Newish Knothole Feeder

Over the last couple of days I rebuilt one of my knothole bird feeders. I originally had two of this type but a squirrel destroyed one last week and a bear tore apart the other a couple of days later. The one the squirrel destroyed was fairly easy to rebuild. The one the bear tore apart was pretty much a total loss. I may be able to salvage a couple of  the parts. After rebuilding the feeder I set it up in the backyard about eight feet out from our back bedroom window. I put up a window hide/blind in the window to hide behind. Then put up my tripod with my camera and flash poking out from the blind to the feeder. This morning I filled the feeder and then went into the kitchen and made breakfast and some coffee for Lenore. After breakfast I checked the feeder about every ten to fifteen minutes for birds and squirrels. After about an hours wait a Douglas Tree Squirrel showed up along with four or five Chestnut-backed Chickadees. The chickadees would make quick trips to the feeder whenever they thought that the squirrel was too occupied to notice them. Later when the lighting started to get to harsh a western Gray Squirrel stopped by for a snack as well. I had a really enjoyable time photographing them.  God's blessings to all in the upcoming New Year, chris

 Last year around this time we acquired Charles Dickens the stray black cat. He was found to be living under our wood pile in the rain and snow. He would yowl every time I went to get firewood for the wood stove from the pile. I never did see him which made it quite unnerving at times when you went to grab some wood. Was this cat going to jump out and attack me? This was settled one day when I was sitting in the photoblind and he came into the blind and jumped onto my lap. Since that time he has wormed his way into our family.  Dickens biggest problem is that he is a cold blooded killer. He has killed numerous squirrels and birds since his arrival. A couple of weeks ago I about lost it when I came outside to find hime devouring a Douglas Tree Squirrel. I vowed that he must become an indoor cat. He has been decidedly unhappy about this decision and has tried to make several jailbreaks. Once he was successful resulting in the death of another squirrel within fifteen minutes of his escape. Being a wildlife photographer I just can't put up with this. so Charles is going to be an indoor cat until we find a better living situation for him.

  This morning I photographed some Jays and Chickadees and it was so nice to have no interruptions from either the Blasted Cat Papaya or Charles. God's love, blessings   and a merry Christmas to one and all, chris

Frosty Time of Year

 This is my favorite time of year for photographing frosty leaves. It's early enough for the leaves to still have a little color and it's cold enough for there to be frost. The past couple of mornings I've headed down from our ridge top home to the cold valley below. Up there it was in the balmy high 40s almost 50 F and down in the valley it was hovering around 30 F.  Both mornings I forgot my gloves! Luckily I had my jacket and a sweater. I've got a favorite meadow along Willits Creek where I love to photograph. The frost holds there in the shade and even on the warmest days the frost will linger until late in the day in the shadows. I brought along a big gold reflector to bounce some light into the shadows to brighten things up. I brought along my tripod with a shutter release. Two cameras and two lenses. A Canon EOS 7D and a Canon 7D EOS MKII for lenses I had a Canon EF-S60mm macro lens and a Tamron 180mm macro. I took a lot of leaf images and these were some of my favorites. God's blessings to all of you, chris

Works in Progress

 I'm still working on figuring out the lighting for photographing birds from my new studio. Here are some images from this last week. All of these images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MKII camera and a Canon 100-400 IS V. 1 lens. #teamcanonusa God's love and blessings to all, Chris

Simple Set Up for Backyard Bird Photography

 Last night I created a simple set up for bird photography in the back yard. I erected two posts on the right and left sides of a platform bird feeder. The feeder is about ten feet out from the window of my studio. The tops were about  eight inches taller than the platform of the feeder. Next I took a piece of bailing wire and I used it to tie a mossy branch across the tops of the poles. The final step was to take some decking screws and attach some raw peanuts in the shell to the backside of the branch towards the middle. I did this by just screwing through the middle of the peanut right into the branch. Early this morning I got up and set my camera on a tripod facing out towards the feeder. I prefocused on the area of the branch where the peanuts were hidden. It didn't take very long for the Scrub Jays to show up. They love their peanuts! Both images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MKII camera and a Canon 100-400 IS v.1 lens. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 800, F 6.3 at 1/200th of a sec. God's blessings upon your week, 

Chris

Quick Run Up the Coast

 Friday morning when I peaked out the window I could see scattered clouds with the potential of rain showers. I decided on a quick trip up the coast to Westport to see what I could see. I stopped off at Pudding Creek for a walk on the beach and the headed north. Along the way I made stops at turnouts whenever anything interesting caught my eye.  Rain spattered the windshield and a weak rainbow even made an appearance. It was a great morning for a quick drive with my camera in hand. God's blessings to you, chris

Afternoon at the Lake

 This afternoon we headed over to Clearlake for an afternoon at the lake at Clearlake State Park. We had a great hike and got to see turtles, Acorn Woodpeckers and American White Pelicans along with a wide assortment of waterfowl. Naturally I dragged along my infrared camera. I had fun creating images of landscapes around the park. We couldn't turn down an invite for dinner! Chef Joe made us an incredible dinner of a beautiful green salad followed by a freshwater bass and bay shrimp soup over riced cauliflower. The finale was both terryaki and pesto salmon. What a superb meal and a wonderful afternoon. Enjoy the images! 

God's love and blessings to all, chris