Copyright ©2024 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
What a week it’s been! It all started on October 10th, 2024.
My neighbor and I rose early to head up to Emerald Bay for sunrise.
The color was earlier than we hoped so, we made a quick stop at Pope Beach to shoot the color and daybreak.

Then we made our way up to a lookout over Emerald Bay to photograph the lake.

Then we took our time making stops along the way home to photograph some Autumn Color.

We saw a beautiful Red-tailed Hawk hunting for breakfast. She caught a Vole but, I won’t gross you out with those images.

Later that evening I saw the Northern Lights for the first time ever. That post is here. It was glorious.
Friday morning I birded with my usual birding group and we had a great morning seeing 40 species of birds. Along with the birds I noticed some spooky Zombie Pirates lurking by the pond. Here’s one.

Saturday morning I was up early and met up with two girl friends to do my first Big Day. It’s a 24 hour global birding marathon put on by Cornell Lab of Ornithology. We didn’t sign up as team or register our day but we, birded from 8AM until after 4PM. I saw 45 species. It was pretty fun day. We posted our sightings on ebird.org so they’ll have our record for their counts and information. Unfortunately, the next afternoon I got sick, and shortly afterwards I was hearing from my companions from the day before that they where also sick. We think the deli we stopped at to have lunch is where we picked up food poisoning. I brought home half my sandwich which I shared with He-Man and yep, he got it too. UGH.
Monday still weak, and very tired I was determined to locate and see Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) but, I wasn’t in shape to drive anywhere so I just stepped out on my back patio and photographed it there. It’s so cool and it has a great long tail!

What a week! What a month it’s been so far! The Aurora, and the Comet really made my month. Everything else has been icing on the cake.
My tummy is still sketchy, but I’m on the mend and so are He-Man and my friends. I plan to be out photographing Halloween things, birding, and maybe the Comet with a better composition soon. I hope your week is going well. Oh, and watch out for the Zombies and Ghoulies! 👻
Nikon D850| Nikkor 500mm, &35mm| PS CC
more to come…
I love that you photograph lots of different subjects and you do it well.
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Thank you so much, Robert.
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wow the photo of the hawk is amazing
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Thank you so much, IIan! It was so cool to see her. She was fairly close and didn’t mind me snapping away. She even stayed long enough to eat before flying away.
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This shot is beautiful!
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Thank you so much, Holly!
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Sure sounds like a spectacular week, I enjoyed all your shots of it too!
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Minus the food poisoning it was a very good week. Thank you so much, John!
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Yes, minus that food poisoning part!
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Gorgeous!!
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Thank you so much, Jennie!
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You’re welcome, Deborah!
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🤗
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Stunning images Deborah. I’m sorry about the food poisoning. I think if I were in the states right now I’d be avoiding deli meats with all the recalls. Take care and be well.
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Thank you so much, Cheryl! I’m all better now thankfully!
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Beautiful photographs as always!
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Thank you so much, Kendall!
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Awesome daybreak and autumn scenes and a surprise pirate too! Sorry to hear you were sick but fabulous that you rallied and got a shot of the comet!
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Thank you so much, Denise. The Halloween themes around town are entertaining for sure.
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Dear Deborah
We could see the comet clearly from our coast, and many people photographed it. It may be one of the most photographed comets by non-astronomers. Great picture you took.
Wishing you improving health.
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Thank you so much, The Fab Four of Cley!
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A fabulous past few weeks for you for sure, except that stomach illness, oh my! Glad to hear you and hubby are on the mend. Beautiful captures, love the comet shot! What a trooper you are, I’m glad you did get to see/photograph it even while feeling so bad. Wishes each day you’re better and better and back behind your camera, Deborah!
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Thank you so much, Donna! I’m feeling much better today. 🤗
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🤗💃😊
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Despite your aside that your comet photo was poorly composed, it’s one of the loveliest I’ve seen. I just don’t have the patience or probably the equipment for sky photography, but I do enjoy others’ photos. Besides, with people like you to capture the sights, there’s no need for me to do it poorly!
What really caught my attention here was the autumn color. That path into the golden woods is so appealing; I’d love to walk that one!
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It’s one of several lovely paths around the lake.
Thank you so much! 🙏😊
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What a wonderful photo week. Thanks for bringing us along. The bad food was not good at all though. I’m so sorry.
We finally have a day with the high in the upper 70s. (It’s continued to be around 90 this late in the year — way above normal.) I’m hoping for at least a few fall colors soon. Get well soon. Hugs.
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Thank you so much, Teagan! I hope your upcoming week is a good one! 🤗
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Very beautiful photos! I heard that a comet is visible, not sure if it can be seen over Las Vegas. I’m glad that you are feeling better after food poisoning, that must have been terrible, Deborah! Thank you for subscribing to my photoblog!
My sister has been a birder for decades, her love for birds has rubbed off on me, I love feeding the different Hummingbirds that visit my backyard daily to feed on the two feeders. I have that Cornell bird app on my phone. ❤️
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Thank you, John!
I’m seeing photos from the outskirts of Vegas of the Comet so you should be able to see it if your sky is clear. The moon is brighter as it approaches the Supermoon tomorrow night so it may be harder to see but, start looking West 40-45 minutes after sunset to right of Venus about 6 of my fists and up a bit. If you have a night sky app that will help you find it. Sky live II is a good one. Good luck!!
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Thanks for the app info! I will have a look tonight, the sky over the city is usually clear at night but I haven’t noticed the comet. I pulled up the website for your town, it looks very beautiful and even relaxing compared to the speed of life here. Tooooo fast!
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It’s definitely a slower pace here. I hope that doesn’t change too soon.
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I hope you are right. 👍🏻😊
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Oh yes, thank you! Much, much better today!
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Beautiful captures Deborah, the early bird certainly caught the worm 🙂
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😀 Thank you, Ashley!! I have your latest post in my inbox I’ll catch up soon!
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Absolutely wonderful pictures, Deborah. You were lucky to see the comet so clearly. Here, there was some haze in the air. So it didn’t come up so brightly. In spite of that Mary could see it and even take pictures with her smartphone. I couldn’t see it at all, not even with binoculars. Maybe I’ll have another chance tonight.
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Thank you so much, Pit! I hope you get to see it tonight. I think I had my best shot. It’s raining and cloudy the next two days here and we’re dropping down into the 20’s tomorrow night. 🥶I’m hoping you see it!
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We tried to yesterday, but we couldn’t see it. And from now on it’s supposed to be cloudy. Well, at least Mary saw it and too pictures the day before yesterday.
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What an amazing week you and your camera enjoyed. It is so great that you have friends and neighbors who share your passion. That being said, I’m sorry you caught the stomach bug as did others. Glad to hear you are surfacing from it. Take care and enjoy your next outing.
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Thank you so much, Judy! It was a great week for sightings. 😊
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I love the daybreak pictures and the comet, Deborah. It is really the first image I’ve seen from the comet! Wonderful. Being ill from food poisening is nasty! One almost is unable to do anything but feel miserable. Luckely it doesn’t last to long mostly, but it never comes in handy. Glad you are feeling better by now. Halloween isn’t a big thing over in the Netherlands (although I was suprised by a singing skeleton in a store the other day), but for security reasons I will try to avoid all zombies. 🙂
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Thank you so much, Peter! It’s a beautiful view of Emerald Bay up there. I’m glad you like my poorly composed shot of the comet. I was just happy to see it.
Yes, please avoid the Zombies! 😂
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Thanks so much for sharing your photos. I love the colors and the photo of the lake. The hawk is magnificent, as is the comet (and your earlier post about the aurora). I am sad to hear that you all got sick. That’s an awful feeling. I’m glad you’re feeling better. I hope you’re back to normal soon.
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Thank you so much, Dan! Photographing the lake was fun and it was great opportunity to bring my Neutral Density filters and have a play with long exposures. I hadn’t done that in quite awhile.
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Very exciting report. You have had a gre
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Thank you so much, Jarlath! Summer has flown by! I hope we get a chance to hang out together this fall.
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Your day break shots are really beautiful, Deborah! You had quite a week, minus the bad stomach of course 😏
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Thank you so much, Belinda! It was a beautiful morning. Thankfully, we’re all feeling better. 💗
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That’s the most eventful week I recall you ever recounting. Too bad about the one downside. Did you contact health authorities to tell them about that deli?
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There were some pretty spectacular sights last week that I wanted to share. It’s not every week one sees the Northern Lights, and a Comet along with the other things I like to photograph within 4 days. 😊
We talked about reporting it, but really weren’t sure who to report it too so, we haven’t.
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Gorgeous
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Thank you so much!!
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Your photos are sharp and detailed and just wonderful. I like seeing what you saw. Sorry about the food poisoning. I dealt with that a few months ago, not fun. Take care, okay?
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Thank you so much, Ally. It was a miserable few days, but we’re on the mend. 😊
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So sorry for the food poisoning. I had that once and know it is awful. Your photos are beautiful, Deborah. I have shot Emerald Bay so many times, but yours takes the prize. I really enjoyed the comet. We have too many trees so I couldn’t see it. Well now I have. Thanks.
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Thank you so much, John! I’m glad you liked my images and the comet.
We want a redo up at the Lookout to Emerald Bay because Mother Nature decided to add the color before we reached it. 😊
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