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.

Whatever Weds. North American Elk

Posted in Nature Photography, Photography, Travel and Tourism, WildlifeTagged , , , , , , , 59 Comments

Copyright ©2022 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

One of the highlights we had while visiting Rocky Mountain National Park last October were the North American Elk herds. The surprising thing is just how BIG they are. They stand 5 feet tall at the shoulder, and weigh several hundred pounds. The females are half their size. Only the males have antlers which they shed each winter. Their antler can grow up to an inch a day!

One morning while in Estes Park I saw a Bull laying in the shade with his harem and made my over to get some images of them.

The bull …

North American Elk Bull

He had about dozen females (called cows) in his harem. Here he is with some of them just chillin.

Bull Elk with some of his harem

Here’s an image of a bull and some of his harem we saw the night before just after the sun went behind the mountains while in Rocky Mountain National Park.

North American Elk Bull with Harem

The rutting season begins in October so the bulls were on high alert keeping a close eye on their harems and keeping them close by.

Fun Fact-

Free roaming elk have a lifespan of 10-13 years in the wild.

https://www.nps.gov/romo/learn/nature/elk.htm

We really enjoyed seeing these wonderful animals while we in the park. They really do enrich the visit.

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm| PS CC 23.1.1

more to come…

Wordless Weds. Lift Off!

Posted in Event Photography, Events and Fairs, Nikon, Wordless WednesdayTagged , , , , , , , , , , 49 Comments

Copyright ©2022 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Some are up already! Nevada Days 2021

Note: The little black spot to the left of the Hot Air Balloon right in front isn’t a bug it’s actually a person in a little motorized glider thingie. I bet their view was amazing!

Nikon D810| Nikkor 24-120mm| PS CC 23.0.0

more to come…

Thursday Doors- The Pumphouse +1

Posted in Doors, Nikon, Photography, Thursday DoorsTagged , , , , , , , , , , 36 Comments

Copyright ©2022 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I’ve been wanting to photograph this pumphouse for a year and finally did. It’s a cute structure I think and it only holds the well water pump and water softener unit.

The Pumphouse

Not too far below this pumphouse is a lovely creek that I hiked through the bush to get down to in order to photograph some of it. Here’s one image from that adventure.

Go with the flow…

I did a fairly good job of avoiding the wild blackberry thorns, and poison oak ones too, but still had to pick off some stickers when back up on the road. 😀

This is part of Thursday Doors which is run by Dan Antion over at No Facilities blog. Click on the link to head on over there to see all the other doors that have been shared this week.

Badge by Teagan Riordain Geneviene

Nikon D810| Nikkor 24-120mm| PS CC 23.0.0

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Cattails

Posted in Nature, Nature Photography, Plants, Whatever WednesdayTagged , , , , , , , 36 Comments

Copyright ©2022 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I like cattails even when they get all crazy and fluffy. I always think of it as organized chaos.

I’ve also always liked this bit of Mary Oliver’s poem regarding cattails,

“the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.”

From her poem- In Blackwater Woods.

Happy Hump Day! I hope your week is going well.

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm| PS CC 23.0.0

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends- American Bald Eagle

Posted in Bald Eagles, Bird Photogaphy, birding, Birding in Nevada, Fuji X-T3Tagged , , , , , 54 Comments

Copyright ©2022 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

While out birding with the birding group at the beginning of the month we saw this wonderfully majestic bird fly in low and land on this branch above a pond.

American Bald Eagle

It stayed there for quite awhile just taking in its surroundings. I turned my attention to another bird for a second and poof! Off flew the Eagle.

I’m way behind with your blogs as I spent the better part of this week at Baby Girl’s doing school runs, and playing with Littlest while she was swamped with training meetings. I’m home now and beginning to play catch up.

I hope you all have a wonderful week-end. I’ll be catching up with laundry, emails, snail mail, and blogs, and speaking of blogs WP sent me a notice today wishing me a happy 12th Blogversary.12 years! It doesn’t feel that long to me. Thank you all so much for finding my blog, for the comments, conversations, and most of all for the friendships we’ve forged throughout these years. 🥰 Thank you all so much!!

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm| PS CC 23.0.0

more to come…