Jessica Dyer Photography

10/30/2020

Nights of the Jack at King Gillette Ranch. This is a drive-through event in the evenings, with strict rules about staying in your car due to the pandemic, and apparently evening tickets are sold out. But, did you know you can walk through for free in the daytime?

I asked, and they said people can still walk through tomorrow and Sunday, which is the last day of the display. Plan ahead - its about a one mile loop, mostly in the sun, and there are no bathrooms. I hope they do this again next year and allow people to walk through at night as well - it seems more fun than being stuck in a car.

10/21/2020

Thrilled to announce that I am a winner of the Santa Monica Mountains Fund annual photography contest!

SAMO Fund is a nonprofit that supports the beautiful outdoors in the Santa Monica Mountains - wildlife and nature preservation, educational programs, hiking and biking trails, scientific research, etc.

The winning photos from this photography contest will make up a calendar that will be given to donors at the end of the year. You can see the winning names and categories at the link below.

If you’re interested in supporting the SAMO Fund and getting a calendar, there are two ways to do it:
1. Ask me how to do a “friends and family” donation of $45 to the SAMO Fund before November 9th.
2. After November 9th, there will be a public page up to order them with a $75 donation.
(In both cases, they won’t ship until the end of the year.)

https://samofund.org/2020/10/15/outdoor-photo-contest-2020-winners/

07/31/2020

Anyone know what kind of butterfly this is? (The flower is a Zinnia.)

07/31/2020

Seems like there are suddenly way more hummingbirds in our patio, going through the nectar much faster than they were a week or two ago. Is this due to migration patterns? Or babies growing up?

It seems much harder to get photos of the ones that have a full head of bright iridescent color (full grown males?), than to get photos of these ones that have no or partial iridescence (juveniles or females?).

Shot with Sony a6000 and 55-210mm lens, at 1/4000s, cropped in to increase zoom - but I’m toying with the idea of buying a new camera that would be better this purpose, now that it could be a daily activity at home in my patio.

07/31/2020

Not the best photo photography-wise, but neat to see a coyote on the hillside above our patio. We hear them at night all the time, but getting a good view of one in the daylight is rare. This one seemed to be trying to hunt the wild bunnies that live around here (which I have mixed feelings about because I enjoy seeing the bunnies chilling out and eating our grass in the mornings).

07/20/2020

The comet NEOWISE seen over the Las Virgenes hills!

I shot this last night from a the end of a neighborhood street - amazing it can be captured here even with all the city light pollution. But, be warned - a camera on long exposure can capture the night sky MUCH better than the human eye can see it. With the naked eye I could only just barely spot the comet once I knew where to look.

If you want to go look for the comet around here you’ll need some kind of technical aid to see it better, like binoculars or a decent camera and tripod. You can also use a phone app that will show you where it is (I used Sky Guide).

Shot on Sony a6000 with 35mm lens, 8 seconds at f/1.8 and 800 ISO, at about 9:30 last night.

The comet NEOWISE seen over the Las Virgenes hills!

I shot this last night from a the end of a neighborhood street - amazing it can be captured here even with all the city light pollution. But, be warned - a camera on long exposure can capture the night sky MUCH better than the human eye can see it. With the naked eye I could only just barely spot the comet once I knew where to look.

If you want to go look for the comet around here you’ll need some kind of technical aid to see it better, like binoculars or a decent camera and tripod. You can also use a phone app that will show you where it is (I used Sky Guide).

07/06/2020

06/11/2020

A hummingbird eating from a gladiola, in 8x slow motion, shot on iPhone X. It’s amazing that they can get enough nectar from flowers to support all that constant energy expenditure of hovering even while they eat! How did they survive before we started putting up hummingbird feeders? (Turn on the sound to hear it chirping)

ETA: according to my settings this ought to be uploaded in HD, but it isn’t looking like that to me. Do you see it in high resolution?

05/06/2020

Conejo Valley views