Category: Uncategorized

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Copyright © 2011 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

O WORLD, I cannot hold thee close enough!
Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!
Thy mists that roll and rise!
Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag
And all but cry with colour! That gaunt crag
To crush! To lift the lean of that black bluff!
World, World, I cannot get thee close enough!

Long have I known a glory in it all,
But never knew I this;
Here such a passion is
As stretcheth me apart. Lord, I do fear
Thou’st made the world too beautiful this year.
My soul is all but out of me,—let fall
No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.
~Edna St. Vincent Millay

I thought of this poem when standing here. I am so grateful for poets! Words fail me so often.

I am standing on Mt. Allison gazing at Mission Peak, and beyond it Monument Peak, and behind that Mt. Diablo. It was hard work getting here but worth every step.

Hike stats-
Total miles 8.36
Total elevation 2,552 ft
Total time 4hours 30 mins.

My route and stats you can see here:
connect.garmin.com/activity/116743145

Nikon D700| Nikkor 17-35 @ 17mm| f11| 1/200 sec| ISO 200| Manual Mode| Tripod
Fremont, CA

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Copyright © 2011 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved

Hiking up to Mission Peak last Sat. morning via the Hidden Valley trail I stopped to set up my tripod to shoot these beautiful clouds and light as day broke.
The view is of Fremont, CA and the southern part of San Francsico Bay. It’s mostly marsh and wet lands down there. For those who know the Hidden Valley trail I was just past the 4th bench, and just about to hike under the Crags.

These yellow bushes/wildflowers covering much of the hillsides now I think is Tocalote thistle.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 17-35 @ 17mm| f5.6| 1/6 second| ISO 200| Manual Mode| Tripod

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Copyright © 2011 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

Facing the north eastern sky. The brightest light-star trail isn’t a star. It’s Jupiter’s rising trail.
Those are airplanes streaking across my star trails. This is the flight corridor for flights in and out of SFO.

Nikon D700 | Nikkor 17-35@17mm| f2.8| 35 seconds| ISO 160| Manual Mode| Tripod w/Intervelometer
66 frames stacked in CS5

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Copyright © 2011 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

Last night’s sky. Above the tree line sort of off center the brightest object is Jupiter, on the left side slightly above Jupiter is Cassiopeia, and in the upper right is what I think is The Great Square of Pegasus.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 17-35@ 17mm| f2.8| 35 seconds| ISO 160| Manual Mode| Tripod w/Intervelometer

Eastern Sky, Northern Hemisphere, Jupiter, Cassiopeia, Great Square of Pegasus, Night Photography, Astrophotography, California, Nikon, Nikkor, D700, 17-35mm; CS5

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Copyright © 2011 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

It is the Harvest Moon! On gilded vanes
And roofs of villages, on woodland crests
And their aerial neighborhoods of nests
Deserted, on the curtained window-panes
Of rooms where children sleep, on country lanes
And harvest-fields, its mystic splendor rests!
Gone are the birds that were our summer guests,
With the last sheaves return the laboring wains!
All things are symbols: the external shows
Of Nature have their image in the mind,
As flowers and fruits and falling of the leaves;
The song-birds leave us at the summer’s close,
Only the empty nests are left behind,
And pipings of the quail among the sheaves.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Can you believe Summer is nearly over!

Nikon D700| Nikkor 17-35@ 35mm| f20| 45 seconds| ISO 1000| Manual Mode| Tripod| Cable Release Timer

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Copyright © 2011 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

A Buck’s antlers are covered in a skin called Velvet. They grow and shed one set of antlers a year which start as two little buds. They are filled with blood and the nerves are quite sensitive during this period. When mating begins the antlers have shrunk, the Elk has rubbed all or most of the velvet off, and they become hard making them effective weapons for combat in rutting season.
This particular Buck has 26 females in his Harem. That is quite large. I believe the average is 20 females.

Point Reyes National Seashore, California, Tule Elk Preserve,

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200mm 155mm @ f8| 1/1000sec| ISO 800| Manual Mode| Tripod|

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Copyright © 2011 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

A friend and I hiked out to see the Tule Elk to see if there was anything going on in the way of rutting since it’s the season. We saw a few of the younger bulls being chased away from Harems by the Alphas, but not sparring.

I wasn’t too disappointed as these Elk are fascinating and beautiful to watch.
It’s also a bit of thrill as you walk by them. They are not penned in! Fortunately we both are wary of each other so I stay on the trial, and they stay a good bit away from it when humans are nearby.

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200mm@ 105mm| f8| 1/640 sec| ISO 640| Manual Mode| Hand-held