Pacific Grove: Butterflies & High Surf

The photography club held a shoot-out at the Pacific Grove Butterfly Sanctuary. This is a small, protected grove of trees and bushes that Monarch Butterflies are free to use for a little R&R. At times, there are thousands hanging and flitting around, but on this day, there were only a few hundred. They were not easy to spot. It took a long time and many people pointing before I finally spotted this next one.

I had a 400 mm lens and still could not fill the frame.
I think I will have to go back when there are more.
I'd like to get a photo of a cluster hanging in tree.

As it happened, there were high surf warnings along the coast on this day: another great photo opportunity. We left the sanctuary around 11:30 and headed for the coastal drive. The day was beautiful, the waves were tremendous, and the place was crowded with people and cars. Parking was at a premium because all the normal parking areas were closed due to the dangerous surf.

Pacific Grove is beautiful any day of the year,
(See my previous posts in April & May.)
but this day's combination of blue sky, big rocks, and high surf
made it especially photogenic.

As I photographed, I kept a look out for that rogue tidal wave
that always shows up in the movies, like this one.

To see more of my photos of Pacific Grove,
click "My Flickr Site," under Favorite Links
or copy/paste this URL

http://www.flickr.com/photos/suebrazelton/

Full Moon Rising

The moon is full today, Monday,11/2. Last Thursday I followed the almost full moon to this spot in San Martin. I liked the trees and rolling hills in the foreground, but I was much closer to the hills here (than in previous shoots), so I went back on Saturday to find out how long it would take the moon to rise over the hills. After scanning the sky for over an hour past the horizon moonrise time, I thought this might be the first time ever that the moon failed to rise. But patience finally paid off and I learned exactly where and when it was going to peek above the hills. I was ready to return on Sunday for the most favorable photographic light, when the moon's appearance coincides with the sun's set.

The clear, blue November sky provided a perfect background
for another magnificent full moon.

The moon rises fast. I spent a lot of time preparing for the optimal 10 minutes that the moon is big and within touch of the hills. But I'm a lunatic, so I'll do it again next month.

Happy Halloween

I drove by this poor, misguided witch on several occasions on my way to San Jose and thought she would make the perfect photo to share for Halloween, so one afternoon, on the way home, I stopped and captured her plight in pixels.

This red barn is on the same road as the witch. I've had my eye on it for awhile also. With the bright blue sky in the background, this seemed like the perfect day to photograph it.

Which photo do you like better?

Stormy Weather

The storm of two days ago was described as "the worst October storm in 50 years." I thought it was the best. We don't usually get rain this early in the season, and we really needed it (although I'm sure the grape growers and farmers and downtown business owners disagree). For 24 hours the drought was over and it felt wonderful. I had a job in San Jose on Tuesday. Although the morning drive was a little hairy (I left my house well before sunrise), the drive home was nothin' but fun: rain and puddles and spray and flooded intersections. I can have this happy attitude because my house is on high ground (although my garage was partially flooded) and I avoided the low-lying downtown area which was under water. Morgan Hill received 7 inches of rain in 24 hours.

Are you wondering how I got these photos?
Was I driving and photographing at the same time?

Please! That would not have been safe.

Early Wednesday morning I took a drive to check out the damage. The water at most of the flooded intersections had substantially subsided. The ground was so dry before the storm that the water soaked in quickly, but anyone could tell that a major storm had passed through. Downtown merchants still had a huge clean-up job.

I love the rain.
I bet we'll soon see a twinge of green in the hills.

Harvest Moon

For three evenings I scouted for places to photograph the October full moon. I happened upon a side street off Watsonville Road and followed it to its dead end at a pumpkin field. I parked my car and continued on foot through the field, keeping an eye on the moon and trying to visualize the perfect shot. Only a few pumpkins were left in the already harvested field, but I thought wouldn't it be great if I could get a pumpkin and the moon in the same shot. This would require that my camera be at ground level... along with me. Since I was trespassing, I figured lying down might not be such a bad idea anyway. I wouldn't have a second chance to set up the shot, but I knew right where the moon was going to rise, so I found a suitable pumpkin, lined it up, and sprawled out behind my camera.

As I was lying on the ground among the leaves and vines,
I felt one with Charlie Brown.
You can view my photographs of September's full moon
by clicking on "Full Moon Rising"
under September (to the right).

Wine Grapes

I set out to find and photograph wine grapes. This is a bit late in the season and most of the vineyards have already been harvested. Fortunately, Clos Le Chance Winery, which is only a few miles from my house, had a couple of varieties still on the vines, and I found one vineyard that was not surrounded by a fence.

The grapes were plentiful.

The sun was very bright and caused a lot of bright spots and shadows. I used a diffuser to even out the light, sometimes stretching away from the camera with the diffuser held up in one hand and the cable release in the other. I parked right next to the vines,
so I had all my camera gear close by...

and could change the lens as I needed.
The grapes looked like they were ready to pop.

The day was so pretty, I hated to leave.

I'll come back when the leaves have turned red and gold.

Kansas

My father grew up on a farm in Troy, Kansas. He joined the Navy, saw California, and decided that was the place for him. I grew up in southern California. In addition to the many family road trips to Kansas to visit my grandparents and aunt & uncle, my brother, sister and I spent several summers on the two farms, gathering eggs, milking cows, feeding sheep, and hollerin' for pigs ("Suuuu-eeee, suey-suey"). My aunt still lives in Troy, a small town right out of Middle America, with a water tower to announce its presence.

My aunt no longer lives on the farm we visited as children.
A few years ago she moved into the home
(on the outskirts of town)
in which my uncle grew up.

Pretty, isn't it?

In the old days, if you wanted water,you had to pump a handle.
I remember doing just that!

This is the view off my aunt's back porch.

That's a soy bean crop just waiting for harvest.Doniphan County has its own water tower.
I liked this photo because the top of the tower looks
higher than the clouds.

It's fall and the harvest has started. The main crop around Troy is corn, which will be used to produce corn products (like Fritos), feed for livestock, and bio-fuel. I walked into this corn field and thought,

"If you build it, they will come."

This year has produced a bumper crop and farmers will be putting in long hours of harvesting right up to Thanksgiving. The harvesting is done on a combine, a HUGE machine that cuts the stalks, plucks the cobs, shucks the husks, and isolates the kernels,

which are then transferred to a HUGE trailer
pulled behind a HUGE tractor.

From the trailer, the corn is transferred to a container on a semi-truck, driven to storage bins, and using a conveyor like escalator, dumped in. Farming is BIG business. Did I mention that everything is HUGE? Last year I climbed about one third of the way up this tower. I'd like to get all the way to the top. Maybe next year. Most of my childhood days in Kansas were in the summer when it is hot and humid. (I am so glad my father found California.) But the weather on this trip, just at the start of fall, was perfect. I saw skies like this every day.