I thought I could see swans from the road last week, so we went over to Willow Lake late Saturday afternoon to see what we could see. No swans were in the area where we had seen them before, but a heron was slowly wading through the shallows stalking his prey. We watched for a half hour or so- but never saw him catch anything. As the light was fading, we walked back to the car, leaving him still searching for dinner.
Walking around in the Alabama Hills was fascinating not only for the memories of cowboy movies shot in these locations- but for the frequent views of Mt. Whitney just above the rock formations. This is a place I would like to visit again.
the swans! It was such a treat to see them in the wild- hope to go back before they fly off somewhere.
Sand and scrub
Friday night, we learned from Facebook that there were swans out at Willow Lake! We are accustomed to seeing ducks, geese, eagles, hawks, herons, egrets etc.- but this is the first we’ve heard of swans. So on Saturday morning we headed over to see what we could see. This would be my first walk in nature since my knee surgery, so I was pretty excited- so excited, in fact, that when we spotted the swans, I realized I had left my zoom lens on the kitchen counter! And what was on my camera, you ask? My macro lens! So I watched the swans as a hawk perched above them in a tree and a heron stood intently searching the water for his breakfast and tried to content myself with occasional macro shots.
After my genealogy meeting in the afternoon, we drove over again. The swans were starting to tuck their heads under their wings, but eventually all four swam around where we could see them in the late afternoon light. I haven’t gone through all the photos yet, but here is a shot of three of them.
Looking back at October in Prescott- wildflowers and cactus in bloom at Willow Lake!
There’s something about those little white flowers that I just love!
The window light seems to have created a spotlight effect on the table in this hydrangea still life- as well as a bit of a refracted image of the grandfather clock which was behind.
Painterly effects added with Topaz Impression
I haven’t been out yet taking photos, except for a few documenting our snowfall, but I have started a new project. I am taking an online class in making textures to use in photography! So far I have created a set of textures painted with acrylic paint (still have to scan most into my computer) and a set of photographs of the textures on my cookie sheets and pizza stone. I used textures from both sets in the image below.
Below is a detail shot from Zabriskie Point in Death Valley. I fell in love with the rippled landscape.
One of the must-do’s in Death Valley is to go to the lowest point in North America- Badwater Basin. It was hot, it was below sea level- and that was about it.
Lots of tourists!
In the cold of December. it is sometimes nice to reminisce about the hot days of summer. In this case, it was a hot day on the first of October- and it was Death Valley!
The cloud shrouded moon the other night looked more like a spooky harvest moon than the December cold moon we’ve been hearing about.
We’ve been having some beautiful skies lately. These gorgeous clouds caused me to grab my camera (not my phone!) and head out the door to capture them before the light changed. I had a 300mm zoom on, so didn’t get the whole expanse of gorgeousness- just one section.
Lonnie and I went downtown for dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant last night and were presented with this incredible view as we stepped out of our car- a beautiful sunset behind the courthouse. I love downtown Prescott- especially at Christmastime. The only thing missing was snow- and maybe that beautiful full December moon we also saw last night (it was behind me). Photoshop could fix that- hmmm, maybe someday . . .
ill
melinda anderson photography 