Ryan's Journal

"My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?" — David Mitchell

Tag: Photography

Tooth Peak

Posted from Redfish Lake, Sawtooth Mountains, Idaho at 7:13 pm, September 29th, 2012

While looking at a woodpecker near the lodge today an older British couple walked up to us and started chatting. While talking about birds that they’d seen, the lady mentioned that she hadn’t gotten any pictures of hawks, but “there was this lovely hawk right outside of our cabin window yesterday, but just as I got out my camera someone walked under the tree and he flew off.” She paused, looked at me more closely, furrowed her brow and asked “Was that you?”

Oops.

Today’s other adventures included a leisurely four mile hike along Fishhook Creek, ending at a meadow with a great view of the Sawtooths and a beaver dam across the creek. Along the way the trip’s first wild bald eagle made an appearance, thus fulfilling my eagle-finding pledge to Audrey. Since Northern Idaho requires at least two adventures per day we then rented a canoe and cruised around Redfish Lake, at all times exercising impeccable watercraft handling and perfect canoeing technique while also making sure to touch lots of logs and rocks. The plan for tomorrow includes getting up for sunrise and then searching for cranes in the Stanley basin before eating the lodge’s delicious breakfast buffet and making the scenic loop back to Boise.

Fishhook Creek, Sawtooth Mountains

Sawtooth Mountains, Fishhook Creek, and a beaver dam, not necessarily in that order.

Canoeing in Redfish Lake

Canoeing in Redfish Lake. I am that awesome. Photo by Audrey.

Last Flight of the Endeavour

Posted from Culver City, California at 6:43 pm, September 23rd, 2012

When a three year old sees a rocket, for inexplicable reasons that kid is likely to start screaming, and he will then start running around in circles while also perhaps punching himself in the head due to uncontrollable excitement. As he ages the kid will calm down and learn to control himself, eventually growing into a normal adult who admires rockets but manages to do so in a mature way.

When it comes to spaceships, I never grew out of the three year old stage.*

The shuttle Endeavour is making the LA Science Center its final home, and on Friday it arrived in Los Angeles on top of its 747 carrier plane after touring Sacramento and San Francisco. The flight plan called for the pilots to pass by Venice Beach (as well as many other local landmarks), so I took some time off from work and joined a few hundred people there to watch the final flight of the spaceship. As it turned out, the pilots had free reign to fly anywhere they chose in LA, and they used that freedom to make an unannounced pass over LAX at two hundred feet, Top Gun style, and then turned up the coast and made an unexpected second pass over those of us who had already begun to leave Venice Beach to get back to work.

The next part of the shuttle’s move occurs on October 12 when it will be put on a transporter and slowly taken to its new home at the science center, and I’ll more than likely be stationed somewhere along the route, screaming, running in circles, and punching myself in the head as it passes by.

*In fairness, many people have specific things that elicit Pavlovian responses that turn them into three year olds – witness women at a KISS concert or men in the bleachers at a Packers game.

Shuttle Endeavour

In the words of Scott: “That’s one badass shuttle pilot to be able to land the shuttle on top of a 747 in mid flight.”

Shuttle Endeavour with Chase Plane

The shuttle and one of its two chase planes.

Preparing for the Kayak of Doom

Posted from Poipu, Kauai, Hawaii at 8:13 pm, August 27th, 2012

Aaron and I are doing a seventeen mile kayak along the Napali Coast tomorrow, so if there are no further journal entries after this one, that’s the place to tell the rescuers to start searching for bodies.

After plunking down deposits for tomorrow’s eight hour death march we did a snorkel in murky, turbulent waters and followed that up with three trips down the hotel’s water slide – surprisingly a request from two grown men for the wristbands that allow repeat trips down the slide did not elicit even a raised eyebrow from the hotel staff, so they’re either really well trained or we weren’t the only ones who appreciated the mad g-forces on the turns. After the watersports Ma and Pa joined us for sunset and a few chases of the local chickens before we headed to bed at the late hour of 8PM.

Sunset in Kauai

Sunset in Kauai.

Travelin’ Man Part 2

Posted from Culver City, California at 1:31 pm, June 23rd, 2012

The month of many travels concluded with a long weekend spent driving with Audrey from the Bay Area back to LA along the coast.

Thursday July 14

After working in Berkeley I picked Audrey up at Oakland airport and we then headed to Ma and Pa’s for the evening. The night concluded with a viewing of photos of young Ryan in an awesome Superman outfit, and questionable shots of a younger Skipper in a speedo.

Friday July 15

After bacon at the Hick’ry Pit in Walnut Creek we visited the Lindsay Wildlife Museum, because girls like to see cute animals and go “Awwwwww!” The museum’s eagle was calling, the hawks were hawking, and the owls were owling. Following that excursion we headed to Moss Beach under amazingly non-foggy skies to meet Audrey’s best friend Krissy, who is now a docent at the state beach across the street from her home and thus empowered to yell at anyone who gets too close to the seals. She gave us the beach tour, then took us on a walk that ended at a restaurant with amazing views and awesome Pisco Sours – everything after the second drink is a bit of a blur.

Saturday July 16

The next morning Audrey and Krissy went stand-up paddle boarding in Half Moon Bay while Krissy’s husband and I went kayaking. I got the sleek red kayak with flames on it ’cause it was super awesome, and jetted off to chase baby seagulls, loons, and other critters for the next two hours. Following that adventure we met JB at his new place, which somehow has a 1500 year old redwood in the middle of it. He gave us a tour in the back of a Polaris ATV before we had to drive down to Carmel for the evening. Audrey took me to a fancy restaurant with beautiful gardens for dinner, where I ordered a meal of buffalo chicken strips in an effort to keep things classy.

Sunday July 17

The trip through Big Sur involved many stops, including a visit to the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park where we were visited by five red-headed acorn woodpeckers. Further down the road we stopped in Piedras Blancas to see the elephant seals, made a visit to Hearst Castle (although sadly it was too late for a tour), then had the following encounter further south on Highway 1:

Me: “Why are all of those cars stopped ahead? What are they looking at?”
…pause…
Me: “There are zebras on the top of that hill.”
Audrey (not wearing her glasses): “C’mon! Tell me what it is, really?”

As it turned out, the last remnants of William Randolph Hearst’s private menagerie now roam the Hearst ranch, and it was indeed a herd of zebras grazing by the road. Definitely not something you expect to see on the California Coast, and yet another reason why road trips are such awesome endeavors.

Audrey in Piedras Blancas

Audrey being pretty in Piedras Blancas.

Our Little Grey Friends

Posted from Culver City, California at 3:07 pm, March 25th, 2012

New house, similar visitors. It took less than a day for the finches to find the feeder, and the squirrels followed shortly thereafter. Feeder #2 is currently en route from Amazon and will double the size of the bird buffet.

Squirrel on the bird feeder

The squirrels haven’t yet resigned themselves to the fact that this is a squirrel-proof feeder, so rodents flying through the air and slipping off of plastic tubes have been a common sight over the past days.

Raintree

Posted from Boise, Idaho at 10:11 pm, February 20th, 2012

Just over six years ago Audrey and I moved to the West Side of LA to live in a townhome next to a pond full of ducks, surrounded by trees full of squirrels, and with a neighborhood full of ill-behaved dogs that bark incessantly; two out of three ain’t bad.

Today, the move to our new casa is ongoing. There has been some drama as the old owner needed extra time to move out, but at this point his stuff is nearly gone, we’ve done some initial work (changing locks, removing asbestos), have scrubbed until our hands went numb, and have moved about a dozen carloads of stuff, including some of Audrey’s giant rolling shelves that were transported on the roof of the Subaru Beverly Hillbillies-style. The dust plume resulting from all of this activity has reduced us both to walking sinus colds, but breathing is clearly overrated.

In the midst of all of this moving I somehow managed to end up out of town in Boise for three days. Luckily I’ll be back on Thursday night in time to complete a mad scramble culminating in a U-Haul rental and the end of Great Move of 2012, followed by the beginning of the Neosho era.

Red-shouldered hawk

One of the neighbors that we will sadly be leaving behind.

Mallard Ducklings

The annual “running of the ducklings” is another event that will be greatly missed in our new home.

Who Knew?

Posted from Delano, California at 8:50 pm, December 30th, 2011

Ryan is in a hotel tonight. For the first time in four nights a bed, a shower, and a change of clothes are coming, and happiness and joy shall follow.

Last night was again spent car camping, allowing the trip to resume from Yosemite Valley with an early morning view of the valley from Tunnel View as the payoff. A trip to the Mariposa giant sequoia grove followed – the trees are beyond impressive, and after finding a quiet trail to escape from the surprisingly large and loud crowds the trees worked their magic on this normally office-bound traveler, helping to restore some order to the universe.

After leaving the park I scanned the map for green dots along SR-99, and stumbled on the Pixley National Wildlife Refuge. A late day arrival at the refuge allowed for a short hike, but aside from a few hawks and waterbirds the animals seemed to be in hiding. That is, they were hiding until sunset, at which point all hell suddenly broke loose. Hundreds upon hundreds of sandhill cranes started calling out while flying overhead, a pack of coyotes began howling in an adjacent field, and I accidentally spooked an owl who flew out of a tree next to me and began hunting the fields nearby. What had been a moderately interesting stop suddenly morphed into a reason to spend the night in Kern County, and the plan is to return, camera in hand, to see if the wildlife chaos continues at dawn.

El Capitan from Tunnel View, Yosemite National Park

El Capitan from Tunnel View. If this rock formation doesn’t look impressive to you, look closely at the top – those tiny green things are full-grown ponderosa pine trees.

Sandhill Cranes, Pixley National Wildlife Refuge

Sandhill cranes at sunset. Multiply this flock 100x, add in the amazing sound of the birds calling, and put a better photographer behind the camera, and you’ll have some sense of what the sky was like once the sun went down.

Tioga Road

Posted from Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California at 7:39 pm, December 29th, 2011

Last night’s bed time was 8:00 PM – writing this entry tonight at 7:35 is clearly pushing my current limits. The adventure for the day began just before six and led through Yosemite’s high country along Tioga Road, a path that closes with the first snow each winter but remains open this year due to one of the driest Decembers on record. God was obviously feeling manly when he created this part of the world, and it was a fun outing amongst the rocky crags, with plenty of quiet time available to ensure that things were right with the world.

Tioga road ends at Highway 395 and Mono Lake, and while the latest version of the plan called for spending the remainder of the trip going south along the Eastern Sierra, a sudden change of mind resulted in a brief visit to the lake and then a return through Yosemite. A hike up Pothole Dome near Tuolumne Meadows finished off the afternoon, and the evening will again be spent camping in Yosemite Valley with tomorrow’s plans somewhat uncertain.

High Sierra, Yosemite National Park

View from Olmstead Point. There is a lake barely visible above the trees that was frozen solid and covered in ice skaters.

Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park

View of Tuolumne Meadows from Pothole Dome. Bob Ross would not have referred to this as a “happy cloud”.

Day Two

Posted from Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California at 6:21 pm, December 28th, 2011

I slept in a rest area next to I-5 last night because that’s obviously what well-adjusted, successful, 36 year old IT professionals do. Pulling into the parking spot two dozen pairs of eyes reflected back in the headlights – I’ve never seen so many rabbits in such a small area, although later in the evening a screaming kid and two dogs put an end to the Watership Down reunion. Wake up this morning at six-ish allowed plenty of time to amble along towards Yosemite, and the day was spent roaming some of the non-knee-breaking trails in Yosemite Valley. Past trips to the park have intentionally avoided the really touristy spots, but given the knee issues and the smaller crowds it seemed like a good time to finally visit places like Lower Yosemite Falls and the Ahwanhee Hotel. Tonight will be spent car camping in the park’s main campground, and tomorrow it’s off at sunrise for a day-trip through the high country.

Half Dome, Yosemite National Park

Half Dome. If my knee was in better shape then I would be in the photo, at the top, standing near the edge, looking exhausted.

Half Dome, Yosemite National Park

At sunset Half Dome turned a brilliant red color. Sadly the bottom two-thirds remained in shadow, so in a burst of creative genius I only photographed the top.

Bodega

Posted from Livermore, California at 7:56 pm, December 27th, 2011

Day one of what Audrey has dubbed the “man trip” – luckily the girl recognizes that sometimes the boy needs time alone to, as she calls it, “sleep in the dirt”.

After waking up at 6:30 in the Holliday family compound the Subaru and I set off in soup-like fog towards Bodega Bay. A detour at the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge resulted in some quality bird time, including an egret who was impressively unafraid. The fog finally broke around 10AM, and Bodega Bay yielded a massive number of seabirds, hawks, vultures, sea lions, and two grey whales, although (surprisingly) not a single photo. For future reference: December/January and March/April are whale migration times, and unless today was unusual they travel extremely close to shore. After some hiking and a ginormous seafood lunch the few remaining daylight hours were spent heading south through Point Reyes and along Highway One, aka the most scenic road in the USA.

The current plan is to go to Yosemite tomorrow, but given past precedent a betting man would not be unwise to take odds on that plan being derailed by an unforeseen side-trip. However, with Tioga Pass apparently still snow free the chance to see Yosemite’s high country in late December seems like an opportunity not to be missed.

Great egret, San Pablo Bay NWR

Great egret, San Pablo Bay NWR. This bird was surprisingly unafraid, although perhaps word has gotten out about my less-than-stellar hunting abilities.

Watching Birds

Posted from Culver City, California at 8:49 pm, November 15th, 2011

The girl and I were in San Diego for a wedding and a birthday, and with my new Marriott Rewards Super-Awesome status we scored a free room in La Jolla. Despite a forecast for a rainy weekend we woke up to clear skies Sunday morning and ventured out to find hundreds of pelicans on the cliffs. Other highlights included calling my shot on the hotel’s wheel of fortune (free parking, thank you much), too much food, and an appearance by Dorf himself at Audrey’s grandmother’s 95th birthday bash.

Brown Pelican, La Jolla

There’s probably a good reason why ages ago someone decided to call this bird a brown pelican, and that reason may be that they were colorblind.

Seabirds, La Jolla

Fun for the kids: how many sea lions are in this photo? If you said more than four, you counted a rock.

Brown Pelican, La Jolla

It takes many, many cups of coffee to make my eyes look like his.

Photos from the Antarctic

Posted from Boise, Idaho at 6:35 pm, October 31st, 2011

For those who thought the last journal entry was too wordy, the following is presented without further comment:

Ryan above a king penguin colony, Salisbury Plain, South Georgia Island

Above a king penguin colony at Salisbury Plain, South Georgia Island. Now I understand why people look at photos of themselves and say “I look fat in that photo”.

Leopard Seal, Cierva Cove

Leopard seal in Cierva Cove. He’s smiling because he wants to eat you.

Adelie Penguins, Paulet Island

Adelie penguins near Paulet Island.

Mt. Fitz Roy, Patagonia

Mt Fitz Roy in Patagonia after an early morning wakeup.

Central Idaho

Posted from Stanley Basin, Idaho at 8:24 pm, September 10th, 2011

Whatever its faults may be, America is a pretty spectacular place to live, as today’s roadtrip through Central Idaho reminded. In addition to experiencing the scenery on the trip up here, poor planning on my part combined with a dearth of local lodging options to lead to a night of car camping in a Dodge Charger, so the view from my “bed” includes the Sawtooth Mountains and the Stanley Basin, while my neighbors for the evening will be falcons, deer, and sandhill cranes.

The leisurely drive up here was filled with mountains, streams, trees, and a smattering of wildlife, including the first sandhill cranes I’ve seen since 2002. Interestingly, the thing I always forget about the mountains until I’m back in them is the smell – there’s something about the air that makes you want to just close your eyes and breath deeply for a while. A bum knee has limited the hiking, but just being able to get outside and stand next to a mountain stream, or to watch a dozen cranes from the roadside, has been a good reminder of why it’s important to leave the city and refresh the soul from time-to-time.

Sandhill cranes in Central Idaho

If there had been a chance for a better photo I would have hung out with these birds for hours, but they were heading away from me and I was pretty sure that following them would freak them out, so getting an acceptable sandhill crane photo remains on the TODO list.

Smoky landscape in Central Idaho

The Sawtooth National Recreation Area brochure boasts that this area has the clearest air in the lower-48 states, but a nearby wildfire conspired to keep things hazy.

Prairie Falcon, Central Idaho

The caption for this photo would be something like “The Watcher” if I was an artist, or “Where the hell did the rest of the fence go?!?” if I wasn’t.

Iceland Photos

Posted from Boise, Idaho at 11:11 pm, August 14th, 2011

The return to full-time work has made subjects for journal entries hard to come by. Audrey suggested that I devote one of August’s entries to the crowd-pleasing topic of city planning, but because it’s been over a month since any photos have been posted, and because I don’t want to bore my twos of readers, that topic will have to wait until at least the next entry. In the mean time here are a handful of photos from the 2008 trip to Iceland. Although the bird in the first photo was the subject of a previous journal entry, all three images are seeing their world debut tonight.

Atlantic Puffin

Atlantic puffin on the Latrabjarg cliffs. There is probably a “proper” way to photograph these birds, but “get really close in good light” worked well enough for me.

Skogafoss Waterfall

Skogafoss waterfall. The Iceland trip started out as a photography workshop led by Rod Planck, during which time I learned that if you’re not a great photographer, just photograph a waterfall in cloudy weather using a long exposure and all will be well.

Hverir, Myvatn

Thermal features near Myvatn. The Myvatn region of Iceland is an active volcanic area, and thus there seems to be steamy pools and odd landscapes around every corner.