I Need a Vacation

This morning the fog rolled in and covered the forest in a soft pillow of warm beautiful light. My camera sat beside me as I looked back through my image files. I think I need a vacation! Here is a sunset silhouette from last summer in Tamarindo, Costa Rica. God bless, chris Image created with a handheld Canon 7D and a Canon 17-85mm lens at 38mm. Camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 400 F5.0 at 1/2,000 of a sec.

Morning Snapshots

When I woke up this morning the fog had rolled in over the ridge top last night from the coast. The forest must have been sighing with pleasure. I grabbed my camera and a wide angle lens and took a walk down the ridge from our house. I was hoping for some angel's breath (Crepuscular rays) but the fog was just a little bit too thick. Here are a couple of snap shots I found along the way. God's love and blessings to all, chris both images created with a hand held and braced Canon 7D and a Canon EF-s-10-22 wide angle zoom lens at 10mm. Camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 800, f 16.0 at 1/30th and 1/25th of a sec.

Stroll Along the Lake

Yesterday morning I went for a walk along the dam at Lake Ada Rose near where I live in northern California. Though I will say it was hardly a walk. It was more of a saunter or maybe even a stroll because I kept finding things to photograph. I brought along my tripod and trusty Canon 7D with a Tamron 150-600mm lens. I mounted a 36mm extension tube between the camera and the telephoto lens to allow me to close focus on lizards dragonflies and flowers etc. Without the extension tube the lens will only focus to a little under nine feet. With the extension tube I could focus on dragonflies just a little over three feet away! Here are the results of my morning stroll. God's love and blessings upon your day, chris

Small Beauty

One of the things that I really like about photography is that it isn't always about the grand landscape. There is great beauty to be found in the small. Last Thursday when Annika and I went out to the coast we were there in the middle of the day which doesn't lend itself to landscape photographer very well. I grabbed my macro lens and went looking for the little stuff. I ended up finding some nice flowers and shells and other small things. All images created with a Canon 7D and a 100mm macro lens. God's precious light and love to all, chris

Leapin' Lizards

Okay I will admit leapin' is a bit of a stretch though I did see a couple of lizards jump from rock to rock in my walk along the dam at Lake Ada Rose this morning. I was searching for Western Fence Lizards known to many as "Blue Bellies". This is a name they came by quite easily as you can see in the first image below. Western Fence Lizard is a common lizard found all over the western United States in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Northern Mexico,Colorado and the surrounding area. They are broken down into quite a variety of subspecies. There are six subspecies in California alone.They are members of the spiny family of lizards. All images created with a Canon 7D and a Canon 100-400IS v1 lens. A 36mm extension tube was added for close focusing in the close up portrait images.

Return of the Sisters

One of the things that I really look forward to in late spring and early summer is the return of the butterflies. Off and on over the last month I have been catching sporadic sightings of butterflies in my yard. Probably my favorite is the California Sister. They are one of the more common butterflies where I live. When Annika and I were at the coast on Thursday we saw quite a few butterflies. As we were walking back to the car she said,"Hey Dad look a California Sister!". I was expecting that she had see one far ahead of us somewhere so I was looking way ahead. She glanced back at me and stated, "No,Dad, right here."as she pointed barely three feet in front of her. It was was one sitting in a nice spot at a perfect angle on a flower. "Don't move." I blurted out. It stayed there long enough for me to compose about eight frames. This is the one I like the best. Hopefully we will be seeing more of them as the summer progresses. May you have a blessed weekend, chris This image was created with a handheld Canon 7D and a Canon 100-400IS lens V1. The camera was set to AV mode, ISO 400, F 6.3 at 1/1,000th of a sec.

One of my Favorites

Yesterday afternoon Annika and I loaded up the pick up with camera gear and headed out to the Mendocino Coast. Our first stop was at the Q in Fort Bragg to load up on a couple of Pulled Pork Sandwiches. We had a nice picnic lunch a Lake Cleone. Afterwards we headed further up the coast to check out one of my favorite seal colonies. I love photographing seals with a telephoto lens and we had a great time watching them. There were two of them that looked really cute together. I'm not sure if was a mother and her young one or two seals that get along very well. They were sleeping side by side when we left. On the return trip we stopped at Pacific Star Winery for a bottle of wine and then we went to Cow Licks in Ft. Bragg for some ice cream. It was a gorgeous day. God's love and blessings to all, chris All images created with a handheld Canon 7D and a Canon 100-400 IS lens.