Leon Turnbull Photography

We just returned from a great weekend trip to Point Reyes, near San Francisco. It was so nice to get away from the heat for awhile in Sacramento. We saw quite a bit of wildlife on the weekend there (stay tuned for more pictures), but certainly the most wild and crazy thing we saw was this skunk on McClures Beach! I have never in all my years seen a skunk on the beach. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a skunk in the wild before.

Anyway, after work on Friday we drove on over to the coast, got dinner, checked into our lodge, then headed for McClures Beach for sunset. We had the entire beach to ourselves (except for the seagulls and this little critter). Awesome. I headed on down to the south side of the beach to find a photo op. I had put my camera bag down in the sand, then went down closer to the ocean to see if I could find a good composition that I wanted for a photo. I turned around and there was this skunk right by my camera bag! Where the heck did this thing come from??? He was paying absolutely no attention to me. It seemed like he didn’t even notice me the entire time. He continued on by my camera bag, continuing on down the beach, sniffing the sand, looking for food. I went back and collected my camera, and started taking photos of it as he meandered down the beach.

Now I had a dilemna. It was getting close to sunset, and I wanted to get some photos before the sun had set. But Mr. Skunk (or Mrs. Skunk?) was continuing on up the beach right where my wife and kids were playing in the sand. They were far up the beach, and could not see it yet. I was afraid they wouldn’t notice it in time, and when the skunk got up to them, the kids would freak out, and the skunk would freak out, and then you know what would happen. Phew! I didn’t want to have to deal with any extra smelly kids this evening. So I left my camera (the seagulls were watching over it for me), and ran down the beach in my bare feet (going wide around the skunk). I got back to my family, warned them of the skunk coming, told them not go up and pet it or anything, then ran back down the beach to my camera, to take my sunset photos. Man, was that ever tiring! But what a fun evening!

This is not a great super sharp shot or anything, but it is an interesting one of a flycatcher with a dragonfly in its mouth.

At least I think it is a flycatcher. I’m pretty sure. I’m not much of a bird watcher so I don’t know all the bird names. Especially the little ones. Oh, I know what an eagle looks like. Or a crow, or a pelican, or a sea gull, or a vulture, or a goose. I even know some of the little ones, such as a robin, or a hummingbird. Don’t ask me what a dowitcher is. Actually, you can now cuz I just looked it up. Anyway, this is a flycatcher. It has a dragonfly in its mouth. I don’t know what type of flycatcher it is. That would be quite beyond me. But if there are any experts out there, feel free to chip in.

This is not a part of the main Horsetail Falls. It is what I call Lower Horsetail Falls, a really nice slide along Pyramid Creek about 40 ft. high, and is easily accessible along the trail up to Horsetail Falls. I used my 17-40mm lens for this shot, but it would have been nice to have a 10-22mm for this shot. 17mm was just not quite wide enough to get everything in the frame that I wanted to. Still though, I rather like this photo.

Well, I didn’t feel like going on a big hike this weekend, so instead I thought that I would go somewhere close where I could try out my new 100-400L lens and shoot some birds. I almost did not get up. I did not sleep well the previous night, and I turned off my alarm around 1AM in order to sleep in. But I woke up at 5:30AM anyway, despite no alarm, and decided to just get up and go.

Folsom Lake was my choice, by the old Salmon Falls bridge. I like this location for one main reason: you don’t have to pay. Most areas around Folsom Lake you need to pay to get into. I don’t mind doing that every once in awhile, but certainly not all the time. In my opinion, state parks should be free to get into, like provincial parks are in Canada. End rant. Anyway, it is a nice area here along the American River. And as I found out, pretty darn good for bird watching too. There were, as expected, lots of Canadian geese around and also plenty of ducks. I did take a couple photos of the ducks but none of the geese. I was looking for more interesting birds than geese. I did find more interesting birds along the river, including this GBH. I was trying to not disturb the heron and still get close enough for a picture. I was not really very close to the bird at all, and he still flew off. But I was able to get this shot of him before he left. This was taken at 400mm from a long distance away, and is cropped quite a bit.

After a very enjoyable morning of shooting birds, I think I realize that I need an even bigger lens than 400mm. No, I am not going to buy another lens. But I think if I put the 100-400mm on the 20D instead of the 5D, and also put on the 1.4x extender, I would get an effective focal length of 1200mm. I’m sure it won’t be as sharp as this image though. But I think I may try that next time. Those birds don’t let you get very close to them at all, that’s for sure.

In other news, the level of the lake is extremely low already this year. It is much lower than at the same time of year last year. I remember that the Salmon Falls bridge was not visible until the end of August last year, but it is already completely showing in July this year. Pretty scary. We really really need a big winter of rain and snow this year.

You know I never take flower shots like this! What is going on here? I like flowers and all that, but I just don’t do flower shots.

Well …

You see I just had to try out my brand new lens that I just got: the Canon 100-400L IS lens. It is sweet! I have a big project coming up and got some money from that (though I don’t actually have the money quite yet, but it is coming soon). So I was able to buy this new monster lens. And it is a monster. But such a nice monster! I hope to really put it to the test next weekend when we go to the coast.

I was just playing around with it in my yard after work yesterday. These are black eyed susans from our garden. I shot this handheld at 400mm. Not a great flower shot, but not too bad for a non-flower guy, eh?