Author: circadianreflections

My name is Deborah Zajac. I'm a photographer living in Nevada at the base of the Eastern Sierras. I am a passionate nature, landscape, night/astro photographer. I shoot predominately in color and use Nikon Digital Cameras, and lenses. I hope you enjoy seeing some of the photos I've taken while on my travels. Please feel free to leave a comment I'd love to hear from you.

Mono Lake: Morning Civil Twilight

Posted in Civil Twilight, Eastern Sierras, Mono Lake, Photography, SunrisesTagged , , , , , , 14 Comments

Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I spent the week-end in the Eastern Sierras photographing Sunrises, Sunset, and Fall Color.  I left my home in Silicon Valley at 4PM on Friday to meet a new friend/member in the Photography Group I was going with.  Anyone living in Silicon Valley knows leaving after 3PM is a nightmare! Traffic is awful.  It’s congested with get-away travelers and commuters. Unfortunately, even in mid-October that’s true! It took me over an hour to travel 11 miles to meet her!  Cindy parked on a residential street hoping her car would be fine for the week-end b/c my house was out of the way, and me going to meet her would have beem backtracking and mean we’d lose 1-2 hours in traffic.

I picked her up, and we got back on the freeway where we crawled at about 30 mph for 2 hours. Finally the road opened up and we were off and onto the Eastern Sierras. We arrived at our Motel just about Midnight. After checking in we both unpacked the bare necessities then fell into our beds knowing the alarm would be ringing in just 4 hours!

We were meeting the rest of our group at 6AM. We had a 30 minute drive from our Motel to the meeting spot. That meant a 4:40AM wake up call for me! I had a quick shower, and we managed to get out the door at 5:20am and arrived at the meeting spot 5 minutes early.

We were a group of 20 in all. We drove to Mono Lake ( Moe-Noh) and found the parking lot was already full of cars! Fall in the Eastern Sierras is getting more and more crowded. There was a faint light in the East signaling the Sun was in a hurry to greet the Northern Hemisphere so, we gathered our gear, and walked-ran to find our spots as quickly as we could.

We went left away from the horde of other photographers; I found a place I thought made a good composition, but I sank ankle deep in the muck to get there.

Experienced Photographers have a good feel for the outcome of the sunrise or sunset, but I’ve never bet on it.  Mother Nature has fooled me a few times! Okay, I won’t lie more than a few times! This morning however, had great potential, and fortunately, The Belt of Venus showed up and lent the morning a beautiful pink hue.

These formations you are seeing are salt and mineral deposits that formed over thousands of years. They’re called Tufas (too-fahs).

Years ago the lake water was re-routed to the south to give water to Southern California’s agriculture belt and residents.

As the lake got lower, and lower these remarkable formations were exposed.

A couple of decades ago a conservation group was successful in their appeals to let Mono Lake (Moe-Noh) return to its natural state. They are no longer diverting water from this basin which means one day all this will be under water again.

Each time I visit this lake I am acutely aware that I am seeing something wonderful, beautiful, and unique. I hope this image is able to convey just a hint of that wonder and beauty.

Morning Twilight Civil Mono Lake

In desperate need of a caffeinated drink, and food we headed for breakfast right after the light went flat.

For more information about Mono (Mo-noh) Lake click here.

I’m really behind on all your posts. I will get caught up this week!

Nikon Df| AF Nikkor 24-70mm| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| Tripod| Developed in Photoshop CS6

More to come…

Monochrome Madness 2: 27/52 Country

Posted in Black and White Photography, Fort Point National Park, Forts, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Monochrome Madness2, US National ParksTagged , , , , , , 10 Comments

Copyright ©2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

We return to Monochrome Madness 2 this week with Theme Week.  The Theme is Country.  I was torn between; Country a nation, or Country rural. In the end I went Literal (no surprise there right) 🙂

My image is from Fort Point National Park in San Francisco, CA. which is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

MM2 27 of 52 Country

The view is looking North across the “Gate”. You see both the South and North Towers of the Golden Gate Bridge, Marin Headlands, and in the foreground some of the 3 tier casements of Fort Point, and on the top tier some of the old Cannon Foundations, and watch tower.

For the History Buffs

In 1851 the War Department got busy planning to build a Fort(s) on the Pacific Coast. Priority was to build a Fort at San Francisco’s Gateway because the Military considered it a High Priority and Key to the Pacific Coast.

Construction began on Fort Point in 1853, but completion of the Fort was delayed due to the cost, and complexity of the building’s multi-storied tiers of arched casements. The fort needed to be strong enough to withstand the strong storms of the Pacific.  The building is made of walls 7 feet thick, and has the multi-tiered casement construction typical of Third System forts.  There were 30+ forts of this type on the East Coast, but this was the only one built of this type on the West Coast.

Third System forts were planned after the war of 1812; they combined high walls, heavy masonry, and classified as Third System, as a grade of structural integrity.

When Fort Point was completed to its top tier (barbette) it could accommodate 90 cannons which weren’t yet installed.

In 1861 war was looming on the East Coast so the Army mounted  55 guns at the fort, and the first garrison and defenses were ordered.

Fort Point never had to fire its guns during the Civil War, and the Confederate Army never launched an attack on the Bay.

For further reading about the Fort’s Post-Civil War History to Present day click here.

I believe the flag is flying at Half Staff to honor the victims in Roseburg, OR.

To see all the images that were shared for the Theme Country  click Leanne Cole Monochrome Madness 2.

Nikon Df| AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| CS6 & Silver Efex Pro

More to come…

Maple Lear in Watercolor

Posted in Art, Fall Leaves, Learning to paint, Painting, Watercolor PaintingTagged , , , , , 17 Comments

Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

A couple of weeks ago I spotted what might be a Maple Tree while driving home from the hardware store.

After dropping off my packages I walked back to the tree and plucked a single leaf off a low branch with the intention of using it as a model for a watercolor painting.  I sketched it out that same afternoon then worked on a Kumquat leaf, and a landscape instead.  Today I was able to spend quite a bit of time working on the Maple Leaf painting, but it was super dried out, and crumbly and the color had changed from a vibrant red to a brownish red which I tried to capture, but perhaps I missed the mark and this is closer to an Ash in the fall or winter.

Here’s the final painting.

Maple Leaf in Watercolor

I bought a new set of Turner watercolor paints not long ago so, I used those to paint this on Arches 140lb Cold Press watercolor paper. I also purchased a new brush that I’ve been using almost exclusively since it arrived.

It’s Creative Mark’s Mimic Kolinsky No.12 Round.   It’s faux mink but, feels and acts like a real fur brush. I’m loving it, and the new paints. The brush comes to a lovely fine point and hasn’t shed at all. It holds a lot of water, and cleans up in a cinch.  The paints have a nice pigment, there are 18 colors in the set so, I’m getting to try some new colors, and I’m using less paint than I was using with my Cotman paints. Or it feels that way to me.

Is this a Maple Leaf? I hope I can find another one that’s still red soon!

Lumix FZ200| Lexar Professional Digital Film| Hand-held

More to come…

Amethyst Evening Rat Rock Island

Posted in Long Exposures, Photography, Rat Rock Island, San Pedro California, SunsetsTagged , , , , , 7 Comments

Copyright ©2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I went out last evening with a small group of Photographer’s to Rat Rock Island for Sunset. The Belt of Venus was lovely and lent a beautiful hue to the sea and sky.

This was my last image of the evening.  I was using my 6 stop Neutral Density filter to slow down the water and create a dreamier scape. This is a 2 minute exposure.

Amethyst Evening at Rat Rock Island

Nikon Df| AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| Tripod| B+W 6stop ND Filter| CS6| On1

More to come…

Peek-a-Boo!

Posted in Bees, Insects, Macro Photography, Municipal Rose Garden, Roses, San Jose CA, YellowTagged , , , , 4 Comments

Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

This image is one I made in July when the roses were in their glory, and bees were everywhere at the Municipal Rose Garden in San Jose, CA.

Peek a Boo

Nikon Df| AF-D Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 micro lens| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| Tripod

More to come…

Blood Moon Total Lunar Eclipse

Posted in Blood Moon, Lunar Eclipse, Lune, Moon, Tetrad, Total Lunar EclipseTagged , , , , 14 Comments

Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

This is the Moon at Maximum or Total Eclipse on September 27, 2015.  We had a little low clouds and thin fog that contributed to the atmosphere. The color was amazing!

This is slightly cropped.

Blood Moon Total Lunar Eclipse

I’m not the only one who thought this Total Eclipse was darker than previous Eclipses. Read SpaceWeather.com’s article regarding the Darker Eclipse here:
http://spaceweather.com/

Nikon D700| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| CS6| Tripod

More to come…