All posts by Marianne Skov Jensen

a phototographers dream day

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First I get up, walk out the door, walk a minute and I’m staring at Oak Creek. Ahhh. Here’s anotherr reflection:

oak creek reflection
oak creek reflection

A short drive north and we encounter the best fall color in years at the West Fork Trail!

West Fork Trail in Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona

Then heading toward Utah, we stop in Bluff and I get to see the famous flute playing sheep! Sand Island Petroglyphs

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Finally at our campground (see our cute RV), we get a glimpse of what we might expect all next week.
Look at the Cottonwoods!

Cottonwoods along the San Juan River in Bluff, Utah
Cottonwoods along the San Juan River in Bluff, Utah

No internet connection tomorrow and possibly the next but stay tuned for more photos.

depth of field

One of the best ways to improve your photography is to learn about depth of field (DOF).
It can make ordinary subjects stand out. I shot this dried Thistle last Friday in Flagstaff.
Knowing how to control the DOF, I was able to cause a very busy background to become
a beautiful blur. The color in the background is simply grasses and other weeds.

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(I used Nik and Topaz to bump up the contrast).

Here’s a link to a YouTube video with an excellent description of depth of field:

Understanding Depth of Field

Note: You’ll have more success achieving Depth of Field (DOF) with a single reflex camera (SLR).
It’s difficult to control in a compact camera because they tend to be sharp at all f/stop settings.

back up now!

In less than 12 hours, I had TWO hard drives fail! I have a RAID5 system and keep a spare drive in case of failure
but now I needed a second one. Amazon sent one over night (free shipping!) so this morning the RAID5 is rebuilding.

I constantly back up my data so even if all were lost, I have two other back-ups to rely on but because I have friends
who still don’t do regular backups, I wanted to give a warning again: ALL hard drives are subject to fail at any time!

Hard drives are so incredibly inexpensive today so cost is really no longer a factor. Just do it!

I’m going to hug a kitty now 🙂
BabyCLEO

what do bobcats eat

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Cloe and I had just walked out the front door when she turned around and started walking
slowly back. Then her hair began standing on end. She was staring intently at something but
I didn’t see anything. By the time I did, we were less than 15 feet way! I grabbed Cloe and
moved quickly to the front door. With Cloe in one hand and a camera in the other, I opened the
door, put her inside and simultaneously turned around and took a few shots one handed.
Scary experience but only because I was worried about Cloe. Otherwise, I felt lucky to see it!

After many, many butts, I finally get a frontal shot of a Bobcat 🙂

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Here’s a closer look at his/her beautiful face.

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So….What Do Bobcat’s Eat? According to Wiki Answers, 2 percent of their diet is “other” mammals.
Sadly, I think cats and dogs fall into that category 🙁

whatcha lookin at

When I see the cats in this position, I know they see either an animal or birds.
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This time they see a male and female House Finch enjoying something on the Golden Barrels.

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If it were Spring, I’d say they were gathering wool for their nests but there must be
some insects or something else yummy in the wool because the seeds are in the fruit.

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sedona west fork trail

We drove to Flagstaff on Thursday with hopes of color but found very little. We did find
beautiful yellow and red trees at our hotel though, so we made plans to shoot them in the morning.
With temps at 28 degrees, we opted to enjoy a sumptuous breakfast and share our photos instead 🙂
We did take a couple of minutes to get a few shots of the trees.

Little America Maple Tree (we highly recommend this hotel!)
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We then headed to Sedona with no idea that the West Fork Trail would be ripe with color!
Had we known, we would have left much earlier because as you know if you’ve ever hiked
the trail, the light is best between 9 and 11am. We didn’t arrive until noon and had to wait
a short time because the parking lot was full. We took time to eat a picnic lunch and then
headed out about 12:30 and enjoyed shooting even though the maples were in shade.

Apple Trees hadn’t turned yet but there was plenty of this red ground cover and soft grasses.
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Ferns were especially thick. Mostly yellow.
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Shade is a perfect opportunity for shaking your camera !
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Oak Creek shot with very slow shutterspeed.
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Red Maple and Ferns shot with Orton Effect in mind.
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