2012 Calendar

For several recent Christmases I've made calendars of my photos to give to friends and family - this year I decided that having put together a calendar, I may as well make it available to anyone interested in it - check it out: wildlandphotos.com calendar on CafePress

Cool... Clear... Water...

 

("All day I face, the barren waste, without the taste of water...")

Rainbow in the back yard...

High Desert Panorama...

Shot from the top of the hills in the center of this map, the pano looks northeast across the western end of the Antelope Valley,
which is the western end of the Mojave desert.

The town of Tehachapi is about 30 mi. northeast behind the mountains center-left, and
downtown Los Angeles is about 50 mi. away behind and to the right of the camera.

click the photo to see a larger version (do it - it looks better)

To create this shot I took 15 shots hand-held with the DA*16-50 @ 16mm f/8 1/200 iso 100. Initial PP (curves, vignette correction) applied in Lr,
then individual shots exported and stitched w/ Hugin and then the final tiff was edited in PS for color and contrast.

Pollen Doom...

So... I have some lovely big old trees in my backyard (I'm sure one of you will tell me the type when you see the pictures - my dendrology knowledge is lacking), which apparently produce pollen this time of year... I didn't know this before, because normally in winter, we get storms through the area on a regular basis, and between the wind and the rain, the pollen either gets blown away or washed away, and doesn't just hang around getting in my eyes and sinuses. However, since California's drought has decided to come back and the high pressure demons are just camped on top of us, I now know about this pollen nightmare... Touch a branch, and an explosion of yellow pollen comes billowing out... You'll see...

Here's a tendril lurking...

Threaten it with a bat, and it keeps it's cool...

but give the branch a little tap, it retaliates...

And if you throw a stick at the tree, it releases a full dose of it's pollen weapons...

Gah, my eye's are itching just proofreading my post.

Alien Robot Flowers?!?!?!?!?!

Ok, I suppose they're just wind turbines...

Taken near Tehachapi California today.

K20D, Tamron 70-200/2.8, converted in Lr. I don't know how I settled on this tone for the monochrome conversion, but I kinda like it...

More from Yosemite...

Had a fun day in Yosemite with the family yesterday... The colors are great this time of year. Here's a couple shots from El Cap. Meadow.

click the photo for a bigger version...

a precarious perch...