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.

“Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.” Neil Armstrong

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Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

My friend Dali and I went out last night to watch and photograph the sky hoping we’d see and capture a meteor or two streaking through the night sky. We saw one huge fire-ball streaking over our heads and I’m going to blend those exposures in the future and share them, but there were a few like this that I was fortunate to capture on film. Do you see the faint one  below this big one and sort of center? My camera caught several like that, but I wondered all night if my eyes were playing tricks on me.
The weather was perfect too. It was a lovely night for star-gazing.
The Perseids peak tonight. If you get a chance to go out and watch the sky I recommend it.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 18mm| f3.5| 23 sec| ISO 400| Manual Priority| Tripod

 

 

At the Viewer Cafe…

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At the Viewer Cafe…, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

Get a little closer.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 24mm| f2.8| 1/4 sec| ISO 400| Manual Priority| Hand-Held
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Santa Cruz, CA.

 

Morning Fog sits over the Valley

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Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

This was at roughly the 4.2mile mark of what turned into an 8 mile hike on Monday. I had work scheduled for the day, but the class was canceled at the last minute giving me an opportunity to hit the trail in the morning. The Open Space Preserve where I hiked was once owned by Fremont Older and his wife Cora. Fremont was a San Francisco newspaper editor and he named the peaks on his property after famous peaks in San Francisco. On my hike on this morning I hiked all 3 peaks, Knob Hill, Maise’s Peak the highest in the Preserve, and Hunter’s Point. This is the view from Hunter’s Point. This is sort of an North-eastern view of the valley. Beyond the valley you can barely see the Peaks of Mt. Hamilton, Mt Allison, and Mission Peak.
They are in the Diablo Mountain Range. The most visible peak on the far right is Mt. Umunhum which means the Resting Place of the Hummingbird, It’s the 4th highest peak in Santa Clara Co.

Thank you Etherflyer for your help! If you want to see some great Panoramas check him out. He does beautiful work.
www.flickr.com/photos/etherflyer/sets/72157607002358270/

Nikon D700| Nikkor 28-105mm@ 28mm| f8| ISO 200| Hand-Held|12 Frames stitched in CS6

Kayaking in Santa Cruz

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Kayaking in Santa Cruz, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
I had an Open Deck Kayak lesson out in the Pacific Ocean a couple of weeks ago. I have to tell you it was quite scary and exhilarating at the same time.
My first thought when we were paddling out beyond the buoy was, ” I’m not at the top of the food chain out here!”
We started the morning gray and overcast as we paddled south toward Capitola.
I started out with a longer Red Kayak but was having difficulty steering it even employing the Rutter so in the middle of ocean the instructor and I with the help of my friend Dali made a switch. Marc and Dali pulled up on either side of me, Dali and Marc held my kayak steady and I slid over to this kayak that Marc was in then once I was in I held the kayak for Marc and he slid into the Red one. What a feat!
No one got wet either.

We nearly made it to Capitola before turning around and coming here. As you see the sky was clearing up by this time. From here we headed back to the harbor and the end of the adventure.
I like the closed deck kayak better now that I’ve tried both.

Canon Powershot SD750| Hand-held