand old cat.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

The Start of a Great Meal

Yesterday evening I set out to make some chicken vegetable soup for the family dinner. I grabbed a cutting board, an onion, a knife and placed them on the counter. Then I grabbed some spices from the cupboard and as I turned back to the counter I thought to myself, "Wow! That looks really cool." I grabbed my camera and took several photographs of it from different angles. This is the one I liked the best. The soup was delicious by the way.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Is There Really One Hundred Legs?

You just never no what you will find when you live in the country. There was a centipede underneath my container for bird seed. So here it is. How many legs are there?

Have fun and God bless,

chris

Coastal Farmhouse

Today I spent some time playing with textures. I have a large collection of textures that I continually add to. When I was with Lenore on the coast Friday and Saturday I found quite a few. There is a lot of weather beaten buildings along the coast due to the fog and the salt in the air. This is an image of an old farmhouse created about a week ago of an old farmhouse up by the small coastal town of Westport. I overlayed it with the texture of a weathered white siding on an old shed in Fort Bragg. I like the sensation of waves that it creates.

God's blessings to all,

chris

Miscellaneous Mendocino

Friday Lenore and I took off for the coast. She had a tech training in Fort Bragg so I drove over with her and we had a car picnic on the Pomo Headlands. After our picnic I dropped her off at her training. It was great because I got to play while she worked. I drove up to Mckerricher SP and watched the Ospreys and I photographed some ducks and a Bullfrog. After I picked her up we had a walk along the coast at Pudding Creek and then had a great dinner at "Off the Hook" in Fort Bragg followed by a single scoop at "Cowlicks Ice Cream".

On Saturday we lazed around and had a continental breakfast at the Beachcomber. We went for a short walk down the coast. There were wildflowers everywhere! We then explored some of the pastoral woodlands off of Bald Mountain Road in the car. Afterwards we went into Fort Bragg and took the "Walking Quilt Tour" which involves going into stores and looking at the quilts on display and answering questions about them on a tour guide pamphlet. Most of my time was spent looking for textures to photograph while Lenore went into the stores. Though I did look at some of the quilts which were pretty cool. Lunch was a simple affair at "Jenny's Giant Burgers" and then we headed home to Willits.

God's love and blessings to all,
chris

The Conversation

This morning I was over on the coast and I stopped when I saw this Coopers Hawk dive off of a telephone pole and try to grab a snack from the meadow below. When the hawk came back up and landed on the powerline it was empty handed but a Brewer's Blackbird landed right on the powerline close to it and began to give the hawk a piece of its mind. I would have loved to known what was said.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Reminds Me of the Serengetti

We have all seen the images of Ox Peckers sitting placidly on the backs of Cape Buffalo and the streaming lines of Wildebeasts as they migrate across the plains of the Serengetti. Today my very, very minature version of it took place when I stopped to photograph the Fallow or "White Deer" on my way to Ukiah for a doctors appointment. I saw two groups of Fallow Deer and in the first one there was a European Starling perched on the back of one of the deer as it was grazing. The second group was feeding in a meadow when suddenly they formed a long single file line and moved up and over the hill into another meadow. Not as grandiose as the Serengetti but it was still pretty cool to see.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Note: These deer were photographed on the Golden Rule Ranch which is the ranch that was the home to Sea Biscuit the famous race horse owned by Frank Howard. The deer were purchased by Howard from Randolf Hearst in San Simeon in 1949.

A Bit of Fence and a Rock

My photography blind at the Burris ranch is in an old garden area set aside from the pasture by an old beaten down sheep fence that is topped by two strands of barbed wire. For those of you that know what kind of fencing this is you probably already know that it isn't the prettiest fencing around. It isn't what I normally like to photograph birds on anyway. Recently I did photograph some quail on it and it's ok, but it isn't as nice as an old wooden fence. So I found some old redwood split rail fencing and wired it up to the wire fence and now I can at least get a few more images that aren't on wire. The birds were landing on both the posts and the rails today. I also have been getting a few images at my new water feature that as it starts getting warmer the birds will be using more and more. Today a few of them came in for a drink and landed on the biggest moss covered rock in the set up. There is always something I can do or change to shake things up a bit.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris,

Waiting for Spring

Oh the weather outside is frightful. But, you're so... We have been getting the most unspring like weather. On Saturday we woke up to and inch and a half of snow and it has been raining on and off since then with some patches of sunlight thrown in.

God's light and love to all,

chris

The Coast

Friday I made a quick trip over to the coast after doing some wildflower photography in theLittle Lake Valley. I made a nice loop trip by going up to the little town of Laytonville and the heading across the coastal range via the Branscomb Road. Once I hit the coast I went down Highway 1 . Westport Store with it's great snacks was my first stop along the way with a few more at favorite places like the Fingers, Kabisela and MacKerricher SP. When I hit Fort Bragg I grabbed a polish dog for a late lunch at Harvest Market and then headed back on Highway 20 to Willits.
Highlights of the trip were the Harbor Seals, Black Oyster Catchers along with the Ravens and Turkey Vultures soaring along the cliffs. It was a beautiful day on the coast.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris