WhaleFest Photos

Posted on November 9, 2014 by Tom Clifton

Two of my photos were selected for an exhibit at the Museum of Monterey from November 15 to December 31, 2014. The photos will be raffled off on January 25, 2015 during WhaleFest 2015, with the proceeds benefiting both the Museum and WhaleFest.

The two photos are a couple of my recent favorites. The first is a harbor sea and pup in a distinctly “hallmark” moment.

Harbor Seal and Pup, Point Lobos State Reserve – April 2010

The second photo is from last year when some anchovies got trapped at Monastery Beach. Gulls, cormorants and pelicans descended in droves. The shot has 4 pelicans at various stages of their dives.

Pelicans diving, Carmel River State Beach – October 2013

So if your in the area in from Thanksgiving through December, check out the WhaleFest exhibit.

Top shots in 2013

Posted on December 28, 2013 by Tom Clifton

For some reason, I don’t think that 2013 was a particularly good year. It seems like I only had a few good days of shooting and the rest were pedestrian. That’s not really how you want to introduce a post like this. But since this is an exercise that I have done the last few years, I feel the need to continue it, you know tradition, habit, addiction…

As always these are in no particular order and my top ten goes to eleven.

I should probably do a full post on oystercatchers, they have provided wonderful shots over the years.

I think that this one is going to slip in as number 11. I’m not entirely wild about the shot, but it is my best shot of wild Orca.

Continuing my tradition of getting nice shots containing invasive plants, a Checkerspot butterfly on Poison hemlock.

The Osprey recently returned to the Reserve.

You kind of had to figure that this one might show up. Waves exploding on rocks, I can never get too much of that.

A Townsend’s Warbler in flight with a termite.

Just a few Brown Pelicans feeding at Monastery Beach.

Anthopleura elegantissima in Whalers Cove.

When an owl calls out to you, you have to stop and find him.

Waves on Gibson Beach, taking advantage of smoke from the Big Sur Blaze.

Nesting Black-crowned Night Herons.

Two new birds

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Tom Clifton

Pacific-slope Flycatcher

I recently got shots of two “new” birds. I say that because I have probably seen them before, but just never taken the the time to ID them. There are lots of little grayish-brown birds that reside in this group. But as I try to learn more of the birds around Point Lobos, I find that I need to spend some extra time to get these IDs.

So I present the Pacific-slope Flycatcher, a bird that I list as heard more than seen. And true to that listing, I hear them all the time in the Reserve, but have only seen them twice. Fortunately a pair has been nesting near the Reserve entrance and allowed me to get this shot.

Western Wood-Pewee

The second bird was a bit harder to ID because it was flitting about in the top of a big sycamore tree. It was showing obvious flycatcher behavior, so managed to stay at the limits of my auto-focus and move every time the focus got close. I took over 50 shots and and spent 20 minutes on this one bird.

And after all of that, I still didn’t have a no-doubt-about-it shot. So I went through all of my shots, what I could remember of the call, the likely suspects and came up with a Western Wood-Pewee.

A little silly

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Tom Clifton

One of my photos was used in a Flickr blog post and another was picked up by Yahoo. Now I have over 5000 views today. This is up a little from my usual 100+ views a day. Not that I am going to complain, but it is a little silly.

The photos were from my whale watching trip on Monterey Bay last summer. I took a series of shots of a Humpback Whale doing a chin slap. You may recognize one of the images, it was in my best of 2012 collection. The other is at the tail end of the chin slap.

Certainly whales coming out of the water generates a bit of excitement. The thing that amazes me is that this whale wants to make a big splash! That is why it is doing it. But look at it as it comes out of the water. There is hardly a ripple.

Olympic divers who try to enter the water without a splash, could learn a few things from this critter.

Thanks to all of the Flickr and Yahoo folks. I truly appreciate you checking out my photos.

A new bird

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Tom Clifton

Hi, my name is Tom and I am a birder.

I am not the crazy, over-the-top birder that you might have seen in movies or on TV. But when there is an opportunity to see a bird that I haven’t seen or photographed before, I get a little bit itchy.

When the report came in a week ago that a Lawrence’s Goldfinch was spotted in the Reserve, I thought “Great, that is wonderful that you saw this bird, my chance of seeing it is nil”. Before that moment I had never heard of a Lawrence’s Goldfinch. I knew the American and Lesser Goldfinch and had seen both in the Reserve, but this was a new one for me. I figured it was a migrant and would be on its way shortly, and far too shortly for me drag the camera out.

Then came a second report and a third. Now the itch is strong, time to scratch. I go out to see what I can see. House finches and American Goldfinches, no Lawrence’s. Just what I suspected, it was here and moved on. Then a fourth report, with photos. Ok, It is a mission now and I will both spot the bird and get a photo.

Friday morning, I went out to Granite Point and circled the point three times. The first circle spotted and confirmed the goldfinch was there, The second circle grabbed a shot, the third circle nailed the shot.

So now I have a new bird on my life list and a new photo in my Monterey Birds set.

Itch scratched.

Rock and wave

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Tom Clifton

I am not sure why I like this shot so much, but I do. I took it during the second set of king tides that we had at the Reserve this winter. These are times when the interactions between the rocks and water come to the fore. It is a good time to shoot.

Once in a lifetime

Posted on September 22, 2012 by Tom Clifton

I’ve taken a number of shots that you might call “once in a lifetime” shots, where you just don’t expect to ever capture an image like that again.

And then there are true “once in a lifetime” shots where you know you will never see this again.

Endeavour flies over Monterey, 2012

Today I had the privilege to witness and shoot such an event.

I was weaned on the Gemini space shots and this is the closest I have ever been to a spacecraft. I wasn’t going to miss it.

Two birds, two waves, and a cat

Posted on September 20, 2012 by Tom Clifton

That’s my submission to the Carmel Art Institute’s “The Magic of Point Lobos” competition and exhibition. All five were accepted and will be on display from September 28 to October 18.

Let’s start with the birds. They are similar shots, a Black-crowned Night Heron and a Snowy Egret, both are tense and searching for food.

The primary difference is that the night heron is on a rock and the egret is on floating kelp. That and the egret is a striking white.

The wave shots capture the magnitude of a big wave day at the Reserve. These are days when you feel and smell the waves as you drive in. The first stop is Sea Lion Point, where a few young sea lions missed the memo about getting off the rocks.

Down at Bird Island the waves can get so big that they climb up to join the clouds and generate water falls where they don’t exist.

And we finish with the cat. A bobcat in Mound Meadow to be exact, looking very regal like his cousins in Kenya.

It’s baseball season!

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Tom Clifton

Ricky Guerrero making contact.

With pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training tomorrow, there is a baseball buzz in the air. Of course, the colleges started their seasons last week. While I missed Monterey Peninsula College’s home opener last week I wasn’t going to miss their second home game. And after this morning’s game, I have managed to double the number of ball games that I went to last year.

For those of you interested in just the baseball, the MPC Lobos started the season with five wins. They lost their first game this morning. Most of the wins were come-from-behind affairs with the winning runs scored in the ninth or extra innings. Their defense has been a little shaky, with 5 errors in the last 2 games. The Lobos have shown that they have the offense to overcome the errors, but it would be better not to make them in the first place.

Now let’s get back to photography. Every ball field is different and you need to learn where the good sight lines are for shooting the game. College fields are generally bad for shooting because they are surrounded by chain link fencing. You can shoot straight on through the fence at distant objects, but if you are trying to catch action at an angle through the fence, forget it.

Starting Pitcher Rob Kovach, through the netting.

In contrast, Minor League stadiums will have netting behind the batter, but only low fencing around the rest of the seating area (the same is true of Major League stadiums).

When I shoot Minor League games, I can park myself down the first or third base line and have an unencumbered view of nearly any play in the infield. I can shoot the batters in the box from either side (depending on whether they were batting right or left). I can shoot the play at first base (the most common play in baseball).

The way the MPC ball field is situated, however, these shots are impossible to get. There are basically two places where you can get unencumbered shots.

The first is at the net behind home plate, shooting through the net is not an encumbrance if you are close enough to it. This is a good place to shoot the pitchers, though you are a little too far behind the batters to get a good shot. My biggest concern about shooting here is making sure that I am not in the sight line of a fan watching the game. This is a place to move in take a few shots and move on.

Max Price delivers a caught stealing out.

The second is behind the outfield fence. This is a new one for me, because most Minor League stadiums that I have been to, don’t have seating or viewing out there. They have a big wall with advertising plastered across it. MPC has through the chain link viewing in right field, but in left field you can get above the fence and have a clear view of the field.

The outfield sight lines are exciting because I’m getting to see action that I never did before. You can get batters facing you, and get an entirely different perspective on plays at second base (where before I only saw the back of runners heads, now I see their faces and expression. And I don’t need to struggle to get shots of the outfielders.

So once again, baseball season’s come around and once again, I’m having fun with it.

It’s a wrap

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Tom Clifton

I just put the finishing touches on my Miniatures entry and will deliver it tomorrow. For those who know me, this is several days before the deadline (it can be done)!

I am quite pleased with the entry.

If you want to know which picture I chose, come to Monterey and check out the exhibit. It runs from November 17 to December 31 at the Monterey Museum of Art’s Pacific Street Gallery. It is in an impressive collection of miniature art from 300 local artists.

If you let me know beforehand, we can schedule a birding excursion to Point Lobos or head down the Big Sur coast to look for Condors.

Tom Clifton Photography

Category Archives: Monterey