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Daily Picks 2008 : OK, I'll bite, but I won't promise they'll all be new ones. In fact, I think I'll make it an opportunity to dig through my archives.

Daily Picks 2008

OK, I'll bite, but I won't promise they'll all be new ones. In fact, I ...

Updated: Dec 19, 2008 6:08am

Around the Sutter Buttes : The Sutter Buttes are a unique geographical feature rising out of the Sacramento Valley in California, and are a very mature photographic subject. You can drive completely around them in less than an hour.

The Buttes themselves have been done to death, photographically, but there's still lots to shoot if you look.

Around the Sutter Buttes

The Sutter Buttes are a unique geographical feature rising out of the ...

Updated: Sep 21, 2008 6:01am

Preston :

Updated: Aug 17, 2008 12:29am

Taylla : My great-niece Taylla.

My great-niece Taylla.

Updated: Aug 10, 2008 4:58am

Logan : Logan is my niece Jennifer's middle child.

Logan is my niece Jennifer's middle child.

Updated: Aug 10, 2008 6:11am

Chance : My great-nephew Chance. He got his name because they told my niece, Jennifer, he might be born on Christmas day. He was.

My great-nephew Chance. He got his name because they told my niece, Je ...

Updated: Aug 12, 2008 12:41am

Keeanna : Keeanna is Karrie's oldest. It's tough to get a good shot of her -- she's likes to mug for the camera.

Keeanna is Karrie's oldest. It's tough to get a good shot of her -- sh ...

Updated: Aug 10, 2008 3:42pm

Alayna : Alayna is my niece Karrie's daughter.

Alayna is my niece Karrie's daughter.

Updated: Aug 01, 2008 2:30pm

Dylan : Karrie's youngest.

Karrie's youngest.

Updated: Aug 10, 2008 7:59pm

Austin :

Updated: Aug 16, 2008 6:26pm

Isabella :

Updated: Aug 16, 2008 7:58pm

SmugShots :

Updated: Oct 12, 2008 5:28am

Bok Kai Festival 2009 :

Bok Kai Festival 2009

Updated: Apr 23, 2009 9:05am

Most Popular Photos

August 23, 2008.
This is my friend Kurt and Spencer, "the world's greatest doggy," as Kurt called him. That's Spencer on the left.

Spencer was a stray who haunted a deli Kurt frequented, where he was much loved by the clientele. He'd hang around politely, eyeing people's lunches, then pick out a likely candidate and gently lay his head in their lap. He was a great judge of character, and so was always rewarded with a laugh and a piece of cheese, his favorite. Spencer recognized the word cheese in at least seven languages. Seriously. Just whisper "formaggio" and you'd instantly have a smiling dog at your feet.

Worried the dog would be picked up by animal control, the deli owner encouraged Kurt to adopt him. Kurt took him home and named him after British rocker Spencer Davis. Spencer Davis should feel honored.

Spencer was the most athletic dog I've ever known, and the things he loved best were swimming and chasing sticks. And I don't mean puny little sticks; we're talking serious lumber here -- six feet long and as thick as your arm. I remember going down to the American River with Kurt and Spencer in March. In March the American River is fast and frigid with snow runoff. Kurt would find a huge log, and with both hands and a sort of discus-thrower spin, heave it out into the middle of the current. Spencer would stand at attention for a moment, triangulating, then run down the bank and jump in, swimming downstream at an angle ahead of the bobbing rushing stick, until they met in the middle, where he'd grab it and head for shore. Repeat endlessly until owner is exhausted; Spencer would hardly even breathe hard.

Then one day last year Kurt took Spencer down to the river and tossed a stick, but this time Spencer looked at the stick, then looked sadly up at Kurt, and just lay down on the shore. Six weeks later he succumbed to cancer at the age of eight.

So here's to you, Spencer; we wish we could have known you longer. You sure packed a lot of fun into your eight short years, but I'm sure you're in a place now that's full of cheese and sticks and rushing water and loving people whose arms never give out.

Whew. Sorry about the length of this caption; I got to reminiscing. But that's what photos are for, isn't it?

December 12, 2008.
This is my Mom. I think she looks pretty darned good for 79.

I'm not sure I like the propped on the hand pose, but this is the one she likes, so who am I to argue? This was from my first experience with studio lights. It was fun, but I think I need a lot more practice.

September 11, 2008.
On the north side of the Sutter Buttes in the Sacramento Valley there is a national wildlife refuge called Gray Lodge that is right in the middle of the Pacific Flyway. Every Fall and Spring millions of waterfowl stop at Gray Lodge on their migration.

I took a drive out there one February, but it was almost a total disappointment as a photo expedition. The sky was gray, the water was gray, the vegetation was gray, and I couldn't get anywhere near any of the wildlife.

Then, just as it was getting dark and I was about to give up and go home, the sun broke through the clouds for one glorious moment and everything turned pink. Two minutes later it was gone. This was the only decent shot I got that day.

October 8, 2008.
"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore..." You think this little guy's thinking about his sweetie?

Edit: I thought it was obvious, but in the interest of full disclosure, this is a PP combination of two different shots.

October 28, 2008.
On her first birthday, little princess Isabella was far too dainty to touch that sticky cake with her hands.

December 3, 2008.
Details of the Fall #5.

September 25, 2008.
OK, just one more hummingbird shot and then on to something else tomorrow. She looks like she's doing a swan dive. This probably isn't the best view of a hummingbird I've ever captured, but it's my all-time favorite bokeh. You could clone out the bird and I'd still like the shot. 8)

These shots the last couple of days are all Rufous Hummingbirds, by the way (someone asked). The females are green on their backs with that reddish-gold under their wings and tails. The males are reddish-gold all over. Those spots on their necks are irridescent red in bright sunlight, like a ruby-throated hummingbird. Here in Northern California they'll hang around all winter if you keep the feeders full.

October 20, 2008.
Vision problems run rampant in my family.

August 31, 2008.
Chance isn't sure what to think about the Jack O'Lantern.

October 9, 2008.
This is one leg of the road that circumnavigates the Sutter Buttes.

December 14, 2008.
Through the window of a local florist. One of the partners in this business is a really big deal in the world of floral design -- arrangements in the White House, wedding bouquets for foreign heads of state, that sort of thing. All I know is that he knows how to light a window display.

August 18, 2008.
I'm convinced that if I could capture a picture of a six-year-old holding a puppy on the hood of a vintage car beside a pond full of water lilys under a feeder swarming with hummingbirds it would be the most popular picture of all time.

But all I could come up with was the puppy and the car.

November 27, 2008. Thanksgiving Day.

"Uncle Bob? AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUGGGHHH!!!!!"

December 2, 2008.
Details of the Fall #4.

October 5, 2008.
Pretty in pink. Hannah is my sister-in-law Tanya's niece.

August 16, 2008
A super-wide angle lens and a cage full of puppies and kids. What could be more fun than that?

December 6, 2008.
Like I said, there are still some blossoms among the Fall foliage. This flower is my great-niece Alayna.

August 24, 2008.
Thank you all for yesterday's wonderful comments--it's nice to know that Spencer's story touched you. I wish you could have met him; he was a delight.

No tears today, though. Here's Chance again, one of my favorite photographic subjects. When he was two he thought his blue fright wig was the funniest thing ever dreamed up. He wore it constantly and laughed the whole time he had it on.

October 22, 2008.
This kid was the best base runner on my nephew Preston's little league team. He also bit his tongue a lot.

September 24, 2008.
Arnold Schwartzenegger has his Hummer, and I have mine. I bet mine can do zero to sixty a LOT faster than his.

November 20, 2008.
Well, I'm back, after nearly three weeks of stinking dreadful computer problems -- the problem being that I didn't want to go near the stinking dreadful thing. I've worked on computers every day for more than twenty-five years, and every once in a while I just get to where I don't want to have anything to do with them for awhile.

After I finally got over my techno-disgust, I started playing with a friend's Alien Bee. After about three hours, to my dismay, I discovered my trusty D200 was badly out of adjustment. You can see the problem (and my frustration) in this SP. While it's well known that the camera adds ten pounds, my Nikon was consistently adding thirty!

Nikon says there's nothing they can do about it, although they hinted that their next generation of cameras would have an adjustable blobopter that lets you dial in a chunkiness adjustment, just like the diopter does for your eyesight.

September 5, 2008.
My nephew Preston can leap tall buildings with a single bound. He's still working on the speeding bullet thing.

October 6, 2008.
This is my great-nephew Logan. This is SOOC; his eyes really are that blue.

September 20, 2008.
Alayna is one of my favorite photographic subjects. Who could resist snapping pics of that smile?

August 26, 2008.
Nice view from the back deck. The Sutter Buttes, the Sacramento Valley's most prominent geological feature, is almost entirely private property. You can drive around them, but not into them, and the only way to get really close is to take one of the hiking tours arranged by the Middle Mountain Foundation.

October 7, 2008.
I don't usually like man-made objects in my bird shots, but I think the flower pot give this an interesting graphic quality.

August 29, 2008.
Even Groucho and Chico were kids once. Here they are tooting their own horns.

November 30, 2008.

Fall shots are often big splashes of spectacular color, but sometimes I like the detail shots just as well.

September 16, 2008.
While they were waiting for their turn on the stage, these young ladies from the Punjabi-American Heritage Society whiled away their time counting photographers. One of them clearly spotted me, as she's looking right down the barrel of my long lens.

December 1, 2008.
Details of the Fall #3.

December 7, 2008.
"Don't you EVER get tired of pointing that thing at me?"

November 29, 2008.
Elvi have left the building...

We still have a little Autumn left around here, so I thought I'd post a few sort of microcosmic detail shots.

September 28, 2008.
"Let's go into this stereo store just for the halibut."

Sorry. This sign is just begging for a punny comment.

August 25, 2008.
Every once in a while I shoot something besides kids and pets.

Even though it's kind of soft from hand-holding at 200mm and shallow DOF, this is still one of my favorite hummingbird pictures. I really like how the colors of the bird and the bokeh tie in so well.

It's a Rufous Hummingbird, in case you're wondering.

September 12, 2008.
I don't know who's cuter here, Taylla or Cinnamon.

October 26, 2008.
Gordy the Banjo-ologist is a regular at street festivals in this area. He has more banjos than I have socks with missing mates. That's a lot of banjos.

October 13, 2008.
During the Summer Stroll, the dinosaur wrangler brings the raptors an afternoon snack.

September 15, 2008.
This young lady and other members of the Punjabi-American Heritage Society were performing the Bhangara at Yuba City's annual Cultural Celebration on Saturday.

Sutter County, in Northern California, has the largest population of Sikh's in the world outside of the Punjab, and they are an integral part of the community here. Bhangra is a lively form of folk music and dance traditionally performed when celebrating the harvest, but it eventually became a part of such diverse occasions as weddings and New Year celebrations.

This part of the performance took place at dusk and I was really pushing the exposures, so I missed a lot of the dance moves to motion blur. While this shot doesn't show much of the dance, I thought the light was really beautiful.

September 19, 2008.
The cliffs near the mouth of the Russian River at Jenner, California.

August 17, 2008.
A friend told the boys he'd give them $5 if they could get their hand in their mouth up to their wrist. Logan almost made it.

November 28, 2008.
Well, I hope all of you who celebrate Thanksgiving had a wonderful day. I, for one, will not be eating again until at least Sunday or Monday. I also hope we will all keep a place in our hearts for those who have less to be thankful for than we do.

After a brief break for that turkey of a shot yesterday, it's time for the finale shot from Way, Way, Way Off Broadway. I give you Elvi #4, #5, #6 and #3 (again).

Incidentally, the turkey is just fine. Around here, turkeys are as common (and just as pesty) as fleas on a junkyard dog. Earlier in the fall there was a flock of about thirty that passed through the yard every morning and evening on their feeding tour. They tear up the garden something awful, but to my way of thinking, they were here first, so we put up with the ugly things.

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