Santa Ynez Valley

Santa Ynez Valley
Our Backyard

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Raptor Portraits

The Ojai Raptor Center had their fall open house on November 10.  To get some experience with my new Canon 5D3, I paired it with my 100-400mm telephoto zoom and went to the open house.  Below are some of the images shot during that visit.


Lucy (Western Screech-Owl)



Riley (Eastern Screech-Owl)




Kramer (Swainson's Hawk)




Newton (Great Horned Owl)



Shytan (Golden Eagle)



Hitch (Bald Eagle)



Lucky (Red-shouldered Hawk)




Avalon (juvenile Bald Eagle)



Kira (American Kestrel)



Spooky (Barred Owl)



Saturday, November 3, 2012

Canon 5D Mark III

When we travel I like to have a second camera body.  This gives me a backup if I have a problem with my primary camera.  It also allows me to have two cameras set up with different lenses (e.g. wide angle zoom and a telephoto) when I might need to quickly switch.  Recently my primary camera was the Canon 7D and its backup was my old Canon Rebel XTi.  I just upgraded my primary camera to a Canon 5D Mark III.  The 7D will become the backup/alternate.  I've only been able to shoot a few test images around the yard, but from this small sample, I think I'm really going to like this camera!

These are some of the sample images.  Many of these are heavily cropped.  These were all shot with my 400mm telephoto lens mounted.














Monday, September 24, 2012

Elkhorn Slough Revisited

The final two nights of our summer travels were spent in Moss Landing, California, so that we could enjoy another wildlife cruise on the Elkhorn Slough.  As with our previous visit in 2011, there was a wealth of wildlife to be seen.


The tour boat skipper said that this boat had been sitting there for about one month.

Lots of sea otters hanging around the slough



Just a few sea lions.



Great Blue Heron

Arctic Terns in flight


Snowy Egret

Marbled Godwit

Long-billed Curlew

Harbor seal hauled out on the bank

A "squadron" of pelicans

A favorite tern hangout




More sea otters

Some otter "foreplay"

A "bad feather day"

Great Egret

Great Blue Heron in flight

Snowy Egret fishing

American Avocet

A large sea otter pup nursing

Size comparison; Snowy Egret, Great Egret, Great Blue Heron

A lot of harbor seals resting on a mud bar

Pelican fly-by

Cormorant with lunch

Another harbor seal

A couple of rather rare birds


Pelagic Cormorant

Sea otter enjoying a large clam