Category: Nikon

Wild Weds. 37/52 The Night was Still and Full of Stars

Posted in After Dark Imaging, Nikon, Photography, Wild WednesdayTagged , , , , , , , , 39 Comments

Copyright ©2018 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Over Labor Day week-end myself and several friends were back in the Eastern Sierras. I love it over there. This time we ventured further south.

We spent our evenings photographing the stars.  This image I made on our last night there.

Windmill Eastern Sierras

I caught a shooting star above Mars, and Saturn is the bright star in the center of the Milky Way’s Dark lane about even with the top horizontal rung on the windmill.  I didn’t know I had managed to catch the shooting star in my frame until I got home and uploaded my images.

The light pollution on the horizon is coming from the town of Bishop I believe.

I hope you’re all having a great week! Yeah, halfway to the week-end!

Nikon D810| Nikkor 16mm f/2.8| Lexar Digital Film| PS CC 2018

more to come…

Wild Wednesday 36/52 After Dark II

Posted in After Dark, Nikon, Photography, Wild WednesdayTagged , , , , , , 26 Comments

Copyright ©2018 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I thought I’d show you the front view of the old cabin since I only shared the side view and lightning last week.

I made this after the sun had gone down, but there was still some light in the East.

You can sorta see the fireplace I told you about here, and you can see where the other ladies place lights in some cracks, the doorway and window sills.  It came out really well I think…the light painting.

 

The Old Ranch Cabin Front View

I hope you had a lovely week-end. We in the USA had a long week-end celebrating Labor Day.  I spent the week-end with friends photographing the night sky, and the Wild Mustangs again.

I am once again behind with blogs, and emails, but I’ll catch up!

I hope you all have a lovely week.

Nikon D810| Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G| Lexar Digital Film| PS CC 2018

more to come…

Thursday Doors – Mare Island Shipyard Doors

Posted in Nikon, Photography, Thursday DoorsTagged , , , , , , , , 32 Comments

Copyright ©2018 Deborah M. Zajac.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I was poking around in folders of file images and opened one from this last March when some friends and I spent the day wandering around Mare Island which was the first Navy Base on the Pacific Ocean.  It’s been closed for a long time, but there’s some activity there, and lots of doors.

Here’s two images from that venture.

I love the arches framing the door and windows, and the color of the trim with the red brick.  The door is pretty meh, but oh the accessories! 😉

Arched Door and Windows

This one is for Dan.  It’s an At-At Crane!  This huge beast is outside of a Dry-Dock.  It even has doors.

At-At like Crane at the Dry Dock

This post is part of Norm 2.0 Thursday Doors. To see doors from around the world or add your own door click on over to Norm’s Blog and find the blue frog on his page, click that and you’ll be taken to links to some very cool doors.

Nikon Df| Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G| Hoodman Digital Film| PS CC 2018

more to come…

 

Wild Wednesday 35/52 After Dark Plus 1

Posted in After Dark, Night Photography, Nikon, Photography, Wild WednesdayTagged , , , , , 64 Comments

Copyright ©2018 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

This image is one I made last month while hanging out with girl-friends in the Eastern Sierras.  One of the ladies brought lights to light up the old ranch cabin, and do a bit of light painting.

I climbed into the cabin through a back window opening to put some little lights in the stone fireplace. The floor boards in the front room didn’t look strong enough to hold me, but the there was a good solid beam leading out the side door that I used to get out, and go back in later to collect the little lights from the fireplace.  The worst part was putting my hand in a spider’s web to place the lights in there, and again to get the lights out! EWWW!  That was my part. The other ladies placed  more lights around the house.

The smoke from the then newly burning Ferguson Fire was already filling the sky and lent some color to the clouds, and later there was lightning.  Cloud to Cloud lightning. That’s only kind we tend to see here.  That red/orange lighted part to the right of the cabin in the sky is the lightning.

The Old Cabin in Adobe Valley

I’ve been sitting on some news for what seems like forever… Baby Girl and the Handsome Surveyor are expecting!  They finally went public with the news so, I can share it too. Finally!  Here’s their Baby Announcement.  Isn’t it cute!

Haakma Baby Announcement

She’s due mid February 2019, and we have 3 more weeks to wait before they find out if it’s a boy or a girl.   #1 Grandson isn’t so sure he wants a baby brother or sister yet. 😊

Everything is going well, and the baby is looking and growing just as it should at this stage.  We’re pretty excited.

There must be something in the air. My niece is expecting too. She also just announced it to the public. She’s due a month after Baby Girl.   She is only 7 months older than Baby Girl, and now these babies will be close in age too.

I got behind reading emails, and blogs over the week-end but, I’ll catch up.

I hope you all are having a good week, and you have a great week-end. It’s one of the last ones of Summer! Can you believe it’s already going to be September?  This year is flying by!

Nikon D810| Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G| Lexar Digital Film| PS CC 2018

Bottom image used with permission by Baby Girl.

more to come…

 

 

 

Wild Wednesday 34/52 Rowing

Posted in Action Photography, Nikon, Photography, Sports, Wild WednesdayTagged , , , , , , , , , , 41 Comments

Copyright ©2018 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I met Gordon and some other friends early Saturday morning for a day of photography. We photographed the US Masters Rowing Championship meet at Lake Merritt in Oakland CA.

We got there as the sun was rising, and a little later we got golden-pink hue on the Alameda County Court House and lake.  This was the prettiest scenery I saw on Saturday.

Alameda County Court House

Then we waited for the races to begin. There were singles, 2 person teams, 4 person teams, 8 person teams, and mixed teams. Going in I knew absolutely nothing about rowing, but I did learn the difference between Sculls, and Sweeps on Saturday. It’s all about the oars.

In Sculling each team member has a pair of oars. Their boats tend to be smaller with 1, 2, or 4 rowers, and sculling boats do not have a coxswain.

Sweeps- each team member has one oar, and their boats can have 2, 4, or 8 rowers. Larger boats with 4 or 8 rowers will often times have a coxswain steering the boat.

The Coxswain is the member of the team that sits in stern of the boat, and steers the boat. The rowers have their backs facing the direction they’re going so having someone steer and call out what is needed from the rowers is necessary. They also coordinate the power, and rhythm of the rowers.  They are loud, we could hear them from clear across the lake.

2 man team- They’re sculling.  I tried panning. It wasn’t easy because they’re going slower than you think they are when trying to pan.

2 Man Team-Sculling

4 man team- Sweeps with a Coxswain

Sweeps 4 man team with Coxswain

The funniest thing I saw that day was a seagull trying to chase a drone out of its airspace.

The Drone was filming the races, and streaming a live feed back to a BIG monitor for spectators and teams to watch in the rowers staging area.  The gull never got any closer than this to the Drone during this territorial spat, but it squawked at the Drone the whole time it chased it.

Territorial Spat

A team headed to the staging area-

Rowing Team

Rowing shoes

Looking Up

Making some adjustments

Making some Adjustments

Rowing Oars

The starting line in the background

Wildflowers around Lake Merritt

It was a 3 day event. I have no idea who won in the end, but it was fun to hang out and photograph some of it, and learn a little something about rowing.  It looks like a fun sport.

I hope your week is going well, and you have a lovely week-end!

Nikon D810| Nikkor 300mm f/4 & Nikkor 24-120mm f/4| Hoodman Digital Film| PS CC 2018

more to come…

 

 

 

 

 

Wild Wednesday 31/52 The Moon, and Mars

Posted in Blood Moon, Moon, Moonrise, Nikon, Photography, Planets, Travel and TourismTagged , , , , , , , , , , , 60 Comments

Copyright ©2018 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The 27th was the Full Buck Moon, or Blood Moon because there was a Total Lunar Eclipse that night, unfortunately, not seen here in North America.  I just went out to my backyard to photograph it.  It wasn’t red by the time it rose over the mountains and I was able to see it from my yard, but it had a lovely warm glow.

Full Buck Moon

The 28th, Saturday, several friends and I met in Santa Cruz, CA to photograph the Moon and Mars from a favorite “go to” spot; Walton’s Lighthouse.

I was watching the fog/cloud weather report all day, and it looked good until 5pm just when we were meeting. We met at Marianne’s Ice Cream parlor. Another “go to”, “must stop” , “it’s tradition” places while in Santa Cruz. They have 105 different ice creams to choose from. It’s not easy picking just one! I had a Jr. cup of Banana, Almond ice cream. It was good, but I wish it had more banana in it. No pictures I’m afraid. I always forget to do that!   Despite the low fog we continued on and photographed sunset-it was one of those soft pink evenings. This is looking/facing ESE more or less.

Belt of Venus Surrounds the Walton Lighthouse

We didn’t think there would be much hope of seeing the Moon rising just above the lighthouse because of the thick band of fog behind the lighthouse so we moved to higher ground and hoped for some breaks in the fog/low cloud band.

In the image below: Mars (right of and higher than lighthouse) rose higher than fog band first, and I think that other tiny bright object to the right of it near the edge of the image is part of the constellation Sagittarius. Or Spica? I’m not sure.

I love that Bonfires, well, not huge ones are still allowed at this beach. A lifeguard came out to make a group put out a large one in the black spot in the lower right of my image. I’m sure they were not happy about that.

Mars Shines Red over Santa Cruz CA

We  walked north and set up on higher ground; a cliff overlooking the beach and while we were shooting Mars a teenage boy asked me what we were photographing, and as I was explaining about Mars, and hoping the Moon would rise above the fog I looked back toward the lighthouse and saw the Moon, it was above the lighthouse as we planned it to be, and it was RED! Then I excitedly pointed that out to him, and my companions.  The boy said, ” Coool!” So, did I! 😊 This is my favorite of the images I made of the scene.

Waxing Gibbous Moon and Mars over Walton Lighthouse

I have no idea who the person with the spot/flash light in line with the lighthouse below on the beach is, but their alignment is nearly perfect right?  That’s Mars to the right, higher than the Moon. Not so red in this image though…the Moon was stealing that color.

Anyway, we all were thrilled after thinking we’d not see the Moon above the lighthouse at all.

When we all had our fill of the Moon, Mars, the Lighthouse, and beach we went to a diner for a quick, late dinner then headed home. Traffic hit a snag near Los Gatos and we crawled for miles. There was no wreck or construction Thank God! Just going home from the beach, Summertime, Silicon Valley traffic all reaching the bottom of the Santa Cruz mountains at the same time.  I got home just about Midnight tired, but very happy with the photography and spending time with good friends.  Though some were missed! You know who you are. 😉

He-Man had the light on for me, and was waiting up for me sorta, kinda snoozing on the sofa in the family room.   I know he’s a Keeper!  He went to bed, and I got my images uploading then got myself ready for bed, and lastly I checked to make sure all my images uploaded sans problemes then Diva Dog and I joined He-Man for good night’s rest.

I coulda slept til noon I’m sure Sunday morning, but Diva Dog, and Box the Guinea Pig were not having it.  There’s a down side to being an early riser normally when you have pets. They’re never. sleeping. in! Evah! LOL! Since we were up He-Man and I had really nice bike ride around the neighborhood together. That has only happened a few times in our 39 years together! He’s the cyclist. I’m the sluggish hiker, and his cheerleader.  We may do this again. It was pretty nice.

We’re halfway to the week-end! I hope you all are having a good week.  I have nothing. NOTHING planned to photograph this week-end.   I’m going to think of something. What do you have fun/good planned? Anything?

Nikon D810| Nikkor 24-120mm f4, and Nikkor 200-500mm| Hoodman Digital Film| PS CC 2018

more to come…

 

 

 

 

Wild Wednesday 30/52 A Family Unit

Posted in Horses, Nature Photography, Nikon, Photography, Wild Mustangs, Wild WednesdayTagged , , , , , 32 Comments

Copyright ©2018 Deborah M. Zajac.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

We found more Wild Mustangs! It was an amazing long week-end.  The horses were cautious with our approach, but Jamie and I learned the ways while on our trip in July, so we approached as we were taught and sure enough the horses let us get near.  Nearer than we’d ever been!  One mare was overcome with curiosity and approached my friend T! She was a hair away from petting its nose before it startled a little.

I need to ask her if I can share that image. I was just 3 feet from her! Then the mare and her Stallion came heading for me, and I backed up…the Stallion gave me pause. What if he didn’t like me. I wasn’t ready for that fight! The mare understood and veered away.

Once a family unit crossed right between my friend Jamie and I. It was so close we had to back up!  It was incredible! They were within feet of me and her, and so close I couldn’t focus! Such a problem for a wildlife photographer to have right?  I wished I brought two cameras lemme tell ya! I regretted the decision not carry my second camera.

The horses stay more or less in family units of a mare, foal, older daughter, and the ever watchful and protecting Stallion.  The family units are spread out through the meadow with the bachelors are the outer edges.  The bachelors. There’s a whole nother subject, and I have images! I’ll share if you don’t get tired of horses.

Here’s one family that hung out close to us.  They’re beautiful, and the light was really good just then.

Family Unit

On the home-front:

It’s been wonderful having Big Baby Boy home. #1 Grandson is in heaven having him here, and the two are having good fun building with Legos, and going to the park together.  He and Baby Girl got some quality brother/ sister time in, and they even got to hang out with dear school friends while here.  I’m already dreading his departure on Thursday, but The Dark Haired Beauty, and work will be wanting, and needing him back.

The Wine Train was a lot of fun. We both enjoyed it and would do it again.  I didn’t get any good images of the exterior of the train engine. They don’t let you near it unless you’re in the first car and boarding. We weren’t we were in the last car.

I’m hoping we have a clear sky on the 27th through the 31 to photograph Mars. It will be the brightest and closest it’s been to Earth in 15 years I believe.  Even if you don’t want to photograph it go out and look!  It will be at its highest point at midnight and be visible most the night.  Look for it about 35 degrees from the southern horizon.

I hope your week is going well, and you have a wonderful week-end!

Nikon D810| Nikkor 200-500mm| Lexar Digital Film| PS CC 2018

more to come..