Happy Birthday Sarah…

This post is a bit late, but that night I started to get chills/sick, so I went to bed. Anyway, I’m still ‘kicking’, other than a nagging cough (again). Dave Miller wanted to visit the Merced NWR and since I practically live there, well maybe just once a week, I was the unofficial guide for the day. We met at Denny’s in Atwater under a blanket of fog….go figure. We drove out to the refuge and I hopped in to his car and made the loop. The conditions could be better, so as we ended the loop we made another loop, this time I drove. By that time the fog was starting to burn off and we got some better photos, at least he did. We decided to not drive over to the San Luis NWR so we parted. I went back home and set up my ‘Matenkosky NWR’ and Dave drove the loop again!

Dave

Black-necked Stilt

Cooper’s Hawk – My first!

Back at the ‘Matenkosky NWR’ – Dark-eyed Junco

White-crowned Sparrow

Our school, Keyes to Learn Charter School, had a field trip this morning to the Castle Challenger Learning Center Foundation. Being stationed at Castle AFB ‘back in the day’ and I had visited the Learning Center about 10 years ago, I personally was excited to see it again. Boy things have changed! The Center has grown and ‘The Base’ doesn’t look the same! I think the kids had a great time as they want to go back now. Here’s some highlights from this morning…

Sarah and Hannah – No Hannah didn’t cut herself…Its a sticker….fashion statement I guess.

I made a few minor changes to my backyard pond. Some of the birds couldn’t figure out how to come to the water. In the process of trying to hide the plastic, I used large rocks to line it. As I looked at the pond it looked more like a rock quarry than a pond, so I took out a section of rock and replaced it with some sod….weeds really. Seems to work better now. Within seconds of me sitting down inside the blind, I had my first visitor, an American Goldfinch. I’ve been noticing that the Goldfinches really like the pond. I see an occasional Sparrow or Junco at the pond so I hope the improvements will help with my ’species pond count’.

Since photographing Tunnel View was a bust at sun rise, as I suspected, I drove down to the valley to try and find the place on Southside drive to see and photograph Horsetail Falls at sunset. Since I passed it up I stopped by Swinging Bridge to photograph Yosemite Falls in the morning light.

As I was walking the bridge I heard a ‘crash‘. Sounded like camera parts. Sure enough, his Nikon camera had somehow fell to the wooden planks. He said it was fine….lucky for him.

Yosemite Falls Reflection

Yosemite Falls

While I was trying to take a nap I couldn’t resist taken a picture of this Raven and then later on this Mule Deer at the El Capitan picnic area…

Raven

Mule Deer

As I was waiting until sunset to capture the Horsetail Falls, I spotted this single cloud right on top of the falls. I thought I’d convert the color image into black and white…

Cloud on Horsetail Falls

Well, I had an opportunity to get out to Yosemite to try and capture the famous, natural firefall, ‘Horestail Falls’ at sunset. Where to go though. Through a few e-mails from Dave Miller from Bay Area Outdoors and Beyond blog, I decided on Southside Drive instead of the more famous Nothside Drive location.

Figuring I’d make a whole day, I got up at 4:15 AM to try and photograph sun rise at Tunnel View. That was a bust, so I went down to the valley and find the Southside location. I thought I saw it, but I missed the turn off. It was early so I decided to photograph Yosemite Falls from Swing Bridge and make my way back. I drove over to Nothside Drive, to the El Capitan picnic area. I saw what I needed and decided to stay.

It was around 11 AM so I had lunch and tried to get some sleep. I never slept. A few hours later some photographers started showing up. I finally had an opportunity to meet Edie from “View from the Red Tent” blog. I had e-mailed her years ago, but it was great to finally meet her. What a hoot…nuff said!

I met a lot of great people that day and I’ll post the rest of the images later. Here’s my best best capture from that evening….

Horsetail Falls at Sunset

Last year I wanted to build a small DIY photography blind in my backyard. I had an old play house that my kids used to play in. It worked, but I had to sit sideways and shoot. Not very comfortable. I need something larger and I also wanted to add a small water feature. I got tired of using a clay pot as a bird bath….not very realistic.

Since my knees/legs are fixed straight, I sit on my old wheelchair pad on the grass. Pretty comfortable. I need to hide my legs and tripod though, so building a square box is out of the question. I drew up a set of plans. I went out Home Depot and bought $20 worth of 3/4″ schedule 40 PVC pipe and ‘a few’ fittings. I had an old tarp so I covered it with the PVC frame work using a few spring clamps from my old blind.

Next I constructed my pond and waterfall. Right now it’s about 4 feet square and 3 to 6 inches deep. I’m glad our area is fine dirt/sand because trying to dig a hole without the use of your knees was a challenge. I lined the pond with 3.5 mil plastic and drove out to the foothills to get ‘a few’ rocks.

I found a Waterfall Kit from Zoo Med Laboratories at the local pet store. Its a quiet small submersible pump and I use an extension cord to power it. No, it’s not plugged in 24 hours a day. I just use it when I’m shooting.

It’s still a work in progress. I’ve already widened the pond from 2 feet to 4 feet and I may widen it more. I can add or remove rocks, twigs and logs to suit the occasion. I plan on buying another hummingbird feeder close to the waterfall in hopes to capture a hummingbird while bathing.

So if I can build something like this, I’m sure you can too! I hope I’ve inspired you to build one for yourself. Have fun with it and keep shooting!

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s some photos…

My Studio

Sitting inside the backyard blind

The View

The 3/4″ Schedule-40 PVC Framework

Me

The Backyard Pond and Waterfall

The Kitchen You can see the feeders and the old Christmas Tree that has holes drilled in so I can fill it with my Peanut Butter Suet.

The Backyard Waterfall

The Other End of the Waterfall

The Submersible Pump

A Lincoln’s Sparrow Taking a Bath

Just got back a few hours ago from my daughters gymnastic meet in Calavaras, CA, the “Sweet Heart Invitational”. I always enjoy the trip because of the scenery…..gold country! The bad part is I’m not a morning person and we had to leave at 6:30 AM.

Anyway, Hannah did pretty good: Vault 7.60 3rd; Bar 8.60 1st; Beam 8.35 3rd; Floor 8.00 2nd; All-Around 2nd and our team, Tumble Time Gymnastics, placed first! So it was a good day for all.

The gym at Calavaras Gold Gymnastic Academy

Hannah at the March In

Hannah on the Bars

Hannah on the Floor Routine

Hannah on the Beam

First Place on the Bars