Last Saturday I joined 56 other ardent photographers at 0-dark thirty in Sacramento to photograph in the California State Railroad Museum. It was one of over 1100 groups (32,000+ people) in Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photowalk. Our leader had secured permission for us to be in the museum before the public and therefore able to use tripods. This lends itself to some interesting possibilities especially HDR. This shot is of the galley in a dining car. As I began to work on it, it moved (of its own accord) from being photorealistic to more like an illustration. Norman Rockwell’s paintings come to mind.

Last evening while a good friend and I were in the John Muir National Historic Site for a glimpse of the full moon rising over Mt. Diablo, we met up with a Park Ranger who was going to lead a moonlight walk in the hills adjacent to the homesite. He mentioned to us that there was a particularly large Live Oak tree called “Wanda’s Oak” or “TenTrees” near Mt. Wanda (named for one of Miur’s daughters). It’s an impressive specimen to be sure with it’s first lateral branch 11′ in diameter. While photographing it we saw a hawk (likely a immature Cooper’s Hawk [Accipiter cooperii] )land nearby and it appeared to have caught a vole. To our astonishment, when it was finished it flew nearer intent on a second vole which it missed. The third time was a charm and brought him into the open where we could get a look. Then as we were setting up on Mt. Wanda, a white tailed Kite started to hunt nearby. The full moon was nice but being in the presence of these two magnificent birds was a treat.

Honeybees again, this time on Buckwheat. Amazingly busy and resourceful creatures.

Another view in the Los Osos Oaks State Natural Reserve. It was hard to not be faced with multiple choices in all directions. It’s truly a magical, Harry Potter-esq forest. I’d not be surprised to see a door into a Hobbit home.

The Los Osos Oaks State Natural Reserve has a modest face on the highway but a fabulous surprise awaits inside. It’s mixed oak forest with fantastic shapes and curves and looks like something from a Harry Potter movie. This particular tree was an exception and very nicely shaped alongside a sag pond.

All day long honeybees worked the mustard behind our tent while we stayed at Montaña de Oro. While it’s fairly easy to get photos of them, it’s harder to get nice ones. All too often, I end up with perfectly exposed photos of bee’s butts and they are not all that attractive.

One of the flowers that gives Montaña de Oro (Mountain of Gold) State Park its name is Golden Yarrow, eriophylum confertiflorum. It was blooming in abundance during our visit last week.

I must admit to being thrilled with the quality and capabilities of my new P&S. It’s far better than I had hoped and capable of some very nice photos. This is from today’s Farmer’s market and have very little Lr adjustment. It’s really the way it looks just out of the camera. What’s more, when I sync it, Lightroom sees it and imports all the photos. What kind of P&S camera is it? An iPhone 4.

I took a short, hot hike in a new-to-me part of Mt. Diablo State Park called Macedo Ranch. It was near mid-day, a terrible time to take photographs, but I wanted to see if some changes I had made to my camera would allow me to use autofocus on birds in flight. I didn’t get much practice at that but I did see some pretty little birds. A raptor was hovering over a hill and my best guess is that it was an America Kestral though it seemed larger that the kestrals I’ve seen before. It’s possible that it was a Prairie Falcon too. Barn Swallows were in abundance near the ranch buildings and one lighted atop a horse rail. Last was a male Finch pouring out his song on top of a light fixture.

I was on a gorgeous bike ride Saturday from Sunol to the Calaveras Reservoir and back when I passed a man with a spotting scope. I took a look in the direction it was pointed and saw what appeared to be a Bald Eagle atop a power line. I stopped and circled back to ask. He said not only was it a Bald Eagle but had a nest with two nearly fledged eaglets. With only a 3.2Mp camera phone, I knew I had to return that evening. This is a crop of an image made with the 500mm f4 + 2x converter.

We stayed for about an hour and a half anticipating the return of the eagle’s mate. There was a brief flurry of wing flapping and calling that seemed to herald such a return, but both we and the eaglets were disappointed. Still, a most wonderful moment.