{"id":1522,"date":"2011-11-19T17:34:22","date_gmt":"2011-11-19T23:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/?p=1522"},"modified":"2011-11-19T17:34:22","modified_gmt":"2011-11-19T23:34:22","slug":"the-stars-at-night-are-big-and-bright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/2011\/11\/19\/the-stars-at-night-are-big-and-bright\/","title":{"rendered":"The Stars at Night are Big and Bright…"},"content":{"rendered":"

In early November, I spent a week photographing in the Davis Mountains.\u00a0 The Montezuma and Gambel’s\u00a0quail were\u00a0among my\u00a0priority subjects, but I wanted to get other wildlife, landscapes, and star trails, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0lack of moisture had taken its toll on the quail and I was only able to locate a single pair of\u00a0\u00a0of Montezumas near Davis Mountains State Park.\u00a0 Then, a one day\u00a0side trip to Presidio got me into some good\u00a0Gambel’s quail habitat.\u00a0 Just before sunset that day, I was able to\u00a0make a few images but the birds were extremely wary.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

With\u00a0some\u00a0help\u00a0from the State Park personnel and my campground manager, many of the other species were a little easier to get.<\/p>\n

The weather was fantastic,\u00a0the fall colors were just reaching peak, and the night skies were clear.\u00a0\u00a0I would like to\u00a0get back there next year and spend more time shooting star trails and light painting landscapes.\u00a0 Indeed, the stars were big and bright in\u00a0the Davis Mountains.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 Here are some of the images from that week:<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The cottonwoods were just hitting their peak of color during the first week of November.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The highway follows Limpia Creek\u00a0for several miles\u00a0along the north edge of\u00a0Davis Mountains State Park and Fort Davis.\u00a0 Large cottonwoods line most of the stream’s banks and make for some wonderful\u00a0autumn colors.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A passing cold front stirred up enough dust to produce a dramatic sunrise on my last day in the mountains.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This sunrise shot was taken with a 100-400 mm lens and Canon 1D Mark III on the Gitzo tripod with monoball head.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A few juvenile Anna's hummingbirds were still in the Fort Davis area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This young Anna’s hummingbird had a favorite perch.\u00a0 I was able to get a few captures like this by prefocusing and using a high shutter speed to stop the wings as he landed.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The skeletons of dried cholla cactus made great perches for seed eating birds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Yucca<\/a>
Yucca leaves added a bit of color to this shot of a curve-billed thrasher.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Fort<\/a>
Fort Davis courthouse at sunrise.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Gambel's<\/a>
Gambel's quail at historic Fort Leaton in Presidio, Texas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A Montezuma quail posed for this uncropped shot from the car window. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Desert<\/a>
Desert mule deer bucks at sunset.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I made this image with a 16-35 mm lens after crawling in close to these bucks just after sunset.<\/p>\n

\"Star<\/a>
Star trails around a light-painted bluff, one hour before sunrise.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Western<\/a>
Western scrub jay jumping at the sound of a rapid-fire camera.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Many<\/a>
Many yuccas at Fort Davis State Park were burned by summer wildfires.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I wrote this newsletter from my laptop, and that’s no easy feat for me.\u00a0 My new desktop is operating with Windows 7 and I haven’t figured out how to make the WordPress software work correctly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Next week, we will be heading out to Socorro, New Mexico to photograph at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.\u00a0 I have room for another shooter if any of you want to sign on at the last minute.<\/p>\n

Happy Thanksgiving,<\/p>\n

Larry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In early November, I spent a week photographing in the Davis Mountains.\u00a0 The Montezuma and Gambel’s\u00a0quail were\u00a0among my\u00a0priority subjects, but I wanted to get other wildlife, landscapes, and star trails, too.\u00a0 The\u00a0lack of moisture had taken its toll on the quail and I was only able to locate a single pair of\u00a0\u00a0of Montezumas near Davis … Continue reading The Stars at Night are Big and Bright…<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1522"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1547,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1522\/revisions\/1547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}