Great egret, American River Parkway, Sacramento, California

Bob was out for a ride along the American River in Sacramento, California when he saw this great egret out on the hunt for food.  He happened to have his camera with him, so he got these portraits of this bird while it was out stalking.  This long-legged bird was near the 12-mile mark on the bike path. Many of the animals along the river are so used to people, they'll behave normally, so it's a good place to view wildlife up close.

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

Desert bighorn sheep on red sandstone, Valley of Fire, Nevada

During a camping trip to Valley of Fire State Park, in Nevada, a desert bighorn sheep strolled by the campground where we staying. After we followed it for a while, it joined a herd of about 20 consisting of a mix of females and yearlings. At one point, the male scrambled effortlessly up a red sandstone outcrop to get a better view of the terrain and might have checked for predators in the area, before continuing.

Canon EOS 70D, 250 mm focal length, ISO 200, 1/350 sec., f/11. This image has been cropped a little tighter to improve composition.

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

Lake Solitude, Grand Teton NP, panorama

Here is a panoramic image of Lake Solitude in the Grand Teton National Park wilderness. We stopped here to resupply our water bottles during our backpack trip up Cascade Canyon on our way to Paintbrush Canyon's lower camping zone. The Grand Teton peak appears at the left in this image, just to the left of the darker ridge with snow patches on it. The sun was getting lower on the horizon, so we realized we wouldn't be making it to camp during daylight.

The two vertical streaks on either side of the sun appear to be part of the panorama making process and wasn't something I, Rick, observed while capturing the image.

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

Starting a Backpacking Trip Along Jenny Lake in Grand Teton

Bob is stopped along the trail to get a photo of Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park. This image was taken with Rick's smartphone camera app's panorama feature. You can see the trail we came from to the left in the image and the direction we're going to the right. Also to the right is Grand Teton, Teewinot, and Mount Owen in the Teton Range. For this backpacking trip, we were heading up Cascade Canyon and coming down Paintbrush Canyon, where we spent the night in the lower camping zone. We parked at String Lake and hiked south toward Cascade Canyon, which made the first day a long day of hiking and second day, much shorter. The first day took even longer for us because we kept stopping to take pictures and to enjoy the thimbleberries and huckleberries.

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

A Setting Moon Over the Tetons

After waiting in line to get into the Jenny Lake Campground early one morning, we got to witness the setting moon over the Tetons the following morning. Grand Teton itself isn't in the picture, however, the moon is over Mount Owen. The taller mountain to the left is Mount Teewinot. It turns out that these two mountains block your view of Grand Teton, so anyone driving into and hiking around the Jenny Lake area can't see Grand Teton. Rick was just walking around the campground area and happened to look toward the highest mountains and noticed the moon there. So he rushed back to the car to get the camera and get some photos before the moon set.

The image was taken at ISO 100, f/16, 1/60 sec, with a zoom of about 4.5 power.

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

Wrentit at Point Reyes National Seashore, California

Another photo of a bird from Point Reyes National Seashore in California.  This wrentit was flitting about our campsite at Coast Camp on a cold December morning daring us to take his portrait.  So, we did.

Wrentits hang out in the coastal chaparral at Point Reyes singing from the top of shrubs and dropping out of sight into the tangled branches.  These are tiny birds about 6 to 6-1/2 inches long with a long tail and short stubby bill with mostly brown feathers around the body and grayish around the head.  They're described as being elusive, but this little guy was just the opposite.

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

White crowned sparrow at Point Reyes National Seashore, California

This is a close look at a white crowned sparrow.  This little guy was flitting around the reconstructed Coast Miwok village called Kule Loklo near the headquarters of Point Reyes National Seashore.  This National Park unit is some forty miles north of San Francisco on the California coast.

We always look forward to hearing the sing-song call of these little birds, especially when we're staying in the Point Reyes backcountry, and their call kind of tells us that we're "home."  Notice that this little guy has a bird band on its leg.

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

Fly Geyser, geothermal feature in Nevada

We went on a tour of the Fly Ranch on October 20, 2018. The tour includes the world-famous Fly Geyser. It was the result of an attempt to drill into the geothermal area in 1964 to generate electricity but it didn't work out. The feature has been building up minerals ever since. That's 54 years! At the rate of 6-8 inches (15 - 20 cm) per year. It isn't a true geyser, though, because there is never a quiet period, since it's spouts water continuously. We've looked it up and learned that the proper name for this feature is a "perpetual spouter." We counted 5 spouts at the top.

Unfortunately the right side of this formation was shot at, leaving it looking crumbled.

Settings were ISO 100, f16, 1/45 sec, with a 35 mm focal length with a polarizer.

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

Fly Geyser, Gerlach, Nevada

After knowing of the existence of this geothermal feature in northern Nevada for a number of years, from photos in photo magazines, we finally got to go on a tour of this private ranch to see the Fly Geyser up close and personal.  This feature resulted from a geothermal test well drilled in 1964 that was either never capped or was capped improperly and has been spouting hot water into the air ever since.

The cone has formed from deposition from the mineral-rich water cooling as it emerged and is growing at a rate of 6 to 8 inches per year.  This is a phenomenal rate for a geyser.  But, then again, this is not a true geyser.  A true geyser has a quiet phase and an eruption phase.  We've checked the terms for geothermal features and it looks like perpetual spouter would be the most accurate term for it.  In any case, this mound of mineral deposits and brightly-colored algae growing on this cone is a spectacular sight.

These photos were taken with an eclipse filter on the lens to force a long shutter speed of 30 seconds and f16 and it produces a silky look for the five spouts of water emerging from the top of the cone.

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

Eye of the Needle, Death Valley National Park, California

This is a nighttime shot of a natural window in Death Valley National Park, California, called Eye of the Needle.  Seems self-explanatory how it got its name.  This arch is about one and a half miles up Echo Canyon on a dirt road.  The road appears to head straight toward this arch, but then wraps around the rock formation, so that you can see this arch from both sides while driving.

We camped near this feature and were taking starlight shots of it when someone drove by lighting up the rock formation with their headlights. This photo was taken with a zoom lens set at 28 mm and the exposure was 30 seconds at f/3.5 with the ISO set at 800.

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

Half Dome with a cloudy scarf

Got this image on a winter trip last February to Yosemite Valley. The clouds formed small puffs of cotton around Half Dome and slowly drifted around it. This cloud moved into just the right spot as the sun was getting lower in the sky, that its shadow went all the way across the face of Half Dome. Another nice feature was the snow on top of Half Dome and on the ridge west of Half Dome, too.

The ISO was set for 100, shutter speed at 1/250 sec, and the f/stop was 5.6. This was taken right about 5 PM so it was getting close to sunset for the third week in February. Taken from the Sentinel Bridge in Yosemite Valley.

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

Pronghorn Antelope feeding at north Yellowstone, close up

When we entered Yellowstone National Park from the north, from Gardiner, Montana, we saw a herd of about 14 pronghorn antelope grazing right by the road. Some other antelopes not part of this herd were grazing on the other side of the road close to the town of Gardiner. When we saw them and watched for a while, they approached the buildings of the town and even crossed over a parking lot to search for edibles. We took pictures of them in that position, but didn't think to include them in our blog, since you could see roads and buildings in the image, along with the animals.

Rick used his Canon PowerShot to get this 24x zoom image, with an ISO setting of 400, f8, 1/1000 second.

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

Little Gibbon Falls, in Yellowstone NP, along the Gibbon River

We were hiking out from Wolf Lake in Yellowstone and saw a sign for a side trail to Little Gibbon Falls, along the Gibbon River. We figured it would be worth the time to go take a look and we weren't disappointed. This image is the view from the trail, which has a steep dropoff in this area. The water falls over rocks that have a stair-step pattern, which matches the sedimentary rock layers in the cliff face next to them.

We spent quite a bit of time here and were joined by dayhikers. We discovered from the map, that this waterfall is only about two miles from the road. But we were approaching it from the wilderness area, having backpacked in to Wolf Lake the night before. We also realized that we could've hike in to Wolf Lake from the main road on this trail and would've had less distance to cover. Backpacking in from the Ice Lake trailhead was a little bit longer. Something to keep in mind for next time!

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