“A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away.” ― Eudora Welty
Copyright ©2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
We had a real good rain this past week here in Silicon Valley so, I grabbed my camera and took several images of the rain hitting the patio. I managed to catch a few drop images in the process.
I hope this is beginning of wet winter. Or at least a drought busting one.
It’s raining again today!
Nikon Df| AF-S Nikkor 300mm| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| CS6
More to come…
Copyright ©2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I rose this morning at 2:40am to be on time to meet with a group of Photographers at 5:00am in Marin County to photograph the Sunrise over San Francisco Bay, and Golden Gate Bridge. We hoped for fog on the deck of the Golden Gate Bridge, but it looked like there wouldn’t be any fog rolling into the city when we met, but as we waited for others in the group to arrive the fog began to creep in.
Once the group assembled we drove over to Battery Spencer in the Marin Headlands to shoot. Then several of us broke off from the group to move higher. We drove up to Hawk Hill and photographed the rest of Blue Hour, Dawn, and the Sunrise from there.
The fog never did make it to the bridge, but the colors, and light of the sunrise this morning was glorious. Well worth the O’Dark Thirty wake up call.
Nikon Df| AF-S Nikkor 20mm f/1.8@f/11 | 0.3s| ISO 100| Singh Ray 2 stop REV Grad| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| CS6| Tripod
More to come…
Copyright ©2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Nikon Df| AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| CS6 & On1| Tripod
More to come…
Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I spent the week-end in the Eastern Sierras photographing Sunrises, Sunset, and Fall Color. I left my home in Silicon Valley at 4PM on Friday to meet a new friend/member in the Photography Group I was going with. Anyone living in Silicon Valley knows leaving after 3PM is a nightmare! Traffic is awful. It’s congested with get-away travelers and commuters. Unfortunately, even in mid-October that’s true! It took me over an hour to travel 11 miles to meet her! Cindy parked on a residential street hoping her car would be fine for the week-end b/c my house was out of the way, and me going to meet her would have beem backtracking and mean we’d lose 1-2 hours in traffic.
I picked her up, and we got back on the freeway where we crawled at about 30 mph for 2 hours. Finally the road opened up and we were off and onto the Eastern Sierras. We arrived at our Motel just about Midnight. After checking in we both unpacked the bare necessities then fell into our beds knowing the alarm would be ringing in just 4 hours!
We were meeting the rest of our group at 6AM. We had a 30 minute drive from our Motel to the meeting spot. That meant a 4:40AM wake up call for me! I had a quick shower, and we managed to get out the door at 5:20am and arrived at the meeting spot 5 minutes early.
We were a group of 20 in all. We drove to Mono Lake ( Moe-Noh) and found the parking lot was already full of cars! Fall in the Eastern Sierras is getting more and more crowded. There was a faint light in the East signaling the Sun was in a hurry to greet the Northern Hemisphere so, we gathered our gear, and walked-ran to find our spots as quickly as we could.
We went left away from the horde of other photographers; I found a place I thought made a good composition, but I sank ankle deep in the muck to get there.
Experienced Photographers have a good feel for the outcome of the sunrise or sunset, but I’ve never bet on it. Mother Nature has fooled me a few times! Okay, I won’t lie more than a few times! This morning however, had great potential, and fortunately, The Belt of Venus showed up and lent the morning a beautiful pink hue.
These formations you are seeing are salt and mineral deposits that formed over thousands of years. They’re called Tufas (too-fahs).
Years ago the lake water was re-routed to the south to give water to Southern California’s agriculture belt and residents.
As the lake got lower, and lower these remarkable formations were exposed.
A couple of decades ago a conservation group was successful in their appeals to let Mono Lake (Moe-Noh) return to its natural state. They are no longer diverting water from this basin which means one day all this will be under water again.
Each time I visit this lake I am acutely aware that I am seeing something wonderful, beautiful, and unique. I hope this image is able to convey just a hint of that wonder and beauty.
In desperate need of a caffeinated drink, and food we headed for breakfast right after the light went flat.
For more information about Mono (Mo-noh) Lake click here.
I’m really behind on all your posts. I will get caught up this week!
Nikon Df| AF Nikkor 24-70mm| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| Tripod| Developed in Photoshop CS6
More to come…
Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
A couple of weeks ago I spotted what might be a Maple Tree while driving home from the hardware store.
After dropping off my packages I walked back to the tree and plucked a single leaf off a low branch with the intention of using it as a model for a watercolor painting. I sketched it out that same afternoon then worked on a Kumquat leaf, and a landscape instead. Today I was able to spend quite a bit of time working on the Maple Leaf painting, but it was super dried out, and crumbly and the color had changed from a vibrant red to a brownish red which I tried to capture, but perhaps I missed the mark and this is closer to an Ash in the fall or winter.
Here’s the final painting.
I bought a new set of Turner watercolor paints not long ago so, I used those to paint this on Arches 140lb Cold Press watercolor paper. I also purchased a new brush that I’ve been using almost exclusively since it arrived.
It’s Creative Mark’s Mimic Kolinsky No.12 Round. It’s faux mink but, feels and acts like a real fur brush. I’m loving it, and the new paints. The brush comes to a lovely fine point and hasn’t shed at all. It holds a lot of water, and cleans up in a cinch. The paints have a nice pigment, there are 18 colors in the set so, I’m getting to try some new colors, and I’m using less paint than I was using with my Cotman paints. Or it feels that way to me.
Is this a Maple Leaf? I hope I can find another one that’s still red soon!
Lumix FZ200| Lexar Professional Digital Film| Hand-held
More to come…
Copyright ©2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I went out last evening with a small group of Photographer’s to Rat Rock Island for Sunset. The Belt of Venus was lovely and lent a beautiful hue to the sea and sky.
This was my last image of the evening. I was using my 6 stop Neutral Density filter to slow down the water and create a dreamier scape. This is a 2 minute exposure.
Nikon Df| AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| Tripod| B+W 6stop ND Filter| CS6| On1
More to come…
Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Another little tree alone on a hill. This is an image I made a couple of weeks ago. It was a lovely evening: warm, with a cool breeze, and the color glowed in the sky for hours; until well after dark. A rare thing around here.
This image is a composite made from two frames blended in Photoshop CS6.
Nikon Df| AF-S Nikkor 17-35@30mm| ISO 100| Manual Priority| Tripod| Singh-Ray 2 stop Reverse Grad ND + 3 stop Grad ND filters
More to come…
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