11 minute read
Member Photos
Susan Manley
© 2021 Susan Manley All Rights Reserved
A Trip to Bosque Del Apache
Paul Rienstien
©2021 Paul Rienstien, All rights Reserved
Above: Canada Goose. I remember Tin Man Lee presented to the SCCC a few years bck and one of his suggestions was to try to get the subject with a black background. That gives it a kind of Dutch Masters look. This is an example of that at work.
Left: Black-crowned night heron
Above Right: Golden Eagle
Below Right: Black-crowned night heron
Most of my work is with birds, and lately I’ve been trying to focus on flight shots and/or behavioral shots. I still love getting good quality ‘specimen shots’ especially when I see a bird I’ve never seen before, but my goal is ‘art’ level shots, which always happen by accident, never by force of will. This scrub jay picked up a seed to eat, held it in his beak and then tossed it in the air, snatched it and swallowed it. It was just like a teenager tossing an M&M in the air and catching and swallowing it. I got the whole sequence, but this single shot captures enough to bear witness to the process. It looked to me like it was rather enjoying itself.
Egret
© 2021 Paul Reinstein, All Rights Reserved
This scrub jay picked up a seed to eat, held it in his beak and then tossed it in the air, snatched it and swallowed it. It was just like a teenager tossing an M&M in the air and catching and swallowing it. I got the whole sequence, but this single shot captures enough to bear witness to the process. It looked to me like it was rather A group of Black Skimmers Skimming
“Over 100 black-crowned night herons roost in willows on the shore of Klopp Lake, in the Arcata Marsh and Bird Sanctuary.”
Joe Doherty
©2021 Joe Doherty, All Rights Reserved We spent a month in Arcata from mid-November to mid-December. It’s close to the Redwoods, to wildlife, to dairy pastures, and to the ocean, all things we love to photograph.
“Large parts of Humboldt Bay are very shallow, and at low tide it is a seemingly endless mud flat. Here the receding tide has revealed rocks that provide safe landing for a gull.”
“We went looking for mushrooms and found them in College Cove, near Trinidad. This colony of Oyster mushrooms was attached to the side of an alder, about 4 feet off the ground.”
“The Arcata Marsh was once a working lumberyard, and wood was stored on a pier supported by these pilings. The deck is gone, but the pilings remain.”
© 2021 Joe Doherty, All Rights Reserved
“Heavy rains were not unusual. They turned some roads to mud and the pastures to reflecting ponds.”
“At the south end of Prairie Creek State Park is the path to Trillium Falls. It’s not a majestic place, but it rewards close observation.”
“The redwood forest along Drury Scenic Parkway in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is a thick, primordial place.”
“Grandmother Rock in Trinidad State Beach. The tide was near its low, but the surf was angry, and our friend advised us to stay away from the water because sleeper waves are very nasty. So I kept an eye peeled as I hurried across the sand to this spot. I knew I wanted to isolate the rock against Pewetole Island in the background, with the mist separating the two. I took about 5 minutes setting up and making my exposures, and then raced back to safety.”
“Gold Bluffs Beach, in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. We were going to drive to the Fern Canyon parking lot and hike from there, but a white Camry got stuck at a stream crossing and blocked the road. So we hoofed it, which was fortunate as I would never have seen this view from the car.”
©2021 Joe Doherty, All Rights Reserved
My last photograph of the trip, sunset at Gold Bluffs Beach in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.”
John Nilsson
©2021 John Nilsson, All Rights Reserved
SIERRA CLUB ANGELES CHAPTER CAMERA COMMITTEE MAY 2015 Looking Up on Broadway
A little change of direction here. I have recently experienced a hard drive issue on the drive holding all my photos. While this is getting worked out, I have decided to provide some photos I currently have available from some recent non-Camera Committee work.
When we get familiar with our surroundings, we seldom look up from the street to observe those scenes that are near at hand but not nearly so familiar. These photos are a result of a project to take account of these little noticed subjects in my neighborhood - because you must look up!.
©2021 John Nilsson, All Rights Reserved
John Fisanotti
©2021 John Fisanotti, All Rights Reserved
Above: Lighting storm on October 4. This image is a composite of three 30-second long exposures. Taken with a Nikon D850, 28mm f/1.4 Sigma Art Lens at f/11 and ISO 64.
Left: Lunar eclipse on November 19. Taken with a Nikon D850, 24-70mm f/2.8 Nikkor Zoom lens at 70mm. The exposure was 15 seconds at f/2.8.
Right: Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) passes the globular cluster Messier 3 (M 3) on December 3. Taken with a Nikon D810A camera, and a TEC140APO telescope (980mm focal length) on a German equatorial mount tracking the stars. The exposure was 60 seconds at f/7 and ISO 2000.
Recent Events in the Night Sky
“I live near the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanic Gardens, and enjoy documenting the treasures of the gardens throughout the year. Here are a few images from a morning walk on 18 December 2021.
Spent lotus flowers.
A view in the Chinese Garden.
Robert Cates
©2021 Robert Cates, All Rights Reserved
Above: Fallen glories.
Left: White-crowned sparrow, a migrant visitor from the North.
Above: Lily pads in the Chinese Garden.
Left: The signature bridge in the Japanese Garden.
Right: Koi fish and reflections in the Japanese Garden.
Alix Slobin
©2021 Alex Slobin, All Rights Reserved
Mt. Whitney
Mt. Whitney
Carole Scurlock
©2021 Carole Sculock, All Rights Reserved
Little Finland
Velda Ruddock
©2021 Velda Ruddock, All Rights Reserved
Unexpected country pleasure
Of all the beauty we found during our one-month stay in Humboldt County one of the unexpected delights was the countryside. The pastures started less than three blocks from where we stayed and led us through farms, marshes, rivers, dunes, the ocean, wildlife and farmlife. The green pastures, squishy ground and cow-smell reminded me of my years growing up in Holland; the fog provided a sense of forlorn desolation; and the sunsets jaw-dropping beauty to what some might consider mundane.
Steve Anderson
© 2021 Steve Anderson, All Rights Reserved
Since this issue of Focal Points Magazine is a wintery one, I thought I’d go back several years to a road trip I took in December to Southwest Utah. It is always a good time to go because there is snow to be found at higher elevations and there are practically no crowds.
The first image (Below) is an amazing view of the ‘backside’ of the Waterpocket Fold taken from the Aquarius Plateau in the Dixie National Forest. I was attracted to the contrasting layers of light.
The second image (Left) are dormant aspens taken from the highest point on Highway 12 in the Dixie NF. Although this image was made with a low resolution digital camera, I still like the banding of colors.
The icicles in the third image (Next Page) were made by a small water seep inside Hidden Canyon in Zion NP.
The last image (Next Page) is also at Zion after a winter storm. The usually dry side canyons on the main highway can have wonderful abstract reflections.
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I visited South Africa last month and was in Cape Town, the wine lands and the Garden Route. Near Cape Town is a small town called Simon’s Town that has a naval base and now more famously Boulders Beach, home to a large population of African Penguins. In the area there are several game reserves where you can have a wonderful safari experience, yet still be close to many wonderful wineries with spectacular views of the surrounding landscape.
Beverly Houwing
©2021 Beverly Houwing, All Rights Reserved
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1 - The huge beach crowd of penguins 2 - Penguins diving into the surf 3 - A pair of penguins in their best 4 - A male lion from the Kalahari region has lighter coloring 5 - Carpenter bee at a tree where his burrow is 6 - Mother and baby Nyala
White rhinos in the mountains
Giraffe at dusk
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