Rice Silos of Central Valley

Copyright © 2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS  RESERVED

While in Central Valley CA. a couple of weeks ago birding I also made a point of stopping to photograph these silos in the late afternoon light.

Rice Silos Central California

I’m  enamored with silos and the reflection was particularly nice at this time of day.

It was the tail end of the Rice harvest while I was there, and there were harvesters in the fields, and many semi-trucks driving to the Silos to deliver their loads.

In the shadow  under the Silos there’s a semi, and its driver who spied me and my girl-friend making images of the silos…he scooted behind his rig. There really was no need though. I could barely see him with my eyes! 🙂

I hope you all have a lovely week-end!

Nikon Df| Nikkor 17-35mm| Delkin Digital Film

More to come…

 

 

Thursday Doors 40/52

Copyright © 2016 Deborah M. Zajac  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I can’t believe how fast this week has flown by! Thursday sort of snuck up on me so I’ve reached into my “walks around the neighborhood” files for this week’s Thursday Doors post.  Although, this particular neighborhood is the hilly one I stretch my legs in and a 10 minute drive from my “hood”.

N°12359

I confess the beautiful brick work, and topiary caught my eye before the door did.

N°12359

a look at the front of the house,

N°12359

Writing this up my spell checker didn’t like the word “snuck”. It likes sneaked better, but I don’t say sneaked in this sense…so, I looked it up to see if I’ve been saying the past tense of sneak wrong my whole life.   Apparently, I’m not alone and a lot of people say snuck, but I’d be correct using the word sneaked.

I think I’ll just leave it as an irregular verb and say snuck, and ponder it awhile as I’m writing this in the wee hours of the morning without my brain stimulating cup-a-tea. 🙂

What do you say; sneaked, or snuck?

Nikon Df| Nikkor 24-120mm| Delkin 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…

 

 

 

Thursday Doors 39/52

Copyright © Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

For this week’s Thursday Doors I have returned to my NYC trip files to share another ancient door panel from the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art).

The plaque beside the panel says:

Carved Door Panel

Present-day Uzbekistan, Samarquand, Timurid period

(1370-1507), late 15th century

Wood (cypress); carved, with traces of paint

Culture- Islamic

H-82 in (208.3 cm)
W- 30 3/4in (78.1cm)
D-2 1/2in (6.4cm)
Wt. – 127 lbs. (57.6kg)
Made in Present-day Uzbekistan, Samarqand

This door is said to have been found in a secular building in Khokand, in present-day Uzbekistan. The intricate carvings of the interlaced vine scrolls seen here may be compared to similar relief decoration in stone carvings of the fifteenth century and to contemporary manuscript illuminations. The establishment of royal workshops throughout Iran during the fifteenth century fueled a unity of design across media, resulting in the emergence of common regional design vocabularies.

Carved Panel Door

Nikon Df| Nikkor 28-105mm| Delkin Digital Film| PS CC 2015.5

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…

 

 

Thursday Doors 38/52 West Cliff Inn

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

After photographing the Harvest Moon (image here) last Friday night I was walking up the hill to the car when I couldn’t help but notice, and remark how lovely the West Cliff Inn looked all lit up, and her transom window over the entry door looked lovely too.

My friend replied, “There’s your next door!”.    Don’t you love friends that support our thing for doors? I do! 🙂

West Cliff Inn/Lynch House Santa Cruz, CA

West Cliff Inn- Lynch House

For the History Buffs:

“Most of those who descended on California during the Gold Rush never struck it rich. One exception was prospector Sedgewick Lynch, a carpenter-turned-49er who made his fortune in the gold fields, then made his way to Santa Cruz. Lynch continued to use his carpentry skills; he built the original Santa Cruz wharf, among other local projects.

In 1877, Lynch built his family manse on a bluff with a commanding view of the ocean, just a short walk from the lighthouse.  The Lynch House was among the town’s most prominent residences, constructed for the then-startlingly high cost of $12,000. The house was initially the only home on the cliff, but by the turn of the century, similarly grand neighbors joined it, giving birth to the nickname “Millionaires’ Row.”

Over the next hundred years, the Lynch House morphed from family home to hospital, to office space and vacation rental.  By 2004, it was dilapidated. But the Italianate Grand Dame of West Cliff Drive was in luck; the new owners wanted to save the historic property, so they undertook a complete renovation to the building.

Four Sisters Inn’s President Shelley Post collaborated on every phase of the rehabilitation project, and her strong knowledge of what guests want influenced many design decisions. For example, soaking in a large tub after a long day at the beach is on Shelley’s list of favorite things, which is why almost every room soon had a deep soaking tub.

Work began in 2004, and by June of 2007, the Lynch House was as beautiful as ever, ready to welcome Santa Cruz visitors under her new name: Four Sisters Inns.”~westcliffinn.com

~westcliffinn.com

I remember when the house was looking quite run down. I am so happy it was restored and converted to  a B&B and preserved as an Historical Landmark in 2007. It looks beautiful today.

Nikon Df| Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G| Delkin Digital Film| PS CC 2015.5

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…

 

September’s Harvest Moon

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

A friend and I went over the hill to Santa Cruz, CA this month to photograph the Moon rising above Walton Lighthouse.   We both really like having water in the image, and pretty foregrounds.

We knew there wouldn’t be much time to shoot since the Moon would need time to climb to get above the Lighthouse, and it’s getting dark earlier.

When we got out of the car and looked at the horizon and lighthouse we groaned. There was a thick band of fog just sitting on the horizon.  We wouldn’t see the Moon until it got above that! Time wouldn’t be on our side.

The sun had set and the sky was getting darker…finally I saw the top of the Moon above the fog bank.

Harvest Moon 2016

The Moon got high enough for me to make it out almost completely.

2016 Harvest Moon

It finally got out of the Fog only to be obscured again.  I tried to get a few more images, but it was getting too dark to keep the foreground in the image, and I wanted that.  I was also a bit frustrated with the wind, and shaking from the passing cars which shook my rig, and the pier I was photographing from. I deleted quite a few blurry images.

The color of the Moon was gorgeous though, and it was big being so close to the horizon. It would have looked much larger when it was just above that tree line if I could have seen it then.  Maybe next month. 🙂

“The September Moon is called the Harvest Moon or Corn Moon because this is the time to finish harvesting the corn and other crops before Winter. The bright moonlight gives farmers a little extra time to harvest their crops before the first day of Fall. “~sfgate.com

Nikon Df| Nikkor 200-500mm| Delkin Digital Film| PS CC 2015.5

More to come…

Thursday Doors 37/52

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I didn’t get out on a Doorscursion this week so I’ve dug into my NYC trip files to post a door from my May 2016 trip.

One of the “must do” places we visited was the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art) there I spied many doors on display!

Here’s one I photographed:

Pair of Carved Doors in the Beveled Style: 9th Century

Information from the MET regarding the pair:

“This carved pair (with 31.119.2) of teak doors imported into Iraq from Southeast Asia is probably from a royal or domestic residence. They epitomize the Beveled style—a symmetrical, abstract, vegetal form—and were probably originally painted and highlighted with gilding. The doors are said to have been found at Takrit, but were probably originally made in Samarra, the palace city of the Abbasid caliphs for a brief time in the mid‑ninth century.”

Carved Doors 9th Century

I loved finding ancient doors in the Museum.  It was nice to know that there have been door lovers for a long, long time, and some thought to save this lovely pair.  🙂

Nikon Df| Nikkor 28-105mm| Delkin Digital Film| PS CC 2015.5

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…

 

Trailhead to the Stars

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Last night I met Gordon, and some other friends in a Meet-Up group we’re in up on Mt. Tamilpias in Marin County to photograph the sunset, and then image the night sky.

There was an Astrology lecture in the Amphitheater so the park was open much later than it normally is which allowed us to stay late. YEAH! Normally the park closes a bit after sunset.

This is 74 frames stacked in PS CC 2015.5.

My settings were f2.2| 30seconds ea.| ISO 320| Manual Priority| Tripod|

Star Trails

4 planes, and one shooting star flew through the sky while I was imaging. I didn’t see the shooting star at the time as I was looking away helping a friend with her settings and intervalometer. I was thrilled to see I caught it on film though.

It was a lovely night, not windy, or cold, and the company was great!

Nikon Df| Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G| Delkin Digital Film

More to come…