The Traveling Widower

Tag: photography

Top level category for photography related posts

  • Part III – The long and smoky road home

    Grass fire on I-5

    Since I still had a few muscles and tendons in my legs which were not screaming in pain from the abuse of this trip, I made two stops on the way back to Las Vegas. The first was the Coral Sand Dunes State Park, which was sort of on the way out from Kanab. The park is a sort of a misplaced beach, or from a geologic perspective, an example of how all the huge sandstone formations are created. Wind driven sand eroded from the Navajo Formation blows into this area and builds up against the ridge lines, creating very large dunes. It is a perfect playground for ATV’s and other off-road vehicles. You can also rent a surfboard and slide down the larger dunes. Looks like fun, but not for me. All of this activity is well controlled by the park rangers, so it’s safe to wander around to look for animal tracks, or just enjoy the scenery. I’ve mellowed about ATV’s in my old age I guess. It was a pleasant stop for an hour or so, but I did manage to get a pile of coral sand in the car. I had to do some serious vacuuming when I got home.

    Getting back to the highway to continue my journey to Las Vegas was a challenge. This was another Google Map issue – I’ve had a few this year. Google had me travel about 20 miles in the wrong direction, just to circle around and come back past the park to finally catch the correct roads to get to the highway back to I-15.Very annoying, but the scenery was beautiful, so seeing it again was not so bad.

    I decided to hit the Valley of Flames State Park one more time, since there were large sections which I did not cover on the way in. Glad I did. This really is a gem of a park. I was not up for any serious hiking, but found a number of trails I’d like to follow on my next trip out here. 

    Another formation in Fire Valley – much nicer day
    A very strange rock – never seen one weathered like this

    After Las Vegas, I headed off to Westlake Village, a community NW of Los Angeles to visit family. I also made a cemetery visit, but no need to discuss that in this blog. I had a nice time hanging with my cousin, and had a pleasant cruise around the lake in their electric “party” boat. After two nights, I made the long trip back home. That should have been a boring, uneventful trip, but I had one more bit of excitement added to the trip. Driving through a wildfire. About halfway home, cruising North on I-5, I noticed a cloud of smoke on the horizon. It was extremely windy, so I was guessing there was a grass fire somewhere ahead. As I got closer, the cloud grew and appeared to be very close to the highway. Well, it was REALLY close to the highway. There were no cars in the southbound lanes, and people were pulling over to the side, or switching over to the south lanes, to avoid driving into the smoke. Cal-Fire had not closed the northbound lanes  since the fire had not jumped the median yet. I really wanted to get home, so I SLOWLY entered the wall of smoke, following behind a big rig which I could barely see. As we crawled ahead, you could see the flames on the other side of the highway, and the fire crews working the fire. I made a big mistake – I did not turn off the A/C or shut the vents, so the car filled up with smoke. Fortunately I was through the smoke quickly, but was gasping for air at the point. That hurt. It took a while, with the windows and moon roof open, to clear out the car. It took about four days to clear out my lungs. Smoke inhalation is not fun.

    The remainder of the drive home was uneventful…except for coughing. It was good to get home – I did absolutely nothing for two days. That felt good.

    So what’s next for me (and this blog). That will be in the next post (coming soon). I need to get this version of the blog fully functional first.

  • Tariffs, Camera gear, and Hummingbirds

    Allens Hummingbird

    I mentioned in a previous post, that I had been planning to purchase a new long, telephoto lens sometime in the summer, before I went on the Alaska trip. Along came “Independence Day”, and excessive tariffs on just about everything that is not made in the USA. Almost all quality cameras and lenses are made in either Japan, Korea or Germany – we just do not make these things in the US. I currently have two Sony mirrorless cameras (A7II, A7RII), and a bunch of lenses for the two bodies – the equipment is pricey but you get what you pay for. The tariffs when announced, on Japan, were 39%…ouch. That made me think that buying now would be a good thing. So, I researched a few options, and wound up with a 100-500MM lens from Tamron. I was planning to buy a Sony G 150-600MM, but the beast just weighed too much to hand hold on a moving, small boat, so I opted for something a bit more compact. OK, enough technical photography stuff.

    Once I had the new equipment home, I decided to go somewhere to test the lens. and I really wanted to try it on wildlife, since that is what I bought it for. Since elk and moose are not an option nearby, I decided on a trip back to the coast, to the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum. No, not to take pictures of trees. The arboretum is a nice place to wander through in general, but the sections dedicated to South African plants are a haven for hummingbirds. My wife and I used to go there every spring for a few years, to see the little buggers buzzing around on the flowering plants and trees. So, I packed up my gear, and headed off to the coast (Campbell actually, where I stayed.)

    The peak of “hummingbird season” at the abroretum is in March, when all of the trees and bushes are in bloom. I missed that by a month, but there were still a lot of Allens and Annas hummers buzzing around. The secret for photographing these hyperactive, blinding fast birds, is to find one (or two) that have a territory they are protecting, and setup shop (tripod) at one of the places they roost to rest. You can then position the tripod and focus the camera on that spot, and just hit the shutter whenever it stops for a while (usually a minute or two). I was lucky right off the bat to find a male Allens that rested in two, really great spots, where the background would be a dense tree. I then spent a pleasant few hours, photographing one or two of the birds, and then just wandeed around in the arboretum, which has some amazing flowering plants. It really is a beautiful place. 

    The combination of the new lens, and the Sony camera with a huge sensor (44MP), and a little bit of luck, resulted in some remarkable shots. 

    The level of detail and sharpness of the birds neck feathers was amazing, given how small the birds are.

    I went back the next day and spent more time in the same location (and probably the same birds). The lighting was better that day, so I was able to get a few more good shots. I then wandered about taking a few picture of some of the strange flowers.

    Later in the day, I spent some time visiting friends in Capitola, and wandered down to the beach with their mutant golden retriever (huge). I so miss being near the coast. My wife and I spent lots of time visiting our friends there when we lived in Campbell. Sigh. Better times for sure.

    Capitola Wharf from below
    Old railroad bridge across Soquel Creek

    I did manage to help the local economy while I was there. My favorite camera store is in Campbell, so I decided to stop by and see if there was any gear that I absolutely needed to buy. I was amazed to see the front of the store covered in plywood. Apparently, someone drove a car into the store, and cleared out a lot of gear. Smash and grab. How sad. But while I was there, I decided I needed a a new monopod and ball head, for my upcoming trip to Alaska. I knew I’d find something. And I beat the tariff’s again.