Field Notes

Silver Lake Sunset – 12.15.25

Circuitous cir·cu·i·tous /sərˈkyo͞oədəs/ adjective (of a route or journey) longer than the most direct way. “the canal followed a circuitous route” That definitely describes the route by which I got to Silver Lake for a sunset on December 15. Seeing the weather forecast calling for rain and gloom for the next week or more, I […]

Field Notes

Clouds, Calm Water, and a C-17 – A December Sunset at Eagle Lake

December 2025 has been an odd duck around northeastern California. La Niña has the Pacific behaving like a cold shoulder, and up here at 4,000–5,000 feet we’ve been riding a streak of dry, unseasonably pleasant weather. One perk of all that stability has been a run of sunsets that seem to taunt me every time

Wildlife Photography

Operation Kestrel Nest 2025

This may be a bit redundant for folks following me on Facebook, but I thought I’d use this format to do a long-form post about one of the most fun and interesting things I’ve ever done without leaving home. Please note many of the stills I’ll post here are single frames from vids and/or were

Behind the Image

Behind the Image: Reflective Dawn (Antelope Lake)

It is a fairly consistent occurrence in this area that a cold front comes through around the end of May or the first of June, often dashing many folks’ Memorial Day and gardening plans. I have come to refer to this event as the “Junuary” cold front. In 2020, the front was running a bit

Behind the Image

Behind the Image: Burros and Rays

In an effort to get this blog fired up with some actual content, I’m kicking off a “behind the image” series where I talk about some of my most popular photos (and a few I like whether anyone else does or not). Burros and Rays seems like the obvious place to start. This one resonates

Field Notes

Roadside Muley

This morning I took a drive near my Janesville, California home. My original plan to visit a local wildlife area didn’t pan out, so I just drove the country roads for a bit in the morning light. As usual, I saw lots of raptors on power poles, including one beautiful 4-year-old bald eagle, but I

Field Notes

When the weather has other plans

Well, anyone watching social media feeds for last few days should be aware that this year’s Leonid meteor shower peak was last night. As Leo, the radiant point of this shower, is a morning constellation here in the northern hemisphere this time of year, I figured on heading out at Zero Dark:30 and trying to

The Beauty of the Night

Our Little Star’s Electromagnetic Personality

It’s no secret by now that the little red dwarf that makes our lives possible has been very electromagnetically active lately. In 2024 and 2025 there have been several events leading to Aurora Borealis visibility all the way to at least the southern USA. Yesterday a powerful X5-class solar flare (the strongest of the year

Field Notes, Informational

And so it begins…

Welcome to what I hope will be an enjoyable project for both yours truly and anyone who finds pleasure in my photographic pursuits — set in the land of clear, crisp air, diverse open nature, clean living, along with the slow internet and unreliable power grid that come with it. What’s in a name? Anyone

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