Circadianreflections Blog

Whatever Weds. This and That

How are you all doing? I’ve been out making pictures, seeing nature, my Baby Girl, grandboys, and our Big Baby Boy came up to visit. We hadn’t seen him in person since January 4th when we parted ways at the Reno airport for our transfers from our return trip from London. It was grand seeing him. We all missed him very much.

I’ve been making lots and lots of pictures, but I’m in a slump processing them. I’m not very motivated to do it lately which is why I’m posting less, painting more.

Here are two I have processed from recent photography outings, and some of you who follow me on Instagram know I’ve been taking two architecture sketching in ink and watercolor courses online. Well, I’ll show you the final project from one of those courses too. Here we go!

July 4th’s almost Full Moonrise from my patio- rising over the Pinenut Mountains

July 4th's Moon 99.5%

Monday (this week) a girlfriend and I went out to the wilderness in separate cars to see the Wild Mustangs and there are lots and lots of new foals, fillies, and ponies! Here is one of the cuties I saw.

I never did determine if it was male or female, but here it was resting under the protection of its mother’s chest and head whom you don’t see. It’s so cute!

Wild Mustang Foal

What’s blooming in my yard? Not a whole lot, but there are Day Lilys! I don’t have any idea about its name. John Hric do you? They were planted and doing well when we bought the house so left them. I love them.

Yellow Orange Day Lily

…and my Final Project of one of the watercolor courses. This took me all day and 3 times totally erasing it all and starting over. Drawing is so hard for me! I did learn more about how to “see” and draw perspective though. I hope one day it really clicks and I can actually draw without having to start over so many times. Like sewing, I think it requires an engineering brain. That’s not me. At. All!

We had a choice to paint the same building the instructor painted or choose a building from your own town. I chose a building from one of my images from the capital of my new home state of Nevada. This is the St. Charles Hotel and Fox Brewery Pub in downtown Carson City, not my town, but it’s not too far away. It’s a Historic Landmark which some of you who have been following me a while might remember when I posted about it here in August 2019 for Thursday Doors. My lampposts and buildings are wonky. I can’t draw a straight line to save my life. I really wish all the teachers and instructors wouldn’t take away my ruler! St Charles Hotel and Fox Brew Pub Watercolor

…and here’s my image of the St Charles Hotel/Fox Brew Pub from 2019.

You can see I took artistic license and simplified the scene.

Historic Mt Charles Hotel and The Fox BrewPub

Current news: Three fires started simultaneously Monday evening just about 25 miles south of us just outside Gardnerville, NV so, we’re keeping a close eye on those. We’re hoping they all stay out in the uninhabited BLM land. At the time of this writing, it’s now spread to 10,000 acres, destroyed one house, and 10 outbuildings and has 0 containment. Winds are still pretty good from the west which isn’t good. We’ve been under a Red Flag high wind advisory conditions since Monday afternoon. The firefighters have been concentrating on saving the 350+ homes out there. I could see the flames from my patio Monday evening and from along Hwy 395 tonight. It’s awful. My neighbor who is a retired firefighter says 3 fires don’t start at the same time naturally and suspects it’s arson. They’ve named it the #numbersfire. Right now they’re so busy trying to knock them down that they’re saying the cause is unknown. We had a wildfire in this same area the week before last that burned up a whole lot a of acres! Our thoughts are with those who have been evacuated, and those who are out in the thick of it fighting the fires.

We had dinner tonight with #1 Grandson’s other Grandparents at their house who also live in this town. OH MY GOSH! It was so great to see them and catch up in person! It’s been months and months since we’ve seen them. We figured we’re all still healthy, and we’re all keeping our circle of who we actually get close too really tight so let’s do it. It was so good to be normal! We’re going to see them again only we’re hosting next time. 😀

So, that just about catches you up with me. What’s been happening with you?

Fuji X-T3 & Nikon D810| PS CC 21.2| DaVinci Watercolor paint in the Scratchmadejournal curated palette| Canson 140lb cold press watercolor paper|DaVinci Artissmo and Pentel water brushes

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends- Waders

This week’s theme for Lisa’s weekly Bird challenge is Waders. In April and May, I was looking for them but saw only a few here, but they’re a pretty few.

American Avocets in breeding plumage:

American Avocets

Black-necked Stilt- I think this one is a male. I love their pink legs! I think they look fancy and classic with their black and white feathers and pink legs. Also, they have the sweetest big eyes!

Black-necked Stilt

and a White-faced Ibis- in breeding plumage: It was the only one in the pond. I see a good size flock of them flyover every morning and evening but have no idea where they go or come from. I hope to find the flock one day.

White-faced Ibis

Now that we’re in Summer many of the migrating birds are gone like these waders. I look forward to their return in the winter and spring.

We’ve been having some hot and windy days with thunder a couple of days which brought lightning along and now there are a couple of bush fires in the area we’re watching. It’s supposed to cool down on Sunday but the wind isn’t going anywhere soon.

I hope you’ve had a good week, and your week-end is a good one too!

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm| PS CC 21.2

more to come…

bird_weekly_badge_400 web

Thursday Doors- Watercolor Doors

I haven’t photographed any doors lately and those in my archives are marinating nicely so I thought I’d share two doors I’ve painted as homework recently.

I’m doing two online architecture sketching watercolor classes while I’m on a hiatus from the local watercolor class. This first door is from an image I made last year when a friend came to visit and we did Photowalk in downtown Carson City. One of the classes had an assignment to practice drawing something in 1 point perspective and this is what I drew and painted. There’s something special about a red door isn’t there. A note to myself only partially seen says, ” not good!” It’s wonky, and the portico and window aren’t quite right. I need to redo this one!

Red Door Carson City watercolor

This second painting is exercise 3 in Phil Davies Arttutor Sketching Architecture online class. An Old Blue Door.

Blue Door Arttutor homework_IMG_4282

His assignments are getting more and more complex. I’m a bit anxious about this weeks!

This is part of Norm’s Thursday Doors weekly roundup. If you have a door image or painting to share head on over and share yours, or just go visit to see all the lovely doors people share from all over the world.

DaVinci Watercolors in the Scratchmadejournal palette on Canson Watercolor 300g cold press paper, and Sakura Micro .05 ink pen.

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends-Bullock’s Oriole Male

For this week’s Friday’s Feathered Friends, and Lisa’s Weekly Bird Challenge whose theme this week is Yellow Birds I have to share the male Bullock’s Oriole!

Bullock's Oriole Male

They pass through here during mating season and stay high up in the treetops making photographing them a challenge. I saw this guy not too long ago in April while birding.

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon XF100-400mm LM OIS| PS CC 21.1.2

more to come…

https://oureyesopen.blog/2020/06/19/bird-weekly-photo-challenge-birds-with-yellow-feathers/ bird_weekly_badge_400

Whatever Weds. The Milky Way over Spooner Lake

A good friend Gordon from (undiscoveredimagesmoung us)was visiting nearby and reached out to me to meet up and have a redo shoot at Spooner Lake where we tried to shoot sunset and hoped to shoot the Milky Way last year, but we were rained out. We did have a beautiful double rainbow there though.

We met last night and thankfully the wind died down and there were no clouds so we had a clear sky to view the Milky Way and the stars.

The light across the lake is a maintenance yard where the state keeps heavy equipment like snowplows and stuff.
My friend brought a neat little flashlight that emitted a wonderful soft warm light that he used to light paint the rocks on the lakeshore; it compliments the lights across the lake en mon avis. Doesn’t it look like a lovely and inviting village over there? It’s just a maintenance yard. Lighting can be magical amiright?

Even without wind, it got cold up here in the mountains. it’s above 7000 feet here-I couldn’t feel my toes! When I drove out to go home my car told me it was 37 degrees outside and to be mindful of ice on the road! I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. It was wonderful seeing old friends and stargazing. Ah, Summer Nights with friends. Does it get better than this?

Nikon D810| Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G| PS CC 21.1.2| Topas DeNoise Ai and Sharpen Ai

…more to come
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Friday’s Feathered Friends- Sage Thrasher

Last week-end I went camping with two girlfriends to do some nature photography. We car camped each taking our own cars and caravanning up and down the northern part of the Eastern Sierras.

We were in Mono Basin when we heard this bird singing a song that was unfamiliar to me or my friends. I turned to follow the song and saw this bird. I had no idea what kind of bird it was, but I only got two quick shots before it disappeared into the sagebrush.

Sage Thrasher_DMZ8319

Once at home I was able to ID the bird as the Sage Thrasher- A Lifer for me!

They live in the Western Region of the USA, as well as Mexico and Baja California. They prefer sagebrush and arid planes. The east side of the Eastern Sierras is sagebrush and arid! I’m linking Whataboutbird.com so you can read more about this bird and hear it’s lovely songs. https://identify.whatbird.com/obj/591/overview/Sage_Thrasher.aspx

I’m also participating in Lisa’s of Our Eyes Open weekly bird challenge. You know I don’t do many challenges, but birds. I couldn’t resist! 😀

I hope you’re all doing well, and have a lovely week-end!

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon XF100-400mm| PS CC 21.1.2

more to come…

Whatever Weds. This and That

This and That. What does that mean to me? Things that I photograph that I don’t feel really define who I am as a photographer. Things that catch my eye while I am out photographing things that I love and things that are happening in our time outside of my usual genre that I make an effort to go out and photograph. Can we call those images journalistic images? I do. Yes, I have a journalling file folder even for photography. 🤓 And just stuff I’m doing.

Let’s start here with the USAF’s Air Guard who flew over Carson City and many other towns in NV and CA to honor the First Responders and those countless other people who are working every day to support the citizens of their counties and communities during the Pandemic of the Wuhan Corona Covid-19 Virus. Do you see them just coming over the Carson Range? Three tiny little specs with a whole lot of impact and respect for those braving the virus on the ground every day? HERE THEY COME!!! 3 C-130's Fly Coming into Carson Valley

Here’s a closer look at one of the planes… Damn, they were awesome!! Thank you for flying and honoring them all!! 🙏

USAF C130 Flyovrer 2020

A view from a boring “Stretch my Legs Hike”. The 4-mile round trip hike is boring…the view…not so much.

Home is down there. That makes me smile and very happy. The rock formations are pretty cool too. Just sayin.

The View from Clear Creek

Backyard View and Golf Cart traffic…The fruitless Olive trees are beginning to bloom. April 2020

…I’ve been painting on and off throughout the lockdown.

My Grandson Kneeboarding for the first time from a photo Baby Girl sent us while he was doing it.

Jaxon Kneeboarding First Time

I subscribed to the JohnMuirLaws Drawing Birds webinar while my watercolor class was on hold due to the pandemic and I tried sans success to keep up with the homework. However, I did manage to draw and fill in with paint a Duck and Shorebird I drew freehand from my own photographs then added watercolor to them after watching his webinar. I’m rather proud of these paintings. They look like what I intended them to look like! That’s huge! 😀

Lesser Scaup and Avocet watercolor

Okay, that’s 6, six images in this post. Way more than I usually post, and I have loads more of images that fall into the This and That category. I’ll stop, but you can count on more images from this category coming one day in the future. 😀

I hope you’re all doing well, and hanging in there! It will get better!

Nikon Camera and Lenses, Fuji Camera and Lens, Lumix FZ200, and Iphone 7 Plus

more to come…

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: