Down Low

I'm still wading through editing my images from last week. It's hard to do when there is so much to photograph in the spring time. Here is a close up portrait of a California Ground Squirrel. Those of you that have been following this photoblog for a long time you know I'm a sucker for photographing small mammals. I spotted this squirrel last week near the trail head to Seal Point at McKerricher State Park. It froze when I first spotted it. Maybe the squirrel thought if I don't move he won't see me. I walked as close as I could to it before I could sense it was ready to bolt into a nearby burrow. Then I slowly lowered my self to a prone position on the ground and I inched forward a little more. Small subjects (children included) lend themselves to be photographed on their level. It creates more of an intimate sense when you are down low at their height. For ground squirrels that means being right at ground level. I really like how the image worked out. God's love and blessings to all, chris This image was created with a handheld Canon 7D and a Tamron 150-600mm lens at 600mm. Camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 200 (it was close to midday) F 8.0 at 1/320th of a sec. Fill flash of minus 2-1/3 with a Canon 550 EX was used.

Crazy Day at the Coast

Late this morning I decided to drive out to the Mendocino Coast. It was raining off and on here and I thought just maybe I could catch some good breaking light over there. On the way I stopped a couple of times and it was still raining off and on. I had forgotten my big photo umbrella and all I had was a plastic bag to cover my camera with. When I hit Ft. Bragg I headed north. When I got to Kabiselah it was clearing and I photographed some of the incoming rain. By the time I had driven up towards Westport to the Fingers it had cleared even more. I decided to risk it and walk down to the ocean. I wasn't there very long before the rains returned and I questioned my sanity. Soon I was photographing in the rain and most of my images weren't coming out due to the raindrops on the lens. When I got ready to leave the sun came out and it turned out to be the most glorious day. I stopped off at McKerricher State Park and the sun was shining bright. It made for a much easier drive home. God's blessings to all, chris All images created with a Canon 7D and a Canon 10-22mm wide angle lens. Camera Settings varied.

My Favorite Guest Photographer

Call it nepotism because my favorite photographer filled in for me today. I stayed home today and worked on images for my book while Lenore, Annika and one of her friends went to the tidepools at McKerricher. The wind was howling and there were ten foot swells coming in. From the images its apparent that they had a really good time. Thanks Lenore for filling in today. I love the images you got.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris