Sunset Over Gray Lodge Wildlife Area

It's beginning to be that time of year, when millions of ducks and geese return to winter in the Sacramento Valley.

Sunset over Gray Lodge

Gray Lodge State Wildlife Area is one of the main wildlife preserves in the Sacramento Valley. I happened to be there the day before the start of duck season this year, so much of the preserve was packed with hunters reading themselves for the hunt the next day.

I found a quiet spot far from the hunters to capture the beautiful sunset. Unfortunately, it wasn't far from the mosquitoes. Literal clouds of of mosquitoes rose from the shore of the wetlands every time I approached to take a picture, I had to keep in continual motion to avoid being devoured by the thirsty winged hordes. Stopping, even for a couple of seconds to change lenses, resulted in several bites.

There were 446 mosquitoes in this picture. I know because I counted them as I cloned them out of the image in Photoshop.

Still, it was a beautiful sunset and I managed to get a number of wonderful images, despite my bites. I just feel sorry for the camping hunters who had nowhere to run to to get away from the beasts.

Sunset over Gray Lodge

Sunset over Gray Lodge

The Sacramento Skyline

One of the fascinating things about the Sacramento Skyline is how it's appearance changes as the light changes from sunset through dusk. Sacramento has a wonderful skyline, particularly as seen from the Sacramento River with the Tower Bridge, Old Sacramento, and the Delta King in the image.

I recently took this set of images - all from the same spot - as evening settled over the city. Click on each image to view a larger version.

Just before sunset

Just after sunset

As dusk settles over the city

Almost full night

Tower Bridge

Sorry that I've been away for awhile. For about a month I was just too busy to post, and for the last two weeks I was ill. Now I'm better and hopefully will be a little better about posting.

This week's images are some images I took of the Tower Bridge over the Sacramento River a couple of months ago.

The Tower Bridge is one of my favorite local landmarks, and I particularly like the contrast of color between the gold of the bridge and the blue of the sky. So for this shoot, I shot at dusk in order to get the deepest blue sky that I could.

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge and Ziggurat Building