Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Harbor Seal hauled out near Point Arena lighthouse, scratching its head


 

Aw, that's the spot! A harbor seal relaxes on the rocky coast near Point Arena lighthouse. When their bristly fur dries, they look whitish. When wet, the fur looks much darker. This one was part of a group hauled out onto the sedimentary rock layers and relaxing during a warm summer day within sight of the Point Arena lighthouse.  A couple of important differences between seals, such as this one, and sea lions, are: seals - no external ear flaps, sea lions - have external ear flaps; seals- rear feet always point backward and they can't stand on their feet, sea lions - rear feet can rotate to point forward and they can stand on their feet.

Canon PowerShot SX530 HS, 1/1000 sec. 215 mm focal length, f 6.5, ISO 800


Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Thursday, January 25, 2024

Fin Dome, up close, in the Kings Canyon Wilderness along the Rae Lakes Loop


 

Here is Fin Dome in the Kings Canyon Wilderness from the east looking west. It makes a very high, noticeable feature along a ridge that is in the middle of the Rae Lakes Loop, which starts in Kings Canyon and loops around passing Mist Falls and passing by the Rae Lakes on the far side of the loop. We spent 4 days backpacking around the 40-or-so-mile loop, but afterward, we wished we had taken another day. We knew that this feature has climbing routes on it and we saw climbers heading for it. It doesn't so much like a fin from this perspective, but further north or south from here, it did.


Canon EOS Rebel xSi, f19, 1/250 sec, ISO 800, 55 mm focal length


Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Sunday, January 14, 2024

Pelican flying in front of sun dog, Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, California

 


After visiting the Big Sur coast to photograph Keyhole Arch (see some of the previous postings), we stopped by Point Lobos State Natural Reserve just south of Carmel, California. We saw many pelicans during our hike along this dramatic and rugged coastline. Late in the afternoon the sun and clouds created sun dogs, or spectra produced by ice crystals in high-altitude clouds. We happened to catch this pelican flying in front of one of the sun dogs, as there were two, one on either side of the sun.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Thursday, January 4, 2024

Keyhole Arch during a cloudy sunset

Keyhole Arch in the Big Sur area of California





We visited Pfeiffer Beach two evenings in a row to try photographing the sun through the arch. The first evening was overcast, but we wanted to look it over anyway, knowing we'd be trying again the next day. The clouds actually added an element we hadn't planned on photographing, but the texture was amazing. There was only about 4 photographers at the beach this evening.

Photo taken with Samsung a52 ISO 640, f2.2, 1/24 sec., 1.74 mm focal length

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Tuesday, January 2, 2024

Wild rose in bloom, with European skipper butterfly and beetle

 


In Glacier National Park, we hiked the Running Eagle Falls nature trail and saw this wild rose blooming with a couple of insects checking it out. The butterfly is a European skipper, accidentally introduced into America over a hundred years ago. The trail has signs along the way that identify bushes and trees in English and the native Pikuni (Blackfeet) people's language.

Samsung a52, f1.8, 1/1591 sec., ISO 25, 5.2 mm, cropped tighter


Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Saturday, December 16, 2023

Keyhole Arch at Sunset, Big Sur, California, December 4, 2023


 We heard about this phenomenon over a year ago and were looking forward to seeing and photographing and videographing this effect for ourselves. During the winter season, the setting sun lines up with the opening in Keyhole Arch, a sea arch at Pfeiffer Beach in the Big Sur area. We checked on the azimuth of the setting sun during the dates that were recommended in an online article from a couple of years ago and then checked with timeanddate.com to see when the sun would be setting at that same angle before the winter solstice.

We ventured to Pfeiffer Beach on December 3, 2023, but the skies were cloudy and only saw a white glow through the arch from the sun. The next day December 4th was clear and we were able to see the setting sun cast this fiery glow through the arch.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Columbine flowering in the Snake River Canyon. Idaho






We found this columbine flowering along the Snake River Canyon near Twin Falls, Idaho. It was along the trail to the Perrine Coulee Waterfall. We stopped to get pictures of them on our way back. These flowers are pollinated mainly by hummingbirds. 

Image taken with a Samsung A52, 5.23 mm, f1.8, 1/120 sec. ISO 40

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Thursday, December 7, 2023

Great Blue Heron stalking gophers on the Monterey Peninsula




While driving around the Monterey Peninsula, we saw this great blue heron beside the road at a city park. After we watched and photographed him for a while, we realized he was hunting gophers, the animals that made the mounds he was walking over. We even saw it take a stab at the ground trying to snag one, unsuccessfully. The blood stains on his bill especially visible in the closeup photo may indicate that he has been successful in past attempts. 

We drove on later to look at more parts of the peninsula, and then, when it started raining, we turned around and headed back. This heron was still there, on the hunt.

The first image was taken with a Canon Powershot SX530 HS at f5.6, 1/100 sec, ISO 100, 51.9 mm.

The closeup was taken with a Canon EOS 90D with a 100-400 mm zoom lens at 400 mm with 1/125 sec., f5.6 at ISO 400 exposure.


Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!



Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Male Anna's Hummingbird bobs up and down while feeding

 

We often get hummingbirds visiting our feeder in the backyard. I had my phone out and ready to record today, so I tried following this hummingbird and saw the bobbing action when I played it back. Anna's hummingbird males have a throat that shines red when the light hits it just right. They have become year-round residents of California's Central Valley thanks to all the people putting out hummingbird feeders or planting plants that flower during the colder months. Enjoy!

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Monday, November 6, 2023

Oregon Cave flowstone feature, frozen waterfall or cascading mineral formation



A tall column of cascading flowstone in Oregon Cave National Monument. The interior of a solution cave forms as water containing carbonic acid drips through the ground and dissolves the limestone or marble. Then continued dripping water leaves behind the calcium carbonate mineral as the water evaporates. The mineral builds up over several centuries to create features like this flowstone that looks like a frozen waterfall.

The original wall of a cave is referred to as speleogen, while the mineral deposits added later are called speleothems. So, this flowstone is an example of speleothem formation.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Great American Eclipse, Annular eclipse, October 15, 2023, from Crater Lake National Park


 Rick and Bob chose to go to different places to observe the annular solar eclipse. Bob went to southern Utah, to Natural Bridges National Monument. Rick went to Crater Lake National Park, in Oregon. The forecast in Oregon was for cloudy skies, so Rick went there with the possibility of not seeing the eclipse at all in his mind. He drove into the park around 6:30 a.m. and got to the rim of Crater Lake, where there were already huge crowds of people hoping to see the eclipse, too. The cloud cover had an interesting pattern, though, so he took some photos of the clouds over Crater Lake and the rising sun over the lake, as well. 

The time arrived for the eclipse to start, but the cloud cover hid the event from us. Rick got nice photos of the lake and sky, but no eclipse. Snow was on the ground from an early storm, but the park service had cleared the roads in time for the eclipse. Rick got in his truck to warm up and kept checking the time to monitor the progress of the eclipse. Then he saw a couple in the next car over get out, put on their eclipse glasses, and start pointing at the sky. That encouraged Rick to get out and have a look and there it was! Through breaks in the cloud cover, you could see the eclipse in progress. This photo was taken at the peak of annularity. The cloud cover ended up adding drama to the image.


Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Thursday, October 12, 2023

Natural Bridge Falls and Boulder River panorama



Natural Bridge Falls is located in Montana as part of a National Forest Day Use Area. A natural bridge above the waterfall gave the area its name. The original bridge collapsed in 1988, but the stream flows through an underground passage that still qualifies as a natural bridge. It's just much less obvious.

This picture shows the Boulder River emerging from the passage below the brink of the falls and then continuing downstream in a wide meander. During high water, the river will flow over the falls and through the passage. 

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Monday, October 9, 2023

Finger Arch, aka West Rim Arch, McInnis Canyons Recreation Area, Colorado



 One of the hikes Bob went on with the Natural Arch and Bridge Society's 2023 Fall Arch Rally was to the above arch named Finger Arch.  It is also known as West Rim Arch. The first photo was shot with a Canon EOS 6D Mark II, while the second photo was shot with a GoPro 8 Black with its wider angle view.

 Getting to and from Finger Arch was less than a three mile round trip hike that involved some bushwhacking and scrambling up and down steep slopes.  It is a mature, pothole type arch eroded into Entrada Sandstone and has a span of 50 feet and the opening is 30 feet wide.  It gets the name West Rim Arch, because it's one of several arches in Rattlesnake Canyon, but is on the western edge of the canyon while many of the other arches are on the east.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.