The Oakland/Alameda Estuary

Oakland/Alameda Estuary, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, f/7.1, 5s, ISO: 100

I stopped to take a few long exposure shots on my way home tonight.  I got there a little too late to shoot birds.  There were a lot around, including a few black oystercatchers that didn't appreciate my presence too much.  Tough beans.

The Teton Range

Grand Teton National Park, WY
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO: 100, f/10, 1/100s

Grand Teton is one of my favorite parks.  Death Valley and Capitol Reef probably round out my top three.  A big part of the attraction for me is that they aren't swamped with people, at least not whenever I've visited them.  Smaller crowds seems to be a more important characteristic to me than big time attractions.

Heron Pond

Heron Pond, Grand Teton National Park, WY
Canon PowerShot SD770 IS

It rained a lot on our trip to Wyoming last year, so much so that I had to leave my big camera in the car for our hike out to Heron Pond.  We were hoping to see some beaver or some moose.  We saw neither, although we heard a few beaver slaps.  We saw a beaver dam on Swan Lake and a beaver lodge not too far from where this photo was taken on Heron Pond.  I have yet to see a moose in the wild.

Northern Shoveler

Northern Shoveler -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4/5-5.6L IS II USM, f/5.6, 1/1600s, ISO: 640

No story here.  Just a duck on a pond.  A flooded field, really.

Red-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk -- Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, f/5.6, 1/1600s, ISO: 1250

Basically, I assume every hawk I see is a red-tailed hawk until proven otherwise.  I think it works out for the most part.  I'm always hoping to see golden eagles and occasionally I get lured into think I've spotted one only to discover it's a red tail.  Argh.

Photo selection inspired by Geogypsy's Foto Friday Fun 150, image #1568.

Ross' Goose

Ross' Goose -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, ISO: 320, f/5.6, 1/1600s

Why is it that when geese stand together in a flock almost all of them stand facing the same direction?

Seriously, I want to know.  I see this over and over and I don't know why this is.

Black-necked Stilt

Black-necked Stilt -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, ISO: 800, f/5, 1/1600s

Identifying shorebirds can be difficult.  That's one of the reasons you won't find a whole lot of shorebird photos on this blog.  If I can't identify the bird I generally won't show it here.  If I'm not going to show the photo I often won't even bother to take it unless I'm sure it's something I haven't seen before.  That's probably a bad attitude, but it is what it is.  Plus, I'm just not all that interested in shore birds.  Sparrows, gulls and warblers suffer similarly.

Having said that, avocets and black-necked stilts are beautiful birds that I never tire of photographing.  Avocets are sleek and graceful and black-necked stilts are just downright cute.  So, I bring you this photo of a black-necked stilt in all of its cute glory.  Indulge yourself.

Antlers 'r' Us

Jackson Hole, WY
Canon PowerShot SD770 IS

The first time I saw these arches--there are four of them in the town square--I was horrified.  They seemed like blood arches.  I didn't realize that the Rocky Mountain Elk of this region shed their antlers after the rut.  Boy scouts go out into the fields near Jackson Hole every year and collect the antlers for donations.  See?  It's clean, wholesome fun.

Yeah, it's still a little creepy, right?

Jackson Hole is like a slightly less cynical Cowboy version of San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf.  Swap out sea lions for elk and Alcatraz for the Grand Teton range and you've got a pretty close match.  The coffee is better in San Francisco but the breakfasts are better in Jackson Hole.  San Francisco doesn't have a bar with saddles for stools but it has Ghiradelhi hot fudge sundaes, crab legs
and sourdough clam chowder, so that's pretty much a wash.

Meeting the President

The President, Sequoia National Park, CA
Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

There may be a few larger trees left in the world, perhaps none are as impressive.  I've read the President's needles alone probably weight over a ton.  In fact, there is speculation that although not the largest tree in terms of trunk volume (that would be the General Sherman tree that lives about a mile away) this might be the largest tree in the world in terms of overall volume.  Unfortunately, most of the really interesting stuff in this tree happens above this photo.  It's tough to take pictures of a tree this big.

A Climber on El Capitan

El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, CA
Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

Yesterday's "Where's Waldo" beaver photo reminded me of this picture I posted on Facebook a few years ago that my sister and a few others really enjoyed.  Jim and I were trying to spot climbers on El Capitan.  We did actually find a few with our naked eyes.  We couldn't find the climbers that way, but we could find their gear which is usually a little bigger than the climbers and often colorful.  I took this photo thinking that dark spot in the middle might be a climber.  It wasn't.  However, I did find a climber in this picture when I got home.  I'm not going to give any hints as to where he is.  You'll probably need to go full-screen mode to find him, but he's clear enough in the photo to make out the straps of his harness, so you'll know it when you see him.

For a sense of how this photo fits into El Capitan, I've grayed out the section of the cliff photographed above in this following picture of the cliff.

El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, CA
Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

Beaver Dam

American Beaver -- Yellowstone National Park, WY
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, f/5, 1/1000s, ISO: 1250

This beaver dam can be easily spotted from the road leading into Yellowstone National Park from the South.  We stopped for some photos of the dam and the beavers' lodge to the left of this photo.  We never spotted a beaver, though, at least not until I got home and found one in this picture.  It's a little tough to make him/her out to the left of the dam with a branch in mouth.

Fuzzy Barn Owl

Barn Owl -- San Luis National Woldlife Refuge, CA
Canon PowrrShot SX40 HS

I've had exactly one opportunity to photograph a barn owl in the wild.  It happened two years ago just outside the San Luis Wildlife Refuge.  I took a lot of pictures, some of them were fairly crisp given the camera I was using.  The photos I'm showing here are not those.  These are a couple of the fuzzy shots I captured.  The picture above was actually well-focused as you can see by the sharpness of the post and wire fencing, the bird is blurry due to movement.  I generally wouldn't post a photo like this, but a conversation with a fellow photographer at work has me looking at this picture a bit differently.  His thought was that people get too caught up in the clarity of their shots.  He said something along the lines that we miss out on interesting photos just because they aren't sharp.

So, yeah, here I am getting over it.

Photo selection inspired by Geogypsy's Foto Friday Fun 149, image #7508.

Barn Owl -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA
 Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

Grand Teton

Grand Teton National Park, WY
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, f/8, 1/125s, ISO: 100

The Teton Range has to be one of the more photogenic mountain ranges around.  It has so many moods.  I really like the quiet peacefulness of this photo.  At times it can look downright menacing, at other times you get something like this.  Don't miss this park if you ever visit Yellowstone.  It shouldn't be an afterthought.  I don't stay in Yellowstone when I visit this area, I stay here.  The first time was just by luck, but now it's by choice.

The Ferry Building

San Francisco Ferry Building, San Francisco, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, f/10, 1/100s, ISO: 100

WFSF.

That means Working From San Francisco in work-speak.  The team met in the SF office today rather than our normal Pleasanton digs.  The San Francisco office is pretty nice.  We had lunch at MarketBar, underneath those yellow umbrellas in the bottom right of the photo.  What a wonderful change of pace.

Pronghorn in Wyoming

Pronghorn -- U.S. Route 89, WY
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, f/5.6, 1/2000s. ISO: 320

Aren't pronghorn wonderful?  I guess there are a lot in Eastern Oregon, I need to get up there to see them.  I've only seen them in Wyoming.  Love Wyoming, though, I'd like to spend more time there as well.  There are so many amazing things to see in the American West, how will I ever get it all in?

Sunset Lake

Sunset Lake, Yellowstone National Park, WY
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, f/10, 1/100s, ISO: 100

Black Sand Basin is a nice stop on the Southern Loop in Yellowstone National Park.  It has a handful of pretty pools with the Firehole River running right through it.

Bobcat

Bobcat -- Pinnacles National Park, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II, ISO: 800, f/5.6, 1/250s

The ol' random number generator pulled up this picture from last year.  It's a bobcat that Pongo and I saw at Pinnacles National Park.  This is the third of three that I've seen there in the last few years.  So, yeah, if you want to go someplace where you have at least a chance of seeing a bobcat, you could do worse than Pinnacles.

Photo selection inspired by Geogypsy's Foto Friday Fun 148, image #7914.

Founding Fathers

Snow Goose -- Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, f/5.6, 1/1600s. ISO: 1250

Here's another picture from this weekend that I find amusing.  This one is all in my head.  At first, this reminded me of the painting of the delegates signing the Declaration of Independence.  I know that's a real stretch, but that's what I saw.  Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin on the right, that's probably John Hancock up there ready to sign.

I know, I know, that's a stretch.  That's what I saw when when I processed the image this weekend.  I told you, it's all in my head.

Today I'm seeing the geese on the right as the king and queen receiving tribute from their subjects.  The king and queen of Colusa.

Still a stretch, right?

Well, I guess Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin are on the left.  I don't know who that is on the right.

A Shoveler Stretching Her Wings

Northern Shoveler -- Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, ISO: 1000, f/5.6, 1/2000s

 There's nothing particularly exciting about these photos.  I like how they work together as a whole.  I've never seen a female northern shoveler look so pretty, so maybe that's the exciting part?

Northern Shoveler -- Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, ISO: 1000, f/5.6, 1/2000s

Northern Shoveler -- Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, ISO: 800, f/5.6, 1/1600s

Northern Shoveler -- Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5,6L IS II USM. ISO: 1000, f/5.6, 1/2000s

Northern Shoveler -- Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, ISO: 800, f/5.6, 1/1600s

Synchronized Swimming

Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, ISO: 1600, f/5.6, 1/1600s

I'm not sure what these geese were up to.  They kept tilting their heads to the side.  This shot reminded me of Olympic synchronized swimmers.  Silly geese.