Six brave birders met at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve saltmarsh & breeding area to view shorebirds of many types.  Sue Craft, Sue Liberto, Ron & Linda Yagi and Bruce & Diane Cable were in attendance for the group picture at 11:15 A.M.   If anyone else was there, we’re sorry we missed you.

Excited terns screeched all-day long & flashed by like racing white blurs. We went to the footbridge area, which was saved from development (beginning) in 1976, and the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve is now a blessing to birders with cameras, binoculars and the naked eye.

Effort and persistence were the rules of the day, mixed in with a little "luck." The birds were reticent and you had to be quick to get some prize shots.  Fast shutter speeds of 1/1000 second  were used, and 400 ISO when the day finally turned bright and sunny.

Bosque del Apache Nation Wildlife Refuge is about 75 miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico.  It lies on the Rio Grande River and is the winter home to thousands of Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese.  It’s one of the top spots in the nation for nature photographers.

The time was chosen in hopes of catching the Sandhill Cranes doing their mating dance, before heading north to Canada.  Birds begin arriving in November and peak numbers occur at the end of November and beginning of December.

Douglas Wade organized a field trip to Randsburg.  Thank you!  Approximately 15 members attended and most of them met beforehand with the monthly Sunday LPA Breakfast group at 7:30am at Carrows.  We had a mix of the usual breakfast group, plus the field trip group.

The Sunday morning trip takers met up at 10am in downtown Randsburg, a “living ghost town” only an hour away from Lancaster.  The town is over 100 years old, and started out as a gold mining town.  When the gold ran out, miners concentrated on silver and then tungsten.  The hills are full of mining equipment, and old tailings.  The town itself is full of old relics, which make great photo subjects.  Some of the old homes have been restored a bit, and are residences.    Outhouses are still numerous!  There is one main street through town, and you can see from end to end.  Buildings include the old church, the opera house, the barbershop, the general store, saloon, and more!  It’s definitely a place where you can step back in time.  It’s a quiet place, where old timers who live there can often be seen sitting around, ready to tell a story.

Whether you go there as a photographer with a load of gear and shoot with a tripod or go there with only I-Phone camera, you are sure to get great photos!

Group photo by Paul Craft. Check out the other member photos in the gallery.

La Purisima Mission State Historic Park on November 3rd and November 10th at Moorpark for a Civil War Reenactment.

This past month we had two field trips to La Purisima Mission and the Civil War reenactment in Moorpark.

The first field trip was to La Purisima Mission State Historic Park on November 3rd for Village Days. Tule Village comes to life with the blending of traditional Chumash (Indian) and Colonial Spanish life ways. Demonstrators from the volunteers and kids help us learn a variety of skills such as grinding acorns, basket weaving, building a tule house, making soapstone beads or tule dolls, and playing Chumash games. When we arrived around 11:00 there was many mission volunteers and kids that put on costumes and showed how it may have been. Also, I love the Spanish architecture and early mission life.

Our field trip chairman, Douglas Wade, arranged for another monthly photo opportunity with fellow photographers.  We met beforehand for breakfast at Roxy’s Café in Palmdale, and carpools were formed.  Eight of us ventured to the Los Angeles Arboretum, in Arcadia.  The Arboretum is a fantastic place to practice photographing flowers and birds.

The place was empty!  Maybe people don’t like to venture out on a cool damp morning filled with drizzle?  The lighting was very soft and no harsh shadows, which was nice for photographing.  Upon walking into the park we were all mesmerized by the flutter of the Hummingbirds feasting upon purple Salvia.

Peacocks were prevalent, and quite tame!  Hmmm… bird shot?  Abstract shot?  Human Interest shot?  The noisemaker was the Guineahen…  what a scary face!

David and Chris Wilkins arranged another fun field trip for us, a return to Mono Lake for Star Trails and a trip to Bodie State Park.  Approximately twenty LPA members made the excursion to Lee Vining, the base for our photo adventures.  Some arrived a day ahead and some had to leave a day early, but most everyone made it to the south shore of Mono Lake for sunset and to light paint the tufa and practice star trail photography.

In preparation for the event, David and Chris arranged for a “close to home” field trip beforehand to our local state park, Saddleback Buttes, to learn how to set cameras for light painting and time exposed shots of star trails.

About 10 of us made the trip to Santa Monica, mostly to escape the heat of the Antelope Valley. We met at the dinosaur and 3th and Broadway. We grouped up and talked about some shot setups, such as shooting the athletic equipment; under the pier; on the pier; and the sunset with the pier in the foreground. The pier was very crowded and we all knew that we would get someone in about every shot.

When some of the group wanted to take images at the carousel where we got chased out, because we had tripods (but we were not using them). We moved around the area, looking for interesting items. Most of us did our own thing. I hung out with Tina Crowe and we moved all over the area. Starting at the carousel, then down to the athletic equipment where we tried to catch some performers and others having a good time. We moved to under the pier, the sides and up on top. We loitered around waiting for the sunset, wishing for some clouds but none this night. We took lots of images this day and headed back to the AV where it had cooled off.

Photos by Douglas Paul Wade

On June 17, Father’s day, a few of us made came over the Villa del Sol Cherry Farm in Leona Valley. It is located at the corner of Godde and Lake Elizabeth Road. This event has a special purpose and that was to get images for the AV Fair. This year’s theme is Cherry Jammin’. The images will be helpful for the Fair for promotion.  The 4,000 trees were full of fruit and the parking lot was full. A lot of families were picking. From young to old had their buckets and were clipping fruit. The farm has different five types of cherries, Bings, Rainers, Early Burlat, Tulare and Brooks. The farm has 50 beehives to gently pollinate the cherries before the picking season and you can purchase their honey at the farm.