Out for a Spin

After several years of waiting I got a new camera a couple days ago. Yesterday I gave it a go and took it out for a spin. I really liked all the extra focus points and how quickly it focused. It has a few slight differences in the controls but that shouldn't take me too long to learn. Here are some images of urban decay taken while I as getting our car repaired, a few from the Humane Society (Go adopt a pet!) and a few close ups from Montgomery Woods. God's blessings upon the rest of your weekend. all images created with a Canon 7D MKII and a Canon EF-S17-85mm lens. settings varied. #Team Canon

Some Hummingbirds

I thought that I wasn't going to get many hummingbirds this year. But we have had more hummingbirds this year than we have ever had. In late spring a bear came in and knocked down and chewed up my hummingbird feeders. I thought we wouldn't get too many hummingbirds back. I replaced the feeders and raised them way up high. Last week the bear came back and knocked down one of the lower feeders. Scared the daylights out of the person we had that was house sitting. They looked out the window to see a bear less that two feet away looking back! Both the bear and the house sitter weren't too pleased to see each other. Badger the Wonder Dog slept through almost all of it. Getting back to the hummingbirds. Presently we have been going through over a gallon of nectar per day. Every time I go into the back yard I see a dozen or more hummingbirds. They are mostly Anna's with a few Rufous/Allen's thrown in with many females and immature birds in the mix. Here are a few images from the mornings of July third and very early on the fourth. They just love my Aloe Plant! I hope and pray you are having a great week. God bless, chris All images were created with a Canon 7D and a Canon 100-400IS lens ver.1 on a Manfrotto 190 XPROB tripod with a bogen 3055 ballhead. Lighting was provided by four Canon 540EZ flashes set to 1/16th power.The camera was set on Manual, ISO 100, f 18.0 at 1/200th of a sec.

Work Your Subject

Late last week I was photographing Bumble Bees in the backyard when I spotted a beautiful red dragonfly hunting near the flower bed. First I took a documentary image of it just to capture an image of it #1. Then I moved closer and took a few more. I stopped and reviewed my images. They were from the side and while they were interesting enough I felt I could do better. The first change I made was to go to a wider F stop to blur out the background a little more #2. Next I positioned myself so that the front of the lens was parallel to the body of the dragonfly #3. This helps to ensure that more of the dragonfly would be in focus at a wider F stop. After that I stated paying attention to the background. I moved around watching the position of the dragonfly in relation to what was behind it. I kept working around until I found a spot where the dragonfly just popped from the image #4. Though I like all of the images especially #3, #4 really shows off the dragonflies wings and there are no distractions in the background. It really helps to work your subject from a variety of spots at different F stops. All images created with a Canon 7D and a Tamron 150-600mm lens with an extension tube for close focusing. #TeamCanon God's love and blessings to all, chris

Small Town Celebration

The small town of Willits in Northern California where I live celebrates the Fourth of July in a big way with Frontier days starting in mid June and culminating on July 4th with a parade, BBQ and the CCPRA Rodeo finals. During Frontier days there is a wide array of happenings in town with truck pulls, street dances,pancake breakfasts, sweetheart competitions and more. This year Willits celebrated the 90th annual Frontier Days. Each year they pick a theme and this year it was the Roaring Twenties. I just went to the parade this year and I made sure to get there early so that I could spend more time photographing many of the participants before the parade got started. I walked all around the staging area talking to old friends and photographing people and dogs as I went. As I watched and photographed I realized that it is quite and organizational feat to get a parade all lined up and moving. I had a great time and it looked like everyone else did too. God bless, chris All images created with a Canon 7D and a canon EF-S17-85 mm lens #TeamCanon

Cool Find

This morning I had a pleasant surprise when I was filling the hummingbird feeders. The little sugar vampires are drinking more than a gallon a day in nectar! That wasn't the surprise but finding a Yellow Crab Spider clinging to the bottom of one of the feeders was. I moved the spider to my aloe plant so it wouldn't get washed off of the feeder when I cleaned it. This afternoon when the lighting was better I went out photographed it with a macro lens. It hadn't moved very far as they tend to stick in one spot. Crab spiders are an ambush spider. They hunt by patiently waiting for their prey to come along and then leaping upon it or grabbing it. It was a delightful find and quite I'm pleased with how the images of it came out. God's blessings upon your weekend, chris Image created with a Canon 7D and a 100mm macro lens on a Manfrotto tripod with a Bgen 3055 heavy duty ballhead.

Indoor Fun on a Hot Day

This morning I was up really early working on cleaning our small garden pond in the back yard. We removed all the stones from the bottom and pressure washed both them and the bottom of the pond. A lot of muck has built up since we cleaned it out almost five years ago. Naturally things didn't go as planned and a few fittings broke and need to be replaced. Right now I'm sitting indoors until it cools off enough to put all the pond rocks back in and fill the pond. This gave me plenty of time to photograph our little model truck with a tomato in the back and mock up a fun little ad to go with it. Enjoy the day and stay cool. God's love and blessings to all, chris Image created with a handheld Canon 7D and a Canon EF-S17-85 mm lens.