Thursday Doors 28/52

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Last week-end while in Point Reyes National Seashore I went out to Pierce Point Ranch which is where the road ends heading north in the park.   I was planning to hike out to see the herd of Tule Elk, but it was so foggy reports from hikers returning from the trail said they’d not seen or heard the Elk.  So, instead of hiking I stayed at the ranch and took photographs of some of the buildings and doors.

For the History Buffs:

The Ranch was constructed by Solomon Pierce in the 1860’s. It was the most successful “butter rancho” in Point Reyes Township.  

In the 1880’s the ranch was leased to a series of tenants, and in the mid 1930’s it was sold to the McClure family which operated it’s Grade B dairy until the about 1945, when dairy ranching ceased after 90 years. 

The complex includes the 1869 and earlier sections of the two-story main house, the tank house, school, woodshed, carpenter shop, blacksmith shop, dairy, horse barn, slaughter house, hay barn, hog sheds,  and pens.  It represents the most extensive surviving historic complex in the Point Reyes National Seashore. 

The Pierce Point Ranch on Tomales Point ceased operations in 1973. Three years later, Congress authorized creation of the wilderness area incorporating that ranch as habitat for the reintroduction of Tule Elk. Beginning in 1980, NPS invested in the rehabilitation of the ranch core, citing it as the best example of a nineteenth century west Marin dairy ranch. Pierce Point Ranch was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985, and was subsequently opened to the public as an interpretive site.“~http://wikimapia.org/100600/Pierce-Point-Ranch

Dairy/Long Barn Doors:

Long Barn Doors Pierce Point Ranch

The Dairy/Long Barn- It was so foggy the sky was white so, I converted this image to Black and White.

Long Barn Pierce Ranch

another image of the Dairy and shed with a couple more doors.

Dairy Barn Pierce Point Ranch

This might be the school house,

Pierce Point Ranch Point Reyes National Seashore

Closer look of door of possible school,

Door to building at Pierce Point Ranch

A closer look at that door knob, and pad lock,

Door knob and Best Lock Pierce Point Ranch

Here’s an image of a male Tule Elk that I took here back in 2012. Can you see the velvet hanging off his antlers around his face? He’s scratching it off and polishing his antlers.  I saw him on Bachelors Hill.

Tule Elk Male

The Bachelor’s; There were quite a few of them that year.  They were also pretty far away. My lens was stretched beyond its limits that day too.

Tule Elk Males

The only wildlife I saw while at the ranch Saturday was an Alligator Lizard sunning itself.

 

Alligator Lizard

It was a great day despite the fog and no Elk.

Nikon Df w/ Nikkor 28-105mm| Delkin Digital Film, and Lumix FZ200, Lexar Digital Film,

The 2012 images were made with the Nikon D700 w/Nikkor 70-300mm VR, SanDisk Digital Film

This post is part of Norm 2.0’s Thursday Doors.  If you love doors and would like to see the doors others are posting, or post doors you’ve photographed and join other door lovers from around the world click here.

At the end of Norm’s latest Thursday Door post is a little Blue Link-up/View button click it to be taken to a page with all the links to view all the posts, and add your own if you’re a door enthusiast too.

More to come…

Trees and Foliage Abstract

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I was up north in Point Reyes National Seashore on Saturday photographing nature, while walking through a wooded section I stopped to photograph the trees. They were Birch I think; they had tall, on the thin side white trunks and lovely green foliage.

I always like to play around with Intentional Camera Movement when I happen upon a wooded area with nice trunks, and foliage.

Trees and Foliage Abstract

I find the technique works best with tall stalked flowers and trees. One lowers the shutter speed enough to cause blur then you intentionally move the camera/lens in an up or down motion to cause the blur. For this image my settings were f/13, ISO 400, 1/13s.

I moved my camera/lens from up to down fairly fast to create the blurred image.

The key is slowing down the shutter speed and drag the lens in an up or down motion to create the blur. It takes a bit a practice to get it, but with several tries one can usually attain a pleasing blur=ICM image.  You can create interesting affects zooming in and out, or shivering ever so slightly as well.

Here’s an image I made in 2014 with Agapanthus using the same technique.Agapantha Abstract

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

More to come…

 

Lazuli Bunting Watercolor

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Here we are already on July 8th! Which means it’s Draw-a-Bird Day over on CreateArtEveryday, and it’s also #WorldWatercolorMonth created by Charlie O’Shields over at doodlewash.com. 

Yesterday afternoon I felt inspired to paint a Lazuli Bunting I photographed back in May 2014. I used a Pentel Graphic Gear 0.7 to lightly sketch the beak, and snag it’s perched on, but kept the rest the painting loose.  I’m pleasantly surprised how well it came out for not trying to sketch the whole bird.

The Lazuli Bunting is a Spring/Breeding visitor in my region of Northern California.  I was very excited to see it him and add him to my “life list” back in the Spring of 2014.

Lazuli Bunting in Watercolor

The image I used as my reference is here.P52 18 of 52 Lazuli Bunting-1st yr Male

Paint, Paper, Brush:

Sennelier L’Aquarelle in Cinereous Blue, French Vermillion, Bright Red, Burnt Umber, Ivory Black, Naples Yellow Deep, Warm Sepia, Hooker’s green, Phthalo Green Light.

I painted this in my Strathmore Watercolor Art Journal 400 Series 8.5″ X 5.5″ 140lb paper.

Brush:  Di Vinci Artissimo Rd #1

I’m posting this on both Creatarteveryday’s Draw a Bird Day, and #WorldWatercolormonth.  If you have a moment please head over and check out the amazing work being done by artists all over the world.

More to come…

 

What’s blooming?

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Copyright © 2016 Deborah M. Zajac ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

My Agapanthus are blooming right now, and this sweet bud just opening inspired me to try to paint it.

Painted on Arches Hot Press 140lb watercolor paper, with Sennelier paints.
I used, Naples Yellow, Indian Yellow, Cobalt Violet Deep, Ultramarine Deep, Forest Green, Emerald Green, Burnt Umber, Raw Sienna, and Ivory Black.

I received a gift card to Amazon for my birthday last month so, I splurged on a Di Vinci Artissmo brush #1 rd. I used it, along with an Escoda Reserva #2, and a Robert Simmons Sapphire 10/0 brushes.
WOW, does  the Artissmo brush hold water! I’m having to learn to paint all over again with this brush.

 

watercolor

I’m really happy with how this little bud came out. I’m feeling brave enough to try the whole pom pom blossom. To be continued. 🙂

Charlie O’ Shield’s over at doodlewash  has invited artist, and dabblers in paint to tag their  nature paintings, or watercolor  work in the month of June to share our work using the tag

#naturedoodlewash. He’ll compile a list of all those who participated at the end of the month.

Image made with Lumix FZ200| Lexar Professional Digital Film| PS CC 2015

More to come…

Tribute Day May 14, 2016

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Today is National Train Day in the States, and it’s also Global Big Day 2016 in the Birding World.  I thought I’d honor both here with a short post.

Back in 2012 myself and two friends Dali, and Phil were looking for a particular waterfall called Phantom Fall in Butte county. We hiked through a woodland forest, along railroad tracks, crossed creeks, and climbed grassy hills looking for it. While on a grassy hill taking a break I heard the rumble of a train, and the low train’s whistle and turned to find the train.

I waited for it to get around the curve hoping it was a long enough train to go around the whole curve. It was a wee bit short. 🙂 Still neat to see, and hear though.

We hiked, and drove a lot of miles that day looking for that elusive waterfall, but didn’t find it. Dali and I found it a year or so later, but I’m saving that story. Not enough time has passed yet. I need to be older and the tale a bit more aged before it comes out in public.

Amtrak train

Here’s a fun macro image I made of a toy Bachman’s Engine some of you may remember from a post I made last year.  This is from a train set we used to set up around the Christmas tree when my kids were little.

Toy train

To honor Global Big Day and my love of birds here’s an image of a Western Wood Peewee.

I took this image while looking for the Gray Flycatcher posted here  The Western Wood Peewee is a “lifer” for me! That was an exciting day of Birding with 2 “life” birds added to my list.

Western Wood Peewee

I hope you all have a wonderful week-end!

Nikon D700, & Nikon Df| Nikkor 70-300mm VR, 200-500mm VR, and LensBaby

More to come…

Gray Flycatcher

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I went birding on both Saturday and Sunday this past week-end hoping to find two birds I’d never seen or photographed before. I got lucky with really good looks on the first bird on my list: The Gray Flycatcher.  A “lifer” for me!

Gray Flycatcher

There were other birders there looking for the same bird which made the experience more fun and exciting. It also helped to have several pairs of eyes, and ears on the lookout.

Gray flycatcher

It’s migrating south, and this one is further west than it’s regular migration route.

Gray Flycatcher

He was pretty far away from me, and in the shadows of the trees so I boosted my ISO to keep up my shutter speed to prevent blurring, and these images are cropped.

Sunday I went back to look for the second bird on my list, but I was not successful.  I’ll have another go this week-end if I hear it’s still in the area.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 200-500mm| Lexar Professional Digital Film| Tripod|

Note to self- take the bug spray! I got eaten alive by mosquitoes!

More to come…

 

Thursday Doors 18/52 Historic Alviso Revisited

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I went out to Alviso, CA this past week to look for a Little Stint which is a shorebird, and very rare to this area.  I didn’t see the Little Stint unfortunately, but  I did see a neat rusty, and sagging door at the old Bayside Canning Company. This Canning Company has been closed since 1936.  I blogged a little about the Canning Co. & town here.

Rusty Door- Photography

The city is letting the buildings decay, and they are currently being used by the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory. 

The Little Stint has been hanging around the Western Sandpipers, and I did see some that were close to me. Sadly the Little Stint wasn’t hanging out with this group.

Western Sandpipers- Photography

There are deck walkways that take you right across the top of the marsh and you leave

the deck via a  facade like doorway to the levy’s that surround the ponds. You can walk around these or just gaze at the view.   Back in September 2009 I happened to be there early in the evening for Golden Hour; it was gorgeous.

Alviso Golden Hour Fall 2009

Top two images- Nikon D700| Nikkor 200-500mm| Lexar Professional Digital Film| PS CC 2015

Bottom Image- Nikon D90| Nikkor 70-300mm VR| SanDisk Digital Film| PS CC 2015

This post is part of Norm 2.0’s Thursday Doors.  If you love doors and would like to see the doors others are posting, or post doors you’ve photographed and join other door lovers from around the world click here.

At the end of Norm’s latest Thursday Door post is a little Blue Link-up/View button click it to be taken to a page with all the links, or add your own.

More to come…