Toffee Time

In the tradition of giving every year around Christmas "Chris' Kitchen" goes into full time toffee production mode producing tins of delicious Peppermint Toffee. This year I have gone back to my roots and I am making a few tins of the more traditional Almond Toffee in addition to the Peppermint Toffee. It's a nice change as Lenore really likes the slightly burnt flavor of the Almond Toffee. Which one do you think you would prefer the Almond or the Peppermint? the Peppermint is on left and the Almond is on the right. God bless and have a merry week, chris

Camera Equipment Used-- Canon 7D, Canon 28-105 at 48 mm, Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod with a 3055 Ballhead. Camera Setting- ISO 400, AV Mode, F16.0, 4/10ths of a sec.

Last of the Ice and Frost

Just finishing up the last of the frost and ice images from last week. Warmer weather is slowly melting away the ice and snow. These images were created along Willits Creek in one of the coldest areas close to where I live. It is almost always five to ten degrees cooler here than the surrounding area. It's in a valley full of trees with little sun to warm it up. It is a good area for photographing frost even after other areas have melted. Gloves and a hat are required! God's precious love to all, chris Photographed with a Canon 7D and a 100mm Macro lens. Camera was set to AV mode with an ISO of 400.

Frosty Fences

I was on my way to work out at the gym this morning when I got side tracked into photographing the frost on the fences down in the Little Lake Valley. My plan was to work out and then come home and edit some of my bird photography files. That got a bit delayed when I spotted the frost on the trees as I was heading down off of the ridge. The frost was just so beautiful. What a lovely gift from God! A short term visual feast. It got even better when I found that one of my favorite trees to photograph was framed by the frosty fences. It turned into how many ways can I photograph this tree! I had an absolutely wonderful time. God's light and love to alll, chris Photographed with a Canon 7D and a Canon 10-22 lens. Camera settings varied but the camera was at ISO 400 in AV mode.

Jack Frost Nipping at Your Nose

This past week has seen the thermometer dipping down below twenty degree Fahrenheit which is pretty cold for the Little Lake Valley in Northern California. This has resulted in some good opportunities to photograph the frost that has been forming on everything in the early morning. Tuesday morning after I dropped off Annika at school I looped through the valley stopping at several points to photograph the scenery and the frost. What a glorious morning the Lord had made! Enjoy the sights and God's blessings to you, chris

Equipment used- Canon 7D, Canon 10-22 EF-S Lens, Camera settings- AV Mode, ISO 400, F stop varied

Polaris The North Star

Polaris is a pretty cool star. It is located in the constellation of Ursa Minor, the Little Bear. The easiest way to find Polaris is to find the Big Dipper. The two end stars that make up the end of the pot of the dipper (not the handle) point downward almost directly at the North Star. That is why they are sometimes called the pointer stars. One of the most amazing things about Polaris is the fact that it sits directly above the North Pole of the earth. If you were to stab a giant pin through the axis of the earth from the south pole to the north pole it would point directly at Polaris. Because of this if you take a long exposure of the sky at night with your camera the star trails formed will create circles around Polaris! This image was made with an exposure of close to an hour and a half.It's pretty easy to find Polaris at the center of the circles just barely above the treeline. Enjoy and God bless, chris

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.

Morning Stars

This morning when I woke up the stars were still shining brightly and there was a faint light on the horizon from the upcoming rising sun. I went into my office and grabbed my camera. I attached a wide angle lens and went back to our bedroom and photographed the mornings stars rising to the east of us over the Mendocino Mountain Range. That's the Little Lake Valley in the lower right corner of the image. You can see a few lights from some of the ranches there. I made quite a few images but this is the one that I liked the best. God reveals some of his majesty to us through the heavens and all his creation. Wishing you a blessed day, chris

Equipment used- Canon 7D, Canon 10-22 wide angle lens. Camera Settings- Manual mode, ISO 4,000,F4.5,30 second exposure