Girl and the Cat or Lenore at the Controls

Today I was on hiatus from the camera as I was too busy to pick it up between Vacation Bible School at our church and taking Jay to the big city of Ukiah for his ortho appointment. I think the highlight of my day was going to Planet Smoothie with him afterwards and getting a "Chocolate Chimp" !



This evening Lenore caught Annika in a beautiful moment with her cat Mango out on our side deck. What a wonderful image.

God's blessings to all,

chris

An Afternoon in the Blind

I spent a few hours in the blind this afternoon and got to see a couple of cool birds along with the run of the mill Jays and squirrels. The first visitor to the blind when I just started dozing off was a Black Headed Grosbeak. That was later followed by a young Jake Wild Turkey. Two pretty cool birds to see so close up.

God's light and love to all,

chris

Cloud

This morning when I got up there was a single white cloud out into the valley that caught my eye. It looked pretty cool sitting all by itself with the layered mountains as a backdrop behind it. I created a couple of images in both horizontal and in vertical.

God bless,

chris

The Mob

This morning I got up before the sun rose to take some Bandtail Pigeon images. Wild Bandtails are unlike city pigeons in that they are extremely wary and don't like to be around people. They are also a beautiful bird with bright yellow orange feet and a irridescent purple patch up along their neck along with a striking white neck band that gives them their name.




They are also part of the mob. They together with the Stellars Jays and Gray Squirrels control the bird feeders at my house. If they are on the feeder it is rare to see any other bird great enough to be on the feeder at the same time.There is a distinct pecking order to who gets to be on the feeder. The squirrels are at the top of the heap followed by the Bandtails and then the Stellars Jays.

I sat in my rolling blind (http://diyphotocheapodepot.blogspot.com/2009/12/final-touches-to-photo-blinds.html) for about an hour before the Bandtails finally overcame their wariness to come in to the feeder. When they did it was with a lot of pushing,shoving and squabbling. I'm always amazed at how many pigeons can squeeze onto the feeder. I finally quit when the lighting got too harsh for photography. It was a nice morning for photography.






God's blessings to all,

chris

Going to the Dogs or Not Chasing Chipmunks

Today was supposed to be chasing chipmunks. That's what I had planned in my head for the morning. It just didn't work out that way. One of the key things in digital photography is to always have fresh batteries and have a spare battery on hand. Last night I left my camera on and I didn't notice it. So when I headed out to photograph chipmunks I didn't have any power to the camera.




You can see where this ended up. By the time I got back home and picked up fresh batteries the chipmunks were in less than desirable lighting conditions. So I picked up and headed back home. Through the course of the morning I took a few images of Lance our yellow Lab and Badger our marvelous mutt. Going to the dogs was the next best thing.



Now back to power washing the deck..



God bless,

chris

The Ever Changing View

This morning I didn't have to travel very far for a photographic opportunity. Lenore woke me up and simply stated you've gotta get up and look at this unusual sunrise. We don't get too many clouds in the area of California where I live in the summertime so this was a real treat to roll out of bed and see. So this image was taken from the sill of my bedroom window. Sometimes the best images are right in your own backyard.

God's blessings to all,

chris

Playing With Fire

Yesterday evening my daughter Annika came to help me move my photo blind and feeder out at Ruth Burris' Ranch. When we finished moving the feeder and the blind we sat down next to the pond for a while. I photographed an Eight Spotted Skimmer and a Common Whitetail, both are really cool dragonflies.




Afterwards we drove slowly on the road home checking out the lizards sunning themselves in the fading evening light while looking for birds that we might photograph. We saw quail, bluebirds and even a couple of Western Kingbirds. But all of them were too far off of the road to photograph. Suddenly Annika said. " I saw a paper wasp nest!" I backed the car up and sure enough there was a nest in a Manzanita bush right beside the road.

Annika then told me she always wanted to tap the sides of a nest and run. Being the insane irresponsable parent that I am I said."Ok". She tapped the nest and I got the resulting photo of the wasps pouring out of the nest looking for Annika who by then was safely in the car. Ah the adrenaline rush of youth!



God's Blessings to all,

chris