Below is one of Minstrel’s kittens, from her most recent litter. This was shot from inside the house, through the (not very clean) glass of the patio window at 500mm, f/6.3, ISO 3200, 1/640 sec. I went with a higher ISO to try to get the shutter speed up. For this particular shot, I could’ve probably dropped it down to ISO 800, but I was shooting a mix of kittens on the patio and some out in the yard or on the wall. I needed ISO 3200 for the patio shots.
I saw this duck and two of its friends close to where I had parked. Amy tells me that the ducks are all Mallards except for the white ones. She says that those are barnyard ducks / Mallard hybrids.
I then walked around the Fountain Lake looking for more birds to photograph, but did not see many until I found this one hanging out by herself.
I continued around the lake, not seeing any birds. It turned out that many of them were gathered around this guy who was feeding them.
Good catch!
Amy has identified this white bird as a Great Egret.
This one wasn’t really flying – it was just sort of hopping around. It’s a shame that it wasn’t in better focus. Amy says it’s a Grackle.
Amy tells me that the large bird is a Canada Goose. The small one is a Red-winged Blackbird.
More ducks…
Linda, Janet, Bob, Bill, and I met at the Horse Staging Area (in McDowell Mountain Park) for Friday’s hike. We hiked a 7.25 mile loop.
The sun had not quite risen yet when I arrived. Linda took this photo of me taking some predawn photos using my tripod.
This is one of the photos I got:
It’s amazing how much the sky can change in just a few minutes…
Linda’s photo of the sky just before sunrise:
A view of Red Mountain, just after sunrise:
Another pre-hike photo taken just after sunrise:
I had seen this area from the Technical Loop before, but we found a road that brought us closer.
I like this photo from Linda…
Janet noticed the remains of a dead saguaro with an interesting looking protrusion at the top. I think this might be from one of the arms when it was alive.
Linda took a photo of it too…
A dead tree in Stoneman Wash:
We noticed some very green and healthy looking trees in Stoneman Wash, but none of us knew what they were. Below, Bill, Janet, Linda, and Bob pose in front of one of them.
Two more views of Stoneman Wash…
Senna flowers on the Pemberton Trail:
I went out to the top of the Hilltop Trail at McDowell Mountain Park last night to observe the Perseids meteor shower. I set up two cameras using a 30 second exposure on each one. The cameras were set to do noise reduction (dark frame subtraction) which requires an additional thirty seconds of processing time. Thus, I was taking roughly one photo per minute with each camera. The actual rate was slightly slower than this due to occasionally moving a camera, changing a battery, or checking on exposure, etc.
I stayed out for roughly four hours and saw several spectacular meteors, one which arced across half the sky overhead. Unfortunately, for most of the really good ones, I either had the camera pointed at the wrong place, or the shutter was closed at the time the meteor fell. I have a number of shots which show meteors, but only one decent one. This meteor is good, but it not as impressive as some of the others I saw last night.
For this photo, I used a 24mm Zeiss lens (A-mount) on my NEX-7 set at f/2.0, 30 sec, ISO 200.
Clayton, Mary, Marilyn, and I went for a bike ride today. We rode out Pemberton, up Tonto Tank, over on Pemberton (again), and then up Coachwhip to the Windmill Trail. Mary, Clayton, and I rode out to the actual windmill and then turned around where we met up with Marilyn who had just gotten to the top of the Coachwhip Trail. I took these photos on the way down the Coachwhip.
This one, below, is just a crop of the one above.
I got a new piece of gear today, an Orbis Ring Flash Diffuser. It’s a round plastic gizmo into which you insert a speedlight. The Orbis channels the light out a circular diffusing panel with a hole in it through which you can insert the lens. Thus, for close-ups, you get a large light source which creates very few shadows.
These are some shots I got while playing around with the Orbis earlier tonight. I used a 50mm lens on my NEX-7 with ISO set to 400.
Marie and Tiger:
Marie without Tiger:
Tiger is a big kitty!
My photos from our hike at the Fisher Tower’s area on June 2nd, 2013.
I had to climb fairly high to get a photo of this monolith. After getting this photo, I noticed that the trail kept going up, so I kept following it. Marie took a photo of me when I was up there.
Another view of the monolith, now down to the left.
Marilyn and Marie are sitting in the area of sunlight below the big wall.
This ladder is needed to make progress along the trail. The trail maintainers added a metal handle to grab onto when ascending and descending since I had visited the area before.
This week’s hike started at the Wagner Trailhead, though we never actually got around to hiking the Wagner Trail. Even so, we hiked 8.7 miles.
I got this photo of the sunrise before the hike started. Part of the Wagner Trail is visible in this photo.
Another pre-hike photo; A good view of Red Mountain off in the distance with some interesting foliage in the foreground.
We hiked the Tortoise Trail to the Pemberton and then hiked Pemberton to Stoneman Wash. We hiked up the wash, stopping to take photos at this rusted convertible.
From left to right are Kevin, Bob, Amy, Janet, and Teresa.
Bob took this photo of me while I was photographing the car.
A large palo verde tree in Stoneman Wash:
We hiked up one of the feeder washes for Stoneman Wash. It eventually lead us back to the Pemberton, somewhat south of the Bluff Trail.
We saw this rattlesnake along the way. Ranger Amy has confirmed that it’s a Mohave rattlesnake. We saw one on last week’s hike too.
I was suprised to see a blooming barrel cactus in the area.
Ranger Amy examines the skull of a small animal.
A view from the Pemberton Trail. There is a small bench just below and left of the Palo Verde on the hill. Just below and beyond the tree and bench lies the Bluff Trail. The yellow sign visible in this photo warns of a sharp turn on the Pemberton Trail.
Teresa and Bob hike down the Bluff Trail.
A view of Weaver’s Needle and the Flatiron far off in the distance:
We came across a number of healthy looking ocotillos while hiking back on the Bluff Trail.
Ranger Amy spotted this horseshoe on a granite boulder.
A view of the nine o’clock fountain with Red Mountain behind it.
Marilyn and I rode our bikes on Sunday morning. I rode up the Tonto Tank Trail to try to get a sunrise photo from a location I had scouted earlier, but I’m not happy with it. I should have gotten there earlier and had my 50mm lens with me. I brought my NEX-7 with a 35mm lens; I had never tried to ride with my NEX-7 before. I had to make some minor adjustments to the harness of my Think Tank Digital Holster in order to ride comfortably. I initially had it too low and it interfered with pedaling.
I finished riding up Tonto Tank and met Marilyn on the Pemberton:
I tried, unsuccessfully, to get Marilyn to ride up the Boulder Trail with me. The Boulder Trail leads to the Marcus Landslide Trail. It’s very pretty up there, but it has more elevation gain than Marilyn was willing to do. I took this photo on my way up the Boulder Trail.
A photo of a large boulder on the Boulder Trail:
This boulder was on the Marcus Landslide Trail.
I met up with Marilyn at the intersection of Bluff and Pemberton. We continued on Pemberton where I got this photo of the crested saguaro near Granite Tank.
A closer look at the crested saguaro and its companion to the right. Both saguaros have fire damage from the Rio Fire back in the 90s. Damage on the crested saguaro is not as evident on this side as it is on the other side.
This large, multi-armed saguaro can be seen off to the south along the new section of Pemberton.
