“A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away.” ― Eudora Welty
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.
We started the ascent just after 10PM and I arrived here 5h 33m later.
I started this series of star trails at 3:51 A.M on Aug. 14, 2011. There are 22 frames| f8| 30 seconds each| ISO 1600. Nikon D300s| Nikkor 18mm Ai-S f3.5 lens| Tripod| Cable Release
Hike details:
It’s a 7.1 mile hike to Cloud’s Rest.
Time to top 5h33m
Total elevation gain: 3,099ft
Total rd trip 9h25m
Total miles- 14.2mi
It was a struggle for me once I hit 9,000ft. I started feeling nauseous, and heavy, and later with more altitude I started feeling dizzy. I rested a lot, and pushed through it. I didn’t climb the last 100ft of Cloud’s Rest…the most precarious part of the trail because the terrain was granite, with a shear drop off of 7,000ft, and the trail is exposed -only about 30-40 feet wide or so. Not something I wanted to attempt feeling nauseous, and dizzy. I am very happy to have made here. It was an epic hike, and challenging 24 hours.
I got a tip from a photography friend about this warning. It’s legit! I changed my settings sometime ago so updates are NOT automatic. I must approve all updates. Read the whole thing!
I had the pleasure of hiking with the “Wednesday Hiking Group” today. I haven’t hiked with them in a really long time due to work. Today I didn’t have work scheduled so I met them.
The group split into two groups at 3.25miles. The Rabbits took a shorter route that would loop them back and give them a 6.5mile hike, and the Big Dogs continued on to complete a 10.85mile hike.
There were 5 Big Dogs, and I’m happy to say I was one of them. On the way back we took the Bayview Trail for a bit and there beside it was some wild Foxglove. I’ve never seen it in the wild before. It was a lovely surprise.
Foxglove Photograph by Deborah M. Zajac
Foxglove’
Foxglove Photograph by Deborah M. Zajac
A little later we saw some pretty Pacific Pea.
Pacific Pea Photography by Deborah M. Zajac
The fog hung thick in the Santa Cruz Mountain Range today, and several times we got rained on. It was definitely the place to hike on hot sunny day in the valley.
It was great seeing some old friends, and meeting new people today. I hope it’s not long before I can hike with the group again. There was another neat surprise during this hike I’ll share soon!
I’ve made my Hike Stats public if you’d like to see them, and the route map go here.
I had read about this mission and wanted to visit it while on my July trip to Whitefish, Mt. It’s only 1.5 hours to the east of where I was staying. When planning things to do with my friend Big Jay who wouldn’t be doing the steep hikes with me I thought this would be a great outing, and we could continue our Mission series that we’d started in Northern California. When I suggested it I delighted that he was interested, and game to go.
The most striking thing to me about this Mission is how different its exterior structure is from the Missions of California. This one is made of brick and mortar, and has the familiar look of a mid-sized Catholic Church , and has no inner courtyard, and large garden verses the Missions in California that are made of Adobe or stucco, with wood beams, and the familiar Spanish arches, and an inner courtyard with a fountain.
Their small garden has a statue of Christ carved by Fr. Anthony Ravalli, S. J. believed to be done during his stay in St. Ignatius in 1863. The statue is next to the Original Log Cabin. The first home of the Jesuit missionaries, built in 1854. Today it’s a museum with a collection of artifacts from various tribes of the Northwest. The clothes, and dolls kept me occupied for sometime. There are several old photographs of the local Indians that would come to the Mission. The man in office was very friendly and shared some facts and stories with us about the Mission.
The Original Log Cabin, and statue of Christ
The chapel is wonderful. The colors are soft and peaceful, and the Frescoes are outstanding in their workmanship, and artistry. There are 58 murals, painted in the early 20th century by artist Brother Joseph Carignano (1853-1919), an Italian Jesuit. He was a cook, and handyman at the Mission. He had no professional training in art.
The paintings depict scenes from the Old and New Testaments, as well as some saints. Below you see most of the Frescoes that are painted on the North and South walls, and the Triptych in the Sanctuary which tells the story of “The Three Visions of St. Ignatius Loyola” the founder of the Mission. To the right of the Triptych is a large Fresco titled, ” St. Joseph and Jesus, and the large Fresco on the left of the Triptych is titled, ” The Immaculate Conception.
Chapel, St. Ignatius Mission, Montana, Full view
Below is a piece of statuary that rests next to the Altar, and behind it one part of the Triptych in the Sanctuary by artist Brother Joseph Carignano (1853-1919), to the left of that are two smaller round Frescoes, the lower one is “Jesus the Bread of Life”, and the one above it is “St. Luke Evangelist”.
Statuary in the Chapel - St. Ignatius Mission, Montana
Below in the foreground is the Altar with the depiction of “The Last Supper”. I really like the soft pastel color palette, and ornate wood carvings that frame it. Behind the Altar another view of the Triptych, and to the right the small round Fresco is “St. Peter the Apostle”.
The Last Super The Altar in St. Ignatius Mission, Montana
The Fresco above the Triptych is titled “The Last Judgement”. To the right of it is a round Fresco titled “Moses receives the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai”,and to the left is a Fresco called “Manna and Water in the Desert”.
The Last Judgement
I shot the whole interior in Natural Light. None of the lights were on inside the chapel except those that lit the Triptych. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting this Mission. I would love to come back and visit it again. If you happen to be passing near here it makes a wonderful side trip.
For the Historians:
Mission St Ignatius, St Ignatius, Montana, USA
St. Ignatius Mission is in Mission Valley on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Western Montana, about forty miles north of Missoula. It is bounded by the Mission Mountains to the east, and the hills of the National Bison Range to the west.
The Mission and the town that grew up around it were founded in 1854 by Jesuit missionaries and named for their founder, St Ignatius Loyola.
The present day brick church was built in 1891 and is now a National Historic Site, along with two small cabins, the original homes of the Jesuit Fathers and Providence Sisters, and the present rectory. The church took 2 years to build. The Indians, and missionaries together built the church of bricks made from local clay, and trees cut in the foothills, and sawed at the Mission Mill.
The building measures 120 feet by 60 feet with a belfry reaching nearly 100 feet.
The majority of the facts and figures I gleaned from a pamphlet I purchased while at the Mission.
In this edition of “Just Be There” Pet Photographer Penny Wills shares with us an emotional story of how she captured this gorgeous portrait of Abby.
Photography by: Penny Wills
CR. Tell us about this location.
Penny: This was taken in my home office, on a dark brown leather chair.
CR. How difficult was this to capture?
Penny: It’s interesting that you should ask me to talk about this particular photo. This is one of those emotional photos that I love taking. Unfortunately, this time, it’s my emotional photo.
Abby was sick. Intermittently she was throwing up foamy yellow bile. Not any food in it, just the foamy yellow stuff. Not all the time, and not just after eating, or playing and not every day. Sometimes she would go days without throwing up, and then she would throw up every couple of hours a day. After 2 weeks of this, I took her to the vet. He was thinking she got into something she should not have, and it irritated her stomach. She was admitted to the hospital and put on an IV and no food, just fluids, and a special medicine that coats the stomach, like for an ulcer. After 3 days of her behaving, he was about to call and say, she’s better, when she promptly threw up. We decided to do an X-Ray just to be sure and about an hour later, the vet called back. He said, “You have to come in and take a look at her X-Rays.” That is never a good sign, but I have been going to this vet for years, and with all my pets, you never know what they can pick up and eat. We have had a good laugh over another dog’s X-Rays, so I did not put too much gloom into his words.
My first hint that things were not good was the front office staff. They were quite somber instead of the joking that I am normally greeted with. I meet the Dr., and he pulls out her X-Ray. There is a large mass showing in her stomach. It’s not metal or wood (like some others I won’t mention!) because it does not have a distinct outline, it’s fuzzy. He gives me the bad news, “there’s not much I can do, I believe it’s a tumor, and that large, it can’t be good.” We discuss options, such as an ultrasound, and an exploratory. I settle on exploratory surgery, and we schedule it for the next morning first thing.
He looks at me, and says, “There’s no reason that she can’t go home tonight, so why don’t you take her?” What he didn’t say, but was understood, that if he found a tumor that large, her prognosis was not good. Dan & I had decided that if the vet did find something, and he didn’t think it was treatable, we would have her euthanized then. So, I brought her home for her last night, or so I thought. I took her out in the back yard to play with the other dogs and darned if I could not get a good photo of her. I had to give up when I lost the light.
CR. How did you expose for this shot?
Penny: The next morning, as I was setting one of our cats up for my photography class in front of the window, I noticed just how lovely the light was. Bells went off in my head, “Put Abby on the brown leather chair and take her photo there!” Eureka! So I popped her on the chair, swiveled the chair until I got the lighting just right, and took the shot. Fortunately, the neighbor was walking their dog down the road, so Abby’s attention was fixed on that dog.
Hand-held, I metered off her face, allowing the rest of the photo to be naturally dark. The camera settings were: 52mm, ISO 200, f/8, 1/20s,
There was absolutely no processing done on this photo, with the exception of adding my logo.
CR. What camera and lens did you use for this shot?
Penny: Natural light out of a north window, 6:18 a.m. just as the sun was rising.
I loved the soft light and the color of the light as the sun was rising. The color was just perfect, you cannot tell by the photo that her face is almost completely gray; the sun hid the gray behind the almost too saturated color.
On a happy note, after the surgery, the vet called. He found out what the problem was. Was it a tumor the size of his fist? Well it ended up being a stuffed mouse cat toy. How she managed to swallow it whole is beyond us. It was too large to pass into her stomach, so it just floated around in her stomach. Her throwing up was from the occasions that the toy blocked food and water from passing the stomach and into her intestines. So, after surgery, I brought her home and for about 12 hours she was fine. Then she started throwing up again. NOW WHAT? She was confined to her crate except for the trip from work to the car. Once again I call the vet and ask him to do a quick X-Ray, she is throwing up again. I wait in the waiting room and a couple of minutes later he comes out with the X-Ray. We look at it, look at each other and say, “What in the world?” There, big as life, is a piece of razor blade! UGH! This dog is going to give me a heart attack. So, for the 2nd time in less than 24 hours she heads to surgery. Thankfully, he removed it without any complications.
I think I got at least 1/2 a head of gray hair from her that week. Silly girl! She is now almost 12 and still going strong.
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