Fall Color Tour or Country Roads

Every year I try and take a fall color tour to the east of Willits, Ca. The route always starts off the same but then depending upon my whim the ending is usually different. I take the Hearst-Willits Rd up over Red Hill down through Rock Tree Valley. I then ford Tomki Creek. From here on it's anyones' guess as to where I'll go. This year I decided to follow Tomki Creek out to Tomki Rd and up over into Redwood Valley and then back out to Hwy 101. It was a beautiful drive with plenty of creek crossings and not a single vehicles in sight until I got close to Redwood Valley. I was glad to have a high clearance vehicle because at one creek crossing because the water was close to two feet deep. I don't think Lenore's little Mazda would have made it through that one. It was such a lovely drive. I look forward to another year. God's love and blessings to all, chris All images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MkII camera or a Canon EOS T!i camera. I had two lenses with me a Wide Angle and a Canon 100-400IS v.1 telephoto #TeamCanon

Thanksgiving Leftover

This afternoon when I was cleaning up I found some left over Big Leaf Maple leaves that had been used to decorate our Thanksgiving table. This evening I grabbed one ofthem and photographed it on a white background. i hope that you had a great day. God bless, chris Canon 7D MkII camera and a Canon EFS 17-85mm lens.

Time Marches Slowly Onward

If you are lucky enough to live where the seasons change you get to observe nature at its best as you watch one season gradually roll into the next. Fall is one of my favorite seasons for getting to see the leaves change in beautiful hues of yellow, oranges and reds as they slowly shift into brown. Early in the morning while taking the dog for its morning constitutional I spotted this one particular Tan Oak leaf that had holes in it. They were probably from an insect chewing into it and I found it interesting. I grabbed my camera, macro lens and a tripod and made a variety of images of it. After editing them this one was my favorite. It truly captures the passage of time. For this leaf is slowly turning back into the earth from which it had sprung. God's light and love to all, chris This image was created with a Canon 7DmkII and a 100mm macro lens on a Manfrotto 190XPROB tripod with a Bogen 3055 Heavy duty ballhead. The camera settings used were, AV mode, ISO 800, F 16.0 at 1.6 seconds.

Hot and Dry

I went for a short hike early this morning to beat out the heat. As I was walking my thoughts rambled back to last night. Because we haven't had any fog the forest floor is really dry and we can hear the local creatures at night on their forays as the leaves underfoot are rather noisy. Sometime during the night Lenore woke me up. "Did you hear that?", She asked of me. I mumbled an incoherent sleepy response in reply. Then she commented,"Something really big just ran by!". At that I was fully awake and listening and I didn't hear a thing. So as I was walking today my thoughts turned to the resident predators. It must be really hard to hunt your prey when the dry leaves give you away. It made me wonder if they still hunt and just wait for their prey to pass by and then leap out upon them. Just a curious passing thought.God's blessings upon you, chris Image created with a Canon 7D mkII and a 100mm macro lens. AV mode, ISO 400, F 13.0 for 1 sec. Camera was supported by a Manfrooot 055 XPROB tripod with a Bogen heavy duty ballhead.

Nature Hike

Last Saturday Annika and several of her friends needed to go to Ukiah, CA to take the SAT Test. We had a small snowstorm on Friday and then it rained turning the roads into an icy mess. I offered to drive everyone down in my pick up because it has four wheel drive. The drive down was gorgeous with partly cloudy skies and an amazing sunrise. I handed Annika the camera and she took a nice photograph of it through the windshield as we were driving. After I dropped the kids off for testing I had four hours to myself. Luckily Ukiah abounds in natural areas and parks all a close distance to the city. As for me I chose to park right across the street at Low Gap Park. I grabbed my camera and one lens and went or a giant looping nature walk up the creek. I found plenty of subjects to keep myself busy. After my hike I drove a few miles up Low Gap road looking at the sights before I turned back to pick up the test takers and headed home. God's precious light and love to all, chris Equipment Used- Canon 7D and a Canon 28-135 IS lens.

Final Dance

This morning I came to the realization that the fall colors are the best they have been in years and I haven't been photographing them much. So when I saw this pile of sycamore leaves in the early morning light I just couldn't resist photographing them. Here they are in their last moments before they start to compost into the earth again. Their final dance upon the earth. So beautiful! May God bless you this day, chris

Equipment Used- Canon 7D, Canon 28-135 IS lens set to 55mm, Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod with a 3055 Ballhead. Camera Setting- ISO 400, AV Mode, F22.0 at 1 sec.

Nature's Palette

God gives summer a beautiful send off with the brilliant colors of fall. I grew up in Colorado so at this time of the year I long for the broad swaths of the quaking aspens rolling up the mountainsides. They are long past now being replaced with the winters snows. One needs to be content in ones circumstances and I have learned that there are many beautiful fall colors to be had where I live now. The oaks, maples and willow trees are equally beautiful in their own way as are many of the ornamental trees found in the parking lot at the dermotologists office! Here is a sampling of color from the parking lot yesterday when I took Annika to an appointment in Ukiah,CA. What an incredibly beautiful day it was. God's light and love to all, chris

Vineyards Dressed for the Fall Ball

Last Wednesday I ventured out just before sunrise to capture the blazing fall colors of the vineyards near to where I live in Northern California. The night before I fastidiously set my alarm to go off at six so that I would have plenty of time to take a shower and get everything ready to go. Instead I lurched awake at six fifty seven realizing that somehow it was too late and the alarm didn't go off as expected. I groggily pulled my gear together and headed out the door without my shower. The cool fall air awoke me by the time I drove my pick up down our road to the main street. When I looked to the east there was a nice bank of clouds in the sky. This was going to be great for photography I thought to myself. About a half an hour later I arrived at some vineyards that looked really nice. The leaves were all reds, yellows and greens and the vines were heavy with over ripe grapes. At this point the sun was already a little ways above the horizon and there was very little time to photograph as the clouds had all disappeared! The soft warm light lasted little more than ten minutes before it started getting to harsh for photography. I drove around Redwood Valley looking for some good spots and came up empty handed. Finally I found some grapes in the shade. I created a few images of them and then I was pretty much done photographing vineyards for the day. Such a beautiful harvest of images. God bless, chris

One Frosty Morning

The inland valleys in Mendocino County for the past couple of weeks have been dropping into the twenties. Combine that with clear nights and you get some great frost in the morning. Not what a lot of gardeners want to hear but it's great for photography. Annika and I went in search of frost along Willits Creek over the weekend and we found it in abundance. This morning I got around to catching up on processing some of the images from our adventure. God bless, chris

BRRRRR!

It was really cold out this morning. I was on my way to the gym wearing shorts when I made a detour to photograph some of the frost on the floor of the Little Lake Valley below where we live. It wasn't the best clothing choice for the temperature but it sure was beautiful.It was worth the little bit of chill. God's light and love to all, chris

My Annual Fall Color Tour

Just about every year I make my own personal fall color tour through part of Mendocino County.I drive up over Red Hill into the Rock Tree Valley. I ford Tomki Creek and then drive out Hearst Road to the bridge on the Eel River at Emandahl. Then I backtrack to Tomki Road and the come up over Berry Canyon Road and back to Willits. Today was no disappointment as the fall colors were the best that I have seen in many years. It was just beautiful. The sky was cloudy and it was mixed with high fog that gave the leaves a rich saturated coloring. I had a wonderful drive and made it back just in time to have a quick lunch with Lenore. God's precious light and love to everyone, chris