Tag: Nature Photography

Clark’s Grebes

Posted in Bird Photography, birding, Birds of North America, California, Clark's Grebes, Clear Lake CA, Grebes, Nature Photography, Northern California, Northern California Birds, PhotographyTagged , , , , , , , , , 26 Comments

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I spent the week-end with old friends Theresa, Dali, and Alex birding up in Clear Lake. We went to see Grebes, we hoped dancing on the water.

We booked a boat with the same tour group we used last year Eyes of the Wild with Faith as our Captain. You can read that post here.

We booked early and Faith kept us abreast of the Grebe situation on the lake on and off up until our booking day. Last week she sent me a text message saying that courting had really slowed down, but she had a surprise. Babies were early and she’d found several pair of Grebes with babies! Did we still want to come up?

Did we still want to come up? OF COURSE WE DID!  We’d go to see the chicks alone! We had hoped to get up there again last summer to see Grebe chicks, but there was a huge fire, the drought, add to that predators, well, it all added up to a low number of Grebes and not too many babies so, we didn’t go back up last year. We went this time!

Here’s my favorite image today of the babies and their parents.

Grebe Family

Dad had brought the fish, made a perfect transfer of it to Mom, and the chicks were out and exposed from their Mom’s wings peeping their heads off to get that fish!  The morning light was lovely, and I managed to keep the shot in focus and made before the boat moved up or down with a swell!

This was such an exciting, wonderful,  beautiful sight to see!

We also saw a few dances. We saw Osprey pairs with chicks, and a really pretty sunset among the most notable things we saw this past week-end.

I came home with 1700 images to cull. I’ve made my first pass and deleted about 400 already.  I’ll try to break up the posts so I don’t bore you to death with images of Grebes all the time. 🙂

Nikon D700| Nikkor 200-500mm| SunDisk Digital Film|

More to come…

 

 

 

 

Sunset on Mt Diablo Range

Posted in California, Landscape Photography, Landscapes, Nature Photography, Nikon DF, Oak Trees, Photography, Santa Clara CountyTagged , , , , , , , , , , 30 Comments

Copyright © 2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I went for a short hike Sunday evening with friends, and found it super cold and windy up in the mountains above the valley floor.  There were so many beautiful wildflowers up there, but it was so windy I only made a few images of flowers. Macro photography and wind just don’t play nice with each other.

Nothing to do then, but find a composition and wait for Golden Hour, and hope that the clouds that rolled in don’t block up the sun and we get some color.

My fingers got so cold I couldn’t feel the heat from my hand warmers, and I was having trouble feeling my shutter button. After Golden Hour myself and a friend called it and started back down the hill to the car.  About halfway down the colors in the sky popped. I had to stop to photograph it.

Landscape Photography

I hiked down pretty fast after the sun sunk behind the mountains, and once in my car I cranked the heater as high as it would go, and waited for another friend who drove up with me. She and several others braved the cold and wind further up the trail.

I’m glad I didn’t hike back to the car earlier. I would have missed this!

Nikon Df| Nikkor 17-35mm| Delking Digital Film| Tripod| PS CC 2015 & On1 Photo 10| Single exposure

More to come…

 

 

Early Spring!

Posted in Bees, Flower Photography, Flowering Trees, Honey Bees, Nature, Nature Photography, Nikon DF, Photography, Poems of Robert Frost, Poerty, San Jose California Nature Photographer, Seasons of the Year, Spring, Trees, WinterTagged , , , , , , , , , 27 Comments

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I had a walk-around the neighborhood Sunday morning and found Spring everywhere.

The flowering trees are in bud, and beginning to blossom while others are in full bloom!

A Prayer in Spring by Robert Frost-

“Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.”~Robert Frost (from A Boy’s Will, 1915)

Flowering Tree in Full Bloom

The huge white flowering tree was a hive of activity in the canopy. The buzz of bees

was dizzying, and the warmth of the sun on my face when I looked up felt wonderful, healing, and nourishing.

The branches were heavy with blossoms,

Flowering Tree in full bloom

papery white, with lovely “look at me!” centers.

Blossoms on a Flowering Tree

Plus one more…

Nearly home I found a huge Sweat Pea vine spilling over a fence with dozens of busy bees.

Honey Bee and the Sweet Pea

Nikon Df| Nikkor 28-105mm| Hoodman Digital Film| PS CC 2015

More to come…

 

The Surprise Visitors

Posted in American Robin, Bird Photography, Birds in the Wild, Birds of Northern America, Cedar Waxwing, Northern California Birds, Purple Finch, Santa Clara County birdsTagged , , , , , , , , 11 Comments

Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED!

This morning when I went out front I noticed a large flock of American Robins in the Ginko trees across the street, and there was a group of another bird I didn’t quite recognize, but knew it was something I’d want to photograph so, ran back in the house and grabbed my camera; hoping I had enough battery charge left to get an image or two!

I got a few shots then looked at them quickly in review mode, and saw that the birds were Cedar Waxwings! I’ve never seen them here before! Can you imagine my excitement? I was standing across the street from the tree which meant the images would need to be cropped in quite a bit so, I slowly advanced closer to the tree firing my shutter the whole time. I got too close, and all the birds scattered like leaves in a gust of wind. My only thought…COME B A C K!!!

Did I tell you that He-Man ruptured his Patella Tendon Nov. 10th?  Ruptured…the whole quadricep muscle came off his knee cap!  He had surgery on Nov. 12th and has been healing and in rehab since. His Surgeon told him he’d be “out” for the whole season and then some. He’s a cyclist, and a very active guy. This was the worst possible diagnosis. Yesterday he got the “okay” to start driving again. So, this afternoon he drove me in Pearl ( the Subaru Forester) to the post office which is 2 miles from our house.
It was like riding a bike. He was fabulous…moving from the brake to the gas pedal was no problem at all. When we got home he immediately got in Va-Va my 5 Speed Toyota Corolla Sport to take her for a spin, but I had spotted the Waxwings in the trees across the street again, and the light was nice. I begged for 5 minutes! As I was shooting he backed out, rolled down the window and said, “I’ll be fine. I’m just going around the block a few times.”  I said, ” WAIT I’ll come with!” He said, ” No need. I’ll be fine. Get the shots.”  He was back before I finished shooting. 🙂

5 Cedar Waxwings…

5 Cedar Waxwings

Mrs. American Robin with Mr. American Robin close by,

American Robin Female

Cedar Waxwings

Cedar Waxwings

Purple Finch

Purple Finch

Cedar Waxwing

Cedar Waxwing

Fabulous birds in front of my house, and the only thing He-Man needs me to do now that he can’t do for himself is put on his socks, and tie his shoes. Life is good!

Nikon D700| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4 w?AF-S Nikkor 14eII TC| Hand-held| Lexar Professional Digital Film| Developed in CS6

More to come…

Dawn-Vasona Lake Los Gatos, CA

Posted in Landscape Photography, Los Gatos CA, Nature Photography, Sunrises, Vasona Lake ParkTagged , , , , , 14 Comments

Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

When I woke up this morning at O’Dark Thirty (4:30am) I peeked outside to check out the sky. The clouds that moved in two days ago had some breaks and pockets with a few stars poking through here and there so, I thought it might be worth getting dressed and going out for the sunrise.

It’s been sometime since I have shot a sunrise by the water so I headed to one of my “go to” spots; Vasona Lake which isn’t too far from me. While walking over to my shooting location on the lake I could hear that the geese were already up making a fuss about something, and soon they had the mallards, and coots up, and it wasn’t too long afterwords that I spied the first morning runners and walkers out for their morning’s exercise. Then the sun started making its way up and over the mountains bringing with it some wonderful yellow and pink hues.

Dawn Vasona Lake Park Los Gatos CA

All and all a wonderful sunrise!

Nikon Df| AF-D Nikkor 24mm f/2.8@ f/14| Tripod

More to come…

P52 44/52 Gulf Fritillary

Posted in Butterflies, Close-up photography, InsectsTagged , , , , 8 Comments

Copyright © 2014 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Week 44! Can you believe there are only 8.5 weeks of 2014 left! The year has flown by.

This Gulf Fritillary was fearless! It came to my Lantana while #1 Grandson was out in the yard playing. I had my camera nearby so grabbed it and captured quite a few images of it. I made this image yesterday afternoon.

Gulf Fritillary

I wish more critters, and insects were as brave as this one.

Nikon Df| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4 w/1.4x TC = 420mm| Hand-held

More to come…

Life in the Garden-Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Posted in Backyard Birding, birding, Birds, Life in the GardenTagged , , , , , , 2 Comments

Copyright © 2014 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Shortly after the mornings began getting chillier here in No. California a pair of Chestnut-backed Chickadees showed up at my feeder. They make sorties for about 30 minutes or so in the mornings then I don’t see them again until the following morning. Since their arrival I’ve been trying to get a good image of them from my window, but I’ve not liked anything I’ve taken as they were too soft, or blurry, too noisey, or something so, I ended up deleting them all. I was quite frustrated I can tell you!

Thursday afternoon I was in the backyard with #1 Grandson who was busy getting into everything he shouldn’t…not being content with his climbing fort, toys, or sandbox as some toddlers are wont to be when a Chestnut-backed Chickadee perched itself on a tippy top branch of my Camellia bush!
Fortunately, I took my camera out with me just in case the Hummingbirds were brave enough to continue feeding with us in the yard. This is the best image of the Chestnut-backed Chickadee I’ve been able to make to date! I hope I’m ready the next time it makes an appearance.

Nikon D700| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4| Nikkor 14eII Teleconverter| Lexar Professional Digital Film

UPDATE on the RUFF- A post by a birder on the birding forum reported seeing the Ruff in its favorite corner of the salt pond today. It had been flushed by the Harrier a couple of times. The Ruff is wounded on the wing, but it can fly without any apparent problems, and is eating.  Happy news indeed!

More to come…