Copyright © 2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
An evening on the lake from my Grebe trip earlier this month.
Nikon Df| Nikkor 20mm f/1.8g| Delkin Digital Film| PS CC 2015
More to come…
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.
What’s blooming?
Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Copyright © 2016 Deborah M. Zajac ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
My Agapanthus are blooming right now, and this sweet bud just opening inspired me to try to paint it.
Painted on Arches Hot Press 140lb watercolor paper, with Sennelier paints.
I used, Naples Yellow, Indian Yellow, Cobalt Violet Deep, Ultramarine Deep, Forest Green, Emerald Green, Burnt Umber, Raw Sienna, and Ivory Black.
I received a gift card to Amazon for my birthday last month so, I splurged on a Di Vinci Artissmo brush #1 rd. I used it, along with an Escoda Reserva #2, and a Robert Simmons Sapphire 10/0 brushes.
WOW, does the Artissmo brush hold water! I’m having to learn to paint all over again with this brush.
I’m really happy with how this little bud came out. I’m feeling brave enough to try the whole pom pom blossom. To be continued. 🙂
Charlie O’ Shield’s over at doodlewash has invited artist, and dabblers in paint to tag their nature paintings, or watercolor work in the month of June to share our work using the tag
#naturedoodlewash. He’ll compile a list of all those who participated at the end of the month.
Image made with Lumix FZ200| Lexar Professional Digital Film| PS CC 2015
More to come…
Golden Hour in Manhattan
Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
While in Manhattan my sisters and I took a Twilight/City Lights cruise around the harbor on the Clipper City Tall Ship.
We sailed for two hours around the harbor seeing the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Governor’s Island, and of course Manhattan’s skyline. One World Observatory Tower stands gleaming with the last rays of the day’s sun shining on it, and the city beneath it.
Nikon Df| Nikkor 28-105mm| Delkin Digital Film| PS CC 2015 & On 1 Photo 10
More to come…
Killdeer v3.0
Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
So, the other day when I posted my Draw-a-Bird Killdeer I meant to post it with my second painting, but had one glass of vin too many me thinks because, I actually posted the first Killdeer line and wash I tried. I’m so blond!
I wasn’t totally happy with version 2 though it was better than the first drawing and painting, so I quickly got started on a version 3 which I finished yesterday afternoon.
My notes in the right corner are about the tools I used to make this line and wash.
Micron 0.3 pen, Sennelier watercolor paints, Brushes: 0/0 rigger by Simmons, #6 rd Escoda Reserva, and #12 rd Mimik Kolinsky. Painted in a Strathmore 400 series 8.5″X 5.5″ Watercolor Journal.
It’s been fun and exciting seeing my progress with each drawing and wash. I am happy with the way version 3 came out.
version 2
and the first attempt.
With each drawing I got the shape, and markings a bit better, and the placement on the page better as well. My next step is to draw and paint it on a bigger sheet of Arches watercolor paper. I’m going to begin that today or tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Images taken with a Panasonic Lumix FZ200| Lexar Professional Digital Film| PS CC 2015
More to come…
Thursday Doors 23/52 N°242
Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
For this week’s Thursday Doors I’m going back to NYC to a door I thought was pretty neat.
I just love all the ornamentation on these old buildings. The brass doors are a bit beat up, but it adds character.
Here’s a closer look at the upper details.
This post is part of Norm 2.0’s Thursday Doors. If you love doors and would like to see the doors others are posting, or post doors you’ve photographed and join other door lovers from around the world click here.
At the end of Norm’s latest Thursday Door post is a little Blue Link-up/View button click it to be taken to a page with all the links, or add your own.
More to come…
Draw-a-Bird-a-Day:June 2016
Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac ALL RIGHTS RESERVED!
I wasn’t motivated to paint for the longest time. I was planning my trip to NYC, then while in NYC all I wanted to do was take photographs. At the end of each day there I fell into bed exhausted from walking and touring, then when I got home my son: Big Baby Boy and his lovely finance the Dark Haired Beauty came home for a long week-end , so instead of wanting to paint, or develop images I wanted to hang out with them.
…and just like that May was gone! Who wants to paint when all that is going on?
Okay, I know real painters would! Just like I was making photographs the whole time. I get it! 🙂
Late this afternoon the image of a Killdeer I took back in April of this year called me to paint it. I don’t have clue how that happened because, my focus today has been on the letter A, and the Number 7. For the next 25 days we’re coloring and wearing Alphabet wristlettes…a letter a day…and I’ve added a number a day to that.
I’ve been teaching #1 Grandson who is already 3 1/2 years old his letter sounds, along with letter recognition, number counting and recognition, living science, earth science, literature, manners, and appropriate behavior in our house and in public since he was born, but it’s been getting more intense the the last year. I’m so ready for this kid to read and do kindergarten math!
Phew, is it any wonder I’m exhausted when Baby Girl gets home from work? He knows his alphabet from A to Z, and some numbers and letters by sight, but not all the sounds, letters, or numbers by sight. It’s time to step it up! Add this to a very busy boy who wants to play and be busy with his toys, inside and out all day!
Seriously, at the end of the day uncork a bottle of wine! I’m ready to unwind! 🙂
Armed with a glass of slightly chilled Zin I began to draw my second attempt at the Killdeer. The first attempt had too many issues.
Those issues were mostly proportion, shape, and size related, and color mixing. Sigh! If I could draw all my problems with art would be nil! Seriously. NIL! I WISH I COULD DRAW!
This is my second attempt: Still with issues related to proportion, shape and size, but much better than the first attempt.
The image is taken from a photograph I made in April 2016. This painting isn’t nearly as cute as my photograph is. Sigh. Perhaps a few more tries drawing it will achieve that.
I hope so!
The inspiration image here.
Oh, I forgot to add that I used my new Sennelier watercolor paints for this painting. He-Man gave me the 12 + 6 tin for my birthday last month. It’s the first time I’ve used them to paint anything besides a color chart. I love the way the colors look on paper. There’s a wonderful vibrancy to them. I need to add a couple of greens to the kit though.
I used my Escoda Reserva #6 rd, and Mimik Kolinsky #12 brushes, and painted this in my Strathemore Mixed Media Journal.
This is part of Draw-a-Bird Day over at Laura’s Createartevery.com . To see all the bird art posted today click here. Scroll down to the comments to see the links to all the posts shared this month.
To read the original story of how Draw-a-Bird Day got started click here
The post is also part of Charlie O’Shields doodlewash #NatureDoolewash
Lumix FX200| Lexar Professional Digital Film| Handheld| PS CC 2015
More to come
Clark’s Grebes
Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I spent the week-end with old friends Theresa, Dali, and Alex birding up in Clear Lake. We went to see Grebes, we hoped dancing on the water.
We booked a boat with the same tour group we used last year Eyes of the Wild with Faith as our Captain. You can read that post here.
We booked early and Faith kept us abreast of the Grebe situation on the lake on and off up until our booking day. Last week she sent me a text message saying that courting had really slowed down, but she had a surprise. Babies were early and she’d found several pair of Grebes with babies! Did we still want to come up?
Did we still want to come up? OF COURSE WE DID! We’d go to see the chicks alone! We had hoped to get up there again last summer to see Grebe chicks, but there was a huge fire, the drought, add to that predators, well, it all added up to a low number of Grebes and not too many babies so, we didn’t go back up last year. We went this time!
Here’s my favorite image today of the babies and their parents.
Dad had brought the fish, made a perfect transfer of it to Mom, and the chicks were out and exposed from their Mom’s wings peeping their heads off to get that fish! The morning light was lovely, and I managed to keep the shot in focus and made before the boat moved up or down with a swell!
This was such an exciting, wonderful, beautiful sight to see!
We also saw a few dances. We saw Osprey pairs with chicks, and a really pretty sunset among the most notable things we saw this past week-end.
I came home with 1700 images to cull. I’ve made my first pass and deleted about 400 already. I’ll try to break up the posts so I don’t bore you to death with images of Grebes all the time. 🙂
Nikon D700| Nikkor 200-500mm| SunDisk Digital Film|
More to come…
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