Arizona Sunflower and more

Copyright © 2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I took my D810 mounted with my LensBaby Composer Pro out for a walk looking for flowers in the neighborhood the other day.   I put the Soft Focus Optic in the Composer along with the 16mm macro adapter; here’s a few images from that walk.

Arizona Sunflower at f/2- I love that blur!

Arizona Sun Flower

Artichoke f/2

Artichoke

a Rose f/4- I wanted to get a bit more in focus so stopped it down a stop.

Copyright © Deborah M. Zajac ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

It looks like my LensBaby will get along fine with the D810.

I’m off for a “ladies  long week-end” with a good friend. We plan to hike in the mountains by a lake, and do a lot of photography. I hope the sky is clear so we can photograph the stars at least one night.

I hope you all have a lovely week-end. I’ll catch up when I return.

More to come…

Wordless Wednesday 20/52 In the garden with Pharaoh and Amun

Copyright ©2017 Deborah M. Zajac.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Amen in the form of a Ram protecting Pharaoh

Nikon D810| Nikkor 105mm f/2.8D| Hoodman Digital Film| PS CC 2017

More to come…

Gear Talk

Copyright ©2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Nikon is having a sale or instant rebates going on right now. Several of the high end Prosumer Cameras are in this sale. Some are bundled with lenses, and all come with some freebies to sweeten the deal.  Nikon comes out with new cameras every 2-4 yrs.  It normally is 2+ years, but there are sometimes set backs which push out the dates.

I jumped on the sale and picked up a Nikon D810. The tech inside the camera is 3 yrs old so, I’m sure there’s some kinda wonderful new camera coming down the pipe later this year, but for me this camera is a huge jump up in tech. It will replace my 6+ year old D700.  There’s still a lot of life left in the D700, but she has been my wildlife camera since my D300s’ auto focus motor went out.

It wasn’t worth the price to fix the D300s so, the D700 is what I have been using.  It has 12.3 MP and cropping in on little birds has been limited.  Stepping up the D810 with its 36MP I’ll have room to crop heavily and not lose resolution, and for landscapes, macro, and studio work the images will contain all sorts of lovely details that will be wonderful when making big prints.

As you might imagine I’ve been photographing things with the new camera testing it out since it arrived on Tuesday. I’ve been tweaking it; getting the buttons and dials, and features set up the way I like them.  Here’s a look at some of what I’ve been photographing last week.

Thursday night’s sunset at Lake Vasona. Nikon D810 + 50mm f/1.8G

High Pass resize Vasona Dusk

I spent all day shooting with friends on Saturday at San Jose Municipal Rose Garden and other venues.  The garden was awash in color! Nikon D810 + Nikkor 105mm f/2.8D micro

Fill the Frame

3 Garden Arches D810 + Nikkor 105mm f/2.8D micro

3 Arched Trellis'

A Bird of Paradise in the Garden at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum.

D810 + Nikkor 105mm f/2.8D micro

Bird of Paradise

…and Mother’s Day Sunset at Lake Vasona using the 35mm f/1.8G lens my children gave me for my Birthday/Mother’s Day.  I’ve have wanted this lens since it came out several years ago. I sold my old 35mm f/2D lens about the time this lens came out with the intention of buying the new lens, but I never did

get one. There was always something else that I needed to have so couldn’t afford it.  I am thrilled and so blessed to have been gifted this lens. D810 + Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G micro

Vasona Lake Sunset Mother's Day

I really love how quiet the shutter is on the camera, and it’s a bit lighter than my D700. The grip is deeper which is nice when holding it, and the buttons are laid out perfectly for my hands.  A couple of buttons have been moved to new places on this camera and I’m getting used to that, but overall I’m really happy with this purchase. I think it’s going to be a pretty great all-around camera which will give my trusty Df a break, and retire my D700.

Nikon D810| Nikkor 105mm f/2.8D, 35mm f/1.8G & 50mm f/1.8G | Hoodman Digital Film| PS CC 2017

More to come…

2017 National Train Day

Copyright ©2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Since Dan over at No Facilities   blog reminded his followers about National Train Day last year I have been looking for trains to photograph and saving them up for future National Train Day Posts.  This year I’d like to share a little Red Engine that I’ve been saving since last September.

Some friends and I spent 3 days on Route 66.  Our base was in Barstow, California.  Not far from Barstow, CA is the Ghost town of Calico, CA.  We spent an afternoon and evening there.  For the History Buffs I’ve gleaned some information from Wikipedia about the Ghost Town, and the railroad that once operated there.

It was once a bustling mining town. “It was founded in 1881 which is when the largest silver strike was found in California. Over a 12 year span, Calico has 500 mines which produced over $20 million in silver ore. Unfortunately Calico lost it population in the mid-1890s because silver lost its value. “~Wikipedia

In the 1950’s Walter Knott bought Calico and restored it as a Living Museum. He restored the architecture to look like it did in the 1880’s.  Several of the original buildings and railroad equipment were moved to Knotts Berry Farm’s “ghost town” exhibit, but most of it remains in the town.  The Calico Ghost Town is now part of San Bernadino’s County Regional Park System.

We missed the train actually running but I did grab a shot of the little red engine.

Copyright © Deborah M. Zajac
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

“The Calico & Odessa Railroad is a 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow gauge[1] heritage railroad in the ghost town of Calico, California, headquartered in Yermo, California. It was named for the town and mountain range of Calico and the nearby Odessa Canyon.[2]

It is a remake of the 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge Waterloo Mining Railroad, the original narrow gauge railroad line that hauled silver ore (and later borax) from Calico to the mills of Daggett in the 1880s, although the present-day tracks do not follow the trackbed of the original one.”~ Wikipedia

I hope everyone has a wonderful week-end!

Nikon Df| Nikkor 28-105mm| Delkin Digital Film| PS CC 2017

More to come…

 

 

 

Thursday Doors Vintage Wood Stove

Copyright © 2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I haven’t been posting door(s) weekly on Thursday Doors, but I’ve been photographing interesting doors at every opportunity. 🙂

I spied this vintage wood stove at Daffodil Hill Farm in mid March when I went up to photograph the Daffodils in bloom.  I love the rust, and decorations on it.  I have no idea how old or what brand it is.  It does say 1870 above the top set of doors, but that could only mean it’s when the company was founded.

The Daffodil in bloom just offset of the stove was placed perfectly for this composition I thought.

Vintage Wood Stove Doors

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.

Nikon Df| Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G| Delkin Digital Film| PS CC 2017

More to come…

Whaling good time!

Copyright © 2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I went Whale watching yesterday and saw quite a few Humpback whales in the Monterey Bay.  I sailed out of Santa Cruz with the Stagnaro’s boat crew on the Legacy.

Here she is with some of the crew prepping her for our trip.

The Legacy_IMG_6818

We sailed out about 2 miles into Moneterey Bay where their sister ship Velocity was already spotting whales.

We saw several flukes and spouts of breath, and heard them too! A couple of times the whales were so close to the ship I couldn’t focus on them!

Hump Back Fluke_DMZ8019

The Monterey Bay is a popular place for whales of several species to feed because there’s plenty of food there.   I talked about the Submarine Canyon before in this post from a Whale watching trip last year here .

I didn’t see any Breaching or lunge feeding this time, but I was thrilled to see the spouting or blowing, and their flukes above the water.

2 Humpback Whales This was the second time I’d been whale watching with this company. It had been 5 yrs since I went out with them. I recommend them highly.

I have more images to share, and to tell you about an exciting sighting I saw on Saturday  which was a Leucistic Hummingbird which I’ll be sharing with you later this week.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Nikon D700| Nikkor 80-200mm + Tamron 1.4TC| Hoodman STEEL Digital Film| PS CC 2017

More to come…

Wordless Wednesday 17/52 Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly

Copyright ©2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Pipvine Swallowtail Butterfly

Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly

Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly

Nikon Df| Nikkor 180mm f/2.8| SanDisk Extreme Pro Digital Film| PS CC 2017 & On1 Photo 10

More to come…