Copyright 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved. – Page 4

Clark’s Nutcracker

June 15, 2013June 15, 2013Posted in Birds, Copyright 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved., Nature, Nikon, Photography, TravelTagged Birds, Lake Tahoe, Nikon D300S, NV, San Jose California Nature PhotographyLeave a comment

My friend Jackie had thought to take or purchased bird food to lure birds to her deck while on vacation in Lake Tahoe.
She had been feeding them all week; throwing bird food loaded with peanuts,seeds, and berries on the decking, setting it on the railing, and tossing some to the roof top below the deck.
By the time I arrived the birds to my delight were coming really close to us to get the food. I think we spent 2 hours on the deck photographing the Stellar Jays, and Pygmy Nuthatches.
Just as I was getting ready to quit shooting and get ready for our excursion around the lake this bird flew to the top of a farther Douglas Fir I think. It’s not a bird I’d ever seen before. I thought it was a Thrasher at first by its bill, but KUDO’s to Jackie who identified the bird when she got home to New Jersey as a Clark’s Nutcracker.

It’s taking flight off the tree in the photo above. I’m glad I got this shot because it shows more wing and tail detail than my earlier shots of it just sitting and surveying the landscape in the photos below.

Here’s another photo of a Pygmy Nuthatch with a bug or something in its bill.

Here’s a snapshot of Jackie and I in late afternoon light hanging around the shore waiting for Golden Hour and Sunset.

Nikon D300s, and D700 w/Nikkor 300mm f4, and 17-35mm.

Pygmy Nuthatch (circadianreflections.wordpress.com)

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Iridium Flare

June 5, 2013June 5, 2013Posted in Astrophotograhpy, Copyright 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved., PhotographyTagged Fremont Peak State Park, Night sky, San Jose Nature Photography, Satellite flareLeave a comment

I took this photo last month when I was shooting in Fremont Peak State Park with several Night Sky Photographers. This is one of the set-up/ test shots I took before starting my star trail sequence. After uploading the frames I was going through them and discovered I may have caught an Iridium Flare. Iridium Flare is the sun reflecting off communication satellites orbiting in space. ” The Iridium communication satellites have a peculiar shape with three polished door-sized antennas, 120° apart and at 40° angles with the main bus. The forward antenna faces the direction the satellite is traveling. Occasionally, an antenna reflects sunlight directly down at Earth, creating a predictable and quickly moving illuminated spot on the surface below of about 10 km diameter. To an observer this looks like a bright flash, or flare in the sky, with a duration of a few seconds.

Ranging up to -8 magnitude (rarely to a brilliant -9.5), some of the flares are so bright that they can be seen in the daytime; but they are most impressive at night. This flashing has caused some annoyance to astronomers, as the flares occasionally disturb observations and can damage sensitive equipment.

When not flaring, the satellites are often visible crossing the night sky at a typical magnitude of 6, similar to a dim star.” ~Wikipedia

I realize the flare is hard to see in this photo so I’ve zoomed in on it and cropped it out to enable one to see it better. It has the classic shape of Iridium Flare. I took this photo on May 11, 2013 at 9:06pm PDT.

I need to check out the site that has predictions to see if this could be Iridium Flare. I think the site is called Heaven’s Above.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 16mm Fisheye lens

Update: After checking the Heaven’s Above site to see if there was an Iridium Flare predicted on the date and time I took this photo I found there was a predicted flare on May 10, 2013 at 19:31 h. in the same place in the sky as this flare. I’m confused. Nothing was listed for May 11th. The site says all times are local. Do I need to factor in Daylight Savings time? I wondered if it could another satellite? Searching the sites FAQ’s I found this.

Q.	While I was out waiting for a flare or other satellite to appear, I saw another flare which wasn’t in the predictions. What could it have been?
A.	This was probably a flare from a failed Iridium satellite. Several satellites have failed in orbit, and are not in the nominal orbit and/or attitude. However, they can still produce flares just like the operational ones. The difference is, that we can’t predict when they will happen.

Western Tanager-Male

June 3, 2013June 3, 2013Posted in Copyright 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved., Nature, Nikon, Photography, WildlifeTagged Birding, Photography, San Jose California Nature Photography, Western TanagerLeave a comment

My first Western Tanager Photograph! I’ve seen this bird before, but wasn’t able to capture a photograph of it that time. I’m very excited about this capture. This may be one of 5-6 Tanagers in this area that may be nesting here. If so it’s rare. I read yesterday, “The Breeding Bird Atlas of Santa Clara County reports the species as an
“uncommon to rare breeder” in the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo Range, with lowest altitude nests reported at 400-500 feet. Lake Almaden has an altitude of about 200 feet, so if nesting occurs, it would be at the lowest altitude ever noted in the county. ” Tom Grey

I was in this location yesterday with Dali, Tom Grey, and several others who like me were very excited to see these birds.

Here are a few more poses I managed to capture.

Trying to keep a low profile,

Surveying the area,

A backward glance,

Polaris over the Charcoal Kilns Death Valley National Monument

June 2, 2013March 2, 2026Posted in Astrophotograhpy, California, Copyright 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved., Nikon, Photography, TravelTagged Astrophotography, Death Valley National Park, San Jose California Nature Photography, Travel and TourismLeave a comment

A year or two ago I saw my friend Rick Whitacre’s photograph of the Charcoal Kilns with Star-trails and loved it so much I hoped to photograph it myself on my next trip to Death Valley. The first two nights of my recent visit to Death Valley National Monument I had clouds or partial cloudy skies, but the last night the sky was clear so He-Man and I headed to the Wildrose Charcoal Kilns so I could make a photograph of the kilns with star-trails.

aawww xx He-Man and I drove out the Charcoal Kilns arriving just before sunset. I got my gear out and started planning and plotting my composition. Once I found my composition I started thinking about lighting the kiln doors. I went inside several of the kilns to check out the size of the opening, and where the best place to stand might be. I’m glad we arrived here while it was light enough to see inside each kiln. If I had arrived in the dark I would have been a little apprehensive about critters sleeping inside the kilns, but they were empty. On a side note: They’re huge inside!

He-Man was going to light the doors for me so we did a timed test-run to see if he would be able to get all the doors lit in one 2 minute exposure. I had purchased a Brinkman light (thanks Marsha for the model info!) I also brought my Rogue Gels along to use to change the light from white to an orange-yellow to look like there was fire in the kilns, but when it got dark enough to start shooting we did another trail run using the light, and it wasn’t quite as bright as I had hoped for. Thinking that might happen I also packed my Nikon SB600 Speedlight. I taught He-Man how to set the flash off then we did another trial run. Loving what I saw using the Speedlight I made my final test shots for my star trails then set up my Intervelometer to begin my series.

It was quite a bit cooler up here than it was down in the valley so I needed my jacket before I wrapped up for the night. There was a Hoot Owl in the trees behind me softly hooting, and there were crickets chirping, but no other sounds. He-Man had gone to the car to read and wait for me. It was peaceful. I found my “happy place” here.
Thank you He-Man for lighting each door so well and for going with me! I’m really happy with this photo.

A couple of my friends have also traveled to Death Valley and made their own photo here please take a look!

Phil McGrew- Startrails over Wildrose Kilns

Alex Baranda- Stars and Kilns

For the History Buffs-

Wildrose Charcoal Kilns

“In 1877 construction on the kilns was completed. The produced charcoal that was used as fuel for two silver-lead smelters that George Hearst had in the Argus Range 25 miles away. The kilns operated until 1878 when the Argus mines shut down.

There are 10 kilns which stand 25ft tall, and have an approximate circumference of 30ft. Each kiln held 42 cords of pinyon pine logs, and would burn for a week producing 2,000 bushels of charcoal.” ~Digital Desert.com http://digital-desert.com/death-valley-history/wildrose-kilns.html

Sunset from the Galiban Mountain Range

May 12, 2013May 12, 2013Posted in Copyright 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved., Landscapes, Nature, PhotographyTagged Fremont Peak State Park, San Jose California Nature Photography, Sunset3 Comments

Sunset from the Galiban Mountain Range, originally uploaded by CircadianReflections Photography.

This year for my birthday I wanted to spend it photographing the Milky Way, stars, and sunset. Since I would be up all night or nearly so my family opted out. So, I joined one of my favorite Meet-up groups in Fremont Peak State Park to shoot the stars.This Sunset was the beginning of an awesome night out. The sunset was fantastically beautiful, and the sky cleared for us to get wonderful photos of the Milky Way., and Star Trails I was up on the Peak when the clock hit Midnight May 12th…my birthday. Myself and several friends shot until after 4AM. I arrived home at 9AM on Sunday morning tired, but happy. I spent the rest of the day relaxing then my family took me out to dinner for my Birthday/Mother’s Day combo.
I feel so blessed right now to have such loving and supportive family. I’m heading to bed soon. I’ll probably fall into a deep sleep as soon as my head hits my pillow.
I hope all Mom’s reading this had a wonderful day, and a great week-end!

Sunset Santa Cruz (circadianreflections.wordpress.com)
Appreciating A Sunset (authormccloskeyspeaks.wordpress.com)

On the third day there was better light

May 11, 2013May 11, 2013Posted in Birds, Copyright 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved., Nature, Photography, WildlifeTagged Camera, Cedar Waxwing, Los Gatos, Niko, San Jose California Nature Photography1 Comment

I have gone out 3 mornings in a row trying to get a decent photograph of a Cedar Waxwing. The first morning the light was awful. It was overcast requiring me to really crank up my ISO to get the speed I needed to maintain a sharp photograph, but all my photos have too much noise…yes even with the D700 it’s too much noise for me. To keep my speed up I was using ISO 3200. These little guys move fast.
Yesterday wasn’t as overcast, but the Cedar Waxwings kept themselves high in the trees which was too far for my lens unfortunately, but this morning the light was better, the sun was breaking through the marine layer earlier, so I dressed grabbed a slice of toast, and a quick cup-a-tea then headed over to the park hoping to spot the Waxwings before the park got too busy.

Arriving in the park I saw a gaggle of geese with several goslings in tow-here’s just two, two Killdeer in the grass hunting for breakfast, and there were robins, and crows as well.

The early morning runners and walkers were already there, and several families were claiming picnic areas, and tables.

It took me a little while to find the flock this morning. They moved a little further south from where they were previously. I spent over an hour following them and photographing them. They had flown to some great low branches where the sun was at a great angle for both back-lit and side-lit shots. I was focused and shooting away when suddenly in the creek below this Canadian Goose started honking, and honking, and the Waxwings got upset; flitting around and then from the corner of my eye I spied a large bird coming in fast…it was a Hawk! All the Waxwings, and the Goose took off for safer branches. I’m not sure if this is a Red-tail or a Coopers.

I saw this Hawk high up in a Eucalyptus Tree on my way out of the park. I think it’s a Cooper’s Hawk, but am not positive. Any help with the Hawk ID I’d appreciate it.

Waxwings don’t normally live here. They will be gone by June I’ve heard. This is the first time I’ve ever seen them in the wild. I’m so happy to have seen them and get a few photos I like. I hope to get back here and photograph them again before they move on.

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