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.

“I feel the sense of possibilities, I feel the wrench of hard realities, The focus is sharp in the city.”~ Rush

Posted in California, Copyright 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved., Photography, TravelTagged Leave a comment

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Copyright © 2013 Deborah M. Zajac All Rights Reserved

About 2.5 years ago I saw my Flickr contact MattyD90’s photo from this spot and have had it on my "Bucket List" since.
See his photo here:
www.flickr.com/photos/53734358@N08/5280329228/lightbox/

About two weeks ago I asked my friend Dali if he’d want to shoot it and/or scout out the area if we didn’t beat the fog. As it turned out we did not beat the fog, but we found our shooting location. Dali emailed me yesterday that the conditions for shooting this shot were favorable and asked if I was free. Luckily I was free.There was a little atmosphere (read fog) in the air, but it didn’t block the view.

I only took two lenses with me the 24-70, and the 18mm f3.5 AI-S. I realized while shooting it that having a tighter view would be something I want to shoot as well, and
I want to shoot it on a perfectly clear night so it remains on the "Bucket List".

Nikon D700| Nikkor 24-70@ 70mm| f14| 30seconds| ISO 200| Manual Priority| Center weighted| Tripod

Jacoby Summer Portrait

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Copyright © 2013 Deborah M. Zajac All Rights Reserved.

This is the best portrait I have taken of 5yrs old Step-Grandson. He didn’t think he was really posing. I asked him to help me test my Speedlight which he happily did. Had he thought I was seriously taking his photo he wouldn’t have been so eager. 🙂
He has a fashion style already. He picks button down shirts when shopping and really likes the preppy look. It’s a good look for him. He’s so handsome and has eyelashes to die for!

Nikon D700| Nikkor 24-70@ 48mm| f5| 1/250s| ISO 400| Center metering| Manual Priority| Tripod
Strobist- SB600 Camera left 1/4 power shot through a shoot through umbrella

Tufted Puffin-Adult Summer

Posted in Birds, California, Copyright 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved., Nature, Nikon, Photography, Travel, WildlifeTagged , , , , , Leave a comment

Copyright © 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

Tufted Puffin-Adult SummerThis is the first time I’ve ever seen a Puffin in the wild! I went on a Birding trip out to the Farallon Islands 27 miles outside of San Francisco in the Pacific Ocean. We weren’t allowed on the island-only Biologists are allowed on the island, but we cruised all around them and then we went out to deeper water from there. Along the way we saw 3 Tufted Puffin.

There are only 50 pairs of Tufted Puffin nesting on the Islands at this time, but there thousands of gulls, Common Murre’s, lots of Cormorants, seals, sea lions, and one lone Gannet. In deeper water we saw Hump Back whales, and a Blue Whale too.

I saw so many new birds on the trip, and the one bird I hoped to see was the Tufted Puffin. I went home a happy sailor just seeing one. I hoped I got one good shot.
The weather was overcast, and to get the shutter speed I needed I really pushed the ISO. Shooting from the boat was challenging. I would focus on a bird then the boat would go up or down and my focus point was off. I didn’t start to get the rhythm of the sea til near the end of the day, and then there wasn’t much to see as we were pushing hard to get back.
We were out at sea for nearly 9 hours.  I went with Alvaro’s Adventures out of Half Moon Bay. I would definitely go again.

Alvaro is a Biologist, and he had two expert birders along for the tour. One was on the starboard side calling out birds and mammals, and the other on the Port side doing the same. I don’t think we missed anything flying or swimming on our route.

I’ve not been able to spend much time online lately. #1 Grandson is very busy and takes all my attention these days. I’m looking at your  photos when I can and I’ll catch up soon!

Nikon D700| Nikkor 70-300mm VR@ 280mm| f9| 1/1000s| ISO 1250| Manual priority| Matrix Metering| Hand-held

Related articles

Food Composition

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Copyright © 2013 Deborah M. Zajac All Rights Reserved.

I’ve been watching bits and pieces of Creative Live’s webcast this week-end with Andrew Scrivani who challenged the audience to photography their lunch today. I didn’t do lunch but made Spaghetti for dinner this afternoon and thought I’d try to create Chiaroscuro lighting to give my composition an evening mood; as if dinning in a dimly lit restaurant perhaps.
The family liked the project and early dinner.

Nikon D700| Nikkor35mm f2@ f4.5| 1/320s| ISO 400| Manual Priority| Hand-held|
Continuous Daylight bulb behind camera left

Hahaha Grape!

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Copyright © 2013 Deborah M. Zajac All Rights Reserved.

While on a short hike this morning I came across a small grape vine growing along a fence. It was a great place to stage Tim Giggling Minion.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 35mmf/2 AF-D@ f4.5| 1/100s| ISO 200| Manual Priority| Matrix Metering| Hand-held

Add a little Sparkle to your day…

Posted in Copyright 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved., Gear, Nikon, Photography, Still LifeTagged , , , , , , Leave a comment

Copyright © 2013 Deborah M. Zajac  All Rights Reserved

I had the whole day free so I played with my continuous lights and SB600 Speedlight. I bought a couple of pieces of jewelry recently  which started  me thinking about Jewelry Photography and lighting.  I am still trying to get more accomplished with external lights and photography and I hope this exercise will help me grow in that area.

After studying lighting techniques, and jewelry styling for a couple of days I got my props together and by  late this morning I was ready to start taking some photos.

Add a little Sparkle to your day

Sapphire and Diamond Pendant

Ear-rings

Rose Gold Ear rings I still don’t have the lights quite right for the sparkle I want.  I’m looking into getting a Dazzle Bulb for the future.  I also need another high wattage bulb. I’d also like to add some plexiglass sheets to my kit as well;  I see a trip to the hardware store in my near future.

This is my tabletop set up. I set up on the kitchen table with a white sheet, white foam core board, and my lights. I had to hunt for something to tie dental floss on to be able to hang the jewelry and this is what I came up with. My daughters old high-school locker shelf. It came in handy after all these years of non-use.
I took the photo of the set up with a Nikon D300s and 24mm f2.8 AF-D and on-camera flash.

Camera and light set up for Jewelry ShootNikon D700| Nikkor 85mm f1.8 AF-D, and Nikkor 28-105mm AF-D| Continuous lights 1 full Daylight camera right, 1 soft light bulb camera left, SB 600 camera front

I did all the photo development/processing in Photoshop CS6.  All my processing starts in Adobe Camera RAW then I moved to Photoshop for levels adjustments, output sharpening, cloning out the thread that held the ear-rings and necklace, cleaning up dust spots, and adding my watermark then resizing for the web.

P.S. Several times today I wished I had a macro lens!

If I had a Hammer!

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Copyright © 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

When I saw this Tern calling out while sitting on this buoy that says Danger I immediately thought of the Peter, Paul, and Mary song If I had a Hammer.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 300mm f4@f8| 1/1600s| ISO 640| Manual Priority| Matrix Metering| Hand-held