Early Spring!

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I had a walk-around the neighborhood Sunday morning and found Spring everywhere.

The flowering trees are in bud, and beginning to blossom while others are in full bloom!

A Prayer in Spring by Robert Frost-

“Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.”~Robert Frost (from A Boy’s Will, 1915)

Flowering Tree in Full Bloom

The huge white flowering tree was a hive of activity in the canopy. The buzz of bees

was dizzying, and the warmth of the sun on my face when I looked up felt wonderful, healing, and nourishing.

The branches were heavy with blossoms,

Flowering Tree in full bloom

papery white, with lovely “look at me!” centers.

Blossoms on a Flowering Tree

Plus one more…

Nearly home I found a huge Sweat Pea vine spilling over a fence with dozens of busy bees.

Honey Bee and the Sweet Pea

Nikon Df| Nikkor 28-105mm| Hoodman Digital Film| PS CC 2015

More to come…

 

Monochrome Madness 2: 16/52 Road to the Stars

Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I made this image last week-end. Unfortunately, I’ve was pretty busy last week and didn’t get to out much, or have to much time to work on images.

I added +1 EV in post development to open up the road a bit more.   I thought I’d play and try converting this image to Black &  White for this week’s Monochrome Madness 2. I like it, but I do like the color version more. I’ll share it in a future post.

Monochrome Madness 2 16 of 52 Road to the Stars

I hope you drop by Leanne Cole’s site to view the other work that was shared this week. Click here!

Nikon Df| AF-D Nikkor 17-35mm @ 22mm| 18 frames ea. 30s| ISO 400| Tripod| Manual Priority| CS6 & Silver Efex Pro 2

More to come…

Life in the Garden

Copyright © 2014 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

#1 Grandson, Diva Dog, and I weren’t the only ones in the backyard soaking up the warm rays of the sun after the rain.

Life in the Garden

It was on the brick flower border sunbathing until I scared it with my camera. It sought the shelter of the AC unit. I crept as closely as I could to make this image of it, but I pushed my luck moving too close, and off he ran under the unit, and out of sight.

Nikon Df| AF Nikkor 105mm f/2.8D micro lens @f8| 1/1000s| ISO 400| Hand-held

More to come…

Eastern Sierras Day 2- 21 minutes in Nirvana

Copyright © 2014 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

We scouted a few areas for Moon-set/Sunrise and we all fell in love with Intake Lake 2. We were planning to camp on Night 2 and instead of camping a little further north we change plans and camped at Intake Lake 2, and we all agreed it would be a great location for the morning’s shoot. We could sleep a few minutes longer, and be in our chosen spots well before the fishermen arrived.  We set up our camp, made dinner, and shortly after dark I crawled into my tent and bag and fell into a deep sleep. My alarm was set to 4:30AM again.  I didn’t even take pictures of the campground!

I slept pretty well. I only stirred when my hip started to ache. My pad wasn’t as full as it should have been. When my alarm went off I turned it off and dozed in my warm bag, dreading getting out of it, and facing the cold morning, and dressing, before making the trek up the bathroom.  I should have dug out my slip-on pair of shoes the night before, but forgot to do that.  Jonathan was out of his tent first and came by mine and rattled it, asking if we were up. Rainey had bunked with me since I have a two person tent. We both murmured, “yes, I’m up.” Next, I heard Rene unzip his tent, and then Jonathan’s car alarm went off, no doubt waking the whole campground! Nik was sleeping in the car and when he got up to exit he set off the alarm.

Someone set the alarm after Nik got in to go to bed. 🙂 As if the alarm going off once wasn’t bad enough somehow it got triggered a second time! I got up and out of my bag and tent after that. I’m sure the whole campground was ready to stone us to death! Hopefully they all were able to get back to sleep.

We dressed, grabbed our bags and headed for the lake for the Moon-set/ Sunrise as quietly as we could.

I found the spot I had chosen the day before, but I was so far from everyone else so I moved to the beach with Rene, and Rainey.

I was very glad to have the company. Daylight was coming fast, and for  21 minutes I was in Nirvana!

Moon-glow on the Eastern Sierra Peaks

Moonset over Intake Lake 2

Pink clouds and Moon-glow on the Eastern Sierra Peaks

Moonset over Intake Lake 2

Alpine Glow on the Eastern Sierra Peaks

Alpine Glow over Intake Lake 2

It’s not often one gets Moon-glow, Color, and Alpine Glow all in one morning! I couldn’t have ordered a more perfect morning shoot. There were even Trout jumping high out of the water to catch breakfast. I wish I timed my images better to have caught just one, alas…I didn’t.

Shortly after the color faded we were packing up when a group of fishermen came to fish where we were. We welcomed them with open arms, and wished them well with their endeavors, and went on our way to find other photographic jewels around the lake.

Rainey, Rene, and I hung out together while Nik,and Jonathan went their own way. Rainey, Rene, and I went around the lake to try and find a Grebe that was swimming around the lake. We weren’t able to get the second inlet to find it, but we did find a lovely little cascade of water we stopped to photograph, and along the way we found a memorial.

Memorial at Intake Lake 2

Intake Lake 2 hike

I used my Lensbaby Composer Pro II with Soft Focus Optic to try some landscapes. I like the dreamy, painterly

feel the images have.

Fallen tree on Intake 2

Fallen Tree on Intake 2 Lake_5384

Fishing

Fishing

The color of the morning was gold

Autumn Gold

Intake 2 was my favorite location this trip.  It’s a great place to camp, and there is plenty to photograph

here.

Cameras: Nikon Df, Nikon D700

Lenses: Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8,  Nikkor 180mm f/2.8d, LensBaby Composer Pro II w/Soft Focus Optic

More to come…

P52 42/52 Lee Vining Creek

Copyright ©2014 Deborah M Zajac  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

I’m back! I had a lovely 4 days in the Eastern Sierras with friends, Rainey, Rene, Nik, and Jonathan. We got lucky and went when the color was peaking in the spots we visited. I have quite a few images I like from the trip that I’m still rating and tagging, but here’s one image I made yesterday at Lee Vining Creek. It was so nice to see the creeks, and streams with water. All the creeks near my home are bone dry!

P52 42 of 52 Lee Vining Creek

I made this image with my new camera: The Nikon Df. I’ve been saving for it since I rented one back in February.

Nikon Df with Nikkor 17-35mm f2.8 mounted

I used it for 4 full days of shooting and it performed very well in daylight, and low light. I love how light it is compared to my D700.

Right now I only have two complaints:

1) Nikon did not provide a LCD screen protector with it, so I need to get one STAT!

2) The battery drained too quickly when shooting the last morning in 26º ambient temps. I’ll have to get a 3rd battery soon.

Other than those two complaints I’m happy with the camera. I hope we have many good years together.

As of now my D300s will either be passed down or possibly sold, and my D700 will be my back-up/second camera.

Image 1) Nikon Df| Nikkor 17-35mm w/B+W 6 stop ND filter

Image 2) Nikon D700| Nikkor 180mm f/2.8D

More to come…