February 2009

Finally, we’re getting some rain here in our part of the world. Wouldn’t you know, it would come when you’d rather it didn’t. I’m talking about the Amgen Tour of California Bicycle Race, the first leg of which was run yesterday from Sacramento to Santa Rosa. Dickie and I and our daughter, Mary, were waiting on the finishing stretch in downtown Santa Rosa. We stood in a mild drizzle for about two hours. Of course, the drizzle turned into a full shower just when the riders arrived. In any case, I still managed to get a few half-decent shots. Here’s one of the winner, Francisco Mancebo of Spain, as he was making one of the last laps:




I had a fairly good week with the camera last week. Dickie and I went out to the ocean one sunny day when the surf was up. Bodega Head is always beautiful when that happens. Here’s a shot of the shore line looking north from the parking lot area:




Actually, I got one of my best shots lately on the way out to the ocean. Dickie spotted a hawk on the side of the road, so I stopped about a hundred yards away and walked back to find two hawks sitting in a tree. One of them flew to a higher perch in another tree, but this one refused to move, even when I walked right up to and under the tree to get a shot from the other side of the tree. This was the closest I have ever been to a hawk and this is a crop, but it indicates just how close I really was:





Here’s the original shot. I was perhaps fifteen or twenty feet away with a 400mm lens:

I love this 400mm lens. It gets the photographer up close and personal. Here’s a Brewer’s blackbird I found bathing in a puddle at the beach:

I didn’t post on Valentine’s Day, but I did make a card for all my Flickr friends. This is a photo of the bouquet I gave to Dickie on the occasion. Here's a belated "Happy Valentine's Day" wish for you, too:

See you next time!