Slim Pickings the Grass Isn't Greener

Well, today I finally checked out the other side of the fence and it isn't any greener. In fact the pickings were far worse. Today I spent about an hour and a half in my new blind set up on another ranch about forty five minutes east of where I live. For some reason the birds didn't like the position of my new feeder. I think that it is too close to the nest of a nearby Red Shouldered Hawk though that is just a guess upon my part.I saw a few Western Tanagers but they were up in the trees and there was no sign that my new feeder had even been touched.



Because the feeder appeared untouched I moved it to a new location and moved the blind close to it. I left and then went back to the other ranch I have been photographing at. There I found most of the feed cleaned out of the feeders and a covey of quail right next to the blind. So I restocked the feeders and headed for home. I guess the grass isn't greener on the other side of the fence, at least so far. So I'll keep trying.



I did mange to photograph a wild turkey next to the road putting on his display and I got an image of a Western Fence Lizard on the ranches gate post as I was leaving to go back home today.

God's light and love to all,

chris

Volunteered

Wednesday night was my daughter Annika's promotion from Baechtel Grove Middle School (where I taught for eighteen years) to Willits High School. Here in the little town of Willits that is a pretty big deal. In small towns a lot of ta do is often made around things that in a bigger city no one takes much notice. I think it's because there isn't much to do sometimes.






Well sometime way back before the big event my dear wife thought I should volunteer to take the pictures at the dance.So naturally I readily volunteered after being beaten into submission with kind words and thoughts of how I would be helping my daughter through life etc.



Well the day of the big event arrived and I went down early with Annika to set up my lights. She was embarrassed by the berry stain on one of my white umbrellas from when I was shooting hummingbird pictures. Aren't teen aged girls interesting.? I just looked right at her and responded. I don't have to do this you know. They could have someone else do it. For some reason she made no response and continued helping me set up my lights.






The shoot went really well. The theme was Hollywood and they gave me some sun glasses to use as props. The kids just kept coming with a few five minute breaks here and there . It was really impressive to see how nicely all of them were dressed. They are all becoming young ladies and gentlemen. In the end I ended up taking close to a hundred a hundred and fifty images. Even the principal of the school stepped in for a portrait when I asked her. I even convinced a few old teaching pals to get their images made.






Overall it was a hit. The pictures were printed at a local store and handed out at a class picnic the next day in the afternoon. The demand was so great they had to go back and have more printed.

God's blessings to all,

chris

Surf Series

Today didn't turn out how I expected it at all. Hmmmnn.. there seems to be a theme starting to develop along those lines. The rain came down all day though at times it was really light almost a fine mist. I thought I would get some blind time in photographing birds. WRONG!


As it turns out Lenore really needed help in getting things packed up and moved around in her class room. So I spent the majority of my time doing that. Luckily Annika and her friend helped so that made it a little easier.



I spent this evening going through older images and I worked on some surf images I took at night up on the North Coast near Trinidad in late winter.The waves were running close to twenty feet high and it was pretty spectacular to see and hear. Something I really would like to do in the future again.



God's light and love to all,

chris

Thinking About Dead Things Again

This morning was dead. Dead in the sense that no birds came to my feeder for over two hours. Being the diligent photographer that I am I only fell asleep once during that time. At least that is by my count. Finally a few house finches came in. None of them however liked my carefully prepared perch as a landing spot. Then the Lazuli Bunting came by just to taunt me with its presence. Once again it stayed just out of camera range. At least far enough out that I couldn't create a fantastic close up of it anyway. I know it was thinking about all those paparazzi that stalk it's beautiful plumage trying to capture its image for the tabloids.




Finally after about three hours I packed it up and headed home. Along the way I spied a Turkey Vulture sitting on a lichen covered post right next to the road. I think it was waiting for a car to run over something so it could eat. Bracing my camera against the edge of the window I was able to get some nice images of it.




As you can see it was a dead day.

God's light and love to all,

chris

House Crazy

First off the title is slightly misleading.Well sort of. I was able to spend just a few hours in the blind photographing birds before church this morning. All I managed to photograph was one lone House Finch. Numerous finches came to my feeder but only one lone male landed on my carefully prepared perch as a landing spot. Now you can see where I got my title from.



On the way to the blind though I spied a Western Tanager on the fence line leading to my upper feeder. While at church I talked to a friend that has several pairs out on his ranch along with a nesting Red Shouldered Hawk and both Cliff and Barn Swallows nesting. I think tomorrow I'm going to drive out that way and put up a mealworm feeder. I'm hoping this is not the case of the grass is greener on the other side of the fence . We soon shall see.

God's blessings to all,

chris

Pyramid Lake or Fishing and Photography

Finally after days of labor I finished editing my trip to Pyramid Lake in Nevada. It's hard to imagine why it took so long. Probably because I keep taking more photographs before I finish editing what I already have.



We drove up in the snow and were unable or is it unwilling to fish the first evening in the wind and snow.We stayed at Crosby's Lodge in Sutcliffe which is a fancy sounding name for a bunch of neat and clean single wide trailers that they rent out to fishermen and boaters.







Each day we would arise at four in the morning and make a lunch for later. We were on our ladders fishing in the dark at Pelican Beach by five thirty. Yes, that's right I did say fishing on ladders. The vast majority of fishermen fish from step ladders. You take your step ladder out into the water until you are roughly chest deep and then you climb up onto your ladder and fish. It enables you to be able to cast farther and be able to sight fish much easier.









After a morning of fishing we would take a mid day siesta and then go back and fish around five in the evening until way past dark. Then we would return to dine in the trailer. We took turns cooking meals so I can say we ate rather well. Joe, Lou and Steve are all accomplished cooks.






There were plenty of pelicans to go around I spent many hours chasing them down and photographing them. They had the nasty habit of trying to eat your fish when you had one on the line. I had to pull one of my fish from a pelican's mouth. When I unhooked the fish it had beak marks all over it. By the way the fish in the lake, Lahontan Cutthroats are huge. The smallest trout I caught was fifteen inches. There were several trout caught that were over ten pounds. It was really cool to be standing on your ladder and have these huge trout swim right under your ladder.









I had a major mishap on the last day of the trip. While photographing my friends fishing I dropped my lens cap into the water. Duh! To further complicate the error I lunged for the lens cap with my 50D hanging on the camera strap around my neck. Hearing a plunking sound I realized that my camera was half submerged in the water. I immediately stood back up and turned the camera off. As I was doing so a blue light glowed and then went dead. OOps! I have never seen a blue light before.
My camera was dead.



I took the camera to shore and pulled the batteries out and took the lens off. When I got home in Willits some 6 hours later I put everything in the oven on low (130 F) for four hours. Then I let it sit overnight. The camera came back to life with the exception of having to clean the lens to camera contacts. That's not to say that corrosion won't kill the camera later. At least it wasn't salt water.

So don't bend over into the water when you have your camera around your neck.

God's blessings to all,

chris

Chasing My Tail

I spent the morning by first working out and chasing my tail like I have seen both dogs and squirrels do. I guess the main difference is that squirrels can catch theirs. I edited some older image sets looking for images that I passed over. I also pulled and refiled some others into newer catagories so I would be able to find them easier.

Here is one of the ones I passed over. It is a Western Gray Squirrel portrait from a dark snowy day in the middle of winter.

God's precious light and love to all,

chris