Tree Hug...

click for a larger version...

Some Yosemite Color...

My son and I went to Yosemite the other day... found some nice color around Siesta Lake and some aspens near Crane Flat...


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A three shot pano of Siesta Lake, stitched with Hugin.







Two bracketed frames with the DA* 16-50mm @ 16mm, f/5, blended with Enfuse (HDR).

Mountain Pano...

The mountains northwest of June Lake. Nine portrait orientation shots were stitched with hugin for this pano, the full dimensions are 15,088 x 2905 px.

Click the image below to see a 4,674 x 900 px version...

Mono Lake Sunrise Panorama...

Click to see a larger version (much larger ;-)...

Mono Lake at Sunrise II...

Here's a few more shots from sunrise the other day at Mono Lake in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains...

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Just before sunrise...



Just after...

Acorn Woodpecker...

I went shooting at a local pond last week, hoping to photograph the wading birds I see there every time I drive by (Great Blue Herons, Egrets, etc...) Well it turns out that all those birds were perched in the trees which line the trail next to the pond, and as I walked along, I heard (but didn't see) them all departing one by one... I hung around about an hour and a half, but then I had to head for home - in that time they never came back, there are other ponds nearby they probably went to...

I did get to shoot some active Acorn Woodpeckers, so good practice with the tele rig (and I do need practice)...

All shots with the K-7, Pentax-F 1.7x AFTC, and Tamron SP 400mm f/4 @ f/8 (for f/14 as calculated by the TC).

Click a photo to see a larger version...









(looks like he's hiding in this one...)

Mono Lake at Sunrise...

Wild Skies...

Here's a few from last week. Very un-californian skies... Mammatus Clouds!

(click for a larger version...)

Lookin' for birds - found bugs instead...

Saw some ducks at the pond - they departed when I got within 200m... Saw a killdeer - it left when I took my tripod off my pack... Saw a splash when a frog jumped into the water and disappear (saw that a lot actually).

Luckily, some bugs showed up so the walk wasn't a total wash ;-)...

First the Mantis shots...


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DA* 300mm, f/10



DA* 300mm, f/8



DA* 300mm + Pentax-F 1.7x AF Adapter, equivalent f/22



Tamron SP 400mm + Pentax-F 1.7x AF Adapter, equivalent f/11





Now the Dragonfly...

Tamron SP 400mm + Pentax-F 1.7x AF Adapter, equivalent f/16



Tamron SP 400mm + Pentax-F 1.7x AF Adapter, equivalent f/16



DA* 300mm + Pentax-F 1.7x AF Adapter, equivalent f/14
(I sure wish I had avoided the foreground blur on the right of this one)



Tamron SP 400mm + Pentax-F 1.7x AF Adapter, equivalent f/16

Cliché Droplet Shots..

I know the whole water droplet thing is cliché, but I love 'em, and anyway I think there's enough uniqueness in these (the "rainbokeh") to make 'em worth sharing... I was watering this plant (ok, I looked it up, it's Oxalis Triangularis - purple shamrock) and watching the water bead on the leaves and I thought, "I haven't shot this cliche lately..."


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it's got flowers too...







I noticed that from certain angles, the tiny droplets were refracting the light into tiny droplet rainbows - rainbokeh was born...








Two large planters provide the background color here...