Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
A Wild Cotton-tailed Bunny
Sunlight through the Sprinkler mist
Black-eyed Susans in a neighbor’s yard
A Hot Air Balloon rising above the valley
and, a curious Blue-eyed Darner …
Panasonic Lumix FZ200| Photoshop CC 21.2.1
more to come…
Copyright ©2019 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I’ve had #1 Grandson here with us since Saturday. He’s on a Fall or Thanksgiving Break from school this week. He’s so excited waiting for the storm which is supposed to bring 6 inches of snow to our neighborhood. It’s stalled somewhere and isn’t here yet. He really, really wants to make a snowman.
Baby Girl and the Handsome Surveyor and our littlest will be with us for Thanksgiving and I can’t wait to see them and hold our Littlest.
I’m finally over or nearly over a miserable cold so I am feeling very grateful for my health at the moment, and for my family, friends, and the friends I’ve made here.
About the image of Tom Turkey. This is to date the biggest Turkey I have ever seen in the wild! It was huge!! It was taken in Amador County, CA while on the back from a Spring wildflower excursion. No luck with wildflowers that year, but he was a welcome sighting and made up for the lack of flowers.
I wish all my friends here in the blogosphere that are in the USA a very Happy Thanksgiving!
I wish the rest of you a wonderful week and week-end where ever you are!
Nikon D90| Nikkor 70-300mm| SanDisk Digital Film| PS CC 21.0.1
more to come…
Copyright ©2019 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I went to see the Kokanee Salmon that are migrating upstream right now in South Lake Tahoe last Friday. I was hoping to see a bear since I just got butt shots of one the last time I went to see this migration back in 2010.
We saw salmon schools and some swimming around the creek, but no bears while we were there so, we went to look for fall color, have lunch, and return for the late afternoon, early evening and maybe see a bear come to the creek to eat.
We got lucky and a young black bear did come by to eat! It got really exciting for several seconds when the bear wanted to get up on the deck I and quite a few observers were on and cross to the other side. This is how close I was. Right at the very edge of my focusing limit…too close! I and everyone else backed up and the bear hopped up on the bridge and I was still too close so we backed up more and the bear walked across the bridge and into the woods.
It looked like it was heading back to the creek but near the other bridge so, I made for that and sure enough, the bear went up on a huge beaver dam and started hunting for something to eat. It didn’t fish. I wonder if it didn’t learn that skill?
That’s my bear tale. It was pretty exciting and neat seeing it.
I hope you’re all having a lovely week!
Nikon D810| Nikkor 80-200mm| Lexar Digital Film| PS CC 20.0.6
more to come…
Copyright © 2019 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I thought I’d share several images I’ve made in the last few weeks and have been working on to share.
Golden Hour over the 13th Fairway, the Eastern Sierras, and the marsh as seen looking southwest from my patio.
A new bird for me! A Rough-winged Swallow with lunch. If I have not made the correct ID for this one please let me know!
Last Friday a friend came up for a Doctor’s appointment and spent the night, but after her appointment, we went out exploring my area looking for some Nevada Wild Mustangs; we had Lady Luck with us b/c we found a small band! Doing a little research we discovered that this Black/Blue Stallion is called Zorro.
Here’s one of Zorro’s band members with some Hitchhikers.
I’m looking forward to getting to know the Wild Mustangs of Nevada and this band.
To close out this week’s post I’ll share a sunset from last week. This was made while I was on my patio.
I hope you’re all having a great week so far, and as they say out here in the Valley, let’s get our Hump Day Dance on and bump those hips! 😂
Nikon D810| Nikkor 200-500mm and Nikkor 50mm| Lexar and Hoodman Digital Film| PS CC 2019
more to come…
Copyright ©2018 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The smokey morning air from the Northern California Camp Fire diffused the morning sun giving the look of Golden Hour on the Tule Elk in the field.
The largest male with that beautiful rack is the Alpha Male with part of his herd and a couple of young bachelors in Central Valley at the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge.
Nikon D810| Nikkor 200-500mm @500mm| Hoodman STEEL Digital Film| PS CC 2019
more to come…
Copyright ©2018 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
It rained this week! I’m not complaining we need it, so when He-Man and I went for a hike on Saturday we went late morning to let it dry out a bit, and get warmer. We kept to the paved streets in the nearby hills b/c I did not want to trod uphill and down in the mud on the trails. We walked just over 2 miles and gained about 600ft in elevation. It felt like a workout.
FWIW: If I’m hiking or stretching my legs with a hike I’d rather go uphill for a bigger pay off verses a longer, flat walk. Since it was late morning there wasn’t any wildlife; the birds, deer, coyotes, and wild turkey were all napping I guess. Not a bad place to be on a late Saturday morning though. 🙂
Sunday it rained all day. Like me all the wildlife was hunkered down somewhere cozy, warm, and dry.
So, it’s to my archives we go.
Here are a few wild ones that visit my backyard bushes and feeders taken last year.
hum… something Squirrely (sp?) is going on here…
Yep! This one found the one feeder he/she can get in to!
Then there’s the fence sitters.
The top bird is a Mourning Dove…which I’m thinking was born in the hanging basket on my patio, or their Mother. The bottom bird is a California Towhee. I can’t tell if it’s the male of female.
I hope you’re all having a wonderful week and staying warm!
Nikon D700| Nikkor 200-500mm| Hoodman Digital Film| PS CC 2018
more to come…
Copyright © 2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
A Bobcat image…Finally! I went birding with my friend Dali on the 30th of December which would be my last birding adventure for 2017. We went to an area not too far from home that we hadn’t been to in a year. While on the way out of the area and headed to lunch b/c the birds had gone quiet, and hunkered down well into the foliage out of sight Dali spotted this Bobcat.
I was so excited and had been looking for one or it when we went through this area coming in, because way back in the winter of 2011 Dali and I saw a Bobcat here, and it was right in my sights, but I missed the shot because my lens then was the 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 which was slow and would hunt in poor light. My lens just would not find focus, and by the time I switched to manual focus all I managed to get were blurry butt shots of the retreating Bobcat. It was then I decided I had to move up to the 300mm f/4 prime lens. Missed shots like this due to a hunting lens was unacceptable! Needless to say, every time I’ve birded this area since I’ve looked for the, or a Bobcat sans success…that is, until the 30th of December 2017. 6 years of hoping to see a Bobcat again in this area!
This Bobcat just like that day in 2011 was under the canopy of Oak trees and well shaded but, unlike that day my kit today is the 200-500mm lens, and the formidable D810 camera which together were able to attain focus so, I was able to fire off 4 shots before the Bobcat got behind the foliage and out of sight. However all was not perfect…all four images were metered for a brighter environment so, they were all under exposed. I didn’t delete them. Actually, I never delete “in camera” for fear of corrupting my card. I hoped I would be able to bring up the exposure enough in Photoshop and save the images especially since the Bobcat did turn and look at me for two of those four shots!
If I haven’t told you before how much I like Photoshop let me tell you now. I LIKE PHOTOSHOP! I was able bring back nearly two stops of light, and with some noise reduction have a “keeper” instead of having to delete the images again.
Was this the very same Bobcat? Probably not, but maybe its offspring. 🙂 Either way I’m a very happy camper with this shot, and my last birding excursion of 2017. Oh yes, we did see birds. Lots of Hawks, Sparrows, and a Says Phoebe are the most notable birds, but the highlight for me was long awaited re sighting of the Bobcat. I sure hope that bodes well for a stellar 2018 wildlife/birding year.
Here’s a link about the North American Bobcat from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
Oh, three more things; 1) you may have noticed I have changed my blog theme, and hope you’re all able to view and read my posts sans problemes. My old theme was no longer supported, and I was having some issues with it for sometime. Then I created a “sticky” post back in week 41 of 2017 and couldn’t figure out how I did it or undo that until week 51 or so when I had given up trying to fix that and tried new themes. For now this is the theme I’m rollin’ with. Let me know in the comments if it’s working for you please.
2) while driving home from Baby Girl’s this evening I decided on my Project 52 theme for this year. Yes, I’m going to do another one. It motivates me, and gets me out of the house with my favorite tool…my camera. This year’s theme I’m calling Wild Wednesday. I have plenty of wildlife images marinating in my archives in case I get stuck indoors, but I plan to get out to make many more new images, and not all things wild are animals. 🙂
3) My Header: It’s an image I made back on Jan. 1, 2011 of Stoneman Bridge in Yosemite National Park. That was a stellar Photography Trip with Dear Friends Dali, Alex, and Theresa. We’re way overdue for another Annual New Year’s Trip. Just sayin. 🙂
I raise my glass and toast; Here’s to a good photographic year! 🙂
Nikon D810| Nikkor 200-500mm @f/8|ISO 1000| Hoodman Digital Film| PS CC 2018
more to come…
