Arch Rock in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada at night

This is Arch Rock in Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada, taken at night.  We posted a photo of the "backside" of this arch in a recent post, also a night shot.  This photo is from the road side of the arch.

Bob took this photo with a 30 second exposure, while Rick used a military grade flashlight to "paint" the arch and its surrounding formation.  The f/stop was 16 and the ISO was set at 3200.

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Delicate Arch with a sunny halo

Delicate Arch is probably Utah's most famous landmark. It stands on the rim of a huge bowl-shaped depression. So we traveled down into the bowl in order to look back up at it. We noticed how brightly the sun was glowing behind the arch, plus the bright wispy clouds. This side of the arch was in shadow, but we were able to bring out the details in the editing process. Bob accidentally dropped a lens cap that rolled all the way down to the base of the bowl. It turned out it wasn't as difficult to follow the slope down as it looked at first glance. He was able to get the lens cap back.

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A white black phoebe along the American River Parkway, Sacramento, California

I, Bob, have observed this black phoebe in white plumage for the last couple of months, but today I managed to get my closest and longest look at it.  Black phoebes are normally all black, except for a white belly, but this one is almost all white with a little bit of cream coloring.  Black phoebes are members of the flycatcher family and feed on flying insects by waiting on a perch and then darting out after an insect flying by.

This phoebe's territory seems to be around a drainage pump assemblage about a half mile upriver from the Watt Avenue Bridge along the American River's south side in Sacramento, California.

This photo was taken with a Canon EOS 6D Mark II full frame DSLR with a 100-400 mm zoom lens set on 400 and the resulting photo was heavily cropped to get this final result.

For comparison, I've posted below my heavily cropped photo from the same day of a normal black phoebe, also along the American River.

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The backside of Arch Rock at Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada at night

This is the rather generically-named Arch Rock between the two campground units at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada about 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas.  Bob believes that a better name for this arch could be Fire Arch.  We posted a couple of photos of this arch in an earlier post, but we visited it again in December 2017 during a winter break trip.  Unfortunately, too many people were abusing the arch by climbing on it, so now the park prohibits anyone from climbing anywhere near it.

This photo is of the side of the arch away from the road between the campground units and was taken at night by Bob with the settings of f/16, 30 seconds, and ISO 6400 with a zoom lens set at 100 mm on a full frame sensor Canon camera.  Rick used his military grade flashlight to "paint" the arch with light during the exposure.

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Wood ducks are the most colorful ducks

Wood duck males are among the most colorful birds in America. This one was swimming in the ponds in the Sacramento area during the 2016-2017 winter season, one of the wettest on record. They are called wood ducks because they nest in trees and their young have to jump out of the tree onto the ground to get to the water for the first time. Their call is somewhat of a whistling sound.

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California scrub jay perched in a winter tree without leaves

A winter-time deciduous tree serves as a perching site for a California scrub jay. This tree is in the Sacramento area. Scrub jays are often confused with blue jays, which are similar except the blue jay has a blue crest and is almost all blue. The scrub jay has a white bib and white eyebrows. Jays tend to be very noisy birds and often are the first to make noise when you're walking through the forest.

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Red-shouldered Hawk in the American River Parkway, Sacramento, California

I, Bob, photographed this red-shouldered hawk perched in a tree along the American River in Sacramento, California.  The red shoulder patches that give it its name are not visible from this angle.  This guy stayed perched on this spot for a long time allowing me to try shots from different angles and from progressively closer distances, until I was able to get this shot from my closest approach.  This picture was taken in December, so the tree had shed its leaves for the season and made it easier to see him on his perch.  Not long after this shot, the hawk flew to another nearby perch.  I went looking for him again and realized that I had gone past him and turned around to get more pictures.  Apparently this hawk had had enough of me by then and soon flew almost at me missing me by just a few feet just right of overhead and continued on to another tree perch.

Red-shouldered hawks live mainly along riverside forests and other moist deciduous forests and hunt from perches like in this photo.

I took this photo with a Canon EOS 70D with a Canon 100-400 mm lens.

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Deer mouse during low tide at Point Reyes National Seashore

During a night-time hike along the shore south of Coast Camp at Point Reyes National Seashore, we were using our flashlights to check out the creatures in the tide pools and the tops of rocks. At one of those rocks, we noticed something darting along from one side of the rock to the other. After shining our lights on the darting critter, we found this deer mouse settled into a spot where it seemed comfortable enough to pose for us to get several photos of it. What is was doing in a tidepool was a bit of a mystery, maybe it has a taste for mussels.

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Window Arch in City of Rocks National Reserve

Window Arch is one of many arches and other granite features in the City of Rocks National Reserve, in southeastern Idaho. This feature can be reached by hiking an easy 0.1 mile trail from the parking spot for campsite number 37. It is situated along a ridge that allows for getting good photos of it from either side. I chose this side because of the interesting cloud formations in the sky that you can see under the arch.

To give you a better idea about the size of the arch, look at the picture below with Rick standing in it.

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Butler Wash Cliff Dwelling in the Bears Ears National Monument

This is an area within the Bears Ears National Monument. You reach by parking at a turnout off of Road 95, west of Blanding, Utah, and then taking a short hike, about 1/2 mile or 1 km) to reach this viewpoint. It's called Butler Wash and has an Anasazi cliff dwelling at the upper end. The end of the trail has a steep dropoff, so there is railing there, which also makes it easy to know where to stop. There's no developed trail in to the ruins, but it is possible to get to the bottom of the wash and work your way there. We were on our way to Natural Bridges National Monument and couldn't spend as much time here as we would've liked. We definitely intend to go back.

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El Capitan and a leafless oak in silhouette, Yosemite

April showers in Yosemite led to this formation of clouds that has the peak of El Capitan looming above and below the clouds, while the lower cloud provides the proper background for a bare oak tree's silhouette. This picture was originally taken in April of 1984 with slide film, specifically Kodachrome. Rick stood in El Capitan Meadow to get this photo.

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The Windows, in Arches National Park, from the west looking eastward, plus the North Window Arch, up close

Within Arches National Park is this dramatic feature that can seen several miles away along the main park road, well before you turn off to get a closer look. There is a path around these features, which you can see at the right edge of the image. You can also see people underneath the left "window." In both cases, going through these arches leads to a somewhat dramatic drop off on the other side. We visited this park as part of our Spring Break 2017 trip through southern Utah. The second picture is the North Window Arch, up close and consisting of four shots that have been merged to create a detailed image of this feature.

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Yosemite Falls reflected in a seasonal pond in Cooks Meadow

This is Yosemite Falls as viewed from the Sentinel Bridge parking area. During the spring and early summer, Cooks Meadow fills with meltwater and runoff to become a temporary pond. If you stand in the right spot and crouch down a bit, you can get the falls and its reflection in one shot. We've also taken multiple shots from this perspective and combined them, but this one was taken in one frame with a film camera in 1992. The trees have had another 25 years worth of growth since this was taken and are noticeably taller now.

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