The little guys

I've become enamored of the idea of taking pictures of all the creatures that live in my yard and currently I'm focusing on the smallest of my neighbors. These little tree frogs have been hanging out on a plant in a half wine barrel just outside my kitchen door on the deck. I've been spending a lot of time each day I'm home seeing what kind of creatures live on this flowering plant and have found it to be a whole little ecosystem. There are three of these frogs spending time there, they vary between 1/2 and 3/4's of an inch long. I'm assuming

that they are waiting for insects to come close so they can have a bite to eat. I haven't seen them catch anything but they seem very patient. Bees, wasps, various flies, moths, butterflies, and many unknown little bugs visit these flowers each day.

I've seen four different types of spiders so far and they are very successful hunters like this jumping spider with a bee. 

It was late evening when I got this image of a hummingbird, It seemed like it might have been tired and perhaps cold. It let me get up to within a couple of feet to take pictures and it's feathers were fluffed out. Someone told me that they fluff out their feathers to help create more of an insulating layer around themselves to help conserve body heat when they are cold.









                      
I like the way this images shows the wasp bridging the two flowers.












I was driving down the street in Ft. Bragg when I saw a raven on this railing out of the corner of my eye. I like the color of the banister and the building as a backdrop so I stopped and got out to try and capture some pictures but it was scared away by someone walking by. I got in the van to drive away, disappointed at missing the shot but then it came back and I was able to get a few shots. Just after I took this one it flew away.

Wandering the Oregon Coast

On the weekend of July 20th-22nd we participated in a wonderful art festival at Bush's Pasture Park in downtown Salem, Oregon. We had a great time and did very, very well with sales of our mixed metal jewelry. Afterwards we decided to slowly wander down the Oregon coast on our way home to California. We drove up to Astoria, where the Columbia river empties into the Pacific to start our trip. The picture on the right though is from the very southern most state beach in Oregon, so close to California that we could have walked there in a few minutes. It's one of my favorite pictures from the trip though so it got posted first. It's the first time I've been fairly close to a group of pelicans just off shore and been able to watch them diving into the water after fish. I found it amazing to watch them hit the water, beak first, at high speed. They must have some pretty fancy engineering to be able to do that. A friend that I showed the picture to told me that they have a protective membrane that comes over their eyes as they hit the water that lets them see clearly underwater.

I like the fuzzy stuff on the top of their heads. I found out after I got back home that pelicans hang out in Noyo Harbor near where fishing boats come in and I went and took some pictures of local ones up close, one came up to within three feet of me. At first I thought it was being friendly but when it tried to spear me with it's beak I realized that it was being territorial. I guess it's a good thing I didn't try to pet it. Someone else I showed my pelican pictures to though said that down near Santa Cruz you can sometimes pet the pelicans there.

I call this image to the right "Steam Punk Sentry". It was taken up in Astoria on the waterfront, the rusty gear was some kind of apparatus to do something with boats in the past I assume. There were a number of enigmatic mechanical things just off shore there on cement pillars in the water. We spent one night in Astoria, found a nice natural food coop in the evening for dinner after walking along the waterfront and went shopping for books at a local thrift store in the morning before heading south. I harvested books at thrift stores and library sales all along our trail home to sell at my next book sale in September. Books are one of my major addictions.

We spent the next night in Florence at the Lighthouse Inn where we stayed the last time we did this trip in 2009. It's a block from the interesting area of old town and right around the corner from a thrift store that I found some good books at last time through. That proved to be true this time also. To the left is a sandpiper, one of many searching for food in a marshy area adjacent to the marina near old town.

We spent a couple of nights in Bandon at the Table Rock motel just 50 yards from the beach, and a very nice beach it was. There is so much public access to the ocean in Oregon that it's incredible. The islands off Bandon are a wildlife sanctuary. We went to another nearby place, a wetlands restoration project and enjoyed having a hunting hawk fly a few feet above our heads. I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of it however. The beetle to the right was hanging out on a rock near the ocean in Bandon. It was fairly large, almost two inches long and had lots of interesting furry stuff on it's undersides. It wasn't moving much but it was evening and fairly cool. I love it's color and textures. The next time we go up to do the Salem fair I think afterwards we are just going to head straight to Bandon and spend several days there exploring the richness of the natural world in it's vicinity.

Visiting Creatures

Continuing to capture images of the creatures that live around me. It seems sometimes as if they are posing and the images they let me take seem like great gifts. This one of a male quail and his child is a case in point. They usually flit away when people come anywhere near but he sat there for a couple of minutes while I took a number of pictures. The little one came out after I had already taken several. There was only the one chick for this  adult pair, sometimes there are 5, 6 or more. Naturally I call this image "Baby Sitting".

This cricket was on my living room floor one night, it had only one rear leg so couldn't move very fast, a situation that allowed me to capture a number of very close images. I had forgotten to turn the flash off which was lucky because it created really interesting and intense metallic like reflections on its external body armor. I put it outside after the portrait session. That's a styrofoam cup on which it rests.

Yellow, yellow, yellow, in bright sun on the deck outside of where I sleep.

This dragonfly was captured with the camera in extreme telephoto mode and from about 6 feet away. They are normally fairly skittish so I can't usually get close to them. It's the first time I've seen one of this color in my yard. I've been starting to draw dragonflies and have just completed making one as a pendant out of silver and gold.

This one was by a small pond at a friends place in Ft. Bragg, on a rosemary plant. It was unusual in that it allowed me to get up close, only about a foot away and stayed still for several shots. It then flew away and around but returned to the very same spot for a couple more shots.

Mendocino & Caspar Neighbors

 A jay with attitude to be sure. When this was taken I had just stepped out onto the deck off of the kitchen and had inadvertently scared this bird off from the cat food it had been harvesting. You can see that he wasn't pleased and was actually a little ruffled.

 Most of my friends who are gardeners really cringe when I show them pictures of these insects but I find them photogenic often. This was taken at the Mendocino Art Center

 This was taken on Mendocino's  Albion Street, in the middle of the street just a couple of blocks from the center of town. A garter snake trying to look fierce to scare me off. It actually struck towards the camera a couple of times. It seems to be spreading the back of it's head so that it looks triangular, mimicking the shape of the heads of poisonous snakes. Although in this image it looks as if it might be big, it's head was about the size of my thumb and it was about 18inches long. I shooed it off of the road into a vacant lot so it wouldn't become goo on the road from a passing car. Nice coloring.

 For a time insects were frequent visitors to these daisies outside the kitchen. It was rubbing it's hands together in glee I guess but in the still image it looks as if it is praying.

We don't see very many any more but in year's past we had very frequent racoon visitors to our kitchen deck checking to see if we had forgotten to bring in the cat food. Sometimes we would see 4 or 5 a night often in groups of two or three. I'm not sure what has changed but they are infrequent visitors now.

Birds of Springtime

 I'm been enjoying the increase in bird activity that has been happening. I enjoy watching the changes as species come and go. To the left is a Brewers Blackbird I think. This was taken near the pond on Main Street in Mendocino as I was out and about putting up flyers for Caspar events.

 Taken in front of the Caspar Community Center, a barn swallow. They are busy building nest under overhangs on the center building as they do each spring. I love watching them fly, sometimes only a few inches above the ground. As I was arranging books for my book sale inside the center and had the doors open, one flew in and was trapped in the room for a couple of hours but finally found an escape route out an open window.

 This fellow was sort of hovering in the moving air of a breeze as I took this shot.

 Near the post office in Mendocino, a raven. When it first landed on the post it was making the raucous call that they make a lot. I made sort of a clicking sound at it and then it started making the clucking, chuckling sound that they make sometimes. This shot was taken as it was making that sound, the fine feathers on it's head fluffed as it did so. When I first heard that sound in the forest I had no idea what was making it and only later figured it out when I saw two of them flying by talking to each other in chuckles.

There are very few robins about now but earlier in the spring they were around in large numbers.  I took lots of pictures of them. A friend who has one of these bushes in her yard said that at certain times when the berries have ripened and fermented, the robins get drunk eating them and exhibit odd behavior. I hope to see that next year.

Whole Earth Festival

In our lives as jewelers we've made our living for almost 45 years selling our mixed metal jewels at art fairs & festivals in California, the southwest and the northwest. The show we have the most history with is the annual Whole Earth Festival at UC Davis which happens in May of each year, usually mother's day weekend which is May 11-13 this year. This will be our 36th year of participating in this event. It's always one of our favorites being fun and colorful with interesting music, dance, speakers,
characters, costumes and people.

It's a photogenic event and each year for the last 10 or 12 I've taken several hundred pictures  with one of my digital cameras. I like to make collages with those images for my own enjoyment and memory and to send to the young people who organize the event each year.

Here are 5 of the many collages I've done over the years, each being a slice of the life at Whole Earth each year.

We get inspired each year by exhibits and speakers at the festival focused on sustainability and being good humans on the earth.

Sometimes I do larger collages with themes such as:
Dogs of the Whole Earth Festival

Tattoos of the Whole Earth Festival

Kids of the Whole Earth Festival

Hats of the Whole Earth Festival

Not sure what my theme might be this year, I'll be collecting pictures for whatever it might be.

It's a unique event and we really enjoy reconnecting with many friends and customers each year and because of our long history there it's also one of our best money making shows with a very high percentage of our business coming from people who have bought jewelry from us before.

It has been interesting to see jewels passed down from the original buyer to a daughter and then in some cases down again to a grand daughter.

Friday, the first day of the festival is kind of a warm up day, Saturday is the busiest and most crowded day, Sunday is mellower and more relaxed, especially early in the day.
Stop by and say hello if you get to the festival. Check out some of the new jewelry we'll have there at our jewelery blog at:

MIXED METAL JEWELS

The creatures in my life

 The creatures that we share the planet with have always fascinated me, even when I was very young. As well as taking lots of photographs of them, at various times in my life I've also been attracted to painting and drawing images of them. In my life as a maker of jewels their forms have popped up from time to time in
the form of pins and pendants.

To the left is an image of a colored pencil drawing I did of a young giraffe that I took a photo of at the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco on a visit there with my grand kids. Part of me was horrified by the thought of this creature being killed so it could be stuffed and displayed in a museum and part of me was entranced by it's beauty and the opportunity to see it up close. Size of drawing is 8x12 inches.

 Lots of people that I meet have negative feelings about insects but they have always interested me. In my jewel maker persona I sometimes think of them as beautiful, little jeweled robots. This is an example of an intricate kind of pen drawing I have spent a lot of time with at various times in my life, there's is something calming and meditative to me about putting each little line on paper one at a time. Of course, some people look at that and think that I must be crazy. Well, perhaps. I can identify with this Bug on a Bubble, I've felt like that before.
Size of drawing is 8 1/2 x 11 inches.

 I have a jewelry customer in the bay area that has iguanas and has several times shown me photographs of them. This is a colored pencil drawing of a fantasized hybrid version of one in a ambiguous landscape. The abstract rock forms on which it sits I developed after a visit to Joshua Tree National Park many years ago when I became fascinated by the rock forms there and could not stop doing drawings inspired by them for about 6 weeks. Size of original is 18 x 24 inches.

 I did a series of black and with drawings combining intricate patterns with insect forms back in the early 1990's. This is the grasshopper version. Size is 6 x 9 inches.

I'm entranced with this photographic image. A week and a half ago my wife Carlie and I walked north of Ft. Bragg along the ocean to see if there were any harbor seal babies. We didn't see any but some of the 30 or so adults we saw looked pregnant so I think soon there will be young ones. I couldn't get too close to the seals because they are skittish, so I took a lot of shots using telephoto capabilities on my camera. I didn't actually see this wonderful smiling one until I looked at the images blown up on my computer later. I laughed out loud when I first saw it and it still brings a smile to my face as well as to the faces of friends to whom I've shown it and sent it in emails.

The Flying Buzz

 I grew up part of the time in central Texas and buzzards didn't get very good press or much respect there. I've grown fond of them here in the country of the California  coast though. They are such great gliders and who else would clean up the dead ones on the ground? A week ago before the Caspar breakfast and my book sale as I was unloading books at the Community center I spotted these guys on the fence at the back of the property drying their wings on the fence after the heavy rains of the day and night before. There were actually about  a dozen of them coming and

going. An interesting aspect of the scene was a flock of about 20 plus starlings that seemed to be hanging out with them. They came and went as the buzzards came and went. I haven't a clue as to what this means but noted it.

 This was taken last fall as I was taking a walk with my daughter and grandkids down in Sonoma county. A group of about 5 vultures were flying about low to the ground. I never did see what they were after. I just pointed the camera up and shot hoping to get an image.

A little later we spotted several of the group sitting in trees and on housetops adjacent to the trail on which we were traveling. This guy was really giving me the eye. I tried to tell him that I thought my time hadn't really come yet but he seemed sceptical.

Flutterbyes

 On the deck outside the kitchen door each summer these creatures come to harvest nectar from flowers I planted in a half wine barrel. They seem fairly oblivious to my presence as they focus on their task. Their wings are constantly moving so it's sometimes difficult to get a non blurred picture. I set the camera to burst shooting so that each time I press the shutter it takes several shots so I can find one that isn't blurred.

 A different perspective on the same visitor.

I just couldn't resist putting this one on the blog.
A friend of mine in Marin county grew this tomato. The nose was actually there and I just couldn't resist adding the eyes and mouth that I borrowed from another image. Photoshop can be fun.

Up the Haul Road

 We're gradually walking up the Haul Rd. that goes north from Ft. Bragg and was once the road used to haul logs in earlier lumbering days. We're walking it in increments along the ocean and finding lots of little treasures some of which are pictured here. To the right is a sparrow hawk also called an American Kestrel, one of the smaller hawks that lives all across the country, sweet coloring. I tried to get closer but it was skeptical of my intentions and flew off northward.

 At Mackerricher State Park there are harbor seal rookeries, this one was just north of the park and contained about 25 seals. This is the time of year when they have babies. It's important to not get too close to them as they are skittish and the mother seal, if scared by people or loose dogs, might escape into the ocean losing contact with her pup which is then in danger of starving to death. Volunteer monitors are on hand to try to get people to maintain their distance and to take care of abandoned pups. I was happy that my telephoto lens helped get this image.

At little Lake Cleone at Mackerricher Park the water is high and coming up over the visitors parking lot. On sunny days the starlings take baths in the warmed shallow waters. This fellow was standing contemplating bathing I guess. I'm really happy with the shadow image which, of course, I didn't even see when I snapped the picture.

An Albatross

 An albatross. It had been hurt and was a guest of the Monterey Aquarium while it recovered it's strength. They brought it out into a small courtyard each afternoon so that people could see it fairly close up. The woman talking about it warned people around it to not get too close because it could be a little aggressive if it felt threatened, although she was able to touch it and it responded positively to that. It was a large and impressive bird. The 2nd picture is the actual one, I couldn't get any pictures that didn't have various people in the background so

 I extracted the albatross from that background and overlaid it over a background of Marin Headlands skyscape. I'd rather remember this bird like that. I collect pictures of clouds everywhere that I go, the incredible variety of cloud forms amazes me.

 I never tire of taking pictures of flowers, and most especially roses. Roses are so varied in color and texture and have so many visual moods that it seems endless. They become even more magic when I get in very close to them, sensual and exotic and yet familiar too. Can't wait for spring so I can go out and capture some more images.