Garlic

Today I was chopping up some garlic for a great salad dressing and I realized it would make a great image. As far as the dressing goes you have to like Cilantro or it's not worth it. A food taste study has indicated that you either like Cilantro or you don't something to do with some sort of gene in your taste buds. While I'm at it here is the recipe for the dressing.Soon I'll post an image of the dressing once I get a creative setting in mind.

Cilantro Lime Dressing 1/3 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup Plain Yogurt. (I use honey yogurt), 1 Tbsp Lime Juice, 2 Cloves Garlic finely minced, 1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar, 1 whole bunch Clantro chopped, 1 tsp Sea Salt. Throw all of the ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. You can add more olive oil to thin it out as needed if the cilantro bunch was too big. Put it on a great salad and enjoy. God bless and good eats to all, chris

Allen's Hummingbird

Yesterday afternoon I had a fantastic time with a male Allen's Hummingbird in the backyard. He was really comfortable with the flash and he came back to the flowers I had set up numerous times. He was quite the model and I am extremely happy with the images that I came away with. God's blessings and have a beautiful day, chris

Dusty Slides a Look Back in Time

Last night I was looking back at some old images on some dusty slides from a trip to Sanibel Island in Florida in 2004. I still think Florida bird photgraphers have got it made. You can walk right up to an egret. Lie on the ground next to it and make an image! Birds just don't let you do that here in Northern California. Alright, I guess I'll just have to admit it. I'm jealous. In any case we had a great time and I would love to go back sometime soon.We had an absolutely wonderful time collecting shells,swimming and skim boarding. There was a lot of amazing wildlife from gators to birds. A lot can happen in nine years.Back then I was still photographing using slide film and dabbling in digital with a P+S and my hair was still brown. God's light and love to all, chris

Wabi Sabi

I have always liked the look of flowers that have aged on the stem and are slowly breaking down. They have a special beauty all of their own. Japanese culture has a term for it "Wabi Sabi". It is described as one of beauty that is imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. Lenore recently commented on an image of roses she had posted stating, "Even old roses with falling petals are beautiful. May we feel the same for the elderly among us?" Her statement really made me pause and think.

This afternoon I was dead heading the roses and I found beuaty in the discarded petals and heads as I collected them. A great example of Wabi Sabi. God too finds beauty in our imperfections, seeing us as the perfect beings that he has created. I'm sure it is his desire that we see others around us in the same way. Perhaps the Japanese are onto something important here? God's light and precious love to all, chris

Fabulous Flycatchers

I got up bright and early this morning and drove to Mercy Springs Golf Course. You won't find it on any maps as it's a small private nine hole golf course north of here on the Eel River. I went there for our churches Man Day on Saturday and when I was walking around I found a fly catchers nest in an apple tree only about four feet off of the ground.I just had to go back and photograph them! I set up my blind and waited only about two minutes before the first flycatcher arrived carrying insects for their young. After that it was like clockwork. Roughly every five minutes one of the parents would show up with an insect morsel on the wing. A couple of times one of the babies would stick its head out of the knothole to see what was going on. They were constantly trying out their wings as well by beating them against the inside of the nest cavity. That sounded pretty cool. I'm guessing that they are going to fledge in the next couple of days. It was a great little trip. God's bright shining light and love to all, chris

Heat Lightning

Lenore awoke me at four a.m. to let me know there was a quiet lightning display going on outside. Heat lightning flashes were filling the sky about every ten or fifteen seconds. I watched it for awhile and then went and grabbed my camera when it looked like some bolts might be starting to happen. Sure enough as the clouds moved north and east over the Mendocino Range the lightning strikes started. Far too many of them were behind the trees or I just plain missed them while my camera was processing the previous image.An incredible way to start the morning. Thunder storms are fairly uncommon where we live so just to see lightning from a distance here is quite a treat. As beautiful as it is my prayers go out to all of the firefighters whose jobs are going to be probably be very busy today. God blessings to all, chris

Redwood Run 2013

Each year sometime in the first couple of weekends in June the Kiwanis Club puts on a charity motorcycle ride called the Redwood Run. Thousands of riders partake and the rumble of mostly Harley Davidson Motorcycles can be heard for several days as bikers make their way through the redwoods on Highway 101 to the event. This year the event was held this weekend. Bikers started coming through on Thursday morning at a trickle on and by evening it was a roaring rumble. There were Bands All Weekend Long, Bike Games, Contests, Wet T-Shirt Contest, Vendors, Food, Beer and apparently a whole lot more. In all honesty I haven't got a clue as I have never attended not being a motorcycle rider. Today they were coming back down 101 on the return trip. Some of the local gas stations and eateries were doing good business with bikers crowded in eating and buying gas. I hope and pray it ends up being a safe event with no injuries. God's blessings and safe travels, chris