Grab and Go

Yesterday Lenore and I planned to go to the Farmer's Market in the big city of Ukiah, CA. We got off to a very late start so that by the time we arrived there was only ten minutes left. Numerous vendors were already packing up. We walked rapidly through the market and purchased some veggies. Along the way I captured some images of produce with my little Canon T1i. It's the perfect little travel camera well suited as a daily camera. I've outfitted it with a Tamron 18-200mm lens that makes it quite versatile. Just grab and go! God's precious love upon your week, chris#TeamCanon, #takenwithmytamron

Graffiti

One of the most beautiful countries we visited this last summer in Europe was Poland. The city of Gdansk with its beaches, architecture, parks and forests were amazing. Even within that beauty there lurked some ugliness. While sitting at the beach I noticed this old seawall marked up with graffiti. Which by the way I saw very little of in the areas we visited. There was this odd juxtaposition on the seawall of the shadows of two children playing next to a Nazi swastika. The final image seems to have a sinister quality to it. May God bless you richly, chrisThis image was created with my handheld Canon 7D MkII camera and a Tamron 18-200mm lens. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 800, F 16.0 at 1/640th of a sec. #TeamCanon, #WithMyTamron

Above the Clouds

I've been going through my images from this last summer looking for ones that catch my eye. Here is one from our flight from Poland to Spain. There was the coolest contrail sitting just above the clouds. This image was captured with my Canon 7D MkII and a Tamron 18-200 at 18mm. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 400, 1/800th of a sec. at F 8.0. God bless, chris #TeamCanon, #WithMyTamron

Jackdaw

Being on a family vacation in Europe I didn't invest too much time into bird photography. Though I must say that luck was with my when a Jackdaw landed on a post right in front of me when we were visiting Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen, Denmark. We saw Jackdaws everywhere we went in Europe. They are quite the intelligent and opportunistic bird. I was quite fascinated with them. They are known as the Western Jackdaw (Corvus monedula) and also known as the Eurasian Jackdaw and European Jackdaw. Most people just seemed to call them simply jackdaw. Jackdaws are a corvid passerine bird member of the crow family. They are found across Europe, western Asia and North Africa. They can be quite boisterous and noisy. Particularly when they would gather in large roosts in late evening before going to sleep. May you have a blessed week, chris This image was created with a Canon 7D MkII and a Tamron 18-200 mm lens at 112mm. the camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 200, F 6.3 at 1/80th of a sec. handheld. #TeamCanon

We Saw a Tesla X or They are Getting Closer

While we were in Copenhagen, Denmark on vacation we walked past the Tesla showroom. At first I wanted to keep on walking. But my curiosity got the better of me. We turned around and walked back in. It's fun playing tourist. Also we live in the sticks and rarely see Teslas. The Tesla X was a pretty cool looking vehicle. I really liked the way it looked. I asked the sales person if I could photograph the car. They were like, "Sure click away!" I zoomed my lens back to as wide as it would go and bent down to click and image. Nothing. The batteries to my camera were dead. Luckily I always carry spare batteries. Batteries changed I clicked off an image. I went to make another one and the card on the camera was full! Thankfully I carry spare CF cards. Now back to the car and my thoughts on it. I really loved the clean looks and styling. There was plenty of room for passengers and a nicely laid out interior. I wasn't sold on the gull wing doors for parking lots.It looks like you can't open the doors in narrow spaces. The big question is, "Does the new Tesla had enough range for me to drive to San Francisco Airport and back without being recharged?" I found out that it has a range of 237-289 miles. I live 163 miles from the airport so a round trip is 326 miles. Not good enough yet but they are getting closer! Thanks for the look at your car Tesla. God's blessings on everyone's weekends, chris This image was created with a Canon 7D MkII and a Tamron 18-200mm lens at 18mm. Handheld, ISO 200 AV mode, 1/100th of a sec at F 6.3.#TeamCanon, #TakenWithMyTamron

Gritty City

First off Copenhagen, Denmark is a beautiful city with its harbor, parks and beautiful architecture. One night I decided to photograph a more gritty side of the city by photographing one of the rail yards. I love doing night photography! In processing the image this morning I used a bleaching filter to help emphasize the gritty feel. Thank God it's Friday. I hope that you have an enjoyable weekend., chris This image was created with a Canon 7D MkII camera with a Tamron 18-200mm lens at 38mm. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 100, F 8.0 for 30 Sec. The camera was supported with a MeFoto A1350 RoadTrip tripod. I really like this tripod because it fits perfectly in my carryon for travel. #TeamCanon, #takenwithmytamron

Just a Little Lack of Sleep or Downtown Gdansk, Poland

We got back from a trip to Europe the day before yesterday. We had little to no sleep for over 30 hours on the return trip home. Traveling home was pretty tiring. On the train and the plane I caught snatches of sleep here and there but I was always awoken by someone bumping me or the airline crew announcing something on the intercom. Overall we had a really nice trip with only a few small accidents. Lenore crashed her bike in Poland with minor scratches. She is quite athletic and knows how to fall gracefully! On the last day in the airport a lady tripped me with her bag and I slammed down pretty hard on the thin carpet with concrete underneath. My right knee caught the brunt of it and it is pretty swollen and sore. Trip wise we visited, Copenhagen Denmark, Växjö Sweden, Gdansk Poland and Torrevieja Spain. We spent close to a week in each spot. My favorite place had to be Gdansk, Poland on the Baltic Sea. I really loved the mix of forests, beaches and the old historic city. This morning I spent some time uploading images to my computer. This image from downtown Gdansk really caught my eye. I really like the leading lines and the composition. There will be more to follow in the coming weeks.

This image was created with a handheld and braced Canon 7D mkII camera and a Tamron 18-200mm lens.The settings used were AV mode, ISO 800, F11.0 @ .6sec. #TeamCanon, #takenwithmytamron

Country Life: Guest Photographer

Mendocino County in Northern California is a beautiful place to live. We have the ocean and its sandy beaches,tall Redwood groves, wild rivers and high mountains. Mixed in we have farms, ranches and wineries. You could do something different every weekend and not get bored. Living here we don't always take full advantage of what we have at our doorstep. Sometimes it's just nice to sit back on the deck and look up at the redwood trees. Saturday we went down to Hopland to Gaston Forge to look at having a gift made for a friend. They do incredibly beautiful metal artwork from signs to wall art and custom fire pits and more. Along the way we stopped and bought some delicious strawberries at Saechao Strawberries. Fresh picked out of the fields they are incredibly sweet! As we were leaving the strawberry stand we noticed all of the mailboxes lined up on the side of the road. We stopped and Lenore created some really nice images of them and this one was my favorite. I think it really captures the rural feel of where we live. She used a handheld Canon 7D and Tamron 18-200mm lens at 87mm. The camera settings were AV mode, ISO 100, F 5.6 at 1/320th of a second. God's love and blessings upon your week, chris #TeamCanon, #withmytamron

Badger the Wonder Dog

In celebration of getting our office space cleared I had a little photo shoot with Badger the Wonder Dog this morning. He was quite happy to model for a few pieces of a dog biscuit. It was really nice to have space to set up my studio lights and have some breathing room to work. I hope that you all have a great weekend. God bless, chris All images were created with a Canon 7D MkII and a Tamron 18-200mm lens. Lighting was provided by two Alien Bee studio flashes fitted with 2' x 4' soft boxes. A white paper sweep was used for a background. Camera settings used were manual mode, ISO 100, F13.0 at 1/200th of a sec.#TeamCanon, #withmytamron

Perfect for Poppies

Today is overcast and looking like it really wants to rain. It's perfect diffuse lighting for photographing poppies. I had a medical appointment at the local hospital this morning and it was a quick visit.(Good job Melissa!) Afterwards I went out and photographed poppies in the field by the hospital. I was really happy to find one with a spider on it and a group of four that looked like they were ascending to the heavens. God's love and blessings upon your day, chris All of the poppy images were created with a handheld Canon 7D MkIIwith a Tamron 18-200mm lens. #TeamCanon, #tamron

The Current Theme Seems to Be Rain!

Once again we awoke to the sound of steady rain on the roof top. This should be keeping kayakers from all over Northern California happy. The rivers will be flowing well into the summer. After a run downtown to pick up some milk and a prescription I'm content to sit at the computer and work on some images from over the weekend. Here are a couple of totally unrelated images created on the way home. God's tender love and blessings to all, chris Both images were created with a hand held Canon 7D MkII and a Tamron 18-200. The street scene was AV mode, F 18.0, ISO 100, F 18.0 at 1/8th of a sec. The blurry propane truck was taken from when I was stopped behind it through the rainy wind shield. F 8.0 at 1/80th of a sec.#teamcanon, #tamron

Rollin' on a River

One of the best kept secrets of Mendocino County is the Eel River. It's one of the most beautiful river systems in California. It has some concerns but I won't go into those today as it has some great rafting and kayaking as well. Sunday Lenore and I drove up looking for kayakers but we got up on the river too late and we missed them. This morning I went up a little earlier and managed to catch them on a short run from Legal Bridge down to about half way to Dos Rios. It was a game of photograph and chase. I would find and photograph them and then race ahead of them to the next rapid, park and then do it all over again. It was a lot of fun. The conditions were pretty hard to photograph in as believe it or not it was too nice a day. It was bright, sunny and hot! If you are interested in learning more about white water kayaking either in the surf or on the river a great resource is Liquid Fusion Kayaking. They have great qualified instructors and can be reached by phone or through their website. https://liquidfusionkayak.com/ The also offer some much tamer trips if you are interested. I hope you are having a great week. God bless, chris All images were created with a Canon 7D MkII camera and either a Tamron 150-600mm G2 lens or a Tamron 18-200 mm lens. #teamcanon, #tamron

Squirrel on the Gnarly Perch

Today was most definitely an inside day. The wind was howling and the rains came down. There was one bright spot sometime during the middle of the day when the sun shone through the clouds for a brief bit but it was very short lived. The clouds closed in and the rains came down again. During the break I put out some seed on the bird feeder and the Western Gray Squirrels immediately found it and came for a snack.I grabbed my camera with a short telephoto zoom on it and I took some images handheld from our back bedroom by bracing the camera against the window sill. Enjoy your weekend and God bless, chris This image was created with a Canon 7D MkII and a Tamron 18-200 mm lens. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 800, f 8.0 at 1/250th of a sec.#tamron

Pineapple Express

This morning I got a touch of cabin fever and I went downtown to go work out at the gym. I took the long way driving around taking in the watery sights along the way. There were little waterfalls running off of practically every mountainside I passed by. The creeks were running really high almost up to the bottom of the bridges and there was evidence that they must have topped their banks last night from all of the scattered debris. Downtown in the low areas there was plenty of flooded roadways in the usual spots. Please use caution and drive very slowly through flooded neighborhoods as the wave your vehicle is throwing up could be just enough to push flood water into someones home. Stay dry and safe out there. God's love and protection to all, chris All images were created with a Canon 7D MkII and a Tamron 18-200 mm lens. #TeamCanon

An Umbrella Kind of Day in the City

Monday morning in the city of San Francisco was definitely a day for umbrellas. The old rock song with the lyrics .. it never rains in California ... was way, way off at times as it was really pouring. This morning as I type it is pouring down rain here on the ridgetop in Mendocino County as well. May you have a blessed day, chris All images were created with a handheld Canon 7D MkII and a Tamron 18-200 mm lens at a variety of shutter speeds and F stops. #TeamCanon

Dreamland

We just got back from spending three days in San Francisco. We went there to celebrate Lenore's birthday and just hang out. We had a marvelous time. One of the iconic symbols of San Francisco is its cable cars. I have photographed them off and on over the years and I was looking to create a really nice image of one. It rained off and on most of the time we were there except for Saturday when it was actually quite sunny. As for me I was relishing the rain for photographing the cable cars. I was trying all sorts of slow shutter speeds and pans. My best moment came this morning when I photographed the California Street cable car coming uphill near Hyde through the rain soaked windshield of the car. As soon as I clicked the shutter I could instantly tell that this was the image I was looking for. Lenore loved it when she saw it and stated that she wants to paint it. It was a success! God's love and blessings upon your week, chris This image was created with a handheld and braced Canon 7D MkII and a Tamron 18-200 mm lens at 38mm. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 200, F 8.0 at 1/20th of a sec. #TeamCanon

Three Views of Three Chop Ridge

We have a very narrow view of the sunset over the ocean from where I live in Mendocino County in Northern California. Many years ago I had a fantastic view of sunsets over the ocean but the trees have grown up and have now left us with a little slice. Last night I could tell that it was going to be a pretty good sunset. I walked down our road and made a number if images of slightly different views from the same location. It's always good to work a subject with both portrait and landscape views as well as a variety of compositions. These three images ended up being my favorites of the sunset over Three Chop Ridge with the last one being the one that I liked best. Enjoy the views and God bless, chris All images were created with a Canon 7D MKII and a Tamron 18-200mm lens.

Bicycle, Bicycles and More Bicycles

The first thing I noticed after walking around a bit in Copenhagen, Denmark is that the are an awful lot of bicycles. There are bicycles everywhere. Apparently there are more bicycles than citizens in the city. Thirty-six percent of the population commute to work or school every day by bicycle! There are close to 400 kilometers of bicycle lanes and paths through out the city. I noticed many places where there were three lanes. One for auto traffic. One for bicycles and the last lane for pedestrians.You had to really watch where you walked to be careful and not get run over by a bike by walking in a bike lane. Though I only had one close call. People really seem to honor the lane system and the traffic laws.The terrain is flat and really well suited for travel by bike.God's love and blessings upon you, chris All images were created with a Canon 7D mkII.