Day 168 – Desert Lizards

I am a day behind on posting (and there’s a story behind that) but I guarantee that these were all taken yesterday! As you know, I live in rural Nevada. And most of Nevada is desert. In northern Nevada we are considered “high desert” which means very little water, a very short growing season, and very little green. I have very few opportunities to photograph lush landscapes and overgrown properties, but what I can photograph are the creatures that live here.

I took a lot of photos for this series and will not post them all, so if you’d like to see the rest of them, please check them out at my SmugMug gallery, Desert Creatures.

What we have a lot of in our neck of the woods are yellow-backed spiny lizards. Yesterday I stepped outside to turn the drip system on our front foliage and caught this little one sipping water at a tiny stream leaking from the tubing. This one is a female, and appears to be quite young. She was quite small, maybe three inches from the tip of her nose to the tip of her tail. (click on images for larger version)

She was as curious about me as I was about her

She wasn’t the least bit shy and I moved slowly enough that she allowed me to move in closer and closer to her. The detail of her face and body are remarkable.

I moved in closer . . .

And closer . . .

After shooting some more (check out the gallery for the rest), I walked around the house to the drive-way area and came upon this guy, a fully mature male who was sunning himself near our parked cars. He was quite larger than the young female above. These lizards can grow to 5 1/2 inches long from the their nose to the base of their tails. Add in the tail and they can get pretty long! This guy was huge. I can tell he is a boy from the blue under his jaw. Though I could not see his belly, I am sure it was blue as well.

Like his younger counterpart, he wasn’t particularly skittish. The creatures that live on our property are pretty much used to our comings and goings and as long as we don’t move too fast, everything is fine. So I moved in closer.

Perspective on size: the twig his forearm is on was just under half and inch in diameter. The rabbit pellet by his rear leg is about a quarter of an inch.

Don’t forget to check out the gallery!

Day 167 – Crescent Moon at Dawn

I shot this at about 5:15 this morning. The sun had not yet peeped over the horizon. I chose not include any horizon because I was so taken with the moon and the colors of the sky.

Day 166 – Fire in the hills

Brush fire in the hills just south of us. We’re keeping an eye on it. Luckily there is very little wind. Nonetheless, the fire is growing.

Day 165 – Family Photo

I was playing with lighting again doing some self portraits using diffused flash. This is a cropped version of one of the shots. In the background is the family portrait taken at our wedding.

Day 164 – Now and Then

The new blossom and the faded flower are beautiful in their own way, don’t you think?

Day 163 – Toy

I may have mentioned previously one of my cats, Jezebel, is a talker. I mean she’s really a talker. She will wander from room to room meowing and meowing. I’ve tried distracting her with the laser pointer, but that only lasts for the length of time I am willing to play. So today I went to the pet store for cat food and to search for something that would engage Jezzie’s mind.

This toy has a well in the middle to add loose catnip. The cats can’t get it, but the odor wafts out to them while they play with the ball that rolls around the outer circle. At first they were far more interested in the catnip than they were in the ball.

First Jezzie had a turn . . .

Then Maya . . .

Then Jezzie again . . . Once she got used to the eau de catnip, she started playing with the ball. She returned over and over again to the toy throughout the evening.

This toy may have done the trick, her meowing seems to have abated a bit, and instead of being asleep on the back of one of our sofas, right now she is sleeping next to the toy on the floor.

Day 162 – Black & White Doggie

Nina poses quite a challenge when being photographed, not the least of which is her propensity to bolt at a second’s notice. Her energy notwithstanding, the challenge is actually her black coat which can come out quite flat or as just a black blob if she isn’t lit well. And so, with a little help from my off-camera flash with soft box attachment, I set myself to the task.

At the front door . . .

Looking sweet on the sofa . . .

With her big dawg bone . . .

From above . . .

And one in color . . .

Day 161 – Lake Merritt

It’s been a long day and I’ve got a lot of photographs to go through, so I’m just going to post a few. The Congenital Heart Walk was at Lake Merritt in Oakland, CA. It was a picture perfect day and the temperature was great too.

Rowing Club: