It Must be Raining

Last night we went to sleep with the sound of the pitter pat of raindrops on the roof outside our bedroom window. It's really nice to leave the window cracked just a little bit so that we can hear it. For many it is a joyful sound. For many ranchers it's a bad sound. We are in the middle of haying season and it means a loss of a lot of dollars in the form of moldy hay bales if they couldn't get then out of the fields and undercover before the rains hit. All this morning and today it has been a steadily coming down. I took a break from paperwork and bills to photograph the rain drops on the Lupine and Strawberry plants in the front yard. I hope that you are enjoying your day. God bless, chis All of these images werecreated with a canon 7D MkII and a canon 100-400 IS v. 1 lens on a Manfrotto 055 XPROB tripod. Exposure varied.#TeamCanon

Eye on the Prize

Here is another one from the round up on the James Ranch. Time for a lunch break from editing. I've only got a couple more dozen images left to process. Whoo Hoo! God's blessings upon your day, chris This image was created with a handheld Canon 7D MkII and a Canon EF-S17-85mm lens at 17mm. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 400 F 5.6 at 1/1600 th of a sec.#TeamCanon

One From the Round Up

Editing images from a big photo shoot can be a big chore. About three weeks ago I photographed a cattle round up on the James Ranch near where I live. It was a long, fun, all day affair and I took a lot of images. This is one of my favorite images so far. I've got about a quarter of them left to process. God's love and blessings upon your day, chris This image was created with a handheld Canon 7D MkIIand a Canon EF-S17-85mm lens at 30mm. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 800, F 16.0 at 1/640th of a sec.

Pair of Band-tailed Pigeons

I got off to a late start this morning and wasn't into the photoblind until eight o'clock. I also got outsmarted by the squirrels because I had forgotten set out a special feeder for them off to the side. Naturally because of this for the first half hour all I got visiting the bird feeder were squirrels. I climbed out of the blind and set a bowl of seed just for them. By then it was starting to get too bright for photography. Luckily the Band-tailed Pigeons started coming down from the trees and I was able to capture one nice image of a pair of them. May you have a blessed week, chris This image was created with a Canon 7D MkII and a Canon 100-400IS v.1 lens. The camera settings used were Manual Mode, ISO 200, F13.0 at 1/160th of a sec. Lighting was provided by four Canon 540 EZ flashes in 2'x 2' soft boxes. The flashes were set to 1/16th power.The camera was supported with a tripod. #TeamCanon

Summer Guests

Every summer the wild Band-tailed Pigeons make stops at my bird feeder in the backyard. They are boisterous, noisy and bossy. They rule the bird feeder and eat everything in it. They are however much different than a city pigeon in that they will blast off into the sky with a loud clapping of wings if I so much as show my face in the window. As many of them that there are the population is in decline. Twenty years ago the flocks that visited my yard were forty to fifty in number. Now they are much smaller usually less than a dozen. My numbers are based upon pure observation but official records by game biologists paint the same picture. The population has dropped sixty three percent since the late 1960s. Though Band-tailed Pigeons are listed as a species of least concern,it has many things it is up against namely habitat loss and disease. Trichomonas gallinae, a single-celled microscopic protozoan that creates lesions in the beak and throat that eventually block the bird’s airway and throat, and kill off large numbers of them. Here is a Band-tailed Pigeon from my backyard yesterday morning. It was perched on an old stump that I placed by the bird feeder for them to land on. The pigeon was photographed from my photoblind from about eight feet away. This image was created with a Canon 7D MkII and a Canon 100-400IS v.1 lens. Lighting was provided by four Canon 540 EZ flashes with 2' x 2' soft boxes.#TeamCanon

Life and Death Drama in the Backyard Pond

On Wednesday afternoon I was looking into the backyard checking out my bird feeders for birds when I heard and a saw a commotion going on in our small backyard pond. There was splashing sounds and a flash of orange in the water. I grabbed my camera and ran to the backyard. Two Garter Snakes had a hold of one good sized goldfish and they were thrashing around trying to pull it away from one another. Finally the bigger snake broke free with it and the smaller one swam off. The larger snake climbed up onto the rocks that ring the shore and attempted to swallow the fish. Which was pretty good sized for a Goldfish as it was almost four inches long. First it tried from the side and there was no way that was ever going to happen. Next it attempted to swallow it tail first. Luckily it gave up on that idea almost immediately. On it's final attempt it came from the head and it was doing pretty well when the blasted cat showed up. The snake spit out the fish and slid off into the forest. Yesterday afternoon I set up my photoblind next to the pond and I lay down on a piece of carpet. I got quite a few images of the Garter snakes hunting. They would chase the fish all over the pond until they got too cold and then they would crawl up onto the rocks to sun themselves and warm up. A couple of the snakes would try and ambush the goldfish from above. I didn't observe any goldfish being caught. God's love and blessings upon your day, chris All images were creted with a Canon 7D MkII and a Canon 100-400 IS v.1 lens or a Tamron 150-600mm lens. A 38mm extension tube was placed between the camera body and the lens to allow close focusing. #TeamCanon

One More for the Island Series

You just never know what is going to pop up in our little backyard pond. Yesterday afternoon I was photographing Garter Snakes (photos tomorrow) when I spotted this Rough Skinned Newt swimming about. I grabbed a net and fished it out. I photographed it and less than five minutes later it was back swimming in the pond again. I wonder if it will be there tomorrow? God's love and blessings upon your day, chris This image was created with a handheld Canon 7D MkII and a Canon EF-S17-85mm lens at 30mm. The camera settings used were Manual Mode,ISO 100, f 11.0 at 1/160th of a sec. Lighting was provided by two Alien bee Studio Lights with large 2 foot x 4 foot soft boxes. #TeamCanon