Yosemite and More

Before this current Covid-19 crisis three fellow photographers and I took a little  sojourn to the Merced Wildlife Refuge. It turned out to be one of the  most memorable ones I've taken to the Refuge, and that's  saying a lot. While there were a lot of geese I'm posting those a little later. This first one is of one of my favorite birds, the Black Necked Stilt. These birds are constantly feeding and usually move just as I hit the trigger. The birds in the Refuge don't seem to have any trouble mixing with each other. While the old saying 'birds of a feather, flock together' applies it's not carved in stone. The image above includes a Great Egret, below is a Snowy Egret, much smaller and there seems to be fewer of them at the Refuge. Note the longer bill. Another bird you only see a few of are the White Pelicans. While not a total stranger to the Refuge the most I've ever seen at once were  4 or 5 a c...

If you've ever driven from Merced to Yosemite you've passed this spot. I think it's called 'Bud's Place' or something like that. It's an old railroad station and has all kinds of old stuff laying around, mostly overtaken by weeds. I've driven by it tons of times and thought it might be an interesting place to shoot. Well finally the other day Friedhelm and I stopped and took a 'few' photos. We were lucky there were a couple of ladies there who had access and let us  into the bar area. There was a very eclectic decor, mostly cowboy stuff, but every nook, cranny and wall was filled. This was sitting on the end of the bar. Across the room was this guitar Outside was lots of old farm equipment.  I liked the blurred tines in the background contrasting with the single bar in the front. Here's a part of the same hay rake, I like the way it looked in sepia tone. I just like the cont...