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.

Tule Elk

Posted in UncategorizedLeave a comment


Tule Elk, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2011 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

A friend and I hiked out to see the Tule Elk to see if there was anything going on in the way of rutting since it’s the season. We saw a few of the younger bulls being chased away from Harems by the Alphas, but not sparring.

I wasn’t too disappointed as these Elk are fascinating and beautiful to watch.
It’s also a bit of thrill as you walk by them. They are not penned in! Fortunately we both are wary of each other so I stay on the trial, and they stay a good bit away from it when humans are nearby.

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200mm@ 105mm| f8| 1/640 sec| ISO 640| Manual Mode| Hand-held

“Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutored mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; His soul proud Science never taught to stray, Far as the solar walk or milky way”~Alexander Pope

Posted in Uncategorized2 Comments

Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2011 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

Playing with high ISO, the D700, and the stars. Still trying to nail the Milky Way shot.
The latest Nikon announcement in which they told us about more than 6 Coolpix cameras coming soon when I was hoping the D700 replacement would be announced with a pre-Christmas release date was a disappointment to say the least.

I wouldn’t have been an early adopter, but had hoped by Spring I’d be the owner of a Full Frame camera.
This announcement came on the heels of my hiking trip to Clouds Rest in Yosemite National Park where a Full Frame Camera would have been wonderful for capturing more sky or foreground, and my good friend Dali sent me a text message while I was on Clouds Rest saying, ” I bought a D700. SJ Camera has 3 more in stock. When you get home go buy one!”
I was feeling so underwhelmed and frustrated with the wait knowing I could be waiting until next summer to buy one.

I came home and weighed the Pros and Cons for buying the D700.
My lists:
Pros:
Can get it now. No more missed shots!
My 17-35 would be used as meant to be used
Would have Ultra Wide Angle lens
Uses same cables and batteries as the D300s
Higher ISO-low light sensitivity
Nicer picture contrast, colors
Faster fps
More focus points
Better weather sealing
Well regarded and loved in the field by users
I have several primes and Pro FX lenses already
Haven’t bought a Tilt-Shift lens yet

Cons
Old technology; it’s 3+ years old
Uses CF cards only
Flash unit blocks full functionality of Tilt/Shift lens
Heavy

The Pros outweighed the Cons in my mind. I called the store. They had one D700 left. I decided to go down there. IF they still had it in I would try it out and buy it. I took my time getting down there. When I got there they still had it. I bought it.
I’ve had it just over a week now and though I’ve not used it a lot I am very happy with the performance and handling of it so far.
Just look how much sky I was able to get in this shot! I even cropped off some of the foreground.
The colors and contrast are just as I hoped -great, and the meter seems to be spot on! The unit I rented back in March over exposed this one doesn’t.
Technology will continue to get better, and the replacement to the D700 can be announced next week. I’m a content photographer! It’s such a relief to be done waiting and stop wanting.
I plan to spend the next few years working on making better photographs.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 17-35@ 17mm| f3.5| 20 seconds| ISO 3200| Manual Mode| Tripod| Release Cable

August Hiking Stats

Posted in California, hikes, Photography, TravelTagged , , , , Leave a comment

August 2011 Hiking Report

August got off to a slow start. I got home from Glacier Nat. Park and was ever so lazy! Unpacking, doing laundry, catching up with snail mail, bills, and then work kept me off the trails, but I got back in the groove. The countdown to Clouds Rest began!

The month was fantastic. With not just one hike up to Clouds Rest but TWO, and I finished the month with a Backpacking class which was fun, and it’s something I’d like to do again in the future.

The photo above was taken on the morning of my second night hike up to Clouds Rest in Yosemite Nat. Park. I made it up to the top, and across the scary narrow span. Below I am looking back at the Narrow Span. I walked across this in the dark with only the aid of my head lamp and what ambient light there was at 4:30 a.m. Unfortunately, on this hike too I suffered from altitude issues beginning around 9,000ft, but they weren’t as severe as my previous hike up the week before.

Having safely crossed the Narrow Span and making it onto the  somewhat wider slab I set up my camera to take a series of shots of the sky, and took a nap. I woke up right before the sun was about to crest the mountains and I was hoping for Alpine Glow. I moved my tripod and camera over to a place I would be able to shoot Half Dome lit by the morning sun and waited. In the very top photograph the sun had just lit up the tops of El Capitan, Sentinel Dome, and Half Dome.  It was a gorgeous morning.  It’s an amazing view, and as for me… I’ve never trained or worked so physically hard to achieve a goal like this before. It’s been an amazing journey. I cross this goal off my 2011 list with a heart full of thanks for those friends who hiked with me, supported me, and encouraged me all along the way. Especially Heman, who put up with me interrupting his sleep at ungodly hours as I got up to train or came in late from a night shoot, and being gone a lot. I couldn’t have done it without you! ♥

8/4-7.98mi, 1,962 ft, 3h3m, PG&E trail to Vista Point

8/8 -6.32 miles, 2,197ft 3h22m, Peak Trail- The Steep Route- o&b

8/8- 2mi, 20ft– W. Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz stroll b4 dinner

8/10- 10.85mi, 2,252ft, 4h58m, Mount Madonna Several trails to make a loop

8/12- 4.30mi, 920ft, 1h36m, PG&E Trail to Wildcat Loop Trailhead & Back

8/13&14- 14mi, 3,099ft, 9h25m,  Trail to Cloud’s Rest Yosemite Nat. Pk

8/17- 6.50mi, 2,169ft, 3h12m, Mission Peak-The Steep Route w/Seth

8/23&24- 14.2mi, 3,687ft, 12h30,  Trail to Clouds Rest Yosemite Nat. Park

8/27&28- 10.83mi, 476ft, -REI Backpacking class Point Reyes Nat. Seashore Coast Camp

Total Miles Hiked- 76.98

Total Elevation Gain- 16,782ft

YTD elevation gain- 64,540! Can I make 100,000ft in 2011? Don’t bet on it! 😀

 

Hubble Movies Provide Unprecedented View of Supersonic Jets from Young Stars

Posted in Astrophotograhpy, PhotographyTagged , , , , Leave a comment

Via Flickr:
The glowing, clumpy streams of material shown in these NASA Hubble Space Telescope images are the signposts of star birth.

Ejected episodically by young stars like salvos from a cannon, the blobby material zips along at more than 440,000 miles (770,000 kilometers) an hour. Called Herbig-Haro or HH objects, these speedy outflows have a bumpy ride through space.

When fast-moving blobs “rear-end” slower gas, bow shocks (the blue features) arise as the material heats up. Bow shocks are glowing waves of matter similar to waves produced by the bow of a ship plowing through water. In HH 2, at lower right, several bow shocks (the compact blue and white features) can be seen where fast-moving clumps bunch up like cars in a traffic jam. In HH 34, at lower left, a grouping of merged bow shocks reveals regions that brighten and fade over time as the heated material cools, shown in red, where the shocks intersect.

In HH 47, at top, a long jet of material has burst out of a dark cloud of gas and dust that hides the newly forming star. The blue, fan-shaped region at left is the edge of a cavity illuminated by the fledgling star. A massive clump of jet material collides with upstream gas, creating the white bow-shaped shock wave at right.

These images are part of a series of time-lapse movies astronomers have made showing the outflows’ motion over time. The movies were stitched together from images taken over a 14-year period by Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Hubble followed the jets over three epochs. Observations of HH 2 were made from 1994, 1997, and 2007; HH 34 from 1994, 1998, and 2007; and HH 47 from 1994, 1999, and 2008.

The outflows are roughly 1,350 light-years from Earth. HH 34 and HH 2 reside near the Orion Nebula, in the northern sky. HH 47 is located in the southern constellation Vela.
Object Names: HH 47, HH 34, HH 2
Image Type: Astronomical/Annotated

To read more go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/supersonic-jets…

Credit: NASA, ESA, and P. Hartigan (Rice University)..NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.