Category Archives: Photography

A great, manufactured, picture

Americana, Photography, Psychological Musings, Uncategorized,

First, a disclaimer. When I showed this picture to Michele, she didn’t see the cross made by the banner and Romney. Without the cross, it is just a snapshot and I am even more convinced that the photographer was shooting the cross than Michele is that she wasn’t. Of course neither one of us knows for sure. End disclaimer.

I like this picture so much because it seems so “made” rather than “taken”. I can just see the wheels turning in the photographer’s mind.The photographer is Christina Clusiau and I imagine her first shooting from the side. Then seeing the potential of the banner and moving to the center to get Romney and the banner to line up. Then, maybe, getting lower to get the banner higher.

If this had been film, Christina probably would have already shot some pictures with the body on which this lens was mounted – sure, she probably had another body but that would have the wrong lens on it – so she would have to hoard her shots. But today, and this is why digital is so great, she probably started with her camera having a clean card and she probably had atleast a  hundred pictures left. So she could shoot, maybe adjust the light, shoot again, and wait. When Romney looked up beseechingly, maybe pointing to someone to ask a question, she shot again. Making this picture.

When the light is right and the picture is right, it is easy. An almost opposite picture is one I took of Yosemite last year. We were driving through Yosemite to get to the other side of the Sierras which included driving through the Wawona Tunnel. On the other side is the Tunnel Overlook – a National Landmark because of the view – and it was late in the day. The light was great and all we had to do was get out of the car and point the camera in the general direction of El Capitan. The shot below would have been hard not to get.

Cultivars

Around home, Photography

warm days early nights
Amaryllis belladonna
bright in fading light

It is the end of summer and the most noticeable flowers, by far, are the naked ladies, Amaryllis belladonna. When I first got interested in plants, my plants of choice were cactus. At that time, in San Jose – at least – people held species in much higher regard than hybrids or, more formally, Cultivars. The large hybrids flowers – in Rhododendrons for example – were often distainly referred to as blopo flowers. The small, often inconsequential flowers of the true species were considered purer.

I still pretty much feel that way, but Michele has buying cultivars of A. belladonna for a while now and I really like them. Maybe because the  species flower is pretty much a blopo to start with, I find the variety of the cultivars beguiling. Here are a couple from our backyard, starting with the outrageously pink true species – I think – and going on to a couple of cultivars.

 

Precious Mae at one year

Around home, Photography

Precious Mae, shown here keeping an eye on the backyard, has been with us for one year today. She has become part of our family and – I think – we are part of her – as Michele put it – social circle. She is watching the baby deer and her – the baby deer’s – mommy watch me as I try to photo all of them. I can walk out on the back deck and the deer pretty much ignore me so it is hard to get a picture of them looking at me. The top picture is of the mother ignoring me just before she wandered off, the second picture is of the fawn watching the mother and…

 

the third picture is the fawn following her mother back into the woods. The fawn has just about lost all of her spots.

Precious Mae, in the meanwhile goes into stalk mode and then, wistfully watches the deer disappear into the woods.

 

 

 

 

Friday night

Around home, Photography, Uncategorized

At the end of the day, last night – Friday – I had just poured myself a bourbon to mark the end of the week and was getting ready to go outside and celebrate the warm evening air – finally – when Michele said There is the baby deer. Our resident deer had two babies this spring and then one disappeared and the remaining one had a goiter on her – I’m going to go with “her” until I find out otherwise – neck. But, now, in the gloaming light, she seems to have lost the goiter. Good.

I snuck back in, got my camera, and threw the tele on. I got a couple of shots – the metadata says it was 7:53 – and the the baby and mother took off in different direction. The first time I saw a mommy and baby deer take off in different directions, I was worried that the baby would be abandoned but now I am convinced it is a survival strategy. Sitting there is the warm air, I watched four Steller’s Jays – my favorite corvids – take off from the birdbath and fly to the buckeye by the house.

Then the baby deer came back – 8:09 according to the camera – the light faded past the redwoods, and Precious Mae came out to join me. In the dark, a few birds chirped, and down the hill at the Family Farm someone was playing jazz. Life is good and , for a few minutes, all is right with the world.

A trip to the mountains west of death Valley cont.

Americana, Cactus & Succulents, California, Camping, Death Valley, Photography, Travel, Uncategorized

After driving all day Thursday, we all slept in on Friday.

But it did not take very long before the sun got bright enough and hot enough to wake us. After a quickie breakfast, we packed up


and hurried over to the Eureka Sand Dunes.

The Eureka Dunes are not very large or famous but they are among the highest dunes in the United States at over 650 feet above the valley floor. They look smaller because they are framed by the striped limestone cliffs of the Last Chance Range that rise up 3000 to 4000 feet higher. Sand dunes are caused by wind blowing across the valley floor and picking up fine dust and sand; as the wind hits the higher mountains, it slows down, loses energy, and drops its heavy load. One thing that I find interesting is that the the individual grains of sand are constantly changing but the size and shape of the dunes do not.

As an aside, after getting home I realized that, with four people on our trip, I took alot less pictures than I usually do when I am only with Michele. Among things I didn’t take pictures of were the beauty of the sand dunes. Fortunately, Kirk Moore has some wonderful sand dune pictures over at his website. I highly recommend that you take a look. End aside.

By the time we got to the dunes, it was starting to warm up and the dunes were getting very bright. We hiked up about half way, maybe 350 to 400 feet, on sand that got looser and looser.

About the time that the day starting getting really hot,  heading towards triple digits. We got back in the truck and looked for shade. First it was back to the main road and then over the Last Chance Range into Death Valley itself. As we started over the last pass before Death Valley, we started seeing more plants in bloom. First the Beavertail Cactus, also known as the Pricklypear Cactus and probably known as some other names which is why people who like plants and go looking for them in the wild end up using the botanical name. In this case, Opuntia basilarus.  Just as we got to the pass overlooking upper Death Valley, we came across lots of clumps of Desert Aster, AKA Mojave Aster, or Aster mohavensis.

Then it was down into Death Valley, past Crankshaft Crossing, and on to Scotty’s Castle where we had lunch in the shade.