Tag: photo

Landscape

Petaluma Riverfront, Petaluma, California

 

Photo of the Petaluma Riverfront with footbridge.
Petaluma RIverfront with Footbridge

Petaluma is one of those few American cities that has a major river running through it that provides access to and from the ocean.  It enabled Petaluma to become an important city in the early days of California.  The main section of town is comprised of numerous historic buildings.  Many of them are visible in this photograph.   The bridge you see in the photo is for foot traffic only.  The Riverfront Art Gallery, of which I am a member, is the cream-colored two-story building visible just above the right end of the bridge.

Landscape

Tree-Shrouded Entry; North District Operations Center, Point Reyes

This is a photo of the long entry to the North Ranger Station at Point Reyes.
Shady Lane

I drive by this entry road every time I go to Point Reyes National Seashore.  I often think to myself that I should photograph it.  I finally did.  I don’t know exactly what goes on there, but I see Rangers go in and out so I assume the Park Service Rangers have an office there.  There’s no sign saying “Public Welcome,” but then there’s no sign saying “Stay Out” either. Some day I’ll have to go in there and find out more.

Pronghorn

Pronghorn Doe and Fawn, Yellowstone National Park

Photo of pringhorn doe nursing her fawn.
Feeding Time

This pronghorn mom and her two babies made a lot of visitors happy by staying between the Roosevelt Arch and the entrance station in late May.  I spent a lot of time observing her and her two fawns.

During the time I observed her, she kept the fawns well-separated except on one occasion.  I wonder if this is to minimize a predator getting them both.  She would visit each one every couple of hours and let them feed for a few minutes and then they would lie down again in a new spot until she returned.  They usually stayed perfectly still, but I saw one of them move once.  Movement like that can get a young ungulate killed I would think.  Each morning I would check to see if they were both there.  They were still there when I left the Park on June 1.

I wondered if the mother made a good choice in keeping them where she did.  I think so.  It’s a rectangular area bordered by roads on all four sides and by buildings on two sides.  There is a lot of human activity around there all day.  Maybe not as safe at night, but “safe” is a relative term in the pronghorn world.

Landscape

Corinthian Island at Twilight

Photo of the west side of Corinthian Island.
Corinthian Island at Twilight

Corinthian Island is one of two inhabited islands on the Tiburon Peninsula.  It straddles a jurisdictional line separating Tiburon and Belvedere, California.

This photo was taken during twilight which is that time between sunset, when reds dominate, and dusk when there is no light (or color) to be seen, except to the extent the moon (or artificial light) is a factor.  During twilight, blues become dominant.  Twilight is sometimes referred to by photographers and painters as the blue hour or “l’heure bleue.”  The length of twilight is determined by the latitude of the observer.  Around the San Francisco Bay Area I think of it as lasting roughly half an hour. Twilight is also that time between dawn and sunrise.  It is a great time to photograph.  It’s also a great time to see wildlife.  Some animals are most active during the twilight hours.  They are referred to as “crepuscular.”

Next time you plan to photograph at sunrise or sunset don’t forget twilight time.  For two good programs to tell you when twilight is for your area, click here and here.

Osprey

Baling Twine, Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of some discarded baling twine which is dangerous to wildlife.
Dangerous to Wildlife

A few days ago I wrote about the dangers of baling twine to ospreys.  This is what it looks like up close.  I found it on the edge of the road on the way to the turnoff for Chimney Rock.  I picked it up to properly dispose of it, but I took some photos first.  It’s made of plastic and seems light as a feather.  Given that it is used and has been coiled up, someone probably picked it up from a field and intended to dispose of it properly, but lost if from the back of a truck.  It looks like there are about three or four separate pieces of twine.

It was interesting that I found it yesterday morning because I planned to go out Limantour Road to check on something and on the way I intended to check on some osprey nests in a canyon that runs up to the road.   The two nests I had in mind were there and there was an osprey in each nest when I arrived.  I spotted a nest farther out that also had an osprey in it.  The osprey in the closest nest took off shortly after I parked my car in the little pull out.

Photo of an osprey nest in Point Reyes National Seashore
No Baling Twine

This is the closest nest.  It’s about 75 to 100 yards from where I parked.  The other nests are even farther away.   There didn’t seem to be any young in the nests.  I didn’t see any baling twine in them either, which was good.  The nests are not very close to the ranching areas of Point Reyes which lessens the chance that twine would get into them.  Plus,  I assume the Park Service has made an effort to educate the ranchers to the potential dangers of leaving twine in the fields if they didn’t know of the dangers already.

Update:  after I drafted this post I went out to my car and pulled the stuff apart.  There were five equal lengths.  Each was roughly 20 feet long.  It cuts easily using  a scissors.  It was very hard to cut with a box cutter.  I gathered each piece so it was four strands wide and then cut it across five times so I ended up with roughly foot-long strands.  It didn’t take long.  I then put all the pieces into a medium size plastic bag which I tied at the top.  The bag could have held several times more twine.  If the bag winds up on the top of a landfill it shouldn’t pose a potential risk.  I think if I were a rancher and had lots to get rid of I’d maybe skip the cutting and put it in large bags that were sealed closed.  There may be ways to re-cycle it as well.

If you come across any of this stuff please pick it up and dispose of it properly.

Other Mammal

Yellow-bellied Marmots, Yellowstone National Park

Photo of yellow-bellied marmot.
On the Look-out

Yellow-bellied marmots are one of the largest rodents in Yellowstone.  They are about 20 t0 28 inches in length and weigh from 3.5 to 11 pounds.  They are found at all elevations in the park and hibernate for up to eight months a year at the higher elevations.

Photo of a Marmot.
Always Looking for Enemies

A colony consists of one male, several females and young of the year.  They breed shortly after emerging from hibernation.  Their calls include a loud whistle and a scream when predators are nearby.  They are preyed upon by eagles, coyotes and grizzlies.  The preceding info is based on the Park Service’s 2005 edition of “Yellowstone Resources & Issues.”

Photo of a marmot at Sedge Bay.
Marmot near Sedge Bay

Marmots can be found throughout the park.  Look for rocky areas with grass nearby.  One good spot is the rock outcropping across from the Sedge Bay picnic area.  A couple of years ago I was photographing them there when they started screaming about something behind them.  They were a little above me so I couldn’t see what they were agitated about.  They took cover in the rocks.  I picked up my gear and turned to go back to my truck which was parked on the road’s shoulder about 50 feet away.  As I did so a black wolf disappeared into some cover about 40 feet from me.  He had apparently walked between me and my truck.  A guy pulled up and asked if I saw the white wolf above the rock outcropping.  That was the wolf the marmots were screaming about.  I said “no,” but I spotted it shortly thereafter.  It was going in the opposite direction of the black wolf.  For a link to that blog click here.

Rocky Mountain Elk

Nervous Cow Elk, Yellowstone National Park

Photo of a cow elk.
“Nervous Nellie”

As I was driving from Mammoth to Tower shortly after sunrise one morning I spotted this lone cow elk looking at me.  She seemed very nervous.  She looks like she may be pregnant and I assume she was close to giving birth.  When cow elk are close to giving birth they go off by themselves for the birthing.    The calf is kept hidden for about a week.  The cow moves her calf (or calves) several times a day during that seven days and they stay motionless until their mom comes back to feed and move them.  Even so, predators find a lot of them.

The lighting was very bad for this photo.  You can see from the rim lighting around the elk’s body that the sun was coming from behind it.  The number one rule in outdoor photography is keep the sun at your back.  Well, you can’t always follow the rules in wildlife photography.  Elk aren’t models you can move around.  I did what I could at the time which was to compensate some by overexposing a bit and then compensated some more in Photoshop.  In the film days one could do, or attempt to do, the same thing in printing by dodging and burning, but the methods then were somewhat crude compared to what Photoshop allows one to do to mitigate exposure problems.   In this case I used the adjustment brush in Adobe Camera Raw to lighten the face and neck and then further refined the lighting/exposure using Shadows/Highlights and Curves.

Photo of underexposed elk.
Backlit Cow Elk

Here is what the image would have looked like, but for the adjustments described above in camera and Photoshop.  (The other difference from the top image is that I didn’t bother to crop this image.)