Oakland-Alameda Naval Air Station - Now Alameda Point, Home of the USS Hornet And More Cool Ships

I made a quick visit to Alameda Point, home of the aircraft carrier - USS Hornet.  Being a "military brat" (raised by a retired career Air Force father), I love ships, planes, jets, etc.  I didn't have time to go on the Hornet, which is now a museum, but I did want to scope out the island and get a few shots in preparation for a future trip.  

xoxo

Nikon D3300

More Exciting Birdwatching at Merced National Wildlife Refuge!

Another clear, gorgeous morning down in Merced, California.  I love this National Wildlife Refuge for it's beautiful, calm waters as much as for the birds that gravitate to them.  

On this morning, there were two pods of American White Pelicans on the Refuge.  One of which was quite large, but both were also a pretty good distance from the auto tour road.

Breeding plumage!

Pied-billed Grebe

I've never seen such beautiful mirrored waters before!  No adjustments or filters necessary. 

Here's that second, larger pod of Pelicans behind all the Snow and Ross Geese. 

I LOVE to see Ibis!  And this mirrored shot got me in my feelings!

Another stunningly beautiful Ibis!

Right after I snapped the photo, he took flight.  Such a colorful beauty!  Look at those wings!

Sometimes I feel like, somebody's watching me!

Me after another wild birding adventure...

...feeling that empty nest syndrome!

xoxo

Nikon D750

In Search of the Supermoon, Nature, and Art - January 21, 2019 - Death Valley & Rhyolite Sculpture Garden

I've shared several posts from my adventures over the weekend of January 19th through the 21st.  I started with a walk at Pixley National Wildlife Refuge and then visited the amazing Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park.  After that I did the auto tour at Kern National Wildlife Refuge where I saw some gorgeous birds.

Next on the agenda was a harrowing drive through Death Valley (to which I had never been).  I say harrowing, because I had just got my rear brakes done on my car but didn't realize that one of my front brakes was in bad shape too.  By the time I got through Death Valley, that brake was pretty much metal to metal.  Scary!  There are some really steep hills going down into the valley, let me tell you. 

But it is truly beautiful.  As I've mentioned before, when you're just driving through the desert and not paying attention, it looks monotonous.  But when you slow down and pay attention, there are so many diverse things that create a beautiful landscape.  

Unfortunately, I got down there just before sunset, so I didn't even get to see a 10th of this wondrous area.  I definitely will be taking a longer trip with more specifics in the near future.  

But what I did see what gorgeous.   

And the sunset was so beautiful.  

Even in black and white!

The supermoon was rising as I drove through the Valley.  I pulled over to give my brakes a rest.  In addition to the beautiful vista, I was surprised by a wild burro that gave a kick and ran from my headlights as I came around a corner!

My goal was to take pictures of the Supermoon at the Goldwell Open Air Museum at Rhyolite, Nevada.  

Unfortunately, I had some tripod issues and when I tried to move to a different spot to get some different angles, my tripod wouldn't get stable again.  :( So, again, I need to go back. 

The next two are cool because I did get some of the eclipse. 

I don't know much about astral photography and I don't have any photo stacking software so these are all just basically edited from Raw in Photoshop.  I'm going to set a goal to learn more about night sky photography and get better at it over the next year.  :-)  

xoxo

Nikon D750