Category Archive

While I was in Alaska last week, we filled the last couple of remaining openings in our schedule at the Desert Photo Retreat, and are now officially sold out for the remainder of Spring 2021!

I have had lots of inquiries about the night sky workshops I typically run this time of year, and we are still not offering any group activities at least until June. We hope to have lots of all activities available beginning next January (2022). I don’t know if we will open before January, but it is possible.

This is a gray fox from earlier this month. He comes by most nights, and we are beginning to see a bobcat a little more frequently. Janine watched it in the afternoon a couple of days ago.

For my next night of bat photography, I attempted to get them flying right at the camera. This came pretty close. Next, I would like to photograph them from below, with the stars, and / or moon in the background.

A striped skunk at the waterhole the same night I was photographing the bats!

I normally wouldn’t share an out of focus image, but this is too cool not to share. I had my camera trap setup at the water hole when this bird swooped in and grabbed a mouse! I set my focus for the edge of the water, and because I was maximizing the stars, I had a fairly big aperture of f/4, thus limited depth of field. The bird was well beyond my focus point.

I believe this is a great-horned owl. We have a pair on the property, along with a pair of western screech owls. Based on the size, I’m thinking great-horned, but open to other opinions.

Olympus E-M1 II, 12-100 lens at 15mm at f/4, 20 second exposure, two Godox flashes at 1/64 power, Camptraption motion and flash transmitter / receiver triggers. Combining wildlife with the stars only works on near moonless nights where there isn’t ambient light.

A morning, mourning dove yesterday at sunrise. So close – just 14 minutes earlier a gray fox came in for a drink. Too bad the fox wasn’t just a bit later. Maybe it is just as well, as the rock in the center of the frame would have made me crazy. I had put it there in the dark to help with focus, but then in the dark forgot to move it off out of frame. 🙂

A hooded skunk last night at one of my water holes. I think this is a surprisingly striking mammal. Hooded and stripped skunks are regular visitors to the waterhole every night. I often see them in person, and they don’t really pay me any attention. The spotted skunk (maybe even more striking) visits less often, and I don’t think I have seen one in person until last night. Last night, on my way to check on my camera, I ran across a spotted skunk twice! The first time it ran, but the second time is watched me from a crack in a large rock. Pretty fun. Surprisingly, it never visited the waterhole, so I still don’t have a good photo of one.

A Pyrrhuloxia also from New Year’s day.  Also known as the desert cardinal.  

I spent the first evening of the new year photographing in the lower blind – so much fun! He is a white-crowned sparrow right at sunset.