Monday Elk Blogging

Elk Crossing Road - Point Reyes  2014

Elk Jumping Fence - Point Reyes  2014

Mike stopped this truck in order to let this group of elk cross the road. They were able to negotiate the fence on the other side with no difficulty. Tule elk, officially.

Photos taken with an Olympus E-M1 with the 14-150mm lens pointed through the windshield. Acquiring focus was a little difficult.

Telephone Poles, A.M.

Telephone Poles - Point Reyes  2014

Taken during a recent solo trip to Point Reyes: just before sunrise in the fairly remote Chimney Rock area.

Chopin Vodka (Urban Interlude)

Chopin Vodka - San Francisco  2014

. . . a pause in the Point Reyes photos, to observe this tableau:

Tattooed lady. Truck driver getting out. Man dancing in background. Bay Bridge. Whoa!

And, you know that I'm going to sip slowly.

Limantour Beach

Dune Grass - Point Reyes  2014

Sand, Waves - Point Reyes  2014

We drove down to an overcast and empty Limantour Beach, imagining what it would look like during a warm August weekend afternoon. (Might be very foggy, actually.) Then, home.

Sky Camp Break

Tree Trunks, Foliage - Point Reyes  2014

Two Trees (Sky Camp) - Point Reyes  2014

We reached Sky Camp in short order, took a short break, then continued on back to the trailhead.

Journey to the Crossroads

Douglas Firs, Fog - Point Reyes  2014

Hali Approaching the Crossroads - Point Reyes  2014

Like something out of Lord of the Rings . . . very moody and atmospheric, especially with the fog entwining through the fir trees.

Not actually a crossroads, however . . . more a crosstrails. Continuing straight would be Sky Trail, to the left is Bear Valley, to our back is the Mt. Wittenberg trail and Sky Camp, where we were headed, is to the right.

Point Reyes Trees

Trees - Point Reyes  2014

Tree Trunks, Branches - Point Reyes  2014

Seen on our Point Reyes hike, going from the Limantour Road trailhead in a loop past Mt. Wittenberg, Sky Camp and return. A nice overcast day.

Top, Douglas Fir probably. Bottom, not sure. I like the detail in the branches, but since they're lacking any foliage, don't know if would be sellable.

Monday Fox Blogging

Fox - Point Reyes  2014

Hali and I were hiking in the Sky Camp area of Point Reyes when we spotted this fox. As he was scrambling for cover Hali whistled at him and he obligingly stopped and turned around. Then he was gone.

The shutter speed on the Olympus E-M1 was 1/125th. And yet, there's camera shake (?) I used the shake reduction tool in Photoshop which made it look somewhat better, but still not good enough for a print.

Maybe I've gotten to the point where 1/125th isn't fast enough.

Under the Freeway

Sitting, Freeway - San Francisco  2014

Fly Fishing, Freeway - Marin County  2014

Sitting . . . and fly fishing.

Bay Bridge

Bay Bridge - San Francisco  2014

Bay Bridge (Upper Tower) - San Francisco  2014

From a recent visit to San Francisco. I used the Olympus E-M1 with the 14-150mm lens.

Bay Bridge (Self-Portrait) - San Francisco  2014

Richmond Bridge 2

Richmond Bridge - Marin County  2014

Ripples, Richmond Bridge - Marin County  2014

Now that I think of it, these bridge photos were probably taken on two separate days. I could look up the exact dates that the camera recorded for the photos, but that would be too tedious.

Richmond Bridge 1

Richmond Bridge - Marin County  2014

Birds, Richmond Bridge - Marin County  2014

Walking along the waterfront on a blustery morning.

Highway 12 Display

Highway 12 Display - Central California  2014

Highway 12 Display - Central California  2014

Don't know what this is supposed to signify.

Church, Kramer's Barber Shop

Church (Rio Vista) - Central California  2014

Kramer's Barber Shop (Rio Vista) - Central California  2014

During this trip I used both the high-end Olympus E-M1 and and mid-level Olympus E-PL5. I had a telephoto zoom 14-150mm lens on the E-M1 and the Panasonic 20mm prime lens on the E-PL5. I used the E-M1 at the nature preserve and the smaller camera in Rio Vista.

Just for fun, I set the E-PL5 to take only JPGs, curious to see what the results might be. Actually quite nice! At one point I was set on selling the E-PL5, but it's so seductively light and small . . .

E-PL5 - Marin County  2014

Monday Pintail Duck Blogging

Pintail Duck - Central California  2014

. . . nice-looking fellow seen at the Cosumnes Nature Preserve. In spite of pintails being one of the most common waterfowl, I was totally unable to identify it in our guidebook. Had to send an email to Barbara who immediately shot back the ID.

Slough

Slough (Cosumnes Preserve) - Central California  2014

Very muted winter day. I was grateful for the clouds. Also, I should have tried a three-photo panorama shot here, but didn't.

Water

Water (Cosumnes) - Central California  2014

Taken at the Cosumnes Preserve in the Central Valley, near Lodi.

Delta Ground Views

Bridge (Rio Vista) - Central California  2014

Fishing (Rio Vista) - Central California  2014

Typical delta sights.

Hap's Bait

Hap's Bait #1 - Rio Vista  2014

Hap's Bait - Rio Vista  2014

During my delta day trip I drove over to the Cosumnes River Nature Preserve, wanting to try some bird photos with my 14-150mm lens. Also, I wanted to revisit Rio Vista, a nice little town in the middle of the delta area: last time I went through I couldn't stop.

Windmills

Windmills - Central California  2014

Driving towards the small delta town of Rio Vista: miles and miles of these enormous multi-story energy-producing windmills.

California Delta

California Delta - Central California  2009

I drove around the delta with my camera, sightseeing and photographing on a recent day trip. The problem is that while driving in the area you only get to observe bits and pieces: a waterway here, a bridge there. It turns out that the delta can only be truly seen from the air.

Monday Horse and Crow Blogging

White Horse, Crow - Marin County  2014

In this instance the "haze" in the San Geronimo Valley added to the delineation of depth in the photo.

Below, a photo taken in the early morning of the same horse - Joe - eating his breakfast.

White Horse - Marin County  2014

Sacramento Sightems

Japanese Cuisine - Sacramento  2014

17th St - Sacramento  2014

. . . seen walking from our parked cafe to the Tower Cafe.

Tower Cafe

Tower Cafe - Sacramento  2014

Tower Cafe Interior - Sacramento  2014

We met Dan for lunch in Sacramento in January, at the Tower Cafe. Getting there was a bit of an adventure, thanks to Google Maps, which decided that it would be more efficient to have us get off the freeway, drive a convoluted route through city streets, then get back on the same freeway. (Probably to save a few miles.)

The place was incredibly crowded! And, the food was good.

Sunrise

Sunrise - Tehama County  2007

Digger Pines, Clouds - Tehama County  2007

All the 2007 Northern California photos were taken with an Olympus E-510 DSLR, using the kit 14-42mm lens that came with the camera. Very nice results, actually! (Unfortunately, the mode dial on the camera stopped working right after the 2008 Japan trip . . . unable to be repaired.)

It took quite a bit of internet fussing to determine that these were taken in Tehama County.

Northern California Scenes

Mailboxes - Modoc County  2007

Road to Adin - Modoc County  2007

Mailboxes and the road going over to Adin. Someday I must go there.

Lake Almanor & Forest Near Mill Creek

Lake Almanor - Plumas County  2007

Forest (near Mill Creek) - Shasta County  2007

2007 photos taken in Northern California:

Lake Almanor, in Plumas County.

Forest near Mill Creek. (Earlier 1990 photo.)

. . . from the archives #80: Aspens, Snow & Creek, Yosemite 1992

Aspens, Snow & Creek - Yosemite  1992

Scanned from a 4x5 negative. I'm not sure of the exact location of the photo, but I'm pretty sure that I took it in Yosemite.

I had just purchased a Toyo-Field 4x5 camera in January, 1992 ($1347.71 from Adolph Gasser in San Francisco), so this represents one of my first efforts with the camera. What's interesting is that I never attempted to make a print from the negative, as far as I can recall, the reason being that there were minor imperfections in the trees, as well as the contrast within the negative was too great for effective printing. Luckily we now have Photoshop.

A similar camera (updated, of course) now sells for over $2500 at B&H, but most of the increase is due to inflation.

Monday Hermit Thrush Blogging

Hermit Thrush - Marin County  2014

Once more, a hermit thrush on top of our fence, seemingly very curious. He perched there while I went into the house and got the Olympus OMD EM1 with the telephoto zoom 14-150mm lens. And he continued to strike a variety of poses as I snapped away.

It was not until I opened the files in Adobe Camera Raw that I discovered that the ISO value had somehow gotten set to 20000! That's crazy . . . something I would never do on purpose. What's interesting is that converted to black and white the result is actually OK. A little Salgado-ish in point of fact.

As I recall, the Panatomic-X film that I used to use was rated at ASA 32.