circadianreflections

Whatever Weds.- O’Dark Thirty

Did you hear about the new Comet that was discovered in March of this year? It’s called C/2020 F3 “Neowise”. Some…okay a lot of astronomers thought it would be burned up when it made its close encounter to the Sun, but a few thought it would make it past that, and we who were paying attention held our breath and waited and watched…

It made it past the sun! Two Comets I was watching this year didn’t make it past their close encounter with the Sun so this is huge!

On July 10th I rose at an UnGodly hour 4:00 A.M. brushed my teeth put on some pants and shoes and grabbed my gear then headed out not too far from home on foot to see if I could see this new Comet C/2020 F3 “Neowise”. I did not see it. I knew where to look so made 13 images around the area hoping my camera could see what I could not. IT DID NOT. I was too late. The Sun’s light was already hiding the Comet. I needed to get up earlier.

July 11th. I rose at 3:15am put some pants on, brushed my teeth, put on my shoes, and grabbed my gear bag and headed out the door on foot to my spot. My compass for the morning was Venus with Alderan under it and Capella off to the north of Venus. They would guide me to Comet C/2020 F3 ” Neowise”. I also took my binoculars just in case I couldn’t spot with my eyes. I located Capella with my binocs and began scanning the area below it where I knew the comet would be. THERE IT WAS! I did a little happy dance I won’t lie! There’s just something about the stars, planets, and comets that excites me.

I set up my camera and dialed in my exposer and hoped I was in focus. Focusing in the dark isn’t always easy.

Here’s my best frame from the morning.

Comet Neowise C/2020 F3 7.11.2020

As I was shooting there was a pack of Coyotes singing their song just up the trail and behind me just far enough away to keep me looking to my right. Greeting the morning or healding their catch of the night I don’t know, but they stirred up all the coyotes in the valley and kept me watching my right.

When I walked up the path toward the fence I needed to hop to get home I kept looking over my shoulder making sure the Coyotes weren’t following me! They’re sneaky those coyotes. In my head, I had this song. It’s my favorite Coyote song evah. And they go…

Who yip , who yip, who…

Nikon D810| Nikkor 180mm F/2.8| CS PP 21.2

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends- Blue

This week for Lisa’s Bird Weekly Challenge she’s asked us to share Feathers of Blue. Here are a few I’ve taken so far this year.

Great Blue Heron in Flight-

Great Blue Heron

Western Bluebird-Male

Western Bluebird Male

and a Scrub Jay-

Scrub Jay

I’m off hiking in the high country looking for wildflowers, and butterflies today. I hope you all have a lovely Friday and week-end! I’ll catch up with you when I get home.

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

To see what other Feathers of Blue people are sharing click here.

bird_weekly_badge_400 web

more to come…

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

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