Valley Down Below

This morning arrived without fanfare as there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was crystal clear and as such there wasn't any grand pink sunrise to photograph. I gave up all thoughts of photographing any sort of landscape until I noticed a thin layer of fog upon the valley floor. My eyes were instantly drawn to all the treetops of oaks, redwoods and firs sticking up from the fog. I ran downstairs and grabbed my cameraand a couple of telephoto lenses. I love to photograph landscapes with a telephoto lens. It just brings out things that you don't normally see with the naked eye. I started with a 400mm telephoto and then I switched to a 600. After editing the images this one taken with the 600 was my favorite. I especially like the oak trees in it. May you have a blessed day, chris

"Perfect Moment"

Many great nature and wildlife images require the photographer to wait or be at the right place at the perfect moment. This can be as simple as waiting a few minutes for the animal to come along or for that one cloud to drift into just the right place. It can also be waiting for hours or even days in a cramped space just waiting for a bird to land on that perfect perch. This morning luckily for me I was photographing from our back bedroom. I was looking and waiting for that perfect moment when a bird would perch on that mushroom (fungi) near the bird feeder. I would look out the window and watch for when the birds were the most active and then I would sit and wait for one to land. When the action died off I would go do something else in the house. After photographing off and on through the morning I captured five images of Chestnut Backed Chickadees perching on the mushroom. This one was my favorite. May you have a blessed afternoon, chris This image was created with a Canon 7D and a Tamron 150-600mm lens at 375mm. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 1600, F 8.0 at 1/1,600th of a sec. Please take a look at my book, Secrets of Backyard Bird Photography for information on how to photograph birds in your backyard. Cut and paste the following into your browser. http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Backyard-Photography-Chris-Hansen/dp/1937538559 It is available in hardbound and as an ebook.

Ringing in the New Year With Chef Elia's Pozole Soup

What better way to bring in the new year than good food and friends. We were treated to a feast of homemade Pozole Soup by Chef Elia on New Years eve. Pozole is a Mexican soup that traditionally is served on special occasions such as weddings, quinceañeras and holidays. The history of Pozole is rather unique. Luckily Chef Elia didn't follow the ancient recipe! One of the main ingredients is hominy (corn). Corn maize was a sacred plant for the Aztecs of Mexico. Pozole was made to be eaten only on ritualistic events. These ancient Americans believed the gods made humans out of masa which is cornmeal dough. On these special occasions, the meat used in the pozole was human. After the prisoners were killed by having their hearts torn out in a ritual sacrifice,the body was cut up and cooked with the cornmeal. The meal was then shared among the whole community as an act of religious communion. After the Spanish Conquest cannibalism was banned and pork or chicken became the staple meat used in Pozole. Thank you Elia for a superb more modern meal. God's love and blessings to all this upcoming year, chris

Inside Day

I awoke this morning to the sound of rain. In drought stricken northern California it is sweet music to our ears. Perhaps I'll sneak in some photography during some breaks in the rain today? Otherwise I've got some doors I'm still working on refinishing. They have been sanded and stained out of doors and now all they need is some varnish. What a great inDOOR project! Such a great play on words. To all of my viewers you will have to make due with a Douglas Tree Squirrel from yesterday. Here it is peering out from the knothole feeder claiming the feeder as its own.May you have a blessed day, chris This image was created with a Canon 7D and a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM at 400mm. AV mode,ISO 800, F 5.6 at 1/30th of a sec. Supported on my old venerable Manfrotto 190 XPROB tripod with a heavy duty Bogen ballhead.

Little Birdie

Last night I set up an old knothole feeder in the back yard. This morning I sat in the photolind to wait for whatever would come. One little Junco came and went to get seeds from it. This image was my favorite from the series of images I made. May you have a wonderful week. God bless, chris This image was created with a Canon 7D and a Canon 100-400IS lens. AV mode, ISO 800, F 5.6 at 1/15th of a sec.

Just a Peek

Do you ever have one of those days where you don't feel creative? Today is one of those days for me. There are too many home projects that need to be done right now that are cluttering my mind. This mornings sunrise was a bit delayed due to the cloud cover over the Mendocino Range. Here is the sun just breaking out above the clouds. May you have a blessed day.I'll be sanding and painting, chris

Setting Up for Dragonflies

One of the great things to learn about photographing dragonflies is that they have to land sometime. The vast majority of the time they tend to pick the same place to perch and return to after they hunt. You can use this to your advantage when photographing them by prefocusing on the landing spot and waiting for them. That is what I did in the first image. I watched where the dragonfly was landing after it returned from hunting insects. You can take it one step further by visualizing what the background behind the dragonfly will look like by trying several different angles and picking out the one that looks best. That is what is illustrated in the second image. I got down really low so that there wasn't any vegetation in the image except the perch. The dark shadows from the trees provide the back drop and it really makes the dragonfly stand out. For the third dragonfly image I placed my own backdrop behind the landing spot. It's a piece of masonite painted with green and black spray paint. The last image is showing the set up. The pink is my dauughters yoga mat which makes a nice soft place to sit. One other tidbit of information I can offer is that dragonflies tend to land on vegetation that is slightly higher than the plants around it. If you place your own small slender stick on the banks of a pond many times dragonflies will start using it. I have successfully used this technique in the past to help me choose what kind of perch and background I wanted. Good luck and have some fun. God bless, chris all images were created with a Canon 7D and a Tamron 150-600 lens with a 38mm extension tube for close focusing.

It Takes some Patience

Yesterday I drove the auto loop at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. This time of the year the refuge is mostly dry with a few ponds and it is devoid of the flocks of thousands upon thousands of ducks and geese. There is a lot of wildlife to be found in the form of rabbits, squirrels, hawks, dove and a few families of geese and as always ever present American Coots. The bird that fascinated me the most were the Marsh Wrens. They could be found around several of the ponds every thirty of forty feet or so. As I drove slowly along there would be a male on the highest bulrush singing its heart out to claim its territory. As soon as my pick up got close enough they would dive down into the cattails and continue singing from there. You could catch glimpses of them and the cattails moving but they wouldn't come out. I found that the easiest thing to do was stop right next to where you saw them last. I would then turn off the motor, poke the camera out the window and wait without moving. Usually I wouldn't have to wait very long before they would slowly work their way slowly upwards onto a nearby high spot. I had a great time photographing them. Gods love and blessings to all, chris All images created with a handheld Canon 7D and a Tamron 150-600mm lens. AV mode, ISO 400, Exposures varied. #Team Canon, #Bringit

Revisiting an Old Scene

I spent a great time yesterday photographing Acorn Woodpeckers. I also revisited two old images that I have photographed in the past. One of the ways that you can improve your photography is to reshoot old scenes that you have photographed before. You can try another angle, photograph from either a higher or lower position. Try visualizing it from a different location. If you photographed it at sunrise try shooting it at sunset instead. In my particular situation I have photographed this one oak tree before. The last time I photographed it was about a year ago when I photographed it at sunrise in beautiful pink light. Yesterday the fog was thick as I drove past it on my way to my photoblind. Hmmnn.. I thought to myself. "That looks pretty interesting in the fog. I photographed from a couple different angles and then chose the best one for today's photoblog. The farm implement too has been photographed before. I think it was it was just last week. This time I noticed the silhouettes of the horses behind it added an added dimension that was really cool. As the horses grazed I kept moving my tripod trying to get a good angle of them. I was also shooting through a deer fence. This was done by putting the camera lens right up against the fence and not stopping don too far to allow the fence pattern to show through. So when you are out photographing a landscape or a scene again in the future look for ways that it can be photographed in a new and different way. God's love and blessings upon your weekend, chris Both images photographed with a Canon 7D and a Canon 100-400 IS lens supported on a Manfrotto 055PROBX tripod with a Bogen 3055 ballhead.

Rhymes With Orange

Small storms have been arriving off of the ocean now for almost a week with a few breaks like yesterday afternoon when the sky partially cleared for about an hour. This made for some great "Angels Breath" (crepuscular rays) coming through the trees. Today it is pretty dreary out with the rain forecast at 100 percent. I have plenty of indoor work to do so it's not a problem. There is always images to sort and file along with the general domestic chores to keep the house functioning. Here is some angels breath and an image of some orange slices and an orange from yesterday afternoon. I guess now it's not true that there isn't anything to that rumor that "orange" rhymes with no other word. Orange rhymes with Mount Blorenge in Wales. It also rhymes with sporange. Sporange is the sac which hold the spores on the underside of plants like ferns. "Silver" has the same rumor going for it, but it rhymes with chilver the name for a ewe lamb.God's blessings upon your day. Orange image created with a Canon 7D set on manual with a Canon 28-105 lens @ 75mm. Exposure was ISO 400, F20.0 at 1/160th of a sec. Four Canon 540EZ flashes set to 1/64th power were used to light the image. The angels breath images were created with a Canon EFS 10-22mm lens. The camera was in AV mode, ISO 400, F16.0 at 1/200th of a sec. The camera was supported on a Manfrotto 055PROBX Tripod with a Bogen 3055 heavy duty ballhead.

It Felt Like an Eternity

This morning I went out into the backyard photoblind to do some bird photography. My goal was to photograph some Steller's Jays. Before heading out my first objective is always to find the cat. My daughter's cat Papaya often times finds a way to disrupt my bird photography. Naturally she was nowhere to be found. After setting up I settled into the blind and the birds started coming. After I had been photographing for awhile a small covey of quail could be heard coming up the hill. I immediately stopped everything I was doing and froze. They are extremely nervous birds. Soon a little head could be seen over the edge of the patio. Hesitantly a Mountain Quail stepped out onto the flagstone. It stopped and looked around then boldly walked under the bird feeders and started feeding. The others soon followed. All the while I didn't move a muscle. One of the quail hopped up onto the feeder. It walked all over the board holding the feeder pecking at seed that the other birds had knocked down. I waited and waited for what seemed like an eternity. Round and round it walked. Finally after making some sort of decision it hopped up onto the perch by the feeder. It stayed there feeding for quite some time allowing me to create a nice selection of images. The spell was broken by the excited calls of the quail. Something was up! They all crowded up as a group and came towards the blind. Looking past the feeder I could see Papaya crawling on her belly towards the quail. Not wanting the cat to get the chance at the quail I slapped the side of the blind with my hand sending the quail into flight with a flurry of wings.I was happy the quail were safe and that I had gotten some really nice quail images. What a wonderful way to start off the day. Thank you Lord. My new book "Secrets of Backyard Bird Photography" is scheduled to be released on Sept.11th. Please check it out on Amazon and other fine book sellers. It is perfect gift for an early Christmas present for birders or photographers wanting to learn how to photograph birds in their backyards or just get it for yourself as it is available as a preorder. This image was created with a Canon 7D and a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Lens at 210mm with a Manfotto 055XB tripod and a Bogen 3055 ballhead. Camera setting used AV mode ISO 400 F5.6 ,shutter speed of 1/80th of a sec.

Celebration of a Small Town Fourth

One of the best things about the celebration of the Fourth of July in the small town of Willits where I reside is the parade. As part of the week long Frontier Days celebration our little town holds a parade down main street which in our case is US Highway 101. The parade includes floats,politicians,cars, tractors, small bands and as would be expected in ranching country a lot of horses. It's fun to see many of your friends an neighbors on parade. I had a wonderful time chatting with old friends and photographing the parade. The day culminated in a soft and delightful sunset over the foggy pacific Ocean. I hope all my U.S. followers had a happy Fourth of July. God bless, chris All images created with a Canon 7D and a Canon 28-105 lens in AV mode.