Photography – Page 41 – Circadianreflections Blog

P52 27/52 Chocolate chocolate chip Bundt Cake

July 4, 2014December 9, 2014Posted in Food Photography, Photography, Project 52-2014Tagged baking, Bundt Cakes, Chocolate, Food Photography, home-made cakes, Photography, Project 52, San Jose California Nature Photographer7 Comments

Busy morning bakin’. Just waiting for this super rich, moist cake to cool before glazing with a semisweet chocolate sauce.

Miam, miam!

Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G| SB600 camera left low @ 1/4pwr

Addendum: Melissa of http://melissabluefineart.wordpress.com/ is craving a good chocolate cake and asked for the recipe, so for you Chere Melissa here’s the recipe.

This is a recipe from Taste of Home- Ultimate Chocolate Cake

I made the chocolate sauce by melting 1.5 cups chocolate chips with a 2-3 tablespoons of milk. Drizzle over the cake when completely cooled letting it run down the sides of the cake. Enjoy!

Busy Bee

June 1, 2014June 1, 2014Posted in California, Insects, Nature, PhotographyTagged Bees, Insects, Photography, San Jose California Nature Photographer2 Comments

I found a swarm of busy bees early one morning last week busy at work Pollen Gathering.

I thought they must have just begun their day’s labors as they didn’t have any pollen on their bodies yet.

I like the faint motion of the wings in this image.

Hope you’re having a great week-end!

Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4| Hand-held

5/52 “To travel is to live.” âHans Christian Andersen

January 27, 2014January 27, 2014Posted in PhotographyTagged Bokeh, Photography, San Jose Nature Photographer, Strobist, TravelLeave a comment

5/52 “To travel is to live.” âHans Christian Andersen, originally uploaded by CircadianReflections Photography.

Via Flickr:
Copyright Â© 2014 Deborah M Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

It will be 5 years this Fall since I’ve been to France. I’ve been 3 times, and there is still so much to see and do, and the language yet to master.
I hope to get back there and travel in different regions, but no matter where in France I go vibrant, and bustling Paris beckons me, and I’ve still not seen Versailles!

Prairie Falcon

January 21, 2014January 21, 2014Posted in Birds, California, Nature, Photography, WildlifeTagged Birding, Birds in the Wild, Photography, San Jose Nature Photographer7 Comments

Saturday last I had the pleasure of Dali, and Rainey’s company for a few hours of birding.

We headed south about an hour from home hoping to spot Golden Eagles. We hadn’t gone too far down a country road when I spied a falcon on top of a telephone pole. I quickly pulled over and turned off the car so we could take photos without the vibration of the engine.

None of us was positive about the bird’s ID at the time, but we were excited because we knew it was a bird we hadn’t seen before. Here’s how it looked when I first saw it.

With both Rainey and I clicking away we spooked it and he planned to flee the scene.

Ready for Take Off!

Take off!

In Flight—

I was thrilled when I uploaded the images to find I had captured the whole sequence of flight on film. Upon closer look I thought this might have been a juvenile Kestrel, but Rainey confirmed it is a Prairie Falcon. A first for the 3 of us.

We also saw two Golden Eagles, which were flying away from us too fast to capture a photo. Later we saw a Bald Eagle sitting in a tree. Dali got the POD (Picture of the Day) as he got a good image of it. I wish I could show you, but at the time of this writing he hadn’t posted it yet. I was too slow to get the car parked, and out so, I missed the shot. When it got spooked and took flight another Bald Eagle took off with it. We hadn’t seen that one due to tree cover.

We saw this Loggerhead Shrike sitting on a wire. We hoped it would spot something good to eat and dive for it, alas it never did.

We also saw this pretty little Savannah Sparrow—X Marks the Spot:

Savannah Sparrow: Closer Look–

Other birds of note that we saw were: A Red-bellied Sapsucker, Yellow-billed Magpie; (see Rainey’s image here) White Crown Sparrows, Acorn Woodpeckers, and Red-tail Hawks.

It was good birding. I hope to get out there again this week-end. With luck I’ll see the Eagles again.

All photos were taken with a Nikon D300s and AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4 lens

A Birthday Prince

My first Grandchild turned 1-year-old yesterday. I can’t believe how fast this year has flown by. It seems like it was yesterday he was born.

The changes have been surprising, and awesome to behold…

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months with Uncle…he smiles, and laughs now!

5 months

6 months

7 months looking more toddler and boy like each day…

8 months

9 months Photo courtesy of Allison Zajac.

10 months

11 months

1-year-old

I feel so blessed to see him everyday. He’s starting to walk, taking up to 12 steps at a time now, and real words should be coming soon too. I am looking forward to seeing the changes, and the look of wonder and awe on his face as he discovers more of his world.

Nikon D700

Bushtit

November 21, 2013November 21, 2013Posted in Birds, California, Copyright 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved., PhotographyTagged Birding, Gear, Photography, San Jose Nature PhotographerLeave a comment

Bushtit, originally uploaded by CircadianReflections Photography.

Testing the Nikkor 14E II Teleconverter that I purchased. It isn’t Auto-focusing on either the D700 or D300s with my AF-S 300mm f/4 lens. Once in awhile when manual focusing the AF would work, but not consistently like it should have. This was manually focused. It looks like this unit is a lemon. I’m sending it back for an exchange. I’m very disappointed.
I’m not good at manually focusing on birds. I don’t have many keepers from the hour and half I was out testing this TC today. In the meantime my Tamron TC will have to do.

Add a little Sparkle to your day…

July 17, 2013July 17, 2013Posted in Copyright 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved., Gear, Nikon, Photography, Still LifeTagged Jewelry Photography, Nikon, Nikon D700, Off camera flash, Photography, Product photography, StrobistLeave a comment

I had the whole day free so I played with my continuous lights and SB600 Speedlight. I bought a couple of pieces of jewelry recently which started me thinking about Jewelry Photography and lighting. I am still trying to get more accomplished with external lights and photography and I hope this exercise will help me grow in that area.

After studying lighting techniques, and jewelry styling for a couple of days I got my props together and by late this morning I was ready to start taking some photos.

I still don’t have the lights quite right for the sparkle I want. I’m looking into getting a Dazzle Bulb for the future. I also need another high wattage bulb. I’d also like to add some plexiglass sheets to my kit as well; I see a trip to the hardware store in my near future.

This is my tabletop set up. I set up on the kitchen table with a white sheet, white foam core board, and my lights. I had to hunt for something to tie dental floss on to be able to hang the jewelry and this is what I came up with. My daughters old high-school locker shelf. It came in handy after all these years of non-use.
I took the photo of the set up with a Nikon D300s and 24mm f2.8 AF-D and on-camera flash.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 85mm f1.8 AF-D, and Nikkor 28-105mm AF-D| Continuous lights 1 full Daylight camera right, 1 soft light bulb camera left, SB 600 camera front

I did all the photo development/processing in Photoshop CS6. All my processing starts in Adobe Camera RAW then I moved to Photoshop for levels adjustments, output sharpening, cloning out the thread that held the ear-rings and necklace, cleaning up dust spots, and adding my watermark then resizing for the web.

P.S. Several times today I wished I had a macro lens!

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