“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.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
This is a rare 2nd post for me this week and even rarer there will be another post tomorrow. Don’t worry I won’t do this very often.
I don’t participate in too many challenges but, Cee’s was one of the few I have done. Today would have been her birthday. Her challenges were always on point, varied, and were interesting subjects. Thankfully, Dan is continuing to keep the Monday challenges going in Remembrance of Cee.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
October 31, 2025 was Nevada’s 161st year of Statehood. The celebrations started early in October with many events scheduled throughout the month leading up to the big Birthday Bash on November 1st.
November 1st started really early with Hot Air Balloonist rolling in at 6am to get their balloons ready for an 8AM lift-off. I was there.
I usually pick one balloon and stick with them until they lift off. This year I watched the crew that owns this balloon laying flat on the ground.
The crew pulled up to their spot on the street then they laid out a huge tarp, next they roll out the balloon. The crew is named Cloud Couture Crew. The Balloon’s name is Cloud Couture. It’s piloted by Eric Diamond.
Next they hook up the basket, and gas, check all the lines, then they turn on a huge fan. See it next to the basket on the left? They use the fan to fill the balloon with air. The best part is when they have enough air in the balloon to start heating it up and lifting the balloon! Whoosh! It was warm standing here once they had the flame going.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
This is a bird I don’t think I’ve shared often as they’re very elusive and shy.
Last month while birding up in Washoe County we were thrilled to see this one come out of the reeds to forage in the shallow end of the lake. This one is a juvenile which is why it was foraging in the open for sometime. There was another one behind in the reeds tut-tutting…probably an adult.
A secretive bird of freshwater marshes, the Virginia Rail often remains hidden in dense vegetation, but its loud grunting may give away its presence. As it slowly pokes its way through the marsh, you might get a glimpse of its reddish bill, black-and-white barred sides, and its twitching tail, showing off white tail feathers beneath. It possesses many adaptations for moving through its nearly impenetrable habitat, including a laterally compressed body, long toes, and flexible vertebrae.
The forehead feathers of Virginia Rails are adapted to withstand wear and tear that results from pushing through dense and often sharp marsh vegetation.
The Virginia Rail is more adept at walking on soft mud than swimming, but it occasionally swims across wetlands and even dives underwater, propelling itself with its wings.
As a group, rails have the highest ratio of leg muscles to flight muscles of any bird, which may explain their propensity to walk rather than fly.
The Virginia Rail builds numerous “dummy nests” in addition to the one where eggs are actually laid.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
I went out with a friend to try to see if I could find and photograph C/2025 A6 Comet (Lemmon) on October 19th. I didn’t go too far from home just up into the Pinenut Mountains a little bit. l took my 50mm lens so I would be able to see a wide space of the sky and hopefully see it. I never saw it with my eyes or binoculars, but when I got home and uploaded my images I was happy to see my camera had seen it. It’s the tiny green dot upper center of the image.
It’s tiny at 50mm but, I cropped this in a bit for a better look.
The next night I went back to the same spot with my old 80-200mm lens but, I wasn’t able to see it at all. I believe it was too low and behind the hills opposite.
So last night a friend and I went north to a spot I know that had more open sky. It took us a while to find it but, we did. My old lens had a bit of trouble focusing on my newish bigger sensor D810 but, once I uploaded my images I found I had several decent shots of the comet with a hint of its tail too.
It’s always exciting to see a comet and this one is pretty cool. It was 55 million miles from Earth last night and it won’t be back again until the year 3175! Do you think my images will survive for my future family members to see my images made with probably antiquated photography methods and gear? Somewhere between 33 and 46 generations will pass before C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) comes our way again. It boggles my mind.
The little tree in the last image was the only tree in full Fall Color. All the huge Cottonwoods only had their tippy tops yellow and the rest of their leaves were green still.
Last Friday after a 5.5 mile birding hike myself and several friends went to an early lunch at the Squeeze In. I had a great salad loaded with bacon, chicken, blue cheese, red peppers, romaine lettuce, and a little balsamic vinaigrette the salad is called The Bleu Moon. I ate the whole thing.
I watched No Country for Old Men from the beginning and I didn’t like the ending at. all. I guess after all these years there will be no sequel to give me the happy ending I was hoping for.
I’m reading Dan Antion’s book Bridge to Nowhere, A Rascal Todd Mystery. I already have the next book in the series ready to read when I finish Bridge to Nowhere. It’s a good series!
Our lows have been in the mid 30’s here so we’re getting ready for winter, and my gloves and heavy coat have already been called into service. We’ve had some rain too. Can you believe it’s already October 15th!? Time isn’t flying by, it’s racing by!
I’ve got some errands to do in town this morning so I may be a little late getting to your posts, and responding to your comments.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
This week for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge they’re doing Subjects Framed by Nature. Here are 4 I’ve selected from my archives for this challenge. I might not ever share these were not for this challenge. 😊
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