An Ultimate Day on the Noyo River

Today I went for a long paddle up the estuary of the Noyo River on the North Coast of California. Access was easy from the public launch and all I had to pay was three bucks for parking. If you have a boat and trailer it's ten. So having a kayak saves you a few dollars. I planned my paddle so I could catch the last of the incoming tide and make it easier on myself as I wanted to go upstream about three and a half miles or so to where the Skunk Train tracks cross the river. It worked out perfectly.

Right away I passed a California Seal Lion hauled out snoozing. I saw a lot of Osprey but none were close enough to photograph.The most amazing sight was watching a young Harbor Seal hunting for fish. It was swimming on it's back with its head downward so it could keep it's nostrils out of the shallow water as it swam. It was hunting the edges of fallen logs and brush along the sides of the river.

I saw a lot of waterfowl along the way. Mergansers, Canadian Geese and the usual Mallards along with a few Green Herons and one Night Heron. There was one Pond Turtle but it slipped away well from well over a hundred feet from me. With smaller bird life there were an amazing amount of Bandtail Pigeons moving in the trees as well as a few dove. One dove landed near me along the shoreline to have his portrait taken. I also got to see an leucistic or albino hummingbird. Though it was to far away to photograph well.

On the return trip down river I ran into Cate Hawthorne and Jeff Laxier. They were leading a group of clients upriver from where I had just come from. They own and run Liquid Fusion Kayaks and are really nice people. If you are interested in booking an ocean or river trip look them up if you are in the Fort Bragg, California area.

Down river from them a Blacktail Doe came down to the river for a drink. Near by a momma goose and her goslings were going up onto the bank looking for grass to eat.

It was a great day to be on the river photographing nature.

God's blessings to all,

chris

Note: For my kayak photography I use a Native Watercraft Ultimate 14.5 kayak

Surfing Continues

Spent another large block of time going through editing surfing images from Steamer's Lane in Santa Cruz, California. It's amazing sometimes how much more time can be spent in the office working than out in the field creating images. As you can probably guess I'd much rather like being out on the cliffs photographing surfers than staring at a screen full of them. In any case here are a few more for you to enjoy. Comments are really appreciated.

God's bless,

chris

Breakout: Piedras Blancas Trip Report

Everyone needs a road trip once in awhile even if it is a short one. I made the long trek down to Piedras Blancas in Central California over the past few days. Piedras Blancas is about six miles north of San Simeon and the Hearst Castle on California Highway 1. The trip south from the Monterrey Carmel area takes about two and a half hours of windy driving on a narrow highway with steep drop offs and cliffs to the ocean below. Not for passengers or drivers that get car sick or are afraid of heights.The road hugs the cliffs in a number of spots and has a few one way spots where you sit and wait while the car coming from the other way goes through and then it's your turn to go.

So if you want to do some landscape photography on the Big Sur Coast this would be the area to do it. On the way down I stopped off at one of the overlooks in Big Sur and saw no less than twenty Gray whales all less than a mile off of shore. With a few right below the cliff. There was a gentleman there photographing them from a photo club in Monterrey and he said it had been that way all morning long! But Gray Whales weren't the purpose of my trip. I was coming all this way to photograph Northern Elephant seals and I wasn't disappointed.

When I arrived at the beach area there was plenty of parking in a gravel lot. There were informative signs and walkways to view the seals from. There were seals lying all over the beach with the bulls scattered among them. The walkways made it difficult to photograph from as they were at an elevation roughly fifteen feet up on the bluff. I would say that due to the bluffs that this is best for a mid morning shoot or a late afternoon shoot like I ended up doing. A 100-400 zoom was useful for most situations as was fill flash. Also look out for opportunities to photograph Cottontail Rabbits and California Ground Squirrels as they too are in abundance.

Late in the evening I discovered a beach further up the road where there were few seals but the access was better as you could shoot almost at ground level.You couldn't get too close as they are a protected species and you could be fined for harassment under federal law.

If you want to photograph the elephant seals be sure to check out the website for the Friends of the Elephant Seal at

http://www.elephantseal.org/

I had a great trip down and on the way home the following day I stopped off at the Moss Landing harbor to photograph Sea Otters and the Sea Lions both of which are fairly easy to photograph off of Jetty Road which goes around the harbor right off of Highway 1. The turn off for the road is about 1/4 mile north of the harbor. Oh and the pier next to the restaurant is often covered with Sea Lions.

After leaving Moss Landing I headed north to Santa Cruz to Natural Bridges State Beach. I was hoping to catch some over wintering monarch butterflies that spend the winter in the eucalyptus trees there. I stated that I was hoping as most of the butterflies start leaving the park starting in December but usually there are some holdovers. The ranger at the gate stated that there were very few left but I might try down at Lighthouse Field. He said there were a few hundred left in the Grove across from the surfers.

Well I never did find the butterflies. As it turns out Lighthouse Field is also known as Steamer's Lane is one of the top surfing spots on the west coast of the US for surfers learning to surf big waves. What would you do? Butetrflies or shoot images of surfers on waves that were almost the size small houses.

I got a few decent images of Daryl "The Flea" Virostko of Mavericks big wave surfing fame. Then around 10:30 it started raining cats and dogs. So I pulled up the tripod and made the long trek homeward.

God's light and love to all,

chris