Photography – Page 7 – Circadianreflections Blog

Something for Sunday-The Cosmos from Rural Nevada

September 1, 2024Posted in Astro Photography, Milky Way, Nikon, Photography, Wide Field Astro-photographyTagged After Dark, Composite images, Cosmos, Long Exposure Photographs, Low Light Photography, Milky Way, Nevada, Siloes, Something for Sunday, stacked images28 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com Image

11 frames stacked. Nikon D850| Nikkor 20mm f/1.8g@f2

more to come…

Thursday Doors-Guest Doors

August 22, 2024Posted in Adorned Doors, Architecture, Doors, Photography, Thursday DoorsTagged Gillette Castle, Guest Doors, Photography Challenges, Thursday Doors, Travel and Tourism, Wood45 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

These aren’t Guest in the sense your mind probably went to when thinking about Guest doors, no. These doors were sent to me from a friend who lives in CT but, wishes to be anonymous for the time being.

She moved to CT oh, 4-5 years ago…time flies! Anyway a couple of weeks back she sent me an email saying,

“I visited Gillette Castle in Connecticut over the weekend and they had the most beautiful interior doors, all hand carved and I thought of you 🙂 Here are just a few but there were many! There were three stories’ worth and each one was unique. The castle was fascinating!”

She didn’t include the stories or details but, we have her images of three of the doors.

The door knobs are interesting. They’re wood!

*Image used with permission from photographer*

She included a close up the door knob as the third image. Those door knobs are different! The doors remind me of quilts with their square patterned designs.

I looked up the castle and it does look beautiful and interesting.

Here’s something about those door knobs.

“Gillette designed 47 one of kind doors made from Southern White Oak found on the property. They were all hand carved. Each door has a unique, elaborate latch intricately carved of wood.”

Here’s a little intro about the castle from the website:

” Atop the most southerly hill of a chain of hills known as the Seven Sisters sits the retirement estate of noted actor, director, and playwright William Hooker Gillette. Named the Seventh Sister by Gillette, the property’s focal point is a 24-room stone mansion reminiscent of a medieval castle”. There’s a photo of the castle at the link and lots more information about the man and more photos.

https://www.gillettecastlefriends.org/history-of-the-castle

The doors are lovely. Don’t you love our door enabling friends!

Here’s a BIG SHOUT OUT to my friend in CT for sending me these beautiful and interesting doors.🥰 May she continue to send me doors to share with you!

This post is part of the weekly challenge Thursday Doors hosted by Dan Antion over at https://nofacilities.com/2024/08/22/still-more-from-iowa/

Head on over there to see more doors from around the world or join the craze and add a door or two of your own. 😊

more to come…

Whatever Weds. This and That…

August 14, 2024August 13, 2024Posted in Astro Photography, Bird Photography, Hummingbirds, Photography, Rufous Hummingbirds, Whatever WednesdayTagged Corn Flower Leaves, Crimson Columbine, Delphinium, Lupine, Perseid Meteors, Rufous Hummingbird, Watercolor Painting, Whatever Wednesday, Wildflowers40 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Here’s some of what I’ve been up to lately starting at the beginning of the month with a birding walk up in the mountains above Lake Tahoe. The wildflowers were in bloom. Here are a couple of favorites I saw.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
Delphinium

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
Crimson Columbine

A beautiful view from the trail with Lupine, and Cornflower leaves in the foreground.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
*View from the hike*

There were all sorts of juvenile birds being taught how to forage that morning. I saw Young Cassin’s Finches begging their parents for food, and the parents trying to encourage them to forage on their own, and young White-crown Sparrows foraging with their parents, but the highlight for me was the juvenile Rufous Hummingbird perched on a branch. That was a first for me.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
*Rufous Hummingbird-immature*

On Monday I got up at 2:45AM to go on my back patio to see if I could spot and photograph any Perseid Meteors. I very nearly went back to bed as there were still clouds from the day before in the sky.

I saw 3 great fireballs streaking across the morning sky, but one was completely out of my frame. One just looks like a streak with no fire ball that was disappointing, but it has a green tail, and one was just partially in my frame. The others I photographed are pink and green. Which I think are from the Aurora Borealis that was visible here. I missed the peak of that. I slept through it.

Here are two images of Perseid Meteors I photographed.

Look how close that fireball came to being in my frame! See it left side bottom edge? There’s another meteor below center as well.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
*Fireball just out of my frame plus another meteor*.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
*Perseid Meteor Streaking over No. Nevada…pink and green too.*

And, I’m still painting. I just finished a big painting for me at 9×12 inches of the Le Moulin de L’Abbye in France. I used a photo from a book called Hotels de Reve en France that I picked up years ago from a Little Free Library. I’ve been sketching from this book for years, but have been afraid to actually add paint out of fear of messing it up. I drew it freehand which took me hours, because drawing is so hard for me, but I am improving! Practice really helps. Anyway, I transferred the drawing to drawing paper so if I did mess it up I could half the drawing time by tracing it. This time I was determined to add paint!

Here’s that painting.

watercolor painting

The reference photo from the book Hotels de Reve en France.

I also made the boys some little handmade sketchbooks. I hope they fill those pages up!

The weather is cooler and the smoke from the Calif. fires has cleared so I’ll be out birding later this week and getting my morning walks in outside.

This is getting long so I’ll close with I hope your week is going well.

Nikon D850\ iPhone 14Plus

more to come…

Whatever Weds. A Summer Night Under the Stars

August 7, 2024August 6, 2024Posted in Astro-Photography, Night Photography, Night Sky, Night Sky Imaging, Photography, Starry Night, Whatever WednesdayTagged Army Fort Ruins, High Desert, Light Modifiers, light painting, Light Pollution, Light Shaping, Low Light Photography, Milky Way, Nikon, Ruins, Sagebrush, Thousands of Stars37 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

US Army fort ruins from the 1860’s.

Nikon D850| Nikkor 20mmf/1.8g| Single frame

more to come…

Thursday Doors- The Round House

July 25, 2024July 25, 2024Posted in Architecture, Photography, Thursday DoorsTagged Ohio, Put-in-Bay, Round House Bar, Thursday Doors, Travel and Tourism31 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

This is the last door I have from our trip to Put-in-Bay, OH back in May.

The Round House Bar.

I love the arched door, color theme, the dome roof, and the structure at the top of the roof. What is that called? Viewing room? Oh, and the Rooster weather vane. I do like the rooster theme. Fun fact about me: I was born in the year of the Rooster in Chinese Astrology.

We didn’t have time to go inside, but I do want to return so maybe one day I will get to see the murals on the walls.

Here’s some history:

“Originally housing the Columbia Restaurant, this building opened in 1873. Back in the day, there wasn’t a good way to keep things cold. Thanks to intrepid island dwellers including Valentine Doller, they figured out a way. The Columbia Restaurant was able to serve up ice cream and cottage cheese using blocks of ice gathered from Lake Erie in the winter. Housed in what is now the Put-in-Bay Winery, the ice kept things nice and cold.

The famous circular bar was then built in 1944 by the Greunke family, commissioning the Cincinnati Brewing Company to construct it. It was the perfect place to hold concerts “in the round,” with Mrs. Greunke as the featured pianist. They moved the stage to its current location so the performer wouldn’t have to play with their back to the audience.

The McCann family has owned the Roundhouse since the early 1950’s. Most of the building is original, with the exception of the floor and front porch. The original plaster walls have remained. They were also responsible for painting it its signature red, white, and blue along with artist Scott LoBadio painting the outside. The inside walls features murals by Canoe Bob.”https://putinbay.com/dinings/round-house-bar/

This post is part of the weekly challenge Thursday Doors hosted by Dan Antion over at