Sunrises and Sunsets

Sometimes things that start out easy become rather complex. This morning was like that. After last nights smoky sunrise I figured that the mornings sunrise would be quite smoky. I got up early and set up my camera well before the sunrise. I created some beautiful images of the layered silhouetted mountains to the east of us in the Mendocino Range. When the sun slowly rose it was a giant red orb. It was spectacular. The trouble started when I downloaded all of the images to my computer. Some images wouldn't download from the CF card. I tried several times with no luck. Thinking that my hard drive was full I off loaded all of my excess images to an external hard drive. That didn't help either. I decided to fix the problem by using data recovery software. I haven't used it in awhile and it was out of date and of no use what so ever. Of my! I had to go online and download some new software to recover my images. Now I need to find out why this happened in the first place! Enjoy the sunrise and God bless, chris

Sunset Silhouette

Today it was hot! It 107 degrees F when Lenore and I drove home after working in her class room this afternoon. The skies were clear when we got home and then later the smoke began floating in from a fire. Perfect conditions for a sunset silhouette. Close to sundown I walked down our road and I captured the sun going down behind the firs and redwoods looking out towards the coast. I stayed long enough to watch the sun sink down into the Pacific and the mosquitoes began attacking me. God's blessings to all, chris

Miscellaneous Macro

With the exodus of all of my house guests most of today was spent putting the house back in order. That didn't stop me from grabbing my camera this afternoon and playing with a macro lens in the backyard. I found a few welcome subjects around the pond. I pursued a Skipper Butterfly, Garter Snake and a Honey Bee. I also chased an Abalone Shell though it was quite a bit easier as it didn't move. I'm really enjoying the summer weather. God's blessings to all, chris

Beauty in the Details

Surprisingly photography hasn't been high on my list of priorities the past few weeks. Between relatives visiting and getting the house ready for winter there hasn't been many large blocks of time to be devoted to it. Today when I was doing some clean up out in the yard and I picked up this small white shell. I was intrigued with the natural beauty that the spiral of the shell presented to me. God has made such wonderful things for us to marvel and photograph. I hope you are having a beautiful day. God bless, chris

The Fog Came Rolling In

We spent a glorious afternoon at the coast. It's amazing how fast the weather can change on the North Coast of California. After a dazzling, warm and sunny afternoon the fog rolled in and blotted out the sunshine. Within minutes the temperature dropped fifteen degrees. On our return trip home we stopped to photograph the beautiful Village of Mendocino from one of its iconic view points. God's love to all, chris

Cute Little Beast

Today my daughter Annika got a new cat. The best way to really put it would be that we got a new cat. She will be doing most of the care for the little monster but we will be having to watch out for it as well. Her cat Mr. Mango was really unhappy with the new arrival and greeted it with a lot of hissing and growling. So far we are not off to a good start. The dogs took it in stride with a lot of sniffing from Badger. Lance the Labrador was not impressed and he just ignored the little ankle biter. I was on cat sitting duty most of this afternoon. Taking a picture of it was the most logical thing to do. Hopefully things will improve. Annika has decided to call her "Miss Papaya"! God's love and blessings, chris

Interesting Information to Know and Forget

I haven't been posting much this past week because I was busy with visiting relatives and hosting a family reunion.We had a great time socializing and playing Ultimate. I felt a bit sore the day after! Now on to other things. I have one of those weird minds that tends to remember little scientific obscure facts. One of my friends used to kid me that I knew a little about everything but not a lot about anything. Here is one of those scientific facts. This is an image of "virga". Virga is the meteorological term for rain that is falling that evaporates before it hits the ground. This is some virga that was seen east of where I live looking towards the Mendocino Mountain Range.This is a fact to know and forget. God bless, chris