Category: Nikon

A Look Back

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A Look Back, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2011 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

On the 21st of Oct. I had the pleasure of hiking with the Monterey Bay Area Hiking Group in Salinas, CA. It was the toughest hike I’ve done all year. Yes, even tougher than Horse Heaven Trail up to Mission Peak! There are 6 or 7 really, really steep mountains to conquer. The grade on each was 25-30%. Tough!
We hiked to 3 peaks; Eagle Peak, Ollason Peak, and Simas Peak. Here I’m looking back at Eagle Peak from the trail just under Ollason Peak. We had made a summit to Eagle peak first. The morning started out really foggy and soon I was cold and damp. It was such a relief to get up above the clouds and fog and into the sun.  8 hikers started the hike and all 8 finished!

Hiking Stats:
10.79 miles, 3,288ft gained, 6hours 12 minutes

Elevations of the Peaks- Eagle Peak-1,607ft, Ollason Peak-1,188ft, Simas Peak-2,245ft

Nikon D700| Nikkor 18mm AI-S| f8| 1/500sec| ISO 200| Manual Mode| Hand-held

Salinas, California, Toro Park, Hike, Nature

“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.” Joseph Campbell

Posted in Birds, California, Nature, Nikon, Photography, WildlifeTagged 5 Comments

Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2011 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

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Now that my trip to the Eastern Sierras chasing Fall color is out of my system I’m turning my mind and focus on the winter migration and the birds that will be flocking to the Central Valley. Some Sandhill Cranes have already arrived as well as a small flock of White Pelicans. We saw the Sandhill Cranes, but they are ever shy and kept far away from the observation areas so, I didn’t get the shot I have envisioned this time around.
As you know the bulk of what I shoot is landscape so shooting flying birds is something I have to relearn as well getting my camera settings worked out!
I struggled yesterday with camera settings! Thankfully 2 good friends helped me out or I wouldn’t have had one sharp shot.
I’ll be practicing a lot between now and Jan. when most the migrating birds are here. Hopefully I’ll have a better keeper rate by then. My keeper rate from yesterday is down right embarrassing!

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200mm @ 170mm| f5.6| 1/1250sec| ISO 500| Manual Mode| Hand-held

Nikon Announces Nikon 1- mirrorless

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At long last Nikon enters the Mirrorless market. But. It’s not what I was waiting or hoping for. I’m really happy with my purchase of the D700 recently because it looks like a replacement for it isn’t coming soon.

This latest release has Charlie Sorrel over at WIRED scratching his head, and I’m sure he’s not alone!

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/09/nikon-goes-mirrorless-with-the-1-system/

 

Update- A double Facepalm from Strobist! 🙂

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2011/09/nikon-announces-nikon-1-mirrorless.html

H/T Strobist

Mount Madonna Surprises

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I had the pleasure of hiking with the “Wednesday Hiking Group” today. I haven’t hiked with them in a really long time due to work. Today I didn’t have work scheduled so I met them.

The group split into two groups at 3.25miles. The Rabbits took a shorter route that would loop them back and give them a 6.5mile hike, and the Big Dogs continued on to complete a 10.85mile hike.

There were 5 Big Dogs, and I’m happy to say I was one of them. On the way back we took the Bayview Trail for a bit and there beside it was some wild Foxglove. I’ve never seen it in the wild before. It was a lovely surprise.

Foxglove Photograph by Deborah M. Zajac

 

Foxglove’

Foxglove Photograph by Deborah M. Zajac

 

A little later we saw some pretty Pacific Pea.

Pacific Pea Photography by Deborah M. Zajac

 

The fog hung thick in the Santa Cruz Mountain Range today, and several times we got rained on. It was definitely the place to hike on hot sunny day in the valley.

It was great seeing some old friends, and meeting new people today. I hope it’s not long before I can hike with the group again. There was another neat surprise during this hike I’ll share soon!

I’ve made my Hike Stats public if you’d like to see them, and the route map go here.

Info on Mount Madonna County Park is here.