Sunset on Mt Diablo Range

Copyright © 2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I went for a short hike Sunday evening with friends, and found it super cold and windy up in the mountains above the valley floor.  There were so many beautiful wildflowers up there, but it was so windy I only made a few images of flowers. Macro photography and wind just don’t play nice with each other.

Nothing to do then, but find a composition and wait for Golden Hour, and hope that the clouds that rolled in don’t block up the sun and we get some color.

My fingers got so cold I couldn’t feel the heat from my hand warmers, and I was having trouble feeling my shutter button. After Golden Hour myself and a friend called it and started back down the hill to the car.  About halfway down the colors in the sky popped. I had to stop to photograph it.

Landscape Photography

I hiked down pretty fast after the sun sunk behind the mountains, and once in my car I cranked the heater as high as it would go, and waited for another friend who drove up with me. She and several others braved the cold and wind further up the trail.

I’m glad I didn’t hike back to the car earlier. I would have missed this!

Nikon Df| Nikkor 17-35mm| Delking Digital Film| Tripod| PS CC 2015 & On1 Photo 10| Single exposure

More to come…

 

 

Thursday Doors 12/52 Nº40

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I didn’t manage to get a door photograph that I really liked this past week, so I dug deep into my archives…all the way back to 2010 for this image.

Nº 40- I’ve had a thing for red doors a long time. 🙂  I could sit here with my morning or afternoon tea watching the world pass by.

Red door Nº40 Campbell, CA

Nikon D90| Nikkor 17-35mm| SanDisk Digital Film| Hand-held| PS CS5

This post is part of Norm 2.0 Thursday Doors. To see all the doors posted this week click  here then click on the little blue view/sync up button at the bottom of his page where you’ll be directed to links to all those participating.

More to come…

 

Great Egret Reflected

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Great Egret Reflected

I made this image with the rental Nikon 200-500mm VR lens the morning after I rented it.

I saw this Great Egret out in the pond within the range of the lens so I walked out to the edge of the pond to photograph it. I initially set up in landscape orientation then I zoomed out to 500mm, and only had its head and half its neck in the frame! “Oh no, that won’t do!” I thought. I switched to portrait orientation, which fit the whole Egret in the frame, but only half the reflection, and I wanted to get the reflection because it was very clear, and the blue sky and water were gorgeous on this morning.  Next I started pulling my zoom in…400mm, nope, 300mm, nope, 200mm, not quite. I had to back up to get the whole reflection in, and stay at 200mm.  This image isn’t cropped at all.  So, began my learning curve with this lens.

After that week-end I liked the lens so well I bought one,  and have been using it a lot.  I’m on the down side of the learning curve now. 🙂

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 200-500mm VR hired unit| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital film| PS CC 2015

More to come…

Thursday Doors 10/52 Nº21245

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Saturday we had pouring rain and a lot of wind and there was quite a bit of debris all over the steep road when He-Man and  I went for a “stretch our legs” walk Sunday morning.

Most folks had already swept up or were in the process, but these owners must have slept in. Nº21245

Nº21245 After the Storm

… continuing on with the statuary decor  by the door theme I spied this door- Nº12903

Nº12903

I like the design, and how they carried that into the glass panels. I really like the Lions guarding the doors.  I don’t care for the door knocker on the door. I find it distracting, and only one door has a knob. I would have two. That’s just me.  Maybe they were going for a Yin-Yang thing?

This post is part of Norm 2.0 Thursday Doors. To see all the doors posted this week click  here then click on the little blue view/sync up button at the bottom of his page where you’ll be directed to links to all those participating.

More to come…

 

Thursday Doors 7/52 Nº 4493;Adorned with Geckos

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I don’t see too many yellow doors so this one with Geckos caught my eye.

Thursday Doors- 7/52 Nº4493 Adorned with Geckos

This image is part of Norm 2.0 Thursday Doors. To see all this week’s entries or add your door(s) and join the fun click here.

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

More to come…

 

Historic Alviso, CA: Thursday Doors 4/52

Copyright © 2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Last Sunday while I was out birding I knew I needed to get my Door image sorted out for Thursday Doors this week, and as I drove through Alviso to get to the Wildlife Refuge I thought,

” There’s some old and probably interesting doors in Alviso! I’ll take a spin through the old Cannery area to see what I find.”

For the History Buffs:

Alviso, CA.  is the northern boundary of San Jose, CA, and the Southern boundary of San Francisco Bay.  It once was an independent city, but in 1968 the town voted to consolidate with the city of San Jose, CA. Alviso has no US Mail delivery service. Residents have to go to the Post Office to collect their mail.

Alviso is 13 ft below sea level and had severe flooding in the 80’s, and again in the 90’s.  There was 10ft of water in parts of Alviso. The Guadalupe River, and Coyote Creek both end in Alviso and empty into the Bay via Alviso Slough, and Mud Slough.  Many homes and businesses were ruined in those floods.

There are few businesses in Alviso today.  It’s largely residential, and marsh land.

Speaking of marshland: Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Alviso is part of 6 other wildlife refuges in the Bay Area. Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, the first urban National Wildlife Refuge established in the United States, is dedicated to preserving and enhancing wildlife habitat, protecting migratory birds, protecting threatened and endangered species, and providing opportunities for wildlife-oriented recreation and nature study for the surrounding communities.

Now onto the Doors! 🙂

Here’s the front door of the Tilden-Laine House.

Tilden Laine House Front Door

Here’s how the whole house looks:

It’s style is called Italianate Victorian.   The home dates back to the early 1900’s. According to Wiki-Pedia it’s still owned by the Laines.

 

Tilden-Laine House Alviso CA

Right next door is what was once The Laine Store. The Tilden family ran the store from 1865-1912. In the 1920’s it became a Chinese Gambling hall.

The Laine Store Alviso CA 2016

I read that the flood watermark was over the top of the doors! On the Wiki page I linked to below are two images of the Laine store one from 1981, and the other from 2007.  It’s pretty interesting to see how much the building has aged in that time. The Laine Store is a Registered Historical Landmark.

After the San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1909 the Precita Canning Company moved to Alviso and reorganized and changed their name to the Bay Side Canning Company. It hasn’t been used since 1936. The city is letting the buildings decay.

Bayside Canning Co Doors

The last time I was there back in 2010 or 11, I was shooting portraits I had the model right up near the wall. Now there’s fencing all around the property.  The murals tell the story of Alviso’s history.

Bayside Canning CO

This building below with the two doors I just liked. I can’t find any information about it, but the street is residential though this building doesn’t look like it was a house. It looks like it’s being used for storage today.

Doors White Building Alviso

There are more doors and buildings I would like to photograph here! For more information and history see the link below.

~ history and info gleaned from Wikipedia  Pedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alviso,_San_Jose,_California#History

This post is part of Norm 2.0’s Thursday Doors. Click here to see all the doors shared this week.

Nikon Df| Nikkor 28-105mm | Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| Hand-held| PS CC 2015

 

Swanson Creek Cascade

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

After the rain we had this week I thought I’d take a drive out to Uvas Canyon to photograph the creeks, and falls.
Here’s just one of many images I made this morning along Swanson Creek.

Swanson Creek Cascade

Nikon Df|Nikkor 28-105mm| B+W 6stop ND Filter| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| PS CC 2015, LR CC, On1 Photo 10

More to come…