Of Cloudscapes and Cats

January 30, 2021January 30, 2021 Timothy Price57 Comments

The clouds over the Sandias this morning made beautiful cloudscapes, some with rainbow colors made by the rising sun reflecting off ice crystals in the thin clouds. Other clouds cast shadows as the sun rose above them.

Sasha

Silver

Loki

Spunk

Gwendolyn

Intermission

Marble

Ice crystals reflecting colors in the clouds.

Glenda

Moon in the western sky before sunrise.

Moon behind Mama Owl before sunrise

Mama Owl at sundown

Daddy Owl watching the birds flit around below him at sunset.

Mama Owl hopped over to another branch so I could get a shot of her from the levee after sunset.

Gwendolyn

January 23, 2021January 23, 2021 Timothy Price46 Comments

Gwendolyn is more adventurous than Glenda, but not into modeling like Glenda. She doesn’t hold still for long unless she is napping in a cubby or lounging in some other difficult to photograph location. She is always playful, but when I get the camera out she skedaddles under the bed, behind the couch, under a chair, wherever she is out of camera range. This afternoon I got her to come out from under the bed and give me some cute poses. Thank you, Gwendolyn.

Intermission: The wild sky this afternoon.

Moon in the rough. January 23, 2021.

Spunk Approves

January 21, 2021January 21, 2021 Timothy Price63 Comments

Murder over the bosque

Lavinia asked if I had used a telescope to photograph the moon last night. Lavinia never lets me down on being observant and asking questions when something seems different like a whole lot of detail in the moon photo. As I answered her, I did not use a telescope, I used a 400mm lens that is equivalent to a 640mm lens on my Canon 7D Mark II body. I have been considering getting a long telephoto lens for quite some time.

I was originally looking at the Canon 100-400mm lens, which is one of Canon’s best telephoto zoom lenses for mere mortal photographers, such as myself. However, the 100-400mm lens is ƒ/4.5 to ƒ/5.6, which is a little slow for as much low light photography as I do. I really needed a faster telephoto lens. I seriously considered both the Canon 400mm ƒ/2.8 and the Canon 300mm ƒ/2.8 lenses. The problem with those lenses for me is their weight. The Canon 400mm ƒ/2.8 weighs in at 12 pounds, and the 300mm ƒ/2.8 weighs 6 pounds, 1/2 the weight of the 400mm ƒ/2.8, but still a heavy lens.

I ended up compromising on speed for lighter weight and bought a 400mm ƒ/4.0 DO lens with Refractive Optics, which enables Canon to put a 400mm ƒ/4.0 lens in the same body as the 300mm ƒ/2.8 lens, shaving 2 pounds off the weight in the process. At 4 pounds, the 400mm ƒ/4.0 DO is easy to handle, and fast enough to get decent images hand held in low light. In the photos of the owls below, we could only see outlines of the owls with our bare eyes like in the first photo, but not nearly as close up. The new lens is able to focus on the owls in relative darkness, through the branches and get an amazing amount of detail.

Spunk loves my new lens

Preening

Spunk’s a lens hugger

Intermission photographed using a Fuji XE-1 with 27mm ƒ/2.8 lens

“Who are you calling a ‘lens hugger?’ Stupid Paparazzo!”

RAW image of the owls before I cropped the image and adjusted the exposure, contrast, color balance, etc.

“Oh my! The paparazzo found us again.”

Mirroring

The streak photographed using a Canon 5Ds with a Canon 70-200mm ƒ/4.0 lens

A little over half a moon on 01/21/21

Through The Glass Looking

January 17, 2021January 17, 2021 Timothy Price59 Comments

Spunk

Gwendolyn and Glenda

Loki playing

Silver

Glenda

Sasha

Loki

Marble

Glenda

No Help From Spunk

January 15, 2021January 15, 2021 Timothy Price44 Comments

“This paw ain’t made for plumbing.”

The instant hot water heater I have connected in the hot water line under the sink quit working. The quickest way to remedy the problem was to change it out with the instant water heater I had in the darkroom. I tried to enlist Spunk’s help, but he isn’t into helping with plumbing projects. He supervised from the hammock.

“Hey Paparazzo put your camera down and get back to work on changing out that hot water heater.”

Flying duck intermission.

“Hmmm, Paparazzo! You are not giving me much entertainment here. You’re like really BORING!”

“Watch your language, Paparazzo! I asked for entertainment not colorful expletives about the ‘Blankity blank’ water heater. Plus there are innocent little kitten ears out and about.”

Landings

January 14, 2021 Timothy Price71 Comments

“How do you like my impersonation of a Crane?” Oh, Spunk! I think you look more like Chupacabra. “What do you know stupid Paparazzo?”

“We think Spunk looks a lot like a Crane.” Who asked you Daddy and Mama Owls?

Sandhill Cranes landing at sunset. Another colorful sunset. The sliver moon was just above the trees after sunset.

Glenda Gets Fuzzy

January 12, 2021January 12, 2021 Timothy Price62 Comments

Glenda was trying out the new fuzzy hammock that I replace the last burlap hammock with. The Paparazzo couldn’t resist recording Glenda’s cuteness in the fuzzy hammock.

Halftime

Reyes in the Snow

January 9, 2021January 10, 2021 Timothy Price44 Comments

Gwendolyn: “You woke me up to tell me about some dumb celebration in the cold and snow?”

The first year we celebrated Reyes in Madrid, Spain it snowed. Not common for Madrid, and apparently Madrid got a lot of snow today. We stood outside in the cold and snow and watched a parade where the three Reyes Magos rode into town on Camels. Then we ate Spanish Chocolate. We have continued the tradition of eating Spanish Chocolate for Epiphany ever since. Today we celebrated outside in the cold and snow with a space heater, chimenea, fire pit, and a camp stove all burning to keep us warm. Since January 6th was on Wednesday, we waited until tonight, January 9th, to celebrate. However, instead of having our normal party with friends and neighbors coming to join in, we had family only. This was the first Reyes in the last 20 years that we didn’t invite everyone to partake in Spanish Chocolate.

The fires.

Silver napping.

Enjoying the heat when the temperature was 35ºF outside.

Spunk napping.

The end of the party before I turned the torches and lantern out.

Glenda: “You are dumb enough to be outside in the cold. I’m staying in my cozy cubby.”

Kittens, Cranes, Kitties, Crows

January 7, 2021January 7, 2021 Timothy Price60 Comments

Gwendolyn gargoyling

Glenda and Gwendolyn have full run of the house, catio, and deck now. Teagan had cast them as flying monkeys in a kitty fantasy, and she was right. The kittens are like a couple of flying monkeys. They have become very difficult to photograph because they won’t hold still if they are out of the dark kitten caves they have made for themselves in the laundry room. The big kitties have finally accepted the kittens and everyone is getting along reasonably well. The big kitties have become much more playful under the influence of the kittens. Of course, the big cats are also teaching the kittens many of their bad habits.

Cranes coming in for landing with crows in the background.