Tag: point reyes national seashore

Bobcat

Bobcat, Point Reyes National Seashore

This is a portrait photo of a male bobcat sitting and staring at the camera.

My favorite time to photograph landscapes and wildlife is from about an hour before sunset until about 30 to 40 minutes after sunset (the blue hour) because of the great colors, although I admit it’s much easier shooting landscapes than wildlife during the blue hour.

I photographed this male bobcat about a week ago.  It was a couple of minutes before sunset and the light was fading fast.  I was shooting with a Canon EF800 f/5.6 lens with a 1.4 teleconverter.  Settings were 1/200 sec. at f/8 with an ISO of 5000.  I was shooting out of my car window with the lens resting on a beanbag.  Fairly steady, but not equal to a tripod.  While the old rule is to shoot at a shutter speed at least equal to the focal length of the lens (1120mm focal length here so 1/1250 second shutter speed), I would have shot this bobcat at shutter speeds down to 1/30 sec. if I had needed to, with the expectation of some keepers.

This guy had a lot more red under his chin and more distinct spots than the one I posted three weeks ago.  He was with a female who I assume he will stay with for a while.  I hope to see their kittens this spring.

Coyote

Coyote, Point Reyes National Seashore

This is a photo of a coyote facing the setting sun at Point Reyes National Seashore.

Here is a photo I took in 2011 that I came across recently.  I don’t know why I never put it on my website, but I just corrected that.  It was taken at sunset in the ranching area of Point Reyes National Seashore.

Ranching?  Yes, there is ranching in this unit of the national park system.  The ranchers were all bought out by the Park Service between 1962 and 1978 and, to ease the move out of the Seashore, the Park Service gave them reservations of use and occupancy for 20 years.   The last ones should have been out by 1998, but thanks to politics, they are still there and paying a rent for grazing and living there of often less than 10% of fair market value.  The Park Service is required by law to collect fair market for any lands or buildings it leases.

Point Reyes National Seashore

Cypress Tree Tunnel, Point Reyes National Seashore

This is a photo of a place in Point Reyes National Seashore called the Cypress Tree Tunnel because the road leading to an historic RCA site is shaded by a row of cypress trees on each side of the road and they grow over the road forming a tunnel-like appearance..

This is a view of the driveway leading to an historic building that was used by RCA long ago to communicate with ships in the Pacific. It’s somewhat famous for the cypress trees along the driveway because they form a tunnel leading to the old building. When I drive by this spot there are usually one or more people standing there taking photos.  As a person who is primarily a wildlife photographer, I’ve driven by there hundreds of times in the past 15 years and never stopped to photograph the tunnel. Recently, I decided I ought to do that some time.  A month ago I was driving by and no one was there. So, I stopped and took a few quick held-held “snapshots” with a not-ideal 100-500 mm lens (at 100 mm) just to be able to look at some photos at home to see if I should bother to go back for some more serious photos with a wider angle lens on a tripod, at sunset.  Maybe HDR.  I’m surprised that the photos, like the one above, were fairly good.  That makes me want to go back and try for better results.