Focal Points Magazine May/June 2023

Focal Points

Wings + Wonder + Water

Birds of the Sepulveda Basin

Wildlife Reserve

May/June 2023

The Magazine of the Sierra Club Camera Committee

Chair Programs

Treasurer Membership

Editor Communications

Meetup Instagram Outings Outings

SCCC Leadership

Joe Doherty

Susan Manley

Ed Ogawa

Joan Schipper

Joe Doherty

Velda Ruddock

Ed Ogawa

Joan Schipper

Joan Schipper

Alison Boyle

joedohertyphotography@gmail.com

SSNManley@yahoo.com

Ed5ogawa@angeles.sierraclub.org

JoanSchipper@ix.netcom.com

joedohertyphotography@gmail.com

vruddock.sccc@gmail.com

Ed5ogawa@angeles.sierraclub.org

JoanSchipper@ix.netcom.com

JoanSchipper@ix.netcom.com

AlisoniBoyle@icloud.com

Focal Points Magazine is a publication of the Sierra Club Camera Committee, Angeles Chapter. The Camera Committee is an activity group within the Angeles Chapter, which we support through the medium of photography. Our membership is not just from Southern California but is increasingly international.

Our goal is to show the natural beauty of our world, as well as areas of conservation concerns and social justice. We do this through sharing and promoting our photography and by helping and inspiring our members through presentations, demonstration, discussion, and outings.

We have members across the United States and overseas. For information about membership and/or to contribute to the magazine, please contact the editors or the membership chair listed above. Membership dues are $15 per year, and checks (payable to SCCC) can be mailed to: SCCC-Joan Schipper, 6100 Cashio Street, Los Angeles, CA 90035, or Venmo @CashioStreet, and be sure to include your name and contact info so Joan can reach you.

The magazine is published every other month. A call for submissions will be made one-month in advance via email, although submissions and proposals are welcome at any time. Member photographs should be resized to 3300 pixels, at a high export quality. They should also be jpg, in the sRGB color space.

Cover articles and features should be between 1000-2500 words, with 4-10 accompanying photographs. Reviews of shows, workshops, books, etc., should be between 500-1500 words.

Copyright: All photographs and writings in this magazine are owned by the photographers and writers who created them. They hold the copyrights and control all rights of reproduction and use. If you desire to license one, or to have a print made, contact the editor at joedohertyphotography@gmail.com, who will pass on your request, or see the author’s contact information in the Contributors section at the back of this issue.

https://angeles.sierraclub.org/camera_committee

https://www.instagram.com/sccameracommittee/

Focal Points

May/June 2023

Amanda Thompson at the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve © Bonnie Blake

Cover Photo: Canada Geese aglow in a sea of steam fog © Amanda Thompson

As nature photographers we are sensitive to the effect of location sharing on the landscape. I’m often secretive about where I’ve made a particular image, particularly if it’s a sensitive habitat or an off-road area that would be swarmed by Instagrammers if revealed. But on occasion I consider it part of my mission to share places that are dear to me, if I think that sharing will help that place be protected and to grow. Three articles in this issue are very clear about where they made their photographs, and they tell us very clearly where those places have been, where we are now, and where we are going.

As you will read in Amanda Thompson’s cover story, the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve (SBWR) is a recent example of creating habitat from urban wasteland. Amanda’s photography is splendid, as is the work of the photographers she has recruited for the book. Just as importantly, she’s using her book on the SBWR to bring attention to the possibilities of creating wildlife habitat in other urban areas by using abundant treated wastewater. As she points out this is already occurring in several places in the West, and it is a conservation story that we should all be following and encouraging. Her Kickstarter is fully-funded, but I still recommend that you look at it to see what she has in mind.

Peter Bennett has been photographing the Los Angeles River for many years, documenting how it has changed over time. He has published a book on the subject, and conducts workshops to the river with students from the Los Angeles Center of Photography. Under normal conditions a significant portion of the water in the river comes from the same Tillman Water Reclamation Plant that keeps

the SBWR alive. As he reports in this issue, his most recent workshop took place after the high water of winter scoured much of the channel. Even with that high volume, though, many of the trees that form the backbone of the river habitat remained firmly rooted.

Steven Cohen has written a first-person account of the aftermath of the Woolsey Fire in late 2018. The fire began in the Santa Susanna Mountains, crossed US 101, and roared through the Santa Monica Mountains to the sea, destroying habitat, houses, and human lives. Long-term residents of Southern California are familiar with the plumes of smoke on the horizon, the red sunsets, and the sounds of firetrucks on their way to meet the blazes that regularly occur during fire season. What Steven Cohen has brought us is the close-up view of what we couldn’t see from a distance. It is the power of photography. Five years after the fire, this eyewitness account is still haunting.

Close readers of Focal Points will notice that I have not written my regular “How-To” column for this issue. I have turned it over (temporarily) to Rebecca Wilks. She is a regular contributor to Arizona Highways, an excellent photographer, and my friend. Almost everything I know about shooting star bursts I learned from her, and she’s now explaining it all to you.

This issue also includes a special section on the wildflower explosion that typically follows a winter of heavy rainfall. I’m very grateful to the photographers who contribute their work to make this magazine beautiful.

–Joe Doherty

June Member Show

June 8th 2023 at 7pm via Zoom

Register here (registration discourages ZoomBombing):

https://bit.ly/44jjJA8

Upload up to ten of your photographs here:

https://www.dropbox.com/request/Zafdu2YxLvcj37j3aCHh

File prep instructions and notes:

Please resize your images to 1800 pixels on the long side (that’s equivalent to 6 inches at 300 ppi).

If you want to present your photographs in a particular order, add a two-digit number to the beginning of each file. It should look like “01filename, 02filename, 03filename, . . . , 10filename” etc. That way I can sort them before your presentation.

Dropbox will automatically append your name to the beginning of each file.

If you can remember to do so, upload a folder of your files instead of individual files. That will help me to organize them on the night of the show.

Dunes, Namibia. 2022. © Joyce Harlan (from the December 2022 Member Show)

"My hope is that Amanda with this book, lovingly curated with beautiful photos of the array of birds that call this reserve home, will inspire others to work their own conservation alchemy in our urbanized spaces, and seek creative solutions to expanding wildlife habitat in our cities."

– From the foreword, by Beth Pratt

Wings + Wonder + Water

Birds of the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve

It’s through a delightful dose of serendipity that my book and I have landed in Focal Points Magazine. A handful of years ago I attended Open Show Los Angeles at the Los Angeles Center of Photography, back when it was a smallish space squeezed tight into the tactile, colorful texture of Wilcox Avenue in Hollywood. There were a few photographers doing presentations that evening, but none sparked my interest until the work of the last one, a guy named Joe. I still remember my inner thrill when his mystical shot of a great heron in silhouette, standing backlit in a saffron sea of mist and moodiness, came up on the screen.

I was simultaneously transfixed and transported. I was certain that a shot this magical had to have been taken in China or some distant location where these exquisite, sculptural birds and the otherworldly atmosphere shared the same time and spacecertainly somewhere unattainable without great expense and long days of travel. I waited as Joe described the shot. I waited to hear the exotic name of the far-away place that would confirm that I wouldn’t be able to get there anytime soon, if ever. Then he said it – The Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve. What? That was definitely an unusual name, but it was also a familiar one, like the Sepulveda

American White Pelicans © Amanda Thompson

Boulevard that cuts a long concrete gash through the area of Los Angeles very near to where I live. What...!? It’s where??

That fateful evening, I was introduced to Joe Doherty and the photographic fairyland so near to my home, which I was embarrassed to admit that I’d never heard of. And here I am, six years and countless photographs later, with a photography book fittingly called Wings + Wonder + Water, Birds of the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve. I have run into Joe and Velda (also a wonderful photographer) a few times over the years, but as is typical in Los Angeles people are too busy to connect given the long distances and work demands that dictate our daily lives. But serendipity intervened again, and they invited me to share my journey from complete ignorance to the

author, editor, and principal photographer of a book about the urban wildlife reserve that has come to be such an influential and valued part of my world.

This reserve is not easily located, and once discovered it can still be a puzzle to navigate. A mix of re-created, natural ecosystems with roots reaching deep into what was long an urban wasteland, the 225-acre refuge offers a home to over 200 species of birds. The heart of the reserve is an 11-acre wildlife lake, safeguarding the winged occupants of a 1-acre island like a trusty moat. Lounging pods of American White Pelicans often carpet the island like shifting drifts of snow, peppered by a generous scattering of blue-black Doublecrested Cormorants - buddies that nest in the craggy Freemont cottonwoods towering

Black-crowned Night-Heron © Nurit Katz

overhead. Peculiar varieties of fish (often spied momentarily airborne) cruise the shallow lake, and rabbits, squirrels, a random coyote or two, and other field and tree-dwellers populate the riparian, prairie, and forested acres that have been dedicated to them.

You might say this is not so unusual for a wildlife preserve. I would agree, until you seeand experience - precisely where it is. The Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve is wedged into a narrow, noisy network of scrappy, cracked surface streets and two of the busiest freeways on the planet, the 405 and the 101 in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. It is a highly unlikely site to say the least, but as it turns out it’s also an appropriate and most fortuitous one.

The Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve © Bonnie Blake

Double-crested Cormorant with an armored catfish © Melissa Teller

American Kestrel © Taly Glez

To the point. Los Angeles is an arid land, prone to cycles of years-long severe drought. In 1990 when the wildlife lake was completed (see online resources for a detailed history of the Reserve), it was a dry year, but the new 11-acre, 5-foot-deep lake was filled with potable tap water. And not just once, but twice. This was by no means a popular or sustainable practice. But, right next to the Reserve, ready and waiting, was an already-complete wastewater treatment plant, the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant, in full operation since 1985. At that time the idea of using treated wastewater was tainted by a toilet-to-table stigma, and the public was hard to convince that the water had any safe use. But for a wildlife lake - why not? On November 5th , 1991, the lake was officially dedicated and

filled with the clean, treated wastewater piped in from next door, and since that day it has been supplied with a continuous flow of plentiful reclaimed water, ensuring the Reserve and the wildlife it supports a convenient and sustainable lifeline into the future. Win, win, win.

What draws photographers to this unexpected and little-known place? For many, it is the extraordinary opportunity to encounter a large and ever-changing menagerie of resident and migratory birds in an accessible urban setting with a generous and visually distinct variety of habitats.

I felt an emphatic need to experience the healing serenity of nature as well as to find an urban sanity during the Pandemic. Fortunately, I now knew where to find those

Egyptian Goose © Amanda Thompson

things. Not being an early morning person, it takes something a bit extraordinary to get me up and out to stumble through lumpy fields and underbrush in 42º darkness. If I got my wish and predicted it right, it would be a glowing, foggy darkness. Many of my first mid-winter mornings of the Pandemic came shrouded in clouds of ethereal fog that hovered and shape-shifted above and around the wildlife lake. Those pillowy clouds held flocks of geese, ducks, cormorants, pelicans, and other waterfowl that would alternately be concealed, revealed, and concealed again as the warmth of dawn dissipated the cottony poufs. It is pure heaven for a wildlife/ landscape photographer like me. So began my in-depth forays into the Sepulveda Basin

Wildlife Reserve, and the photographic explorations that would provide the foundation for my future book became secret, compulsive adventures within the confines of a locked-down world.

Photographers are like bugs. We are so mesmerized by and attracted to light that many of us will bellycrawl through mud and pond scum or dangle from the most precarious pitches to nail our perfect shot. What we photograph and when we do it is determined by the time of day, the quality of light, and how to capture it. For those reasons, I have spent little if any time at the Reserve during mid-day. Other photographers, however, have made incredible images there

Green Heron © Andy House

during the peak of day - which brought me around to the decision to invite five other photographers to contribute their unique work to the book.

Wings + Wonder + Water is shaped and guided by the visual teamwork of a group of nature and wildlife photographers that have, independently, spent countless hours exploring and documenting the birds of the Reserve. I describe this vibrant collaboration in a section of the book, “Through the eyes of six.” The seamless blend of our unique visual voices and interpretations gives a comprehensive richness to the book that I would not have achieved on my own. While I have a solid body of work, early on it became clear that the purpose of this project – of sharing not only exquisite urban bird life, but to translate character, emotion, relatable behavior, and uniqueness to the pages of a book – would best be realized with a collaborative effort. This has enriched the book beyond my hopes and expectations, and the alliance delivered a trove of gifts to me personally through expanded opportunities and wonderful new friendships.

Six photographers will each have different shooting styles, personal processes and preferences, and be fascinated and inspired by different behavior and conditions. Some of us are Canon shooters, one shoots Nikon, and another uses Fuji. The Fuji xt2 and xt5 are completely silent cameras - fantastic for wildlife (as well as mandatory on sound stages). The focusing features of the Canon R5 that Melissa Teller and I use make it arguably the best camera there is for wildlife and bird photography, but a few new Nikon models use basically the same technology. A couple of us prefer the lens to be as low to the ground as

physically possible. One favors a tall monopod for speed and stability with a long lens, while another uses a widespread, extended tripod for long waits shooting straight up into trees. I very often go for backlight although if precise detail and rich, accurate color is the goal, then backlight is probably not the right choice. In wider landscape shots I use slower shutter speeds for softness and blurred action, but I also shoot with a minimum speed of 1/1000 second to freeze action. It all depends on what you’re looking for.

Long lenses are a necessity and the wider the aperture the better for a soft background and isolating the subject from a tangle of leaves and twiggy branches. A wide aperture also facilitates the pre-dawn and post-sunset shots that a tighter aperture can’t manage without a very high ISO and more noise. But - now there is the Topaz Labs photo enhancement software suite that can redeem images that

Great Horned Owl © Amanda Thompson

before would have been a total loss. With that and other AI technology come ethical and aesthetic considerations best left to individual exploration.

The Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve is a living case study for a wildlife habitat created in urban environments. Encouraging more of them is an aspiration for the book. Its unique urban location and immediate access to a constant source of reclaimed water makes the Reserve unusual. But, as I discovered through doing research for the book, there are numerous urban wildlife reserves, some more “formal” than others, that have evolved around or, even better, have been intentionally created in partnership with urban waste- and stormwater-treatment facilities.

A few examples include the San Joaquin Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary in Orange County,

CA; theArcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary in Arcata, CA; Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson, AZ; and an exciting and currentlyunder-construction example, the LB MUST (Long Beach Municipal Urban Stormwater Treatment Project) in Long Beach, CA. This facility is particularly inspiring because the city government had the wisdom to invite residents and local businesses to become true stakeholders in the project. This rare and brilliant act of foresight fostered complete community engagement, a very powerful support network, and participatory enthusiasm for the facility and the recreated brackish wetlands that are an integral feature of the treatment facility. As a natural wetland and recreational/educational environment, LB Must will eventually be linked by foot and bike paths into the connected system of city parks as part of the 2022 Strategic Plan for Long Beach Parks, Recreation and Marine.

Snowy Egret © Melissa Teller

As humanity reawakens to the critical need to support native and migratory birdlife (and all wildlife) in our urban environments, the local opportunities to photograph extraordinary species will hopefully increase. Consideration and ethical practices when photographers take advantage of these opportunities are crucial to the safety and well-being of the wildlife. A topic that merits its own discussion is drone photography. Much has been learned about the world and how to further global conservation efforts by using drones. On the other hand, much devastation has come to bird populations through the careless and ignorant use of drones. Education, awareness, regulation, and enforcement are essential.

As we hurtle through time and see previously assumed boundaries vaporized by the astounding speed of technological progress, it’s

imperative to stay rooted in our humanity and our awareness of the much slower pace of the natural world. The screaming technology that allows us to make more and more “impossible” photographs needs to be balanced by keeping ourselves soul-tethered to the ecology and environmental ethics that can sustainably and compassionately guide us into the future of documenting our exquisite, evolving world.

Links

LB MUST Project

Audubon Ethics Guide

State of the Birds 2022

Wings + Wonder + Water Kickstarter

In Your Own Backyard eBook

About the photographers, excerpted from Wings + Wonder + Water

Andy House is drawn to the athletic, muscular qualities of birds in flight, as seen in the bold action and dynamism of his shots. Conversely, Taly Glez is a master of bird portraiture; the dream-like quality of his images conveys the elegance and poise of birds in moments of stillness and silence.

The fleeting and fascinating behavior Melissa Teller documents through endless hours in the field result in one-of-a-kind images any wildlife photographer would envy. Nurit Katz’s delicate details reveal a great fondness for her subjects and attest to her keen powers of observation and calm demeanor—both necessary to witness and capture her subject’s relaxed, natural behavior. Bonnie Blake’s misty landscapes and voyeuristic peeks through tangled vines and lush greenery distill the moods and tones of moments at the Reserve, delivering a graceful and cinematic ambiance to the book.

As for my own work at the Reserve, I am most enchanted with foggy mornings, being able to capture the subtleties of life stirring at dawn, and the quickening pace of activity as the sun rises. I am utterly in awe of the perfection in the smallest physical details of the birds and have at times been humbled to tears by their obvious intelligence, compassion, and truly individual personalities.

Finding the Story in an Ever-Changing Landscape

Text and Photographs © Peter Bennett

For many years I led the Los Angeles River photo adventure for the Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP). Once or twice a year, I would take a group of people to various spots along the river where we would photograph and explore. We had a great time over about a 10-hour span.

I noticed over the years that attendance started to wane. I chalked this up to the fact that the river was becoming more accessible - people were kayaking, fishing, and a long bike path had been connected so cyclists could ride up

and down great lengths of the river. In other words, it wasn’t as much of an adventure anymore - there was no need to slip past barbed wire fences and security guards. Eventually, we canceled it, which wasn’t so great for my tour-leading career but was very good for the river and for all the people who visited it.

Recently, LACP asked me to lead another shortened LA River workshop. I thought was a fine idea, and we had a good number of people sign up for it. We used a few of my

photos to promote it – images of herons, egrets, and other shots of the lush foliage and river life that is normally abundant along the river.

But then the rains came. They had been coming down pretty heavily for months, as most of us know, and we got a particularly torrential rainstorm a few days before the scheduled tour. However, the day of our workshop was particularly beautiful and sunny, and expectations were high for everyone.

I knew from my experience that after heavy rains, the river's flow and levels can be very strong and very high - sometimes it subsides quickly, sometimes not. So, I was unsure of what we would find, and as we nervously gathered together in a neighboring park, I told the attendees that I had no idea what we

might see when we walked over to the river’s bank.

Our little group walked through the park to the river, an area in North Atwater by the pedestrian and equestrian bridge. When we got there, I was actually unprepared for what I saw. The toll the storms had taken on the foliage and the trees was way more impactful than I could have even imagined. The water level was still very high, and the flow was strong, so much so that the little islands that populate the center of the river up there were almost completely underwater. Any of the thick foliage that normally grows there had been completely washed away. The willow trees that grow parallel to the banks were there, but looked lonely and fragile as they stuck out of the water - all lower branches were completely stripped of their leaves.

I was almost apologetic to everyone. I could see the disappointment on their faces as we all tried to recalculate what this day was going to look like. I almost immediately launched into a description of what it’s usually like, which seemed to make sense at the time but just made things worse, especially when I showed a few pictures on my phone of what this area normally looks like.

We started taking pictures from the upper bank and then headed to the pedestrian bridge for some overhead views of the river. But the question was, how were we going to fill the next few hours when essentially all we could do was walk along the high banks of the river looking down on the rushing brown waters, the sparse-looking trees, and no sign of bird life whatsoever?

There have been many times when I’ve headed out on a trip or an assignment with very clear expectations of what I think I’m going to see and what I hope to photograph. Sometimes it pans out the way I want, but all too often what I find when I get there is something very different than what I expected.

Interestingly, something similar happened the last time I was at this location. It was back in 2020, and I had gone down there hoping to photograph a scene along that section of the river for my upcoming book. I had a very

specific idea of what I thought it would, or should, look like based on some previous visits there. Well, I learned if there’s one thing you can predict about the LA River, it is everchanging. Sure enough, when I got there, it looked nothing like I had imagined it would.

I remember feeling a bit deflated, as I walked out over the bridge and looked down at the scene below. I have photographed many stories over my career, and I know from experience that I am not there to tell the story I want to tell; I am there to tell the story that I find. And that's what I remembered as I stood there on the bridge.

At almost at that exact moment, a young girl walked out from behind some trees and started to walk across the river. Her feet were barely under the water; it almost appeared as if she was actually walking on it. How could this be?

She spent the next 15 minutes or so going back and forth, almost dancing as she went from one side to the other. I started photographing her and decided I wasn’t gonna stop until she stopped. I took maybe 50 or 60 shots, feeling the need to capture her grace and the obvious enjoyment and fun she was having.

After she left, I went down there to see what she was walking on. Turns out there was a small concrete ridge that extended the width of the river and that someone could easily walk on, but it had appeared magical from the bridge above. It ended up being one of my favorite photos of the river and took up a twopage spread in my LA River book.

Now here I was again, but instead of just me, I had a class full of students trying to figure out what to do, faced with their expectations, and the reality of the situation.

So I told them to be storytellers. No, it was not what they had hoped for, but it was a historic moment. What we were looking at was the result of more rain and storms that had hit our area for years, maybe decades, and the result was a river scenario that had not been seen for just that long. Photograph that, tell the story of the river that we see today. And that's what we did.

It can be hard to be aware of at the time, but sometimes we have opportunities to photograph bits of history, something that in ten or twenty years may be a fascinating glimpse into a special time and place.

That’s what we had on that day. We ended up having a fun time and took a bunch of photos of the river. And, just at the end of our walk, a great white egret perched itself on the Atwater Blvd. bridge, and we all got our bird photo.

The Woolsey Fire

Text and Photos © Steven Cohen

I woke up one morning around the end of November of 2018 and the fire smell was in the air. The Woolsey Fire had reached its most western point and the Pacific Coast Highway was closed. That afternoon I went to Palisades Park along Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica to enjoy the sunset, but the sky was so smoky from the Woolsey fire there almost was no sunset.

I made some images of the sun peeking through the smoke and when the sun finally went down I went home. The air was full of smoke and my chest was hurting. A few days later the fire was contained and finally out. I waited a few more days, and then my curiosity got the better of me. I took my camera, and when the Coast Highway finally opened I headed up to see for myself how bad the fire really had been. As I got to the area of the

Ventura county line there was much

devastation along the highway right down to the beach. I decided to go inland to see what it was like, and I found a road that went into the heart of the burn area.

My heart sank as I started to drive around. I could see for myself what happened. There were burned trees everywhere, and the houses that were destroyed were one after the other. I turned a corner and I met a man that had managed to save his house. He was sitting dazedly in his front yard. He had sent his family away and stayed to try to save his house with the fire raging around him. How he did this even he could not explain, but he managed to keep the flames away. He was quiet as he related what happened and I got the feeling that he was amazed at what he had done. He asked me to not make any photographs of his house and I agreed, but I felt that he wanted to talk about his scary adventure, and I could see the pride through

all the fear he must have experienced. After talking with him for about an hour I set off to make images of the area. It was a shock to see the effects of the fire. Everywhere I went there were houses burned to the foundations. What really surprised me was that in many instances the trees around the houses were completely untouched.

I was struck by the stillness and how quiet it was in this area. There were no birds chirping or dogs barking. I did not see any flying insects, just the stillness and the quiet. Every so often I would hear a chainsaw in the distance, and once in a while I saw someone working to clean up an area. I felt as if I was in a war zone of destruction. I spent a whole day wandering around the area of the houses, and there were a couple of places where I almost laughed to myself. The wheel barrow on a burned tree trunk was one of those places.

Many driveways leading up to houses burned to the ground were seemingly invitations to go visit, but of course nobody was there: no welcome, no house, and no people to say hello. A very lonely and sad feeling overcame me. So I continued making images throughout the day. It was cloudy, fitting the mood I was in, with the sun almost peeking through the clouds. I went home that evening and decided that I would return the next day to continue my documenting.

The next day I returned to concentrate on a few other areas. I spent a lot of time in the back areas looking at trees I knew well, having photographed them many times in the past. It was sad to see them

completely naked and burned. Of course these fires are a natural part of the area and I cannot imagine what it was like before people came to live in the area.

©

Steven Cohen

I ended up at the beach area on the second day. I was amazed to see how brick bathrooms were completely destroyed, and I could not imagine how hot the fire was to do the damage there. I saw a sign that said “No fires or dogs allowed on the beach” and I laughed at the irony. I would have wanted dogs on the beach instead of the fire. I also found areas on the beach that drained water from the fire, where a lot of ashes were flowing down into the sea. There were dark clouds in the ocean where the refuse piled up, and in many places under bridges and in streams that were completely full of blackened matter flowing into the ocean water. I found these places strangely beautiful.

I finished my shooting and slowly drove home to think about what I saw over the two days. It was interesting to revisit a few months later. In some areas the regrowth of plants was already under way and in some instances houses were already being rebuilt.

Creating a Starburst

Why would you want to create a starburst?

The starburst conveys drama and a sense of the miraculous. It lets you maximize backlight and halo effects, and to see backlight turn to sidelight along the periphery of the image with wide angle lenses. The star creates a compositional focus, especially in a minimal image.

Why does this phenomenon happen?

The starburst effect is an artifact of diffraction of light off the blades of the lens aperture but we can turn it to our advantage.

Which lens should you use?

The quality of the star produced is lensdependent. I like to use my Canon 1635mm f2.8 lens. My Nikon friends suggest the 24mm PCE or 14-24 f2.8. The best way to determine which lens in your

collection performs to your taste is by experimenting. Set up a backyard test and you’ll notice differences not only in crispness of the star, but in the number of rays produced.

How is it done?

Though I’m generally an advocate of using a tripod for landscape photography, there’s an advantage to hand-holding your camera when making starbursts, if you can shoot at a fast enough shutter speed for you lenscamera-shaky arm combination. The sun moves surprisingly quickly relative to earthbound objects, so shooting with a tripod requires very fast composing, focusing, and metering. Hand-holding allows you to chase the sun as it moves.

Stop your lens down to f-11 to f18 to maximize the effect. The effect will be more pronounced at smaller apertures, but

Text and Photographs © Rebecca Wilks

so will loss of crispness from diffraction. and compose the scene so that the sun is partially obstructed by something in your composition like the horizon or a tree or building. You can certainly get the effect without doing this, especially with a very wide lens, but the star is likely to be softer. My preference, as you can see from most of the examples, is for a crisp starburst.

Your depth of field preview function allows you to see what the star will look like, and it is sometimes helpful to adjust your composition while holding the DOF preview button to get an idea of what to expect. To be on the safe side, do this with the viewfinder on a DSLR as (there is some controversy about this) using live view may damage your sensor.

I’ve found that there is a huge temptation to look into the sun. Work really hard to resist that. Retinas are not replaceable at any price. I tend to get ugly sun-flare spots. What can I do about that?

This is particularly important because these spots are difficult to remove in postprocessing. Take off filters and scrupulously clean your front element. Dust and other imperfections can magnify flare. You’ll find that there’s a sweet spot between too little and too much visible sun which gives you the beautiful star and minimizes flare. Find this by moving the camera while using DOF preview.

What about proper exposure?

With this technique, partially obscuring the sun and especially using a wide-angle lens so the bright area comprises a small amount of the composition, evaluative metering will most likely be accurate. Otherwise some overexposure (1-2 stops) may be used to correct luminosity. Remember that the sun will always be a spectral highlight, so you should expect your histogram to be clipped on the right.

Why does the effect behave differently in different situations?

Mainly, this has to do with atmospheric moisture. Dry and clear days are best, which is why the technique works especially well where I live in the desert southwest. Stars formed at the horizon (sunrise and sunset) can be particularly variable, since the light may be passing through differing combinations of particulates and moisture.

What else?

Any small (relative to the frame), bright source of light can produce a star. You might want to try this technique with the moon or street lights, for example.

John Clement

All photographs © John Clement

Storm at Restoration Row. At the Owens farm SE of my house these old pieces of equipment are waiting for restoration. I had driven by earlier but the sky was not dramatic, so I waited on the ridge above the farm watching the storm rapidly developing. I went back down and captured a few image after getting permission from the owner.

Spring Squalls. Chasing weather near Walla Walla, Wa.

Blue Column 9:14pm. We had an aurora storm several weeks ago but clouds were a problem. So at twilight I found a hole in the clouds about seven miles from home. The aurora was visible at 8:50 pm, and for the next three hours I captured over 200 images of the dancing lights through the clouds.

Sky Fire 11:47pm

Palouse River from 1200 feet on a flight around the region to get a different perspective of the lands.

Between the Stormy Veils. Reese Ranch in the Horse Heaven Hills, now deserted, has been a go-to place for many years as stormy weather moves through our region.

Carole Scurlock

All photographs © Carole Scurlock

Peekaboo Canyon, Utah

Carole Scurlock

All photographs © Carole Scurlock

Reflections at White Pocket

In March, I had the opportunity to photograph in this remote location on the Paria Plateau of Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. Recent storms provided many reflective pools among the swirling Navajo sandstone formations.

John Fisanotti

Spring at the Descanso Gardens

All photographs © John Fisanotti

Sandi Kirwin

All photographs © Sandi Kirwin

Western Orb Weaver, (family Araneidae). Many spiders display great sexual dimorphism, the main difference between male and female spotted western orb weavers is a slight matter of size and coloring. Both share color palettes – brown, yellow, white, purple and red – but females are brighter and have stronger contrasts. This beauty was near a freeway underpass, near busy street intersection.

Cereus in Pink (Echinopsis) This is a large genus of cacti native to South America, sometimes known as hedgehog cactus, sea-urchin cactus or Easter lily cactus. Photographed in a botanical garden in LosAngeles County.

Nymph Hopper (family Cicadellidae … maybe).

This little guy was about the size of a lentil bean. The nymph of leafhoppers have gears on the base of each of their hind legs. These gears have teeth that intermesh, keeping the legs synchronised when the insect jumps, preventing it from losing directional stability. When the nymph matures into an adult, they shed these gears.

Monarch Caterpillar, (family Nymphalidae).After several molts, the caterpillar attains a length of almost two inches. When e fully grown it usually leaves its milkweed plant to pupate elsewhere as a pale green, golden-spotted chrysalis.After 10–14 days the chrysalis becomes transparent, and the metamorphosed butterfly’s dark body is visible.

False Blister Beetle (family Oedemeridae). There are some 100 genera and 1,500 species in this family, mostly associated with rotting wood as larvae, though adults are quite common on flowers. This one was photographed inAnza Borrego.

Sandi Kirwin

All photographs © Sandi Kirwin

Hover Fly (family Syrphidae). Hover flies with their yellow markings, resemble wasps or bees but do not bite or sting. In addition to being beneficial as pollinators, in their immature stage the tiny, nearly invisible slug-like larvae scour the undersides of plant leaves for aphids and eat them as their primary food source. Photographed on a rose bush in Palos Verdes.

John Nilsson

A Trip to the Northwest

I’ve never been to Northwest Washington State so when a trip to San Juan Island was proposed by Brent Paull, I talked SCCC Member Basil Katsaros into the trip and headed north to shoot the Black Foxes that are found there – and only there. We found Black Foxes galore and an incredible population of Bald Eagles which presented themselves often and in great numbers. While there, I felt it was a great opportunity to visit the Olympic National Park. This was a stunning experience punctuated by absolutely no rain – something we were told was extremely rare in May. I guess there are some benefits to Global Warming! I have had a devil of a time picking six photos from this trip plus one black and white and believe me, there are a lot more I’d love to include!

Left: Asking the neighbors to dinner on San Juan Island.

Bottom Left: Mom is looking to bring home the bacon on San Juan Island.

Bottom: A Black Fox kit waits for Mom to return, and keeps an eye on the sky for the ever-present eagle. San Juan Island.

All photographs © John Nilsson

Just a couple of buddies hanging around the lighthouse waiting for something to happen.

John Nilsson

All photographs © John Nilsson

A little sun goes a long way.

Olympic Rain Forest

Loc Duc Falls, south of Lake Crescent. Olympic Rain Forest

Wiebe Gortmaker

In February of 2023 I was able to join an old friend, Martin Bailey, for a winter wildlife tour of northern Japan. Martin runs tours in Japan and western Africa, and I last joined him for a tour of Morocco in 2018. Japan had been closed since early 2020 because of Covid-19 and had just reopened in October of last year. I had been waiting five years to take this tour! The group of ten met in Tokyo where, after a night’s rest at the airport hotel, we boarded a bus for Nagano, northwest of Tokyo on the opposite side of the Island of Honshu. After a beautiful three-hour drive through the country with spectacular views of Mount Fuji, we checked into our hotel in Nagano. This hotel has been owned by the same family for over 400 years and in addition to the wildlife and scenery of Japan we were able to witness the customs and hospitality of the Japanese people. For the next three days we hiked into the deciduous and evergreen forests of central Japan to an area of hot springs where the Japanese Macaque, or Snow Monkeys, like to gather in winter. When the temperature is right a mist forms over the hot pools. Dozens of monkeys will soak in the water and then take a break to romp around the snow covered hillsides around the pools. Trying to capture an image of the antics of the monkeys with the movement of the mist can present quite a challenge. We also stumbled upon a Japanese Komoshika or Serow. This is a kind of antelope, that is rarely seen up close. He was hiding in the woods waiting for a chance to cross the trail we were hiking on.

After three days we returned to the Tokyo airport to spend the night and catch an early flight to the northernmost island of Hokkaido where we would spend the rest of our two-week trip. In the next issue of Focal Points I will show some images of the Red Crowned Cranes and Whooper Swans of the southern and central part of that island.

All photographs © Wiebe Gortmaker

Wiebe Gortmaker

© Wiebe Gortmaker

All photographs

Rebecca Wilks

All photographs © Rebecca Wilks

I'll confess to being a little obsessed with my new toy. Here are a few of the early drone favorites. I live at about a 5,000-foot elevation in Central Arizona, and love the bright green cottonwoods we see in the spring. One image depicts a historic bridge over the Hassayampa River, and the other a cottonwood tree tunnel leading to a posh racehorse training ranch just up the road. The water feature is a swimming pool for the equine guests. The others came from a Utah road trip; Goosenecks State Park, the Moki Dugway, and Valley of the Gods.

Rebecca Wilks

All photographs © Rebecca Wilks

Joe Doherty

All photographs © Joe Doherty

We recently took three short road trips. One was into the Sequoia National Park, out of Three Rivers. The other two were into the Lone Pine area, exactly one cycle of the moon apart.

In early April we photographed the moonset behind the Whitney range. Clouds threatened, but parted just enough for the moon and sun to shine through. We went to the Sequoias to photograph wildflowers, and in the process I was photobombed by a curious deer. I also followed a hint from one of the rangers and found a petroglyph site overlooking the Kaweah River. The shallow circular forms on the granite floor suggest that this was a ceremonial site.

We also spent an hour at Fossil Falls, south of Lone Pine. Water pooled in many of the pockets of this unique formation, and had completely evaporated in some of the smaller depressions.

Velda Ruddock

All photographs © Velda Ruddock

Wildflowers

A wildly wet year led to an explosion of wildflowers in all regions of the Western United States. Eight members of the Camera Committee contributed their images to this special section.

All photographs this page © Carol Armstrong

© John Clement

© John Fisanotti

Poppies Alongside the Willow Creek Trail in Leo Carrillo State Park © Larry Miller

Mojave Aster at Joshua Tree National Park © Rebecca Wilks

Western Trillium, Olympic NP © John Nilsson

Catalina Mariposa Lily alongside the Temescal Canyon Trail in Pacific Palisades © Larry Miller

Along the Beeline Highway, Ft.McDowell, AZ. © Rebecca Wilks

© John Fisanotti

Dry Creek, Sierra Foothills © Joe Doherty

Lacy Phacelia Alongside Godde Hill Road in Palmdale © Larry Miller

Redbud (Sequoia National Park) © Velda Ruddock

Sticky Snakeroot Alongside the Temescal Canyon Trail in Pacifc Palisades © Larry Miller

© John Fisanotti

Fiesta Flower (Sierra Nevada Foothills) © Velda Ruddock

Dwarf Lupine (Sequoia National Park) © Velda Ruddock

Nasturtium Flowers at Temescal Gateway Park in Pacific Palisades © Larry Miller

Firedancers

© Joe Doherty

Afternoon at White Pocket

© Carole Scurlock

Clearing mountain fog (Eastern Sierra)

© Velda Ruddock

What says the Pacific Northwest better than fishing trawlers, ocean tugs and Bald Eagles? Neah Bay is about as far north and west as you can get on mainland USA. And….it’s home of Pat’s Pies – literally the best piece of Coconut Cream Pie I’ve ever experienced! This energetic Indian lady gets up at 1:00 am every morning and makes 70 pies a day to sell to hungry touristas. Best crust ever!

© John Nilsson

Carol Armstrong

Carol is a native of Los Angeles and a world traveler. She is continually updating her website: https://hermosafotos.smugmug.com/

Peter Bennett

Born and raised in New York City, Peter picked up his first camera and took his first darkroom class at the age of twelve.

Peter spent many years working as a travel photographer, and in 2000 started his own photo agency, Ambient Images. In 2015 he formed Citizen of the Planet, LLC, devoted exclusively to the distribution of his stories and photographs that focus on a variety of environmental subjects.

Peter’s editorial work has appeared in many publications including the New York Times, Time, Newsweek, National Geographic, Sunset Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine, and New York Magazine.

His prints hang in the California State Capitol, California Science Center’s permanent Ecosystem exhibit, and many other museums, private institutions, and collector’s homes.

He has also worked with a numerous local environmental organizations over the years including FoLAR (Friends of the LA River), The Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Heal the Bay, 5 Gyres Institute, Algalita Marine Research Foundation, Communities for a Better Environment, and the LA Conservation Corps.

Peter has been an instructor for over fifteen years at the Los Angeles Center of Photography, and for years led their Los Angeles River Photo Adventure tour.

John Clement

John Clement began his career in photography in the early 70’s after graduating from Central Washington University with a double major in Geology and Geography. Since then he has earned a Masters of Photography from the Professional Photographers of America. He has received over 65 regional, national and international awards for his pictorial and commercial work. His photographs grace the walls of many businesses in the Northwest and has been published in numerous calendars and coffee table books. Clement has provided photographs for Country Music Magazine and Northwest Travel Magazine. He has supplied murals for the Seattle Seahawks Stadium and images for The Carousel of Dreams in Kennewick, WA.

Current projects include 17 – 4x8 foot glass panels featuring his landscapes in Eastern Washington for the Pasco Airport Remodel. Last year he finished a major project for the Othello Medical Clinic where almost 200 images were used to decorate the facilities. www.johnclementgallery.com

John Clement Photography (Face Book) Allied Arts Gallery in Richland, WA.

Steven Cohen

I am a past chair of the Camera Committee. I have been photographing for 40 years and i specialize in B&W film imaging. Recently I have embraced digital imaging and I also do digital printing. My Santa Monica at Night project is in the works and a book will be available soon.

Joe Doherty

Joe Doherty grew up in Los Angeles and developed his first roll of film in 1972. He has been a visual communicator ever since.

Doherty spent his teens and twenties working in photography, most of it behind a camera as a freelance editorial shooter.

He switched careers when his son was born, earning a PhD in Political Science from UCLA. This led to an opportunity to run a research center at UCLA Law. After retiring from UCLA in 2016, Doherty did some consulting, but now he and his wife, Velda Ruddock, spend much of their time in the field, across the West, capturing the landscape.

www.joedohertyphotography.com

John Fisanotti

John Fisanotti was a photography major in his first three years of college. He has used 35mm, 2-1/4 medium format and 4x5 view cameras. He worked briefly in a commercial photo laboratory.

In 1980, Fisanotti pivoted from photography and began his 32-year career in public service. Fisanotti worked for Redevelopment Agencies at four different Southern California cities.

After retiring from public service in 2012, Fisanotti continued his photographic interests. He concentrates on outdoors, landscape, travel and astronomical images (view here at http://www. johnfisanottiphotography.com). Since 2018, he expanded his repertoire to include architectural and real estate photography (view here at http://www. architecturalphotosbyfisanotti.com).

Fisanotti lives In La Crescenta and can be contacted at either: jfisanotti@sbcglobal.net or fisanottifotos@gmail.com

Wiebe Gortmaker

I am based in Boulder, Colorado and consider myself a full-time hobbyist. After retiring from the airlines, I have devoted a high percentage of my time to travel and learning photography.

In the past few years I have moved from travel photography to primarily wildlife and landscape photography. Prior to the airlines, I spent considerable time in remote areas of Alaska and Central and South America. I am now able to revisit those places with a focus on photography.

I have lived in Colorado since college and spent a lot of time flying, hiking, and climbing in the wild places in my back yard.

With my new hobby I am looking at these places in a new way, trying to preserve the image and feelings I have of the wildlife and landscape. This process motivates me to learn and discover.

Wiebe is concentrating on his photography at this time and is not currently active on social media. He does plan to have a website together in the near future.

Sandi Kirwin

Species identification in a field botany class was the impetus for picking up a camera in earnest, and the camera remained a useful tool for a long time. Somewhere along the way I started caring less about identification markers and more about expressing the awe I felt about my subjects. Mostly it's bugs, blooms, and dogs that are in front of my camera.

The lion’s share of my photography is centered around animal rescue, capturing that special something that draws the attention of a potential adopter. Over the years, I’ve been in a few group art shows, which is a great feeling and an honor. But that pales in comparison to the time a woman came to adopt based on an image she saw online. Papa was being overlooked at the shelter due to his age, but he struck a handsome pose for me. A week later, he was adopted by a woman who drove over two hours through rainy LA traffic, all because she saw a friend for life in Papa’s portrait.

Some days I swear my camera has saved my life, but I’m so thankful thinking it has saved the lives of others, as well.

Larry Miller

Larry Miller bought his first SLR camera in 1985 to document hikes in the local mountains. In fact, his first Sierra Club Camera Committee outing was a wildflower photo shoot in the Santa Monica Mountains led by Steve Cohen in 1991. Since then the SCCC has introduced him to many other scenic destinations, including the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, the Gorman hills, and Saddleback Butte State Park.

Miller’s own photography trips gradually expanded in scope over the years to include most of the western National Parks and National Monuments, with the Colorado Plateau becoming a personal favorite.

Photography took a backseat to Miller’s career during the 32+ years that he worked as a radar systems engineer at Hughes Aircraft/Raytheon Company.

Since retiring in 2013, he has been able to devote more time to developing his photographic skills. Experiencing and sharing the beauty of nature continues to be Miller’s primary motivation.

lemiller49@gmail.com

John Nilsson

John Nilsson has a fond memory of his father dragging him to the Denver Museum of Natural History on a winter Sunday afternoon. His father had just purchased a Bosely 35mm camera and had decided he desperately wanted to photograph one of the dioramas of several Seal Lions in a beautiful blue half-light of the Arctic winter. The photo required a tricky long exposure and the transparency his father showed him several weeks later was spectacular and mysterious to Nilsson’s young eyes. Although the demands of Medical School made this photo one of the first and last Nilsson’s Dad shot, at five years old the son was hooked.

The arrival of the digital age brought photography back to Nilsson as a conscious endeavor - first as a pastime enjoyed with friends who were also afflicted, and then as a practitioner of real estate and architectural photography during his 40 years as a real estate broker.

Since retiring and moving to Los Angeles, Nilsson continued his hobby as a nature and landscape photographer through active membership in the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter Camera Committee, as well as his vocation as a real estate photographer through his company Oz Images LA. The camera is now a tool for adventure! www.OzImagesLA.com

Velda Ruddock

Creativity has always been important to Velda Ruddock. She received her first Brownie camera for her twelfth birthday and can’t remember a time she’s been without a camera close at hand.

Ruddock studied social sciences and art, and later earned a Masters degree in Information and Library Science degree from San Jose State University. All of her jobs allowed her to be creative, entrepreneurial, and innovative. For the last 22 years of her research career she was Director of Intelligence for a global advertising and marketing agency. TBWA\Chiat\Day helped clients such as Apple, Nissan, Pepsi, Gatorade, Energizer, and many more, and she was considered a leader in my field.

During their time off, she and her husband, Joe Doherty, would travel, photographing family, events and locations. However, in 2011 they traveled to the Eastern Sierra for the fall colors, and although they didn’t realize it at the time, when the sun came up over Lake Sabrina, it was the start of changing their careers. By 2016 Ruddock and Doherty had both left their “day jobs,” and started traveling – and shooting nature – big and small – extensively. Their four-wheel-drive popup camper allows them to go to areas a regular car can’t go and they were – and are – always looking for their next adventure.

www.veldaruddock.com

VeldaRuddockPhotography@gmail.com

Carole Scurlock

Carole grew up in Los Angeles and attended Otis Art Institute in the 60s. Since photography was not considered a worthy pursuit for an artiist at Otis, it was lacking a photography department. But in the 1970s—inspired by b/w fine art photographers— Carole learned darkroom skills and explored photo montage and other techniques for creative expression. While working at the Metropolitan Water District from the mid 80s to 2008, Carole created photo comps and graphic art for many publications and presentations. Vacation time was always spent in a photo workshop with a master photographer of the photo essay, street, travel or landscape photography.

Since retiring in 2008, Carole has continued to document her extensive travels and to take workshops to develop skills in fine art landscape photography. The Covid emergency provided a time to return to nature for visual inspiration and Carole’s new favorite locations to photograph are the deserts of the southwest in National Parks and Monuments.

Carole is a hiker with the Sierra Club and is never without a camera on the trail. She has been a Camera Club member since 2013. scurlockcarole@gmail.com

Amanda Thompson

Amanda Thompson is a photographer and writer focusing on wildlife, conservation, and the magnificence of our planet. Her work has been published by the BBC and the National Parks Photography Expeditions, has been featured in Los Angeles area gallery shows, and is part of the new online exhibit, “Quiet Landscape”, for the PhotoPlace Gallery.

Her latest long-term project is scheduled to be released in the summer of 2023. Related career experience includes being a LEED Accredited Professional working in the field of sustainable architecture and design, and an 18-year career in the field of cinematography.

https://www.amandathompson-photo.com/

Rebecca Wilks

Photography has always been some kind of magic for me, from the alchemy of the darkroom in my teens to the revelation of my first digital camera (a Sony Mavica, whose maximum file size was about 70KB) to the new possibilities that come from my “tall tripod” (drone.)

Many years later, the camera still leads me to unique viewpoints and a meditative way to interact with nature, people, color, and emotion. The magic remains.

The natural world is my favorite subject, but I love to experiment and to do cultural and portrait photography when I travel. I volunteer with Through Each Other’s Eyes, a nonprofit which creates cultural exchanges through photography, and enjoy working with other favorite nonprofits, including my local Meals on Wheels program and Cooperative for Education, supporting literacy in Guatemala.

My work has been published in Arizona Highways Magazine, calendars, and books, as well as Budget Travel, Cowboys and Indians, and Rotarian Magazines, and even Popular Woodworking.

I'm an MD, retired from the practice of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Medical Acupuncture. I live in the mountains of central Arizona with my husband and Gypsy the Wonder Dog.

The Parting Shot

Great Egret with mating plumage © Amanda Thompson