Whatever Wednesday – Page 3 – Circadianreflections Blog

Whatever Weds. A Starlit Night

July 10, 2024July 10, 2024Posted in Astro Photography, Night Sky, Night Sky Imaging, Starry NightTagged After Dark, Astronomy, Milky Way, Mono Lake, NASA, Nikon, Other Worldly Locations, science, Space, Starry Nights, Stars, Summer, Tufas, Whatever Wednesday38 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

It’s that time of year when I yearn to be out imaging and gazing at the night sky. A friend and I went back down to Mono Lake to do just that. Thankfully, we didn’t have any clouds to worry about.

The lake is really high eliminating a lot of the beach area we learned from our camping trip last month so, we knew to take our tall boots because standing in the lake might be our best bet for imaging. We scouted in the afternoon and found this spot. When we were leaving for dinner we ran into a Ranger who told us she would be giving a talk on the summer sky and constellations that evening on the beach and invited us back to attend it. We said we’d be there. The talk was a fast 2 hours. It was great hearing the stories the Native Americans tell about the stars and how they named the constellations and how to find them . The talk ended just after 10PM which was perfect as the Milky Way was already visible and we had some time to get to our spot in time for the Galactic Center to rise. The Galactic Center is the central region of our galaxy. The best months to photograph the Milky Way in the Northern Hemisphere are from May to August when the Galactic Center is highest in the sky and the weather is usually better in the warmer months.

We were standing in water to photograph this scene, but it wasn’t very deep, and the waves were gentle so we didn’t have to worry about a big one coming along and getting into our boots. 😊

I got home about lunch time yesterday, unpacked, got the car washed, and then started getting ready for a visit with my son and daughter-in-law. I’ll be on and offline for a bit. I hope your week and summer are going well.

Nikon D850|Nikkor 20mm F1.8G|

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Happy 4th of July!

July 3, 2024July 2, 2024Posted in Holidays and Observances, Photography, Whatever WednesdayTagged Fourth of July, History, Independence Day, National Anthem by the Gaither Vocal Band, Songs that tear you up, Whatever Wednesday36 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

I want to wish everyone in the States a Happy 4th of July!

He-Man and I are going to watch the fireworks up in Virginia City this year for something a little different. I hope your holiday is a very good one!

*Patriotic Turtle seen on my walk this week.*

Let Freedom Ring!

Grab a tissue!

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Whirling Butterfly

June 26, 2024June 26, 2024Posted in Cultivated Flowers, Flower Photography, Fuji X-T3, Photography, Whatever WednesdayTagged Bokeh, Close up Photography, Flowers of Summer, Whatever Wednesday, Whirling Butterfly Plant, White Flowers31 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

From my yard. Its Latin name is Gaura lindheimeri.

“It’s a perennial flower that produces airy, wand-like stems adorned with delicate, white star-shaped flowers that resemble the wings of a butterfly”.

White Cabbage butterflies and bees love it. I love it because it’s really hardy. I don’t do anything to it but trim it heavily in the fall.

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 16-80mm@80mm

more to come…

Whatever Weds.-Classic Cars

May 1, 2024May 1, 2024Posted in Photography, Vintage CarsTagged Beige, Buff, Classic Cars, Cream, Fuji X-T3, Fujinon 16-80mm, pine tree, Red, Snow capped mountains, Vintage Cars, Whatever Wednesday, Yellow59 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Last week I was making my way around a big loop birding and at one stop I happened upon a Classic Car group just as they were starting to pull out. I hurriedly grabbed my other camera with a wide angle lens and ran to a place near the exit to get a few images. I wasn’t fast enough to get an image of all the cars, but I did get a several. Here are some of my favorites.

This one is just so cool. Is it a muscle car? I’m sorry I didn’t get there earlier to note the makes and models of all the cars. Look at that engine though.

*Classic Car Yellow with cool Engine Exposure*

The drivers were pretty cool when they saw me with my camera they slowed down and let me get some nice images. 😊

*Classic Car Pontiac I think. I love the sun guard over the windshield.*

Look at those white walls with red accent stripe. Nice.

And last, but not least my favorite Red car of the lot.

*Classic Car in Red*

That was a fun surprise.

What wasn’t fun was waking up yesterday morning to the “DREADED BLACK SCREEN”! My computer was good and truly looking dead. Thankfully, He-Man found a way to get it back up, but it required a whole new start from my backup system. So all my documents, and files are here, but all my apps have to be reinstalled and all my preferences reset. My Photoshop Actions are all gone so I’m starting from scratch remaking those and slowly adding my presets and apps back in.
It’s been a chore, but I’m so grateful for having a backup system in place. I highly recommend one or two if you haven’t got yourself one already. In the meantime I think it’s time to start shopping for a new computer desktop tower because this one might be on the way out.

I hope your week is going well and there are no unpleasant surprises in it!

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 16-80mm| PS CC 25.7.0

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Eclipse

April 10, 2024April 9, 2024Posted in Birding in Nevada, Nikon, Sun, Wide Field Astro-photographyTagged Birding, Birds of North America, Eclipses, Partial Solar Eclipse, Red Crossbill, Solar Eclipse, Whatever Wednesday55 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

I wasn’t in the path of Totality for the eclipse on Monday but, I did watch the it from my patio. The Partial we saw covered 47% of the Sun’s face.

He-Man, myself, and a neighbor enjoyed the birds singing, and watching golfers play through without ever looking up to see what was happening in the sky above us.

I made an image of the full sun first before the eclipse started.

The large sunspot is 3628, and the smaller one is 3633.

This image below is a 5 frame composite showing the sequence of the partial eclipse from shortly after the beginning to the end with the Maximum coverage image in the middle.

The dark shadows you see on the face of the images of the sun are clouds that were rolling across the Sun/Moon during the eclipse.

Now that eclipse madness has passed and it’s sunny, the snow has melted here in the valley and our lawn has turned green I’m ready to turn my attention to looking for spring flowers and more birds.

Speaking of birds. I got a “lifer pair” last Friday. A pair of Red Crossbills.

They were a bit out of range for my lens but, I did get an image that positively identified them. It’s noisy and soft, but it’s a keeper.

This is the female with her wings spread ready to fly, and her mate in the back. I was doing my happy dance when I got a positive ID on these two.

So, did you see the eclipse in partial or in Totality? Wasn’t it cool!

Happy Wednesday!

Nikon D850|Nikkor 500mm PF-e| Orion Glass Solar Filter| PS CC 25.5.1

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Waxing Gibbous Moon

March 27, 2024March 26, 2024Posted in Moon, Moonrise, Wide Field Astro-photographyTagged Almost Full, Blue and White, Clouds, March Moon, Moon, Nikon, sky, telephoto lens, Waxing Gibbous Moons, Whatever Wednesday35 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

*97.7% Waxing Gibbous Moon and Clouds* 3.23.2024

Nikon D850| Nikkor 500mm PF-e| PS CC 25.5.1

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Watercolor Painting

March 13, 2024March 13, 2024Posted in Photography, Watercolor, Watercolor Painting, Whatever WednesdayTagged DaVinci, Hobbies, iPhone14Pro, Learning to paint, MGraham, Photography, Trees and Woodlands Ready to Paint, Watercolor Painting, Whatever Wednesday64 Comments

I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I’m working my way through a watercolor book called Ready to Paint- Trees and Woodlands. They say you can do these exercises and little paintings in 30 minutes, but it takes me hours.

This is Nº7 called Farmhouse. The lesson was working on a variegated wash of colors, and painting around a negative space. That means painting in the wash of sky, and the background behind the farmhouse and barn first then paint the farmhouse and barn.

*Farmhouse in Watercolor Nº7 Trees and Woodlands-Ready to Paint*

It took me about 1.5 hours to paint this. Pretty quick for me. I painted the sky and background then let it dry overnight before tackling the trees and buildings. I find myself letting things dry, then ruminating about the next step before actually taking the next step. Fear of making a mistake? Oh yes!

Anyway, it didn’t come out too bad just a little wonky. I see things I would change the next time I try something like this. On the whole I think the wash came out okay, and I used the negative space like I was supposed to. The rock wall was supposed to be a hedge but, I added my own spin on it, I wanted a wall instead. On y va!

I’ve been birding a lot so, I’ll have bird images to share soon.

I hope you’re all having a good week.

140lb 100% cotton paper| M.Graham and Da Vinci Watercolors| iPhone 14Pro

more to come…

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