This and That

Whatever Weds. This and That April 2023

April 12, 2023April 11, 2023Posted in Horses, Nature, Nevada Wild Mustangs, PhotographyTagged Big Horn Sheep, Nevada State Railroad Museum, Sagebrush, This and That, Virginia Range, Whatever Wednesday, Wild Mustangs42 Comments

Here are a few images of some critters I’ve seen this month while out birding.

Big Horn Sheep- Males: These guys were such a great treat to see! I also saw Ewes with lambs up higher in the hills, and further west, but the images aren’t good as they were too far out of my lenses range.

Wild Mustang-Stallion

Wild Mustang- Mare

I have birds and wildflowers too that I’ll be sharing soon.

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm| PS CC 24.3.0

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Horseshoes

November 18, 2020Posted in Nikon, Whatever WednesdayTagged earworms, horseshoes, I found a horseshoe lyrics, Nikon, Photography, ranch life, Ranching, This and That, Whatever Wednesday41 Comments

When ever I spy horseshoes the song I found a Horseshoe pops into my head.

I first learned the song when I was in 5th grade.

I don’t know who wrote it but its earliest known date is 1927. Have you heard it before? It goes like this-

“I found a horseshoe, I found a horseshoe, I picked it and nailed it to the door. And it was rusty and full of nail holes. Good luck twill bring to you for evermore.”

Fun fact: I have an old rusty full of nail holes horseshoe hanging over my front door. I’ve had one hanging over my door since the early 80’s. But I’m not superstitious or anything like that. Okay, I am a bit.🤪

I hope these bring us all some good luck.

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Nikon D810| Nikkor 200-500mm| PS CC 22.0.1

more to come…

Whatever Weds. This and That

July 8, 2020July 8, 2020Posted in Moonrise, Pen & Wash Watercolor, Photography, Watercolor, Watercolor Painting, Wild MustangsTagged Carson City Historic Buildings, Fuji X-T3, July Full Moon, Nikon D810, This and That, Watercolor, Whatever Wednesday, Wild Mustangs48 Comments

How are you all doing? I’ve been out making pictures, seeing nature, my Baby Girl, grandboys, and our Big Baby Boy came up to visit. We hadn’t seen him in person since January 4th when we parted ways at the Reno airport for our transfers from our return trip from London. It was grand seeing him. We all missed him very much.

I’ve been making lots and lots of pictures, but I’m in a slump processing them. I’m not very motivated to do it lately which is why I’m posting less, painting more.

Here are two I have processed from recent photography outings, and some of you who follow me on Instagram know I’ve been taking two architecture sketching in ink and watercolor courses online. Well, I’ll show you the final project from one of those courses too. Here we go!

July 4th’s almost Full Moonrise from my patio- rising over the Pinenut Mountains

July 4th's Moon 99.5%

Monday (this week) a girlfriend and I went out to the wilderness in separate cars to see the Wild Mustangs and there are lots and lots of new foals, fillies, and ponies! Here is one of the cuties I saw.

I never did determine if it was male or female, but here it was resting under the protection of its mother’s chest and head whom you don’t see. It’s so cute!

Wild Mustang Foal

What’s blooming in my yard? Not a whole lot, but there are Day Lilys! I don’t have any idea about its name. John Hric do you? They were planted and doing well when we bought the house so left them. I love them.

Yellow Orange Day Lily

…and my Final Project of one of the watercolor courses. This took me all day and 3 times totally erasing it all and starting over. Drawing is so hard for me! I did learn more about how to “see” and draw perspective though. I hope one day it really clicks and I can actually draw without having to start over so many times. Like sewing, I think it requires an engineering brain. That’s not me. At. All!

We had a choice to paint the same building the instructor painted or choose a building from your own town. I chose a building from one of my images from the capital of my new home state of Nevada. This is the St. Charles Hotel and Fox Brewery Pub in downtown Carson City, not my town, but it’s not too far away. It’s a Historic Landmark which some of you who have been following me a while might remember when I posted about it here in August 2019 for Thursday Doors. My lampposts and buildings are wonky. I can’t draw a straight line to save my life. I really wish all the teachers and instructors wouldn’t take away my ruler! St Charles Hotel and Fox Brew Pub Watercolor

…and here’s my image of the St Charles Hotel/Fox Brew Pub from 2019.

You can see I took artistic license and simplified the scene.

Historic Mt Charles Hotel and The Fox BrewPub

Current news: Three fires started simultaneously Monday evening just about 25 miles south of us just outside Gardnerville, NV so, we’re keeping a close eye on those. We’re hoping they all stay out in the uninhabited BLM land. At the time of this writing, it’s now spread to 10,000 acres, destroyed one house, and 10 outbuildings and has 0 containment. Winds are still pretty good from the west which isn’t good. We’ve been under a Red Flag high wind advisory conditions since Monday afternoon. The firefighters have been concentrating on saving the 350+ homes out there. I could see the flames from my patio Monday evening and from along Hwy 395 tonight. It’s awful. My neighbor who is a retired firefighter says 3 fires don’t start at the same time naturally and suspects it’s arson. They’ve named it the #numbersfire. Right now they’re so busy trying to knock them down that they’re saying the cause is unknown. We had a wildfire in this same area the week before last that burned up a whole lot a of acres! Our thoughts are with those who have been evacuated, and those who are out in the thick of it fighting the fires.

We had dinner tonight with #1 Grandson’s other Grandparents at their house who also live in this town. OH MY GOSH! It was so great to see them and catch up in person! It’s been months and months since we’ve seen them. We figured we’re all still healthy, and we’re all keeping our circle of who we actually get close too really tight so let’s do it. It was so good to be normal! We’re going to see them again only we’re hosting next time. 😀

So, that just about catches you up with me. What’s been happening with you?

Fuji X-T3 & Nikon D810| PS CC 21.2| DaVinci Watercolor paint in the Scratchmadejournal curated palette| Canson 140lb cold press watercolor paper|DaVinci Artissmo and Pentel water brushes

more to come…

Whatever Weds. This and That

June 3, 2020June 2, 2020Posted in Photography, This and That, Watercolor, Whatever WednesdayTagged #drawbirds2020, Corora Virus Flyover, Ducks, Fuji Camera, Hororing our First Responders and those who work everyday to support the communities they live in, Nikon, Photography, Shorebirds, This and That, USAF C130, Watercolor Painting, Whatever Wednesday54 Comments

This and That. What does that mean to me? Things that I photograph that I don’t feel really define who I am as a photographer. Things that catch my eye while I am out photographing things that I love and things that are happening in our time outside of my usual genre that I make an effort to go out and photograph. Can we call those images journalistic images? I do. Yes, I have a journalling file folder even for photography. 🤓 And just stuff I’m doing.

Let’s start here with the USAF’s Air Guard who flew over Carson City and many other towns in NV and CA to honor the First Responders and those countless other people who are working every day to support the citizens of their counties and communities during the Pandemic of the Wuhan Corona Covid-19 Virus. Do you see them just coming over the Carson Range? Three tiny little specs with a whole lot of impact and respect for those braving the virus on the ground every day? HERE THEY COME!!! 3 C-130's Fly Coming into Carson Valley

Here’s a closer look at one of the planes… Damn, they were awesome!! Thank you for flying and honoring them all!! 🙏

USAF C130 Flyovrer 2020

A view from a boring “Stretch my Legs Hike”. The 4-mile round trip hike is boring…the view…not so much.

Home is down there. That makes me smile and very happy. The rock formations are pretty cool too. Just sayin.

The View from Clear Creek

Backyard View and Golf Cart traffic…The fruitless Olive trees are beginning to bloom. April 2020

…I’ve been painting on and off throughout the lockdown.

My Grandson Kneeboarding for the first time from a photo Baby Girl sent us while he was doing it.

Jaxon Kneeboarding First Time

I subscribed to the JohnMuirLaws Drawing Birds webinar while my watercolor class was on hold due to the pandemic and I tried sans success to keep up with the homework. However, I did manage to draw and fill in with paint a Duck and Shorebird I drew freehand from my own photographs then added watercolor to them after watching his webinar. I’m rather proud of these paintings. They look like what I intended them to look like! That’s huge! 😀

Lesser Scaup and Avocet watercolor

Okay, that’s 6, six images in this post. Way more than I usually post, and I have loads more of images that fall into the This and That category. I’ll stop, but you can count on more images from this category coming one day in the future. 😀

I hope you’re all doing well, and hanging in there! It will get better!

Nikon Camera and Lenses, Fuji Camera and Lens, Lumix FZ200, and Iphone 7 Plus

more to come…

July 24, 2017July 23, 2017Posted in Hiking, iPhone 7 Plus, iphonegraphy, Photography, Santa Clara County, This and ThatTagged Fremont Older Open Space Preserve, hiking, iPhone 7Plus, iPhoneography, Landscapes, Parker Ranch Trail, Saratoga CA, This and That50 Comments

I didn’t get out too much this past week-end unfortunately, my original plan to shoot the night sky Saturday fell apart. So I had a Plan B, but that fell apart too. (sigh) Plan A got cancelled due to all the smoke in the air from the Detwiler Fire burning near and around Mariposa, and Yosemite NP. As I write this 76,000 acres have burned. Evacuation orders have been lifted in some areas, but Firefighters are saying it may take up to two more weeks for the fire to be fully extinguished. It’s so sad!

Plan B was scuttled when a friend had to change plans, and I didn’t want to be alone so I stayed home and painted a bit.

Before all that happened my Archive Drive crashed Thursday and Saturday afternoon we were still recovering images and documents from our back-up drive, and cloud service. I can’t tell you how scary that is to think thousands of images made over the course of many years may be lost! I’ve got them all back, but my external drive is full no doubt due to the huge 36mp files of the D810 so, we bought a new external drive which should be here this week. Then I’ll have my stuff backed up two places, have room to grow, and feel much, much better!

Saturday evening I pulled out an old book I have by Ferdinand Petrie, called Drawing Landscapes in Pencil and stayed up late to practice some drawing then I added some watercolor to it. Wanna see? If you follow me on Instagram you’ve already seen this. 🙂

I had some new watercolor paper to try too. It’s by Legion papers called Stonehenge Aqua. I like it. There’s not much blooming or bleeding, and the colors look wonderful on it to me. It’s got some tooth, but not as much as Arches cold press paper. I prefer the smoother hot press papers, so this paper just might be the perfect balance for me.

Ranch Watercolor

Sunday He-Man and I rose early to get on the trail early; we were extending our route and wanted to beat the heat. It was going to be in 90’s again Sunday. We were on the trail just before 7am. There were quite a few cars already parked near the trail-head when we arrived. A lot of others had the same idea to beat the heat and get an early start. We parked at the bottom of the mountain, and planned to hike up into Fremont Older an Open Space Preserve.

There are a few options to get up there; the most popular routes are: take the road all the way up to stage 3 of the Parker Ranch Trail system and hike the rest the way up via the trail, or do what we did and walk along the road to Stage 1 of the trail, then you come out on the road again for a bit then catch Stage 2 which is the toughest bit with some switchbacks at an 8% grade. I was huffin’ and puffin’ going up those. At the top of those you meet Stage 3 of the trail. There are two sets of switchbacks on this part of the trail, but they aren’t nearly as steep as Stage 2’s.

When we crossed into Fremont Older Open Space Preserve we hiked up to the top of the Toyon Trail then turned around to head back. We altered our route on the way back by bypassing the Stage 2 part and chose a different section of the trail that meanders through an Oak grove, and you climb another steep hill to meet the road. We walked down the road to Stage 1 of the trail and caught the road back to the car. Phew! Hope that makes sense! Here’s a screen shot of my route from my Garmin Edge 500.

Morning Hike Route Saratoga

He-Man’s not as fast as he was going downhill since his Patella Tendon ruptured nearly 3 yrs ago so, if my time looks slow…it is. When I’m heading down at my normal pace I get way ahead of him so, I turn around a go back until I see him. I get some extra steps that way too. 🙂

There was a lot of fog and, we’re getting some smoke from the fire up here. Here’s one image from the trail. I took this with my iPhone. I went gear light today.

View North from the trail

The faint peak in the fog and smoke on the right might be Mt. Diablo at (3,889 feet (1,185 m)) high. The highest hilltop on the left is Hunter’s Point in Fremont Older Open Space Preserve.

We hiked 4.34 miles, gained 827 ft in elevation, and were back in the car headed home by 8:55am! Not too bad.

We spent the afternoon looking at Loveseats, and bought two. Our current two are really beat up and have needed replacing for over a year, but with a 4 yr old at home we put it off for as long as we could stand it. Now we’re excited for the new ones to arrive!

That was my week-end. I hope you all had a lovely week-end and got to have a bit of fun, and relax so you’re ready for the week ahead. I hope it’s a great week for us all!

iPhone 7 Plus| PS CC 2017

more to come…