I’ve gotten behind again, so it’s catch up time. Laura and I have a tradition of going to Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge on Christmas Day. You would be surprised at how many cars are visiting the refuge on Christmas Day!
The weather was perfect. The fog burned off and the sun sort of came out. At least there was enough contrast for my camera and lens (Which only extends to 300 mm.) to get birds in focus. Here’s a sampling.
I’m not a true bird photographer, but I do like my yearly jaunt with Laura. Take care everyone!
We recently went up to Reno for my grandson’s 15th birthday and to see the Ostrich and Camel Races. Half way through the 2 1/2 hour trip, all of you had better sit down for this, I realized I left my camera at home! Can you imagine that?? Since I started photography, I’ve always had my camera with me for events.
In fact, my camera has taken me to many fun places I wouldn’t have gone if I wasn’t looking for an outing. I now realize, thanks to Egidio and his wonderful challenge, that photography has given me the opportunity for fun.
For instance:
The Sacramento Zoo has been a favorite of mine. It’s fun to get to know the animals and watch them through the years. I always check the red panda enclosure to see if they are awake. Being nocturnal, they are usually napping. This one was awake! The cheetahs are a relatively new zoo addition. One day they were grooming each other. What an opportunity.
The Effie Yeaw Nature Center is a natural habitat where deer, coyote, birds and other animals roam free. It’s located on the banks of the American River. The deer are used to humans and remain calm when we photograph them. However, they do have natural predators. Once we saw the remains of a deer carcass.
Not being a true “birder” with a super long lens, I enjoy my yearly visit to what I call the Nesting Trees in Lincoln. The trees sit in a gully in the middle of two shopping centers. The birds, blue herons and egrets, feel safe and build their nests there. Even though I only have a 300mm stretch on my Fujifilm camera and Tamron lens. I do manage to get a few good ones. I’ve also learned to bring a chair!
I do have fun at carnivals. Not riding the rides; but photographing them. I have fun zooming in and out, moving my camera up and down, combining both on a longer shutter speed. The Ferris wheel provided me with a lot of fun times.
Last, you know I like reflections. At the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento, they put a locomotive on mirrors. Did they do that just for me? Here’s one result.
All of these destinations bring me fun each time I visit. But the joy comes from being with my friends for these outings. Photography has brought me wonderful photo buddies and also a great community like LAPC. About leaving my camera home, it must have been an omen. Two days before the races, a fire broke out in Washoe Valley. It looked like they had it contained, but the wind picked up and it changed direction. While we were watching the first ostrich race, my son got an alert to evacuate. Richard and I came home, and my son and family went to stay with his in-laws. It was an intense two days, but the fire didn’t get to their community, and they were able to return home.
Your posts to Ritva’s Common Objects challenge were just the diversion I needed last week. I was amazed at all the different interpretations you had for that challenge. When you respond to Egidio’s Fun challenge, please link back to his post and use the Lens-Artists tag in the reader. Next week Tina will be challenging us, so look for her post.
In the meantime, find the joy in life and have FUN!
It was windy. Maybe that’s why the birds were scarce at the Sacramento National WildlifeRefuge, near Willows, this month. The driving tour at this wildlife refuge is a 6-mile circle with three places to get out of the car. Otherwise we are to be in the car. So, it pays to have a long lens and be on the correct side of the car to photograph out the window.
Our (Ray, Richard were with me.) first trip around, there were hardly any birds. We thought it was probably because of the wind. I didn’t even see flocks of snow geese in the water. Other wildlife that usually inhabit the refuge found a better spot or were hiding.
Since it takes 1 1/2 hours to get there and a lot of gas, I was disappointed, and soon got hungry. We had a great meal in town and then went back to the refuge. It wasn’t as windy this time, and this is when I got the bulk of my pictures (Still down from previous visits.).
The snow geese were back in numbers. We were lucky to catch a fly off.
Now for the really sad part: the only bald eagles we saw were out of range for my Nikon 7100 and prime F/4 300 lens. But that didn’t stop me! You know what they say, “Garbage in; garbage out!” I worked on those eagles, but couldn’t get them to the point of putting them in the blog. I will tell you it was a pair with their juvenile.
This is why I titled this post “An uneventful photo outing!” Maybe next time we will have better luck.
I hope you’ve been having a great holiday season and will have a wonderful New Year!
Yikes! Ann-Christine’s topicthis week is more than just one challenge for me! Explanation: My real challenge is that my toes are arthritic and I can’t wear many shoes except for Birkenstocks. I have managed to find a tennis shoe that I can wear for a few hours. It’s all subjective isn’t it! For some feet shoes can mean classy, dressy, casual, fun or barefoot. For me it’s Birkenstocks because of the support they give.
Now for photography, many things have feet (okay hooves) some even have shoes like this horse.
Most animals have feet although we refer to them with different names.
Dogs have paws. With some dogs we can see their toes, but some are covered. Can we say they have socks?
Wildlife like this deer have hooves (feet) but no shoes!
My Raggedy Ann has feet and shoes.
This egret flying up from a nest has claws (feet) but no shoes.
Last, but most important, are humans. No matter how they slide, they have feet and shoes!
So much for feet and shoes. Now it’s time to rest my feet without shoes on! Thanks Ann-Christine!!
In addition to Mother Nature, sometimes WordPress makes things tough. I think some of you may have received all the images for both parts of this post and some I didn’t intend to post. I truly don’t know how that happened. However, I don’t know that all of you did. So I’m going to do the last part of this blog post anyway.
We are still fogged in during the morning and early afternoons here in Sacramento, and photographing is still difficult. Difficult unless you want to shoot foggy images. But, we’re trying to shoot wildlife!
And, here’s some more (or once again) some wildlife!
Slow Shutter Speed 