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.

Friday’s Feathered Friends-Bullock’s Oriole Male

Posted in Bird Photography, Birding in Nevada, Friday's Feathered Friends, Fuji X-T3, PhotographyTagged , , , , , , , 58 Comments

Copyright © 2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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

Posted in Milky Way, Night Photography, Nikon, PhotographyTagged , , , , , , , , , 62 Comments

Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac

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.

Milky Way over Spooner Lake

 

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

…more to come
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Friday’s Feathered Friends- Sage Thrasher

Posted in Photography63 Comments

Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Last week-end I went camping with two girlfriends to do some nature photography.  We car camped each taking our own cars and caravanning up and down the northern part of the Eastern Sierras.

We were in Mono Basin when we heard this bird singing a song that was unfamiliar to me or my friends. I turned to follow the song and saw this bird. I had no idea what kind of bird it was, but I only got two quick shots before it disappeared into the sagebrush.

Sage Thrasher_DMZ8319

Once at home I was able to ID the bird as the Sage Thrasher- A Lifer for me!

They live in the Western Region of the USA, as well as Mexico and Baja California. They prefer sagebrush and arid planes. The east side of the Eastern Sierras is sagebrush and arid! I’m linking  Whataboutbird.com so you can read more about this bird and hear it’s lovely songs.  https://identify.whatbird.com/obj/591/overview/Sage_Thrasher.aspx

I’m also participating in Lisa’s of Our Eyes Open weekly bird challenge.  You know I don’t do many challenges, but birds. I couldn’t resist! 😀

I hope you’re all doing well, and have a lovely week-end!

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon XF100-400mm| PS CC 21.1.2

more to come…

 

 

 

 

Whatever Weds. This and That

Posted in Photography, This and That, Watercolor, Whatever WednesdayTagged , , , , , , , , , , , 54 Comments

©Copyright 2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

This and That. What does that mean to me? Things that I photograph that I don’t feel really define who I am as a photographer. Things that catch my eye while I am out photographing things that I love and things that are happening in our time outside of my usual genre that I make an effort to go out and photograph. Can we call those images journalistic images? I do. Yes, I have a journalling file folder even for photography. 🤓 And just stuff I’m doing.

Let’s start here with the USAF’s Air Guard who flew over Carson City and many other towns in NV and CA to honor the First Responders and those countless other people who are working every day to support the citizens of their counties and communities during the Pandemic of the Wuhan Corona Covid-19 Virus.  Do you see them just coming over the Carson Range? Three tiny little specs with a whole lot of impact and respect for those braving the virus on the ground every day?  HERE THEY COME!!! 3 C-130's Fly Coming into Carson Valley

Here’s a closer look at one of the planes…  Damn, they were awesome!! Thank you for flying and honoring them all!! 🙏

USAF C130 Flyovrer 2020

A view from a boring “Stretch my Legs Hike”.  The 4-mile round trip hike is boring…the view…not so much.

Home is down there. That makes me smile and very happy.  The rock formations are pretty cool too. Just sayin.

The View from Clear Creek

Backyard View and Golf Cart traffic…The fruitless Olive trees are beginning to bloom. April 2020

Copyright © Deborah M. Zajac ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

…I’ve been painting on and off throughout the lockdown.

My Grandson Kneeboarding for the first time from a photo Baby Girl sent us while he was doing it.

Jaxon Kneeboarding First Time

I subscribed to the JohnMuirLaws Drawing Birds webinar while my watercolor class was on hold due to the pandemic and I tried sans success to keep up with the homework. However, I did manage to draw and fill in with paint a Duck and Shorebird I drew freehand from my own photographs then added watercolor to them after watching his webinar. I’m rather proud of these paintings. They look like what I intended them to look like! That’s huge! 😀

Lesser Scaup and Avocet watercolor

Okay, that’s 6, six images in this post. Way more than I usually post, and I have loads more of images that fall into the This and That category. I’ll stop, but you can count on more images from this category coming one day in the future. 😀

I hope you’re all doing well, and hanging in there! It will get better!

Nikon Camera and Lenses, Fuji Camera and Lens, Lumix FZ200, and Iphone 7 Plus

 

more to come…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whatever Weds. Spring Flow

Posted in Nature, Nikon, Sunsets, Whatever WednesdayTagged , , , , , , , 73 Comments

Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

While out hiking I’m enjoying the sound of rushing water as rushes down the canyons and mountains. The rivers, creeks, and streams are all flowing fast and loud.

Here’s a little stream I crossed recently while on a hike.

Stream in the Genoa Canyon

We went to see our Grandsons, Baby Girl, and The Handsome Surveyor for the holiday week-end. It was wonderful seeing them and hanging out on the lake.  Baby Girl wakeboarded, He-Man and I spent a lot of time with our Littlest and #1 Grandson, and I learned how to drive a waverunner. That was fun! I can’t wait to do that again.  I’m working up my nerve to try the knee board. 😀

The sunset Saturday night was gorgeous on the lake. Here’s an iPhone photo I took looking north from the front deck of their houseboat.

Sunset at the Lake

I got an invitation to try out the new editor before they make the change permanent so I clicked over and started writing this post. I didn’t like the font that came up when I started typing the title and couldn’t figure out how to change it. Where’s the font choices?

Then I started poking around to see if I could still schedule the post for a future date…couldn’t find that either! Not a good start wordpress!  Then I started hunting for the way to go back to the classic editor and thankfully I found that and went right back here!  Geez!  Right now I don’t think the new editor and I are going to get along if I can’t find what I use the most from the get-go! Sigh! 😔

Well, I hope you all had a lovely holiday week-end and your week is going well!

Nikon Df| Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 and iPhone 7Plus

more to come…

 

Whatever Weds. Ground Squirrel

Posted in Photography42 Comments

Copyright © 2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

We don’t have squirrels with big bushy tails that live in trees here.  This breed is new to me, but thanks to Steve over athttps://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/ for sending a link to a PDF on squirrels in my part of NV I think this is a Belding’s Squirrel a type of Ground Squirrel.

Wikipedia says this about the Belding’s Squirrel

“Belding’s ground squirrel (Urocitellus beldingi), also called pot gut, sage rat or picket-pin,[2] is a squirrel that lives on mountains in the western United States. “

I laughed out loud reading the nicknames or common names for this squirrel. Pot gut works for as much as they eat! 😂 Sage rat too for we do have a lot of that here!

This one wiped out an entire birdseed cake in less than 4 hours and got in a fistfight paw-fight with another squirrel for the birdseed! I wish I had my camera ready for that. It was hilarious. They were standing in between the slats of the fence on their back legs, and this one punching the other one. I thought that’s how kangaroos look boxing! The rival squirrel quickly conceded leaving this one to happily eat the whole thing!

Ground Squirrel

 

We’ve been having high winds here so I’ve been indoors, but itching to get out. I hope to get out on Thursday for some birding.  I hope you’re all having a good week so far.

Happy Hump Day!

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm| SanDisk Digital Film| PS CC 21.1.2

more to come…

 

Friday’s Feathered Friends-Western Tanager

Posted in Bird Photography, Birding in Nevada, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, PhotographyTagged , , , , , , , , 39 Comments

Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVEDWestern Tanager Male

Happy Friday!  I hope you all have a lovely week-end!

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon XF 100-400mm| SanDisk Digital Film| PS CC 21.1.2

more to come…