Garry Everett Landscape Photography

Hi Everyone
The last post of this winter's crane images are a bit of a hodge podge that includes, a number taken of them in the area's fields, where they spend their days foraging for food, along with a couple more colorful sunrises (and no cranes in one).

As I have mentioned before they are among the oldest species of bird, with fossils dating back at least two million years. They stand between 3-4 ft tall and boast a wingspan that stretches up to 7 ft.
Dancing plays an important role in everyday routines that; reinforce pair bonding, express excitement or frustration, releases pent-up energy, or are simply just for fun. Once the dance has been started by a pair, it can rapidly spread through the entire group. Sandhill cranes are considered the most accomplished dancers in the animal kingdom (other than people), and it never gets old witnessing them perform.

Hi Everyone
We are back on Staten Island Preserve for this next set of images. Sandhill cranes roost overnight in large groups usually in shallow water (harder for predators such as coyotes to sneak up on them). They fly out from their overnight roost, just before sunrise, to forage in the surrounding farmlands for food and return in the evening just after sunset. Depending on the wind This usually give plenty of opportunity to photograph the cranes in flight, so this set of images captures them in flight. Sometime the light is a little dark to get sharp flight images so this year I have been playing around with some blurred motion images, and have included one in this set, let me know what you think (should be obvious which one).

Cheers
Garry

Hi everyone

A break from cranes and geese images (no I am not finished with them just yet). I took a quick trip to the Klamath basin a couple of weeks back in the hopes of capturing a few bald eagle images. I intended to stay 3 nights but came home a day early (another story). While Tule Lake was a good area to photograph with a number of eagles, you are typically shooting up at the eagles resting on perches, which is not the best angle composition wise. I had to drive around a fair bit to get some other images but managed a few keepers. The snow added another element which I liked, also found out my new cameras auto focus gets a tad confused when it's snowing, I have some sharp snowflake images with blurry eagles, had to use manual focusing at times.

You cannot help to be in awe of the majestic power these apex predators convey when watching and photographing them. They are a remarkable comeback story as it was hunted and poisoned to the brink of extinction in the 60's, but due to conservation efforts the species recovered enough to be removed from the endanger species list in 2007. They have wingspans up to 8 feet and can weigh as much as 14 pounds. The distinguishing white head and tail plumage don’t appear until they are four to five years old (one of the photos is of a young female who is just starting to get her white head and tail feathers). As with most raptors, the female is about one-third larger and is also stronger than the male. They mate for life, and their impressive courtship ritual is known as the death spiral. They share nest building duties and construct large nests that can weigh as much as a ton which they typically reuse year after year. They are expert hunters, mostly found near bodies of water, where they hunt for fish. However, they will also eat small mammals, reptiles, carrion, and other birds. They can carry prey weighing as much as 6 – 15 lbs., the heaviest load carrying ability of any bird species.

Hi Everyone

The 3rd set of images from Staten Island preserve all come from one particular morning (January 9th, 2024). The light went from just OK to dramatic as the rising sun lit up some low storm clouds, this coupled with the slight breeze created some equally remarkable light in the water. Most of the cranes had left just before the light changed, fortunately (or unfortunately depending how you look at it) there were a dozen or so cranes left to photograph, they gave me a 7-minute window before flying out. I use a 100-500mm zoom lens and utilized the complete range from the 100mm wider-angle images that provide a wonderful overview of what I was seeing to the 500mm images that isolate the cranes in the colorful water. The varying shades colors in the water (pink/purple to orange/grey-blue) came from varying the exposure compensation a stop or two for the different images.

Hopefully I did the light justice as opportunities like this are not that common.

Hi Everyone
The second set of images from Saten Island Preserve which is located the in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The area prone to fog and I can leave West Sacramento which no hint of fog only to find thick blanket at Staten Island. The fog can provide a range of light from subtle and moody to dramatic and of course the dreaded grey blah where I usually do not even bother taking any images. The other benefit the fog provides is its ability to obscure the, at times, distracting background stuff.

This group of images provides the different effects fog can have on the images.

Hi Everyone
Over the winter I tend to spend some time around the Walnut Grove area photographing the birds that migrate to the region to spend their winter. I will share some images over the next few posts, taken over the past couple of months and try to hopefully group them in some logical common theme.

The main subject of these images will be the sandhill cranes, you cannot help to notice due to their stately appearance, loud calling and entertaining dance moves. All the trips were for sunrise, which is usually a peaceful time of the day, but that is certainly not the case when photographing this area between the geese and cranes it is far from peaceful.

I usually arrive well before sunrise and some of the predawn light displays have provided some incredible moody lighting and color but requires longer exposure times which usually is not what you want for bird photography. So, my solution to this is to simply embrace the blur and use longer exposure times which range from 5 to 30 seconds in this first set of images.

Just a few more images from Houston's Kickerillo Mischer Preserve, while you are walking around the preserve you do not notice or think that there is much wildlife. Stop and stay still for a couple of minutes it is amazing the number of birds that start moving about. Hiding in plain sight.

Hi Everyone
The second set of images from Kickerillo Mischer Preserve in Houston. I do not photograph egrets that much but made an exception as the contrast between them and the dark background made for some nice composition, and they had a fairly successful fishing trip. That was also true of the Osprey who bagged a nice bass, but unfortunately flew off in the opposite direction. A bald eagle also made an appearance one morning, landed in the treetop directly above me but it was so cluttered and dense with branches and foliage it was a bit hard to get a good clean shot, still impressive to see though.

Hi Everyone
Hope everyone had a nice break for Christmas and New Year, which is now a rather distant memory (I'm having a nice permanent break in retirement). I will share a few images from our 3 weeks in Houston visiting Mary's family with a quick trip to Natchez, MS thrown in.

Nothing in the way of Landscapes but a few wildlife images from a small nearby preserve (Kickerillo Mischer) which had a nice walking path and a surprisingly diverse number of birds.

The first and rather unexpected subject is a Roseate Spoonbill, I did not see them every day and their numbers varied, usually only 2 or 3). They were juveniles as they still had feathers on their heads (which they lose in adulthood) and dark legs (which eventually turn darkish pink), the wonderful pink color comes from their diet.

I had a particular composition in mind when I first saw them and finally got something close on the last visit, although I would have liked it to be a bit closer (it is the last image).

Hi Everyone

This post wraps up our Scotland trip so from Smoo Cave we stopped in the small village of John o'Groats, then Inverness, Pitlochry and finally back to Edinburgh. The weather was pretty crappy in Inverness, constant rain and some flooding so not a lot of images from that area, which included Loche Ness of course.
Some pretty cool wildlife images though, highland cow, a Peregrine Falcon and Eagle Owl (impressive to say the least).

Captions on the images provides a bit more detail.

Hi Everyone
The next stage of the Scotland trip had us on the ferry from Isle of Lewis back to the mainland at Ullapool. After an overnight stay we headed to Smoo Cave at Lairg, with a few detours to see certain sites along the way. Getting to some of the areas using google maps proved challenging on a couple of occasions, and ended up on a few dodgy roads is an understatement but figured it out thankfully and got to see some things only a local would see. At Lairg we had some somewhat clear sky's and the Aurora made an appearance along with a moon bow which was interesting to see. Trying to find an area to photograph the Aurora at midnight was a bit of a challenge. Was a little annoyed when I found Durness beach (sunrise images), which was pretty much walking distance from where we stayed. Would have been a great place to shoot the Aurora from, oh well.

Not sure on the exact names where some of the images were taken from.

Hi Everyone

The next leg of our Scotland trip was a ferry ride from Uig on the Isle of Skye to the Outer Hebrides in particular the Isle of Harris and Lewis. While Skye was fairly busy this was not the case on Harris and Lewis which was nice change for a couple of days. While the scenery was not as dramatic as the previous 2 stops, it still certainly had a rugged coastal wind sweep beauty about it. This combined with the stormy and somewhat moody light provided for some interesting landscapes. (there is also a moonbow in one of the images for those with a good eye)

A couple of interesting historical sites on the Isles were,

St Clement's Church - Stopped here more out of curiosity and learnt it was built in the early 1500's as the burial place for the MacLeod Clan. Inside it has some of the finest medieval sculptures, and carved ornamentation (on the tombs) in the western isles. The other great thing no one else was there.

The Calanais Standing Stones are a cross-shaped setting of stones erected 5,000 years ago. They predate England’s famous Stonehenge monument, and it still not known who erected them and why, best guess is they were a kind of astronomical observatory. If you have Netflix a popular TV series, you would have seen them in a number of scenes. The crowds were terrible also as we had to share with one other couple.

We also spent one of the nights in a castle (Lews) on Lewis which very nice for a being 400 years old.

Hi everyone,

This next set of images comes from the Isle of Skye, the drive from Glencoe to get there, another incredible scenic area. We did have an overnight stop in the small village of Dornie before Skye where the Eilean Donan castle is located. The Isle of Skye was an extremely popular spot, I can see why as its rugged beauty is quite impressive.

Back to the last post, no one had a crack at guessing the castle from the movie (Monty Python's The Holy Grail, the castle Aaarrrggghhh or in real life Stalker Castle)

Images are from,

Glenfinnan Viaduct (This was used in movie also)
Eilean Donan Castle (Movie also)
Kilt Rock
Quiraing (One of the best hikes we did)
Portree
Fairy Pools
Neist Point

Hi Everyone
The next part of our Scotland trip covered stops at Stirling Castle, The Devil's Pulpit, and overnight stay on Loch Lomond before heading into the Western Highlands and in particular the Glencoe Valley. The area around Glencoe was simply stunning and one of our favorite stops and we were glad we spent 3 days there.

For you movie buffs the castle photographed was featured in the closing scene of a classic movie (a true fan may get this). I specifically visited it for that reason. (will provide some additional clues if no one can guess it.

Images
Devil's Pulpit (the hike down to the bottom of the gorge was rather steep and slippery)
Buachaille Etive Mór, a couple of images of this very photogenic mountain with the stream.
Three sisters and various photos of the Glencoe Valley and a 12-mile drive to Loch Etive (known as Skyfall road - where bond takes M in the namesake film)
The Castle mentioned above, let me know your movie guess.

Hi Everyone

After spending 3 weeks in Scotland I just finished editing the images taken over the course of our trip. It is a beautiful country, rich in history. The weather was somewhat rainy at times, but they mostly passed through quickly and it cleared up between showers, although it was windier than s**t on a few days. I will post a few pictures from each of the areas we visited in number of posts over the next couple of weeks. While we thought 3 weeks was enough time, we certainly could have stopped another week or so, so maybe not entirely crossed off our list (J&G take note). We flew into Edinburgh which is the subject of the first lot of images.
Edinburgh Castle
Carton Hill from Arthur's Seat
St Giles Cathedral
Sir Walter Scott Memorial
National Library

Hi Everyone
The last set of images comes from the Blue Mountains, our last stop before the long haul back to Sacramento. We enjoyed our trip back and catching up with everyone, hopefully not as long between trips next time.

Hi Everyone,

The last set of images from around the Corowa/Rutherglen area and a bit further afield (Hume Weir). I would be interested to see if anyone can identify the bird sitting in the persimmon tree (yellow/black checkered breast) as I have yet to identify it.

Will share one last set of images from the trip from the blue mountains.

Hi Everyone

Post 4 from the visit is a few images of our colorful birdlife, names are captioned with the images

Hi Everyone
The third post (and probably a few more) from my trip back to Australia comes from area where we spent the next couple of weeks with mum and visiting family and friends around Corowa.

Hi Everyone
This set of images are from the drive from Narooma to Jindabyne then along the Alpine Way on the way to Corowa. We spent the night a Jindabyne, no sunset pictures as we enjoyed this with a bottle of wine from our hotel balcony overlooking the lake.

Hi Everyone
A trip back to Auz to visit family (& friends) certainly flew by and I wish it could have been longer, but alas it is now only a fond memory. It was great catching up with and spending time with everyone. It was a pleasant surprise to see Carolyn C at the Wahgunyah pub, thanks for coming over and saying hello and catching up with Gav and Jane after all these years, and of course everyone else.

Had been editing some of the images and will share a few in the next couple of posts, our first stop was in Narooma after 34 hours of travel time (Sac to LA to Syd to Narooma). These are a few sunset and sunrise images, to get to the rock formations known as Glasshouse Rocks for sunrise had me wandering around a cemetery at 4:30 in the morning looking for the trailhead which was creepier than s**t.

Hi Everyone

The Images in this post are coming from the guy that takes s**t photos of people with an I-Phone or so I'm told. We had fun acting as a tour guide (and parents) for Glenn & Janet Britton visiting us from Perth Australia.
We spent over a week with them eating some good food, drinking some (maybe a little more than some) good wine, seeing some wonderful scenery and of course spending some time with good friends and enjoying their wonderful company.

The places we visited were
San Franscico
Lake Tahoe
Yosemite
Monterey Area (Coast)

A side note on the bear, I have visited Yosemite Valley 30 plus times (pretty close to how many years since Carlton won their last Premiership) and never seen a bear until this trip.

Given better equipment and subject matter the images hopefully turned out a little better than the ones taken with other people's phones.

Hi everyone,
I have spent what seemed like ages to get my new computer up and running, this along with transferring my images and over software was no easy feat.

We have come towards the end of the migratory season for the birds that spend their winters with us here in the Sacramento valley, so I thought that would be appropriate to share some of these images with everyone. I spent a few mornings (well more than a few) around the Walnut Grove area to photograph the sandhill cranes, geese and tundra swans and that is the mix of subjects for this post.

The sandhill cranes are always entertaining with their choreographed dance moves and photographing them is certainly a very therapeutic break from our daily grind, plus they make me smile (hopefully you will too)

The images are;

A pair of tundra swans taking to the air, while they are a very graceful bird not so much taking off and landing.

A large gaggle of snow geese taking to the air in a very chaotic fashion, surprise they do not run into each other taking off.

The Sandhill cranes were taken in various sunrise light, they included a couple of wider-angle images. I use a 100-400mm zoom lens and it gives me a lot of flexibility, especially if we have a colorful sunrise and I want to include a bit more of their habitat and can also incorporate some of the colorful clouds.

A couple on a very stormy morning, one with a rain shower moving through with the sun trying to break through on the horizon (and yes I got wet) and the other was a pair flying in front of a rainbow which had formed behind me. I tried to get some images of the cranes flying in front of it, this was the only pair that cooperated, a little far away but still somewhat cool picture.

Hope you enjoy the images, and they are as therapeutic looking at them as they were for me taking them.
Garry

The home country

Motion Blur Assignment Winner Garry Everett Congratulations to Garry Everett for winning the recent Motion Blur Assignment with the image, “Moonlight Coast.”

Hi Everyone
These images are from a couple of months back when we traveled down the eastern side of the Sierras to pick up Kathy & Jim (sister-in-law and her husband) in Bishop and drop them in Yosemite to hike the John Muir Trail. We spent a few days hanging with them before they started their epic 3-week adventure (will keep it a secret we had to go back and pick them up, ooops 😲).
The Eastern Sierras scenery is incomparable to any other mountains in the US, the transition from the arid expanses of the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts to snow covered 14,000ft peaks is abrupt and provides unique desert valley vistas with a full alpine experience.
It is a beautiful, remote part of the state that takes somewhat of an effort to visit, which is why it remains relatively unspoiled. One could spend years exploring (and photographing) this area and not run out of things to see and do. There are so many points of interest competing for one’s attention that it can be overwhelming trying to plan a trip to this region.
The summer storms when the conditions are right certainly adds another element to the scenery (and photography) and we will be spending some more time in this area during the summer months (when storms in the forecast) in the future. The locations of where the images were taken are; Mono Lake, the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest (and one very photogenic 3,500-year-old tree), Rock Creek and the Owens River.

Since we are on a flower theme, I had seen a few local posts of lotus flowers and after a little research found they were located in small pond in Land Park. This was my first attempt to shoot these very photogenic flowers and was not sure what to expect with the light and sun angles, decided on a morning visit the result of which are attached.

Hi Everyone
This image is a little different than the usual posts. One of my customers asked me if I could take some images of her Bird of Paradise plant that was in bloom. The plant was large and in an area that would not afford a good clean image of the blooms. I tried something a little different to try and capture a nice, uncluttered shot of the blooms. A night shot with a pair of flowers and one leaf backlit (with an LED torch) to eliminate the background clutter. I liked the final image, which was cropped a little for better balance. (The customer ordered two 16 x 20 metal prints which look great).

Hi Everyone

Now that I have finished posting our trip images, I can now share a few images of some recent outings and a little information on the subjects. I have previously posted a few hummingbird images but below is a little more information on this colorful wee birdie. The hummingbird pictured is a male Annas hummingbird.

Hummingbirds are some of the most beautiful and unique birds on the planet. It is no surprise they are aptly named for the humming sound their wings produce. These tiny birds add beauty and interest to our gardens providing vibrant flashes of color and mesmerizing flight skills. Most species of hummingbirds provide us with glorious colors when the light hits them because of the prism style cells that are in the top layer of feathers. The wavelengths split when light reflects off them producing vivid iridescent colors one moment, and subdued colors the next. The iridescent throat patch of male hummingbirds is called a gorget. Oddly, some females have only a small gorget while most have none.

Energetic and fast moving, hummingbirds can hover, fly up, down, sideways and even upside down, and are the only birds that can fly backward! This is achieved due to their unique shoulder joint allowing a figure eight wing motion. Their wings beat on average seventy times per second; they fly at 25 to 30 miles per hour, and dive even faster.

Despite being the tiniest birds in the world, hummingbirds pack a lot of attitude and are very territorial often chasing off much larger birds to protect their food source. They are extremely smart about what they eat and when as they can remember which plants give nectar, when they last drank from a flower, and how long that particular flower takes to refill its nectar. They also can remember where all the backyard feeders they have visited, are located. They get the energy they need to maintain their astonishing metabolism primarily from flower nectar and the sugar water they find at feeders. But their real source of nourishment comes from small insects, they pick from flowers and leaves, the air, and off spider webs sometimes including the spiders themselves, the nectar and sugar water gives them the energy needed for this. They also provide important ecosystem services as they quickly fly from flower to flower, pollinating much faster and over considerably larger areas than insect pollinators do.

Hummingbirds are native only to the Americas and cannot be found anywhere else in the world. There are over 350 species, making them the second largest bird family in the world, behind only flycatchers. Many are migratory and spend winter in Mexico or farther south before migrating into the United States for breeding, and a number of species pass through California. In Northern California, and specifically around the Sacramento area, we can see five migratory species at various times of the year: Allen’s, Black-chinned, Costa’s, Rufous and Calliope, while Anna’s hummingbirds are non-migratory and can be seen year around.

Hi Everyone
Meant to finish our trip weeks ago so since I did not have a lot of images over our last 3 stops we will cover them all in this last post.

Day 4 had us in Arizonia stopping at a small state park near Tuson in the Santa Catalina Mountains, the quintessential dessert landscape with saguaro cacti. We did intend to a hike a trail that loops around the base of the mountains and followed a wash (dry creek bed) which you had to cross several times but the area experienced a fair bit of rain a few days earlier and it was again indeed a creek which halted that plan, we did a smaller hike along the wash but we were a little disappointed (with the hike and images).

Day 5 put us back in California along the Salton Sea near Palm Spring. The area was popular in the 60's and 70's as a resort destination but has been in the decline since. We visited the area because it has a large population of Burrowing Owls, small and very photogenic. Finding them was a lot harder than I thought and unfortunately we did not see any, managed a couple of sunset pics on a very hazy day.

On Day 6 we traveled north to Pinnacles National Park which is the newest in the park system. Parking was fairly limited so we did a quick early morning hike before the rangers gave us a ticket for taking a number of parking spots. The area is home to the California condor which has come back from the brink of extinction

Day 7 we made the final 3 hour drive arriving home. The RV is a nice way to travel but you need a small car or bike to get around (or a camper and unhitch).

Hi Everyone
Today's post day 3 of our return trip to West Sacramento has us heading from Big Bend National Park in Texas to a very unique national park we stopped at last year but wanted to revisit to sled the dunes.
White Sands is located at the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert in south central New Mexico and achieved National Park status in 2019, being upgraded from a National Monument. The park encompasses one of the world's striking natural wonders, the largest gypsum dune fields in the world. There are approximately 275 total square miles of dune fields here, White Sands National Park preserves a major portion of this unique area, around 115 square miles, along with the plants and animals that live here. The remainder is on military land that is not open to the public. This dune field is very dynamic, with the most active dunes moving to the northeast at a rate of up to 30 feet per year, while the more stable areas of sand move very little. The park service has to continually plow the main road to keep access open.
The park opens at sunrise and closes at sunset which is a bit of a drag for photographers, but the plus side is you can sled the 60 foot dunes while waiting around for sunset. We were definitely the oldest couple lined up to buy a sled at the gift shop, and believe me rocketing down the steep face of a 50 foot dune had us questioning the logic of our purchase. A good thing also was the fact that gypsum unlike sand it does not stick to everything, handy when coming to an uncontrolled rolling stop at the bottom of the dune, in that you do not have to spend the next hour brushing off your clothes, although you still have to spend time getting it out of unwanted places.
One of the other interesting things about photographing the park, aside from the sledding, is that the white sand dunes reflect colors of the changing ambient light, examples of which are provided in the accompanying photographs. Oh Yeh, we also had to hike a bloody long way to get images of pristine sand dunes with ripples and no footprints, this also makes it rather challenging getting back to the car and out of the park on time.