Special Message for Lenore

Lenore you are awesome! You are bright, intelligent,funny, beautiful and so much more. I am so lucky to have you in my life. Hey Sweetie, here is a message that I made on Patrick's Point Beach just for you. Love, Chris

Rude Awakening

I love dogs. I don't like dogs when they wake me up at six fifteen in the morning to go to the bathroom. That is exactly what Badger the Wonder Dog did this morning. Which ended up allowing me to capture this beautiful sunrise over the Little Lake Valley that I would have slept through. Thank you Lord for sunrises and great little dogs. God's tender blessings upon your day, chris

Phenomenal Day

I spent a big chunk of yesterday evening editing images from photographing in the rain and the fog earlier in the day. It was really nasty and the lighting was poor and I had the best time with slow shutter speeds and all. I was immediately able to pick out what I felt was the best quail image and post it yesterday. What I didn't realize was that there were some hidden gems that needed to be dug out from the rest of the files. There are some flat out beautiful images of Mountain Quail hidden away in there. After a bit of digging I pulled some of my favorites to share. There are in addition to the Mountain Quail, one persistent Western Gray Squirrel,one gorgeous Steller's Jay, some Dark Eyed Juncos and a Varied Thrush. May God bless you and your families today. chris Equipment Used- Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Lens, Ground pod on window sill with a Manfrotto 3055 Ballhead. Camera Settings- AV mode, ISO 800, Shutter speed and F stop Varied.

Beautiful Mountain Quail

Last night I spent about an hour rebuilding the window blind that I use in the back bedroom of our house. Every time I have used it recently with the Mountain Quail they have spooked and run off. My hard work payed off because this morning they were far less nervous than ever before. They still reacted to the sound of the camera shutter but they were quite content to use the bird feeder with nervous looks only when the shutter clicked. They are such a beautiful bird. God's love and blessings to all, chris Equipment Used- Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Lens, Ground Pod with a Manfrotto 3055 Ballhead. Camera Settings- AV mode, ISO 800, F8.0,Shutter speed 1/50 th of a sec.

Winter Stash

Woodpiles are the source of a lot of my photographic efforts. It's not that I particularly like woodpiles it's just that's where I seem to find a lot of of my subject matter. I find everything from really interesting pieces of wood for perches to salamanders and scorpions. Last week I was putting in some wood for my Mom and when I lifted up a piece of firewood acorns started pouring to the ground. There was a stash of four or five gallons of acorns piled in between the logs. I really felt sorry for the poor creature that put them all there. It's hard to imagine all of the effort and countless hours it took to gather so many acorns into one place. If you look closely at the image you can see where they were gnawing on one of the acorns for a winter's meal. May your day be blessed, chris

Camera Equipment Used- Canon 7D,100mm Macro Lens. Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod with a 3055 Ballhead. , Camera Settings- AV Mode,ISO 400,F11.0, Shutter speed 1/4 th of a sec.

Sign of Spring

All over the Little Lake Valley and the surrounding areas the trees are blooming. My daffodils are budding up and getting ready to bloom. This morning I noticed that the Willow Trees outside the gym were covered in buds and water drops. I couldn't resist photographing them! Have a blessed day, chris Photographed with a Canon 7D and a Canon 28-105 lens at 105mm. Camera settings used - AV mode ISO 400, F5.6, Shutter speed of 1/640th of a sec.

Rainy Days...

Photographing in the rain is tough. Yet you can get some pretty special images if you prepare for it. The last three days I haven't had the strong desire to do any photography due to the pouring rainfall. This morning I was all fired up with cabin fever and I had to do something about it. I went out into the showers, got soaking wet and restocked the bird feeders. Then I put up a window blind in the back bedroom and I waited. Surprisingly there were a lot of birds feeding in the rain today. There were Chickadees, Mountain Quail, Varied Thrush and Dark Eyed Juncos all coming to the feeders. They have got to eat regardless of the weather conditions. Photographically it was dark with a fairly slow shutter speed so a lot of my images ended up getting blurred. This was one of the best. Chestnut Backed Chickadee on a fungi.I think it looks mighty cool. God's love and blessings to all, chris Equipment Used- Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Lens, Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod with a 3055 Ballhead. Camera Settings- AV mode, ISO 400, F5.6,Shutter speed 1/125th of a sec.