Mug Shots

I have been spending a lot of time in the photo blind this week. For some reason there seems to be a lot of jays out at the ranch. Both Western Scrub Jay's and Steller's Jays sometimes even at the same time.Steller's Jays prefer a mountainous habitat with coniferous forests while scrub Jay's tastes run to oak woodlands and riparian habitats. The habitat where my blind is at is a transition between mountain and the riparian and pastureland habitats of the valley.It is a perfect overlap that's suited to the two species.

The bully boys have been taking over the feeder forcing the smaller birds to flee when they arrive. The jays take over for only a short time but it takes awhile for the small birds to become comfortable enough to return. Here are a couple of mug shots of some of the neighborhood bullies.

God's love and blessings to everyone,

chris

Label It

Today I worked on the labels in preparation for the upcoming bottling of Christoph's Sizzlin Cider. I created a composite of a still life of some apples from the apple tree in our backyard and some flames in our woodstove. I think the label on the bottle is going fit the hard cider pretty well.

God's light and love to all,

chris

Time for a Creativity Break

Around Christmas time it's good to stop and take a good look around yourself at all the things to be thankful for. God has given us many things and now it's time to give thanks and praise for the gift of his son Jesus Christ. In honor of this we celebrate Christmas by giving gifts to others. For me it's a good time to take some breaks from photography and apply myself into creating some of these gifts for others. My neighbors and close friends love it because I'm really good at making delicious Peppermint Toffeee. Several batches have already gone out of my kitchen this year.

Today I took a break and got creative and made four gallons of Christoph's Sizzling Hard Cider. It's been awhile since I have made wine or brewed any alcohol but an old teaching friend of mine Tobias Gautschi inspired me into trying something different. This morning I started fermenting the hard cider that will be ready for bottling for gifts around New Years. A perfect way to give out some gifts to start the New Year. I missed giving it out for Christmas but I'm sure God doesn't mind.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

chris

HSU

Yesterday I was up in Eureka for a doctors appointment. While I was up there I thought I would walk around and check out Humboldt State University as that is one of the schools my son Jay is applying to for this next fall.

I was really impressed how clean the campus was. There was an interesting mix of new buildings with some that have definitely seen better days.In checking out the Wildlife and Fisheries Building I found a really cool greenhouse next to it that was open to the public. Stepping inside was a nice experience. It was divided up into various rooms cactus, tropical plants ferns etc. I could see myself escaping there to study on a cold winters day.

God's blessings to all,

chris

Behind the Scenes

Here is an image of a DouglasTree Squirrel that I created this morning. Those of you that have followed my blog for any length of time know that I love photographing small mammals. So what's behind the image? Didn't you just go out and find a squirrel and photograph it? What did it take to make this image?

Surprisingly there is a lot that had to happen before I could push the shutter button to take the picture. The first thing was that I created an environment over the years around my house with bird and squirrel feeders that was squirrel friendly. Next I found an old downed snag (rotting tree) and from it I made a knothole feeder for the squirrels to use. It's basically a thin piece of the tree with a knothole in it. I attached a coffee can full of sunflower seed to the back side of it. After putting up the feeder I had to wait a few days for the squirrels to start using it. I built a photography blind (you can also buy one) and set up my camera in the blind and prefocused on the knothole on the feeder. The next part was the easiest. I sat in the blind and waited an hour and a half for the squirrel to come use the feeder. All in all I made about seventy images of the squirrel going in and out of the feeder. After edtiting I came up with six that were what I call keepers. I selected this one as my favorite as it portrays the personality of a Douglas Tree Squirrel the best.Now you know probably more than you needed to know what was behind the image. A coffee can right?

God's precious love to all,

chris