Miss January...

Ms. January (yeah, doesn't make much sense and I can't even tell you the sex of this 'ere bird, but I also can't seem to avoid the joke...)  This is the featured shot for January in my 2012 Calendar. 

I shot this in Santa Cruz at Natural Bridges State Beach where the local birds seemed quite used to people getting close - that allowed me the rare opportunity to shoot this Egret landing quite near me.

Here lizard, lizard, lizard...

one second later...

More Santa Cruz Morning shots...

As usual, click for larger...

Harbor Exit...

Santa Cruz Sunrise!

as usual, click for a larger version on the gallery site...

Low Country Drive...

Bridal Veil Rainbow...

Fearless Deer...

Yosemite deer are the most relaxed I've ever come across - they were just lying there next to the walkways without a care in the word... Made for easy shooting...

Big Birds...

Some early season hummers...

It was totally overcast today when my son and I went for a walk, so most of the bird shots I got have a uniform white background in them. I was surprised to find manzanita bushes in bloom (just in this one microclimate) and hummingbirds feeding on them - I never got any shots of actual feeding, the nectar in a single manzanita flower must be very limited, and the birds were moving around very quickly from flower bunch to flower bunch... Lucky for me, this one chose a branch very close to the dirt road to base his operations from...

(click a photo to see a larger version of it)

Preparing for flight (look closely and you can see typical bird preflight preparation going on :D)...

Launching on a different sortie...


Taking a break in the bush...

All shot with the 5DII @ ISO 1600, 100-400L+1.4x Kenko TC (w/ taped pins), hand held, and cropped to varrying degrees and processed in Lr.

Good timing in Yosemite...

Fortuitous timing allowed a chance to catch the moon rising over Half Dome, I had to setup quickly as the moon was climbing rapidly, but it all worked out...

Shot with the Canon 5D Mark II + the Canon 100-400mm L from "Tunnel View".

A bit out of the ordinary...

I mostly post landscapes up here, but got a couple shots of "Buddy" today (my wife's parent's dog for those few of you who read this but aren't my immediate family ;-) that I liked so I thought I'd show some versatility here...

Great Egret Catching Lunch...

I got down to the Cosumnes River Preserve today with my long lens setup (Tamron SP 400mm F4 + 1.7x AFTC + K20D) and wandered around for a couple hours not getting close to birds :p... Then, almost back to the truck, I saw this egret along the path. Since the last egret I tried to approach had bugged out when I got within a couple hundred yards, I decided to take it slow, only to watch aghast as a couple of birdwatchers walked right up to it from the other direction... It turns out this bird was so engrossed in the hunt that it didn't even register the presence of the people. I wasn't able to get a close as I wanted before the action started and when it did, I plunked down my tripod and started firing (filled the buffer a couple times in the process)...

Stalking Lunch...



Got 'im...






Look how close he walked to the folks on the trail (well, there's some compression from the 700mm lens... those feet are probably 10-15 feet behind the egret).










Then I grabbed my 5DII with the 100-400mm L at f/7.1 and stalked in a bit closer before he launched away...