Dinner Time or Not for the Squeamish

Today when I was watering I discovered a Green Praying Mantis in the backyard.Manitises are insectevores. That is to say they eat other insects as their food or diet. They can wait patiently for hours on end waiting for an insect to wander too close to them. Then like lightening their forelegs shoot out and grasp their prey. Typically they eat the head off first as this one does with a grasshopper it caught.Here are a few images from dinner time. You may notice that they aren't finicky eaters.


God's love and blessings,

chris

Lizard and Butterfly

This morning we went for a mid morning walk along Lake Ada Rose near where I live in northern California. I wanted to get some images of Western Fence Lizards (blue bellies to some of you) sunning themselves along the rip rap of the dam face. An added bonus was finding an Acmon Blue Butterfly. I chased it all over among the Queen Anne's Lace.People driving by were probably wondering what that guy was doing crawling around on his hands and knees in the flowers.Badger and Lenore enjoyed the walk and so did I.

God's precious blessings to all,

chris

Little Red Flower

This morning I photographed a flower from the vase on the dining room table. I loved the intense red colors. I thought it would look good on a green background. I created two versions one with a textured background and the other one plain.
God's love to all,

chris

California Ground Squirrels and a Clown

Today we headed south to the big city. We went to Santa Rosa to meet some friends for lunch to celebrate our kids graduating from high school. After a great lunch at La Rosas we went to Lake Ralphine a small lake in Howarth Park to have some fun.Everyone went kayaking and paddleboating. I stayed ashore and along the shoreline I found some fat and sassy California Ground squirrels to photograph.




There was also a wild group of geese bathing in the clear water where it comes into the lake. When we got ready to leave the park I saw a clown heading down to the baseball field to put on a performance for a party that was going on. A great time was had by all.

God's light and love to all,

chris

Creatures of the Meadow

Today I went back to the meadow to see what I could find. Here are a couple of creatures from the meadow. I love to get really close with my macro lens. I had some difficulty today as my camera decided not to work in aperture priority mode and it wouldn't let me set the f stops.Electronic stuff can be such a pain sometimes.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Star Trails in the Forest

Last night I stayed up late waiting for the moon to set over the horizon so I could do some star trail photography in my backyard.Once the moon had set I pointed my camera towards the North Star (Polaris) and made a twenty minute exposure. It's pretty peaceful out there in the dark listening to the night time forest life.Not creepy at all unless you start thinking about Mountain Lions...

God's light and love to all,

chris

Couple of Locals

At this time of year the variety of birds coming to my bird feeders goes way down. Here are the two most common ones from this morning.Bandtail Pigeon and Steller's Jay.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Three Chop Ridge Sunset

Tonight Lenore and I took a quick walk to the gate at the end of our property. Along the way we kept stopping to look at the sunset. This one was my favorite one looking southwest over Three Top Ridge to the fog covered Pacific Ocean.

God's blessings to everyone,

chris

Present on the Forest Floor

This morning after a minor dog incident I assigned myself the task of fence patrol to try and find out how our dog Badger is escaping from the yard. I found one hole that he has been using to squeeze out and I found a small dead Madrone tree had fallen on the back side of the fence reducing it's height down to three feet. Easy for Badger to jump over and for deer to come in.


In walking back up to the house I found this beautiful Steller's Jay feather lying amongst the leaf litter. Perfect photo fodder for my new macro lens.What a wonderful present to start out the day.

God's precious love to all,

chris

Mad for Macro in the Meadow

This morning I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to photograph some grasshoppers! I rolled out of bed while the rest of the house was sleeping. I grabbed my macro lens and a tripod and headed out the door. My destination was a small meadow below the dam at Lake Emily near my house here in Northern California. I knew I would find some grasshoppers there. The cool thing was is that I found quite a few other insects as well.There were bumble bees, butterflies,hoverflies and even earwigs. I had a great time crawling around on my knees and getting down low on my belly.I'm really happy with many of the images. Take a look and see.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Annika's Pet Bee

Today we went to Lake Mendocino a short drive from our house in Northern California to go bike riding and do a little kayaking. It was a beautiful day to be out. It was in the mid eighties and there was a fresh breeze blowing. A great day to be at the lake.When we stopped for a snack this honey bee was very attracted to Annika. It spent five minutes crawling all over her hands licking the wax from her lip balm that had gotten on her fingers when she had applied it. This made for an awesome stock image on nature.There is no way I could remain calm while a honeybee crawled all over me. Annika on the other hand just studied it as it crawled over her hand.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Dandelion

Today was one of those days where I had no plan.To be honest I didn't know what I wanted to photograph.Usually I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do. I just kind of floated through the day until I noticed all the dandelions in the backyard. That got my creative juices got flowing. This one was my favorite.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Lazy Day or Pine White Part 2

OK I will admit it I was pretty lazy on Saturday. I stayed up late on Friday night reading a good book. When Saturday morning rolled around I laid in bed and continued reading. Later I moved to the couch. Mid morning Lenore and I went to a flea market and then we made lunch together.The Garlic Chicken Chulupas were delicious!


In the afternoon I finally got around to cleaning up the kitchen. By then I was ready for a nap.It wasn't until late Saturday night that I got around to anything productive.
I sat down and finished editing all of the rest of the butterfly images from Friday.So now here it is at twelve-thirty at night that I'm writing my photoblog. Here is my favorite of the Pine White Butterfly images. I like it because the subject really stands out on an uncluttered background and you can see the butterflies face clearly.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

A Day at Home or a Pine White

Today I took my son Jay down to Department of Motor Vehicles in the big city of Ukiah for his learners permit test (Actually a nice experience). He passed with flying colors and now it will be onto the grand driving experience. Woot ! Woot! I spent the rest of the day at home. Some of the time chasing Pine White Butterflies. They were coming to my mint plants which are blooming profusely in the backyard right now. I just plonked my self down beside the flower bed and chased butterflies to my hearts content. This was my favorite image from the images I made.

God's love and light to all,

chris

Wild Birds

This morning I went out to the Burris Ranch to do some bird photography. I wasn't expecting much because it's midsummer and a lot of the birds are beginning to molt.I was really surprised how many birds there were.The birds were falling all over themselves to get to the feeders.It was pretty wild. Finally I got into it and just began focusing on one image at a time and waiting to get what I wanted.Patience.

The Gray fox taunted me from the hill above the blind with it's harsh bark. I didn't even bother to try and photograph it as I knew the lighting and the junkyard were against any odds of me getting a good picture.Someday...

God's precious love and blessings to all,

chris

Macro or the Gray Fox Won

This morning I got outfoxed by the Gray Fox. I went out to the ranch and sat in the new blind I put up to photograph it. Twice it came less than twenty feet from the photoblind. The first time I was totally unprepared and my movements in the blind startled it. The fox ran off up the hill. Wow, does that sound familiar? The second time it came from the side of the photoblind. All I could do was watch it as any attempt to move the camera over to the side viewing port would have scared it off. I had to be content to photograph it from a distance. Still it was really cool to watch.I'm determined to get a nice close up of it.





When I got home today there was a package waiting for me. I was like a little kid at Christmas as I tore the package open and went into the back yard to try out my new 100 mm macro lens to replace the one that took a tumble off of my tripod last week.
I really liked how well it works.My favorite image was the one of the honeybee.

God's precious love and blessings to all,

chris

Me and the Little Junk Yard Dog

Lenore and I spent the last two days over on the coast celebrating our anniversary so when I woke up this morning I was pretty tired. It was misting outside. Perfect day for some bird photography! But I knew that would have to wait because I had other plans. First I wanted to set up a portable blind in an unused pasture on the north side of the Burris Ranch to see if I could get an image of the Gray Fox I have been seeing in a more natural setting. I set the blind up next to the pond and I was shocked to see that the pond was already dry. So much for my thoughts of photographing animals when they came for a drink. Oh well. I left the blind there and walked over to snake heaven in the junkyard where my photoblind was set up.I was excited to see a flock of Goldfinches at the feeders when I arrived. I never saw them again! I did the mundane task of restocking the bird feeders and then climbed into the blind.A few House Finches came and went and then an Acorn Woodpecker arrived of which I got a great photograph. Then I heard the fox barking in the creek not far from my blind. It got closer and then stopped. About ten minutes went by and then I heard the high pitched screams of some animal being killed up the hill. The hair on the back of my neck went up.It got quiet again and then the fox started barking on the other side of the fence from me. I finally decided to get out of the blind and take a look. The fox was sitting on it's haunches in the grass looking at me.The big problem was that there was a fence post between us.I took a couple of images and then it ran up the hill into the forest above the ranch. That little dog and I have a photo date in the near future.I'm going to keep trying.I never did find out what got killed up the hill from me.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris