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!

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!

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.

Keyhole Arch during a cloudy sunset

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!

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!