Low Tide

On Monday my brother Eric and I headed out to the coast. We did a big loop starting in the north at Westport and headed south down the coast to Mendocino. For lunch we had some delicious pulled pork sandwiches at the "Q" next to the Noyo Harbor bridge. The tide was way, wayyyy out and we saw plenty of urchins, mussels and Giant Green Sea Anemones. There were many beautiful wildflowers and we did a bunch of walking. When we walked down to the rocks at Ten Mile SMR you could see the ruts from the wagon wheels on the California Coastal Trail as well as lots of broken mussel shells in the dirt left over from the middens from when the Pomo used to gather mussels there. It was such a beautiful day. Enjoy the images and may you have a blessed weekend, chris All images created with a Canon 7D at a variety of settings and lenses.

Orange Variant

Yesterday afternoon I drove out into the Little Lake Valley to restock my bird feeders. When I arrived the rains cleared for a bit and I thought to myself, "Hmnn... the lighting is pretty good right now. Maybe I should do some photography". So I did. After I settled into the photoblind the birds started coming in. There were mostly House Finches and occasionally a White Breasted Nuthatch would drop in as well. What caught my attention the most were the flashes of orange from an orange variant House Finch. I took as many images of it as I could and these were my two favorite. God's tender love and blessings to all, chris Both images were created with a Canon 7D with a Tamron 150-600mm lens. AV mode, ISO 400, F 8.0 . The camera was supported with a Manfrotto 190 XPROB tripod with a Bogen 3055 heavy duty ballhead.

Along the Way

Last week Lenore, my brother Eric and I went up north up into Humboldt County. We were planning on visiting Fern Canyon but we never made it that far north. We walked one of the trails at the Arcata Marsh . The tide was out so there wasn't much bird life to photograph. Though I did manage to photograph some Lupine, a preening gull and a sparrow along the edge of the trail. Afterwards we had an excellent lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant with our son Jay. Next we drove up to Moonstone Beach. The sun was out and we played Frisbee on the beach and watched some climbers from Humboldt State University practicing their rock climbing skills on a rock on the beach.Here are some images from along the way of our adventure. You couldn't ask for a more beautiful day. chris All images created with a Canon 7D at a variety of settings.

Little Lake Valley

This afternoon after what seemed to be endless errands in the big city of Ukiah (DMV you were great!) I headed out into the Little Lake Valley to restock my bird feeders. Along the way I looked for a good spot to photograph the California Poppies as there were some decent puffy white clouds in the sky. Passing the Persico Ranch I noticed a pretty good spot next to the road above their pond. I pulled off the edge of the road to park and then I looked for cars to prevent myself from being run over. I laid down on the pavement to get a nice low angle so I could photograph over the fence. I love the resulting image. God's love and blessings to all, chris Image created with a Canon 7D and a Canon EFS 17-85mm lens at 30mm. Camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 400, F 16.0 at 1/200th of a sec. #TeamCanon

Toms

This morning my brother Eric and I did some bird photography out in the little Lake Valley. The House Finches were coming into the bird feeders like crazy. Afterwards we decided to go look for some wild turkeys on the way home. We spotted two young toms on one of the roads in Brooktrails. When they trotted down one of the side streets and we decided to follow them. At the edge of a clearing we stepped out of the pick up to photograph them. Suddenly they stopped in their tracks. Off to our left a group of eight large toms came rushing off a hillside at a full run towards them. They surrounded the young turkeys and began kicking and battering them with their wings and bodies. It all happened very quickly. Eventually the young tom broke away with the large group of toms in pursuit. They chased them downhill away from the clearing. When they were satisfied that they had chased the young interlopers from their territory the big toms came back up the hill. By then I had regained my senses and got in a good position myself to photograph a couple of them as they came by me. What an exciting event! May you have a blessed day, chris all images created with a Canon 7D and a Tamron 150-600mm lens. #TeamCanon

Back From a Mini Vacation

I took some days off for a mini vacation and now my brother Eric who is a wildlife photographer is visiting from Colorado. Yesterday we went out to the Little Lake Valley to do some bird photography. He got a few images of birds that he hadn't photographed before. There wasn't anything new for me but I had a great time spending time with my brother. This was my favorite image from the morning. Here is a White Breasted Nuthatch in a classic pose. God's love and blessings to all, chris

Selective Isolation

Yesterday afternoon I had to run to the big city of Ukiah for an errand. That's one of the disadvantages of living in a smaller town. Sometimes there are just some things you can't get here unless you want to go online and wait for them. I threw my camera in the car just in case I spotted something that I wanted to photograph. On the return trip I spotted a small field of California Poppies that were easily accessible from the frontage road and just begging to be photographed! I knew exactly what I wanted to do as I had brought my camera with a 400mm telephoto lens mounted on it. I walked around the edge of the poppies looking for the tallest ones that stood far and above the rest of them. That way I could selectively isolate them from the ones around them and allow the ones further back to blur out into orange blobs of color. If you photograph with the lens wide open and from fairly close up that is the effect that you will get. It can be quite dramatic and beautiful. Here are a few samples. I included one group just because i love the composition. May you have a blessed weekend, chris All images created with a handheld Canon 7D and a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Lens. AV mode, ISO 200, F 5.6, shutter speeds varied.