Squirrely Day

 The first thing to come to my cork bark bird feeder this morning was a Western Gray Squirrel. I typically don't mind squirrels too much because they make great subjects too. This one was photographed with my venerable old Canon EOS 7D with an equally long in the tooth Canon 100-400mm telephoto lens. a very fine camera combination indeed! I took four good shots of the squirrel before it got spooked and took off. After that I focused on Dark-eyed Juncos and Chickadees. A good time was had by all. God's love and blessings to all, chris

Simple Set Ups

The past three mornings I went out into the yard and created some simple set ups. On the first day I duct taped a branch to the side of a small platform feeder  about ten feet out from one of our bedrooms. Within minutes of setting it up the birds were using it.  I got some nice images from it. The second morning I grabbed an old knothole feeder I had lying around and I used some wood screws to attach it to the same post. The birds loved it and so did I. This morning I added a fall colored background behind the feeder. For some reason the birds weren't as cooperative. I had a long, long wait before the birds started using the feeder. Eventually they came in and  I was able to create some images. I hope that you are all enjoying your week. God's love and blessings to all, chris

Wave Therapy

Last week I spent a late evening on the Mendocino coast watching the sun go down and watching the waves roll in. The weather was perfect as it was about seventy degrees and the fog and smoke combined to create some amazing light. All of these images were created with my Canon EOS 7D MKII and a Canon 100-400 mm IS v.1 lens or a Canon EF -S10-22 mm wide angle lens. God's love and blessings to all, Chris  #teamcanonusa

Working the Corner

Recently I went out during the middle of the day at almost high noon to do some photography. I had a spot in mind that I have photographed many times before. Normally high noon is one of the least desirable times for landscape photography. The light is very bright making images look very flat and uninteresting. For me it was just the perfect way to explore doing some more infrared photography. Once I arrived I started looking at the many possibilities for images. There are some wonderful S curves in the road there for creating leading lines as well as the many beautiful valley oaks that are subjects unto themselves.  I found some great images to explore  before the midday heat drove me back to the car. All images were created with a Canon EOS 7D camera converted to infrared Hypercolor. I was using a Canon EF- S10-22mm lens with a red filter. God's love and blessings to you, chris #teamcanonusa

Branching Off in a New Direction

After a lot of thought my photography is branching off in a new direction. I've always liked exploring and learning new things. Infrared photography has always intrigued me. I suppose because it is often done in B+W which is what I did a lot of during my early years in photography. I loved the darkroom and shooting in B+W both in high school and in college.  Which now brings me to the present. They make and convert cameras that shoot in infrared. After a couple of months of off and on research I ordered a Canon EOS 7D that had been converted to Hyper Color Infrared.  I was like a little kid in a candy store when it arrived. Photographing the forest in the front yard and driving out to the Little Lake Valley and photographing the large valley oaks. It's crazy what you can do with it. Processing images from this new camera has been challenging. It has stretched my Photoshop skills to a new level with new settings such as channel swapping and and desaturation levels. It's going to be fun to go out to create landscapes and seascapes with it.

God's love and blessings to all, chris
#teamcanonusa All images were created with a Canon EOS 7D camera and a Canon EF-s 10-22mm lens.

Cool Creature of the Night

Last night as I went outside to take in the hummingbird feeder (otherwise the bears and raccoons will get it) I spotted a bright glow on the flagstone of the back patio. Looking closer it seemed to be some sort of segmented worm. I photographed it and the brought it inside to photograph it in the light. Later looked it up and it is called a California Pink Glowworm. But isn't actually a worm at all. It is Microphotus angustus, a genuine firefly beetle. Another strange fact is that only the female larvae glow.  They also never turn into an adult form of beetle. They stay in larval form their entire lives. When the males change into an adult beetle. They fly about at night looking for a glowing female to mate with. She then lays her eggs into the leaf litter and goes about looking for slugs and worms to feed on. It was a cool find. God's blessings upon your day, chris

 Photographed with a Canon EOS 7D MKII camera and a  Tamron 180mm lens. #teamcanonusa, #withmytamron

High Key and Low Key

A couple of days ago I walked past the Gladiolas blooming in the garden and I thought to myself. I 'd really like to photograph them. Early this evening Lenore and I went to harvest some greens for breakfast tomorrow. AsI walked past the glads I noticed that they are already starting to wilt. I knew it was now or never1 I clipped the freshest looking pink one that I could find. Tonight at home I set up a piece of white foamcore with the Gladiola directly in front of it. I placed an AlienBees 1600 Studio light with a small soft box right behind everything. I hand held another Alien Bee 1600 from slightly above and to the right from the front. I tried several exposure settings to get what I was looking for. I uploaded the image and I was blown away by the details of the flower from the light passing through it. then I took Badger the Wonder Dog for a walk. As we walked I thought of a set up to rephotograph the Gladiola on a black background. This time I used a piece of black foamcore with the flower in front of it. I used the same studio lights except I set up the softbox from the right side with a grid to stop any light spilling onto the background. Once again I handheld the other Alien bees light though this time it was from slightly behind and from the left. I was really happy with how the images came out. Both images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MKII camera and a Tamron 28-200mm lens. The camera settings used were M mode, ISO 100, F 5.0 and F 9.0 at 1/160th of a sec. lighting was provided by two Alien Bees 1600 Studio lights. God's blessings upon your weekend, chris

Knothole Bird Feeder

I set up a knothole bird feeder in the yard to try and capture some close up images of the Black-headed Grosbeaks. I put it right next to my platform bird feeder . Then I cleared out all of the bird seed from the platform feeder forcing them to look for food close by. After settling into the photoblind the birds started coming in. They were looking all over the place until a Steller's Jay discovered the small hole. It looked at it quizzically for a bit and then dove right in grabbing a few seeds and flying off. The jays really got into it. After they left the grosbeaks gave it a try. They were actually easier to photograph because when one of them would land on the feeder they would park themselves and keep feeding for quite awhile. Here are three of my favorite images. God's blessings upon your weekend. To all of you Americans out there, Happy Fourth of July! All of these images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MKII camera and a Canon 100-400IS v.1 lens. #teamcanonusa

National Pollinators Week

Early this afternoon I headed down to the garden to give it some extra water. It has been so hot and I was sure the plant bed was drying out. While heading out the door I grabbed my camera with a macro lens. I figured I could photograph bees while the hose soaked some water around the plants. I'm glad I went because one of our Swiss Chard plants was completely wilted and distressed. Hopefully it will make it. I could really feel the heat as I went in the middle of the day. Luckily photographing the bees distracted me as I slowly got cooked by the sun. After I finished watering I was quite happy to head back inside into the relatively cool house. After uploading my images I found three to share. All of these images were created with a Canon EOS 7D camera and a Tamron 180mm macro lens. God's blessings upon your weekend, chris #teamcanonusa, #withmytamron

Hummingbirds in My Backyard

This afternoon I created a quick set up in the backyard. I grabbed a small redwood twig attached it to a light stand. Then I placed it right up next to the hummingbird feeder. I moved my new hummingbird photoblind as close to the feeder as my lens would focus The hummingbirds were fighting to use the perch that I put up as soon as I was out of the way and in the blind.There were almost all Anna's Hummingbirds mixed up with one Allen's/Rufous Hummingbird. It was a male and he only used the perch twice so I never got a decent image of him. The hummingbirds were active until the lighting got too low for me to photograph. After editing these these were my four favorite images. God's light and love to all, chris    All images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MKII camera and a Canon 100-400IS v.1 lens. Fill flash was provided by a Canon 550 EX Speedlight. #teamcanonusa

Badger the Wonder Dog

Sheltering in place has given some time to work on some personal projects. One of them dear to my heart is creating some portraits of our dog Badger. It's a work in progress as more ideas have been coming to my head. Luckily for me Lenore was able to help me today. The first photoshoot I had with Badger I did on my own and it was pretty tough. Badger handled it like a trooper. The fake red beam I had constructed was wobbly and slippery and he kept sliding down it. I sort of solved it by adding some black pads so he didn't slide down so badly. A couple of times he needed to be rescued as he was headed down like he was on a slide going backwards. This has been a really cool series to create. Hopefully there will be some more images of, Badger the Wonder Dog, to follow in the upcoming weeks. All of these images were created with a Canon EOS 7D or 7D MKII camera with a Canon EF 28-200 mm lens. Lighting was provided by Alien Bees Studio lights. God's love and blessings to one and all, chris #teamcanonusa

Beautiful Hummingbird Kind of Day

This afternoon I gathered up all of my hummingbird photography equipment and headed out into the backyard. I set it all up and climbed into my new hummingbird blind. I had my trusty Canon EOS 7D MKII camera with a Canon 100-400IS V.1 telephoto lens mounted on it. For lighting I had three Canon 540EZ Speedlights. One focused on the background and two for the hummingbird. After about a twenty minute wait the hummingbirds started coming into the feeder. I had some purple petunias set up in front of the feeder fro the hummingbirds to sample as well. There were two male Annas coming in as well as one Allen's/Rufous hummingbird. I had a great time and so did the hummingbirds. God's love and blessings to all, chris #teamcanonusa

Surprised Me!

"Shelter in Place Photography", While gathering firewood for the wood stove this morning I was roused from my sleepy state when I picked up a piece of firewood to find a Northern Alligator Lizard under it. That gets your blood going. I captured it quite easily because it was slow moving due to the wet, chilly weather. I brought it inside and photographed it on a piece of wood then carefully let it go back into the forest next to the woodpile. It was photographed with a Canon EOS 7D camera and a Canon EF 28-200 mm lens. Camera settings used were M mode, ISO 100, F13.0 at 1/200th of a sec. Lighting was provided by an Alien bee 1600 with a small soft box overhead. #teamcanonusa God's blessings upon your day, chris. #teamcanonusa

Ahh, My Sweet Little Chickadee

This morning I worked on a set up that I wanted to call the, Steller's Jay Blues. First I set up a mixed blue background. In front of the background I put up a perch that I had found earlier in the week from the firewood pile. For the crowning glory I surrounded the perch with three purple and white Iris from the garden. I climbed into the photoblind with great expectations. I waited and I waited. One Steller's Jay came but there wasn't enough light to photograph it so I upped the ISO on my camera. Then the bully boys the Western Gray Squirrels showed up. I had to scare them away by rapping on the photoblind wall and telling them to go away. Instead they went up into the trees and began yelling at me. Finally another Jay stopped by. It hopped up onto the perch and I hit the shutter. The flash overexposed the image as I had upped the ISO after seeing the first Jay in low light thereby cancelling the flash settings I had inputted into the camera. I went back to the waiting game. A Raven stopped by and had a couple of peanuts. It never got into a position I could photograph it from before it left. My last visitor as the light was beginning to burn out was a little Chestnut Backed chickadee that was almost overwhelmed by the size of the set up I had created. Some days you have to just take what you can get. God's blessings upon your weekend, chris This image was created by a Canon EOS 7DMKII camera and a Canon 100-400 L IS USM v.1 lens. Fill flash was provided by a Canon 550 EX Speedlight set to - 1 1/3rd stops. The Camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 400, F 8.0 at 1/50th of a sec. #teamcanonusa

More Shelter in Place Photography

I love photographing birds and squirrels in my yard. It's a quiet time to think and see wildlife up close and unobserved. This afternoon I got to watch a deer walk across our driveway all the way up to my blind until she scented me and then made a hasty retreat the way she had come. I watched several squirrels came and go as well as a chipmunk that grabbed a few sunflower seeds and ran off between visits by the much bigger squirrels. The main thing is it gets me out of doors and in a safe place. Here is a sampling of images from the past two and a half days. All these images were photographed using simple set up created by leaning mossy log over some cinder blocks under my bird feeder. From a photoblind in my yard in Mendocino county, Northern California.God's love and blessings to all, chris All of these images were created with a Canon 7D MKII camera and a Canon 100-400IS V.1 lens. Fill flash was provided by a Canon 550 EX Speedlight. #teamcanonusa

Shelter in Place Photography or Simple Set Up

Yesterday I created a super simple set up for photographing birds in my yard. The chances are that if you have a bird feeder in your yard you can set up something similar. I stacked up two piles of some old cinder blocks underneath our bird feeder and put a branch across between them. You don't have to use cinder blocks you could use trash cans or sawhorses. Just something that would be close to eye level when you are sitting in a chair looking at it. I made one stack higher on one side than the other. Then I removed the perch off of the bird feeder so that the birds would have to land on the branch before they could fly up to grab food from the feeder. I set up my photoblind with an old office chair inside roughly eight feet from the branch. I used a pop up blind from Ameristep. You could use an appliance box or a camping tent for a blind. I had no shortage of birds coming to the feeder! I photographed Steller's Jays, Juncos and Black Headed Grosbeaks along with some squirrels.If you are interested give it a try. For more ways to photograph birds check out my book ,Secrets of Backyard Bird Photography. It is available on most online book sellers including Amazon. God's light and love to all, chris All images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MKII camera and a Canon 100-400IS v.1 lens with a Canon 550 EX Speedlight set to - 1 1/3 rd stops. #teamcanonusa