Mean Green Drink

I have been making healthy green drinks over the last few months. Admittedly the taste is a bit of an acquired thing. It helps to add more apples and fruit to make it sweeter. I have to be careful as that can be overdone and have it contain too much sugar. I have been wanting to make an image of one of my drinks and today I finally got around to it. I created two images and both my wife Lenore and I like the second image much better. I'm working on a third image that will be more earthy in nature on a nonwhite background. On to more projects.

God's light and love to all,
chri

A Slight Change of Plan

This morning when I got up I was really drawn to photograph a little patch of fog that was left in part of the valley down below. I loved the simple graphic appeal of just the one little patch with a few trees jutting out of it. The problem was is that there was too much moisture in the air and I couldn't get the image to have enough contrast to have any visual impact. I tried a staight B+W and that helped some. Hmmmn... I photographed a different section of the valley where there was more contrast. That looked great in B+W. But, I was still drawn to the image of the foggy patch. A change of plans again. I pulled a texture image from one of my files and added it to it. I like it much better this way. What do you think?

God's precious love and blessings to all,

chris

Catsup Day

I'm playing a bit of catch up today. Thus the play on words in the title. My brother Eric loves catsup. He and his wife Sue came for a visit a few weeks back and we bought an extra bottle of it just for his stay. He is a really superb photographer and Sue is an exceptional writer. Together they have teamed up on articles in magazines all over the U.S and Canada.

While they were here we took my Ultimate Watercraft Kayak and my Pelican Bassboat (it's tiny) over to Clearlake for some photography. We got there about eight in the morning and immediately unloaded the boats and headed out onto the water at Clearlake State Park. We split up and Eric took the kayak and I took the photobarge. Which is my nickname for the bass boat. It was lucky for Eric as there was a connection problem with the electric motor so I had to paddle it, which isn't an easy thing to do in that boat. I still managed to find some good photography subjects even though I couldn't paddle very fast or far. Immediately I located a Black Crowned Night Heron. I photographed a flock of American Pelicans for awhile and later found some Mallards and a Pied Grebe. My brother had much better luck capturing the same subjects as well as an image of a River Otter and a Great Blue Heron both from a short distance away. This was a good trip and it was really great to spend some time with my brother and his wife.

God's light and love to all,

chris

The Other Part of my Morning

After working out this morning I came home to spend a little time in the photography blind. I wanted to get a few bird images on the new perch I put up. This time of year there is a limited amount of birds that visit my location due to the habitat and elevation. I mostly get Chickadees, Juncos, Stellers Jays and a few Bandtailed Pigeons. In addition to the birds I have a few squirrels that come to the feeder with a few Wild Turkeys thrown if for good measure. Today wasn't to far off the mark. I photographed a couple of Dark Eyed Juncos,a Douglas Tree Squirrel and a Wild Turkey. No Steller's Jays which is quite unusual. You just have to take what the Good Lord sends you!

Fungi Friday

One of the cool things about living in a forest is that after the first few rains all the fungi starts popping up.This continues all the way through until spring. It gives me plenty of opportunity to get down and dirty and crawl around on the forest floor. Today I noticed the first fungi to appear right in my backyard next to the patio.Naturally I had to photograph this significant event.Now I think I'll go take a shower.
God's love and blessings to all,

chris

"A Love Letter" or From the Binder in Progress

I pulled another idea from my binder for image ideas this morning. It's an image of a love letter from a fiance to his future wife. I wanted it to have an old formal romantic sort of feel to it. I'm making progress but it's not yet capturing all that I want it to be be. Maybe this could become the first of a progressive series sort of thing?

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Can't See the Forest for the Trees

It's an old saying but it's true. Living in the forest I sometimes forget about the trees as a subject. They are all around me and just become part of my existence. It's pretty cool to look at each one of them individually once in awhile. They are all the same yet they have a unique bark color,twisted branches or even lightning scars. Here today is a simple common Tan Oak. As you are driving down my road it blends with all the rest of the Tan Oaks. This one has a mossy base and a bit of a lean to one side. There is a gnarly root coming from it. It looks a lot like the rest of them but its different.

God's precious light and love to all you individuals out there,

chris

From Concept to Image

I keep a list of images that I want to photograph in a little binder. As ideas pop up in my mind I sometimes write them down in it. Today I completed one of them. I have been wanting to capture a silhoutte of an insect on a branch in a sunrise. This morning I searched for insects by loading up the wood box which needed to be done before the next storm. I had an Alligator Lizard give me a start. You would think after all these years I might get used to them popping out of the woodpile next to my hand wouldn't you?
I found a few likely bark beetles and then I located a suitable twig from an oak tree. I set up an artificial sun and backdrop and Voila! I really like the final image.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Willits Arch in the Fog at Night

One of the town of Willits claims to fame is that it has one of the old City of Reno,Nevada's arches spanning Highway 101 as it goes through town. Here are two images of the arch in the fog. One is a stacked set of images and the other is more of a freehand abstract. Which one do you prefer?

May God's light and love bless this town,

chris

On the Change Theme

I started to get a little bored with the knothole feeder so it was time to change things up a bit. I found a really nice oak branch for a good looking perch next to the church last week. This morning I decided to put it up next to the feeder. It took the squirrels a bit of time to use it but the Steller's jays were right on it from the start. They are such curious birds always checking out everything. This can be helpful when doing wildlife photography because it gives wildlife and birds of other species the confidence to use a new perch or feeder when they see the jays using it. It can also be a bit of hinderance as the jays can easily mob and dominate the feeder. Today it was just right and I got some nice images of both species. The Douglas Tree Squirrel and the Steller Jays.

God bless,
chris

A Change in Light

It's really interesting how many humans are attracted to a high change in contrast or light values. We find beauty in dramatic shifts from dark to light. I was reminded of this fact today when I stepped out of my photography blind to go into the house. There was this Douglas Tree Squirrel on a stub of a branch above my head complaining like mad of my prescence below her tree. She was sitting in a shaft of light and it was dark all around her. If a squirrel can look beautiful she did.

Just think of how many images you may have liked because there was a dramatic change in the contrast of the image. Sunsrises and sunsets are a very good example of that. As are pictures of waves crashing onto the dark rocks of the coastline.Perhaps it is why so many people can enjoy Black and White photography. Something to give thought to anyway.

God's precious love and blessings to all,

chris

Like Clockwork

Every day at about ten o'clock a group of about dozen wild turkeys come by my bird feeder to pick up any seed that may have fallen from my bird feeder. They show up en masse and all the squirrels and small birds depart rather hastily upon their arrival. It shows good sense as turkeys are surprisingly not above snacking on things other than grain.

Here is an image of one of a first year poult posing next to a Doulas Fir Tree. Though it has grown quite big enough over this summer to hardly be called a poult anymore. I love the soft morning light on its back.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

A Foggy Morn

After dropping off Jay at school for zero period in the wee hours of the morning (Notice how most of my photoblogs start with something like this?) I looked out at the fog and contemplated photographing it. After the first few images a flock of birds serendipitously came through. That was cool. I waited for more but no large flocks came through. I decided to finish up with a Monochrome almost Black and White image. I liked the final result with all its layers, ridges and tree tops.

God bless,

chris

Oh No! Not the Squirresl Again?

This morning I awoke to the sound of fog drip. Perfect background and lighting I thought to myself for photographing squirrels. After dropping Jay off at school I crept out to the blind trying to stay hidden from the Douglas Tree Squirrel already at the feeder.
Did you know it's awfully hard to climb into a plywood blind and set up without making much noise.

The photography went really well. Though I did notice I had to photograph at some awfully slow shutter speeds due to the fog. It seems that those little squirrels lower jaws never stop moving. There is a brief pause for a fraction of a second every now and then that you have to closely watch for. I was really happy how soft the backgrounds ended up due to the fog. Great saturated colors too.

God's light and precious love to all,

chris

Spoiled Dog

<


This morning I went for a ride with "Badger the Spoiled Dog". He went with me to take Annika to school and do the recycling. His favorite way to travel is with his head out into the slipstream smelling all the scents along the way. I set up my camera to take some images of him as we went along. As you can see he really enjoyed himself.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Douglas Tree Squirrel

This morning I set out tophotgraph my vsion of a Douglas Tree Squirrel that I've had on my mind for awhile now. I wanted to photograph one from the side coming out of a knothole. I wanted a dark background so all the colors of the squirrel would stand out. Last week I made a new knothole feeder as the deer destroyed one of the ones I have been using. I set up the new feeder so I was looking at it from the side with a lot of dark fir trees in the background. After getting into the photoblind I only had to wait about twenty minutes before one of the squirrels came for a visit. I'm really pleased with the result.

God's light and love to all,

chris

A Little Rain Must Fall

Awoke from a groggy sleep to the rain drumming down on the roof and Annika telling me she needed to leave for school in fifteen minutes. After dropping Annika off at school I spent a ton of money having new tires put on my pick up truck. I then took in the rainy sights of Willits. Whoo Hooo!

God's precious light and love to all,

chris

Valley View or Bolt

Today was almost a non photography day. Between going to church and domestic chores I was really too busy for much photography. Serendipity intervenes on occasion as it did today.I was putting away some extra hardware from a project I had done when I noticed that the bolts looked pretty cool on the old weathered wood. That lead to photo number one.
We we were working in the garden late this afternoon when the sun began to bath the valley in sunlight. Since we have a lot of clouds from the recent rain this was a photographic episode not to be missed. I raced upstairs and created an image of our valley view from our bedroom window for image number two.
It turned out to be a photographic day after all.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

More on a Bbilical Theme or Waiting for the Nonlight

I spent some time in the dark recently photographing the Milky Way. I had to wait for the darkest of nights when there is no moon to lighten the sky. I then added some images that I made of several crosses and the bible.While creating it I kept thinking of the verse "I am the Alpha and the Omega". When I looked up that scripture I felt it really worked as it made the two images work together when I combined them in Photoshop.

Revelation 21:6
He said to me. " It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life."

This was a fun project to do as it stretched my imagination out.

God bless,

chris