Hein Natural History Photography

New Hein Natural History Photography Web Site!

2010-12-17T08:54:00.000-08:00

After many years of cobbling together my web galleries through a combination of hand coding and a number of different HTML gallery generators (and getting progressively farther behind in keeping them updated), I have transitioned to a new site hosted by Zenfolio. The new site will be much easier to update and expand - the new Penguins Gallery is an example of a gallery I have been hoping to create for years, but the activation energy for coding it was too high.

New Web Store

The site has significantly enhanced e-commerce capabilities - you can order high-quality prints of any photo in the galleries and have it printed and shipped to you directly by Mpix photo labs. These prints are lower cost than the hand-printed exhibition prints I previously offered (and which are still available for select images). You can also create your own custom photo note card sets rather than being restricted to the fixed sets I offered previously.

Site Status

The new site is "live" and linked in to my home page. I am still in the process of transferring older images and galleries to the new site. This may take some time to complete and I may not transfer over all of the older images. However, the old, "legacy" galleries will still be available through the "Legacy Galleries" link on the home page or on the bottom of each page in the new site.

I welcome any constructive comments, criticisms, or questions about the new web site.

Links

Direct Link to the New Site: http://photos.heinphoto.com

Link to New Galleries: http://photos.heinphoto.com/galleries

Link to Featured Images Gallery: http://photos.heinphoto.com/featured

Link to the "Legacy" Galleries: http://www.heinphoto.com/gallery.htm

Mount Diablo Summit Museum Renovation

2010-09-12T09:36:00.000-07:00

Originally built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1942, the Mount Diablo Summit Museum is a historic icon. The summit of the mountain is actually exposed inside the Visitors Center and the views from the observation deck are legendary. Every year on December 7th, the rotating beacon on top of the museum, originally a navigation aid for early air travelers, is lit to honor the survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Visitors on the observation deck honoring Pearl Harbor survivors (December 7th, 2008)

The museum exists in a harsh environment subject to high winds, heavy rain (and sometimes snow), and temperature extremes. The museum hasn't had a significant upgrade since the current Visitors Center opened in 1993. Mount Diablo State Park has announced a planned renovation of the Summit Museum/Visitors Center that will include new exhibits and facility upgrades. To support this effort The Mount Diablo Interpretive Association (MDIA) has launched a campaign to raise $30,000 for the renovation.

I have donated two, approximately 16x24" unframed prints to the cause that MDIA will be auctioning on EBay starting on September 15th.

For more information about the EBay auction, the renovation project, and the MDIA campaign, please visit the Summit Renovation page on the MDIA web site and consider either bidding on the prints or making a donation to the cause.

MDIA Summit Renovation Auction Prints

Click on the link or the image to reach the Ebay auction page for each print.

Ebay Auction Item #110585580877

"December Snow Day on Mount Diablo (Dec. 7th, 2009)"

Ebay Auction Item #110585581578

"Heritage Oak, Deer Flat"

The Many Faces of Mount Diablo

2010-04-18T18:14:00.000-07:00

The Many Faces of Mount Diablo

A gallery of my favorite landscape images
taken of, on, and from Mount Diablo

I have been meaning to put together a gallery of my personal favorite Mount Diablo landscape images for several years and have finally gotten around to it. If you click on a thumbnail in the gallery/index page, a large version of the image will be displayed along with the image title at the top and a more detailed description at the bottom. Many of these images are framed and on display at the Save Mount Diablo offices in Walnut Creek, California:

Save Mount Diablo
1901 Olympic Blvd, Suite 220
Walnut Creek CA 94596
(925) 947-3535

Photo Gallery of the Concord Naval Weapons Station

2010-04-11T13:40:00.000-07:00

I have been intimately involved in reuse planning for the 5100-acre Concord Naval Weapons Station. As a result, I have had the opportunity to photograph the base from many different places - from the air, from the ground, from the perimeter, and from the ridges of the Los Medanos Hills above. I have uploaded a gallery with a small sampling of those images:

Concord Naval Weapons Station Photo Gallery

If you have an interest in learning more about the Concord Naval Weapons Station you should also check out the following resources:

Behind The Barbed Wire - John Keibel's book on the history of the base

Worth the Wait - The Improbable Transformation of the Concord Naval Weapons Station - An excellent article by John Hart in Bay Nature Magazine

Concord Community Reuse Project - The City of Concord's web site dedicated to reuse planning for the Concord Naval Weapons Station

Save Mount Diablo's CNWS Web Page - includes links to additional sources of information and other resources

The East Bay Regional Park Districts proposal for a great urban regional park at the Concord Naval Weapons Station

2010 Hein Natural History Photography Calendar

2009-12-03T20:31:00.000-08:00

Each Fall I create a unique limited-edition calendar containing some of my favorite images captured during the past year. I try to include a mixture of landscapes, plants, and animals and also try to match the image with the season as best I can. The calendar is printed single-sided on 8.5x11" cover stock and is spiral bound at the top. I only print a small number of these unique calendars.

2010 Hein Natural History Photography Calendar

I also create a separate "Images of Diablo" calendar for Save Mount Diablo that is a gift to supporters who make an end of year donation of $250 or more.

SMD Property Series - Viera North Peak

2009-07-04T09:32:00.000-07:00

This is the first in a series of blog entries I am going to make in which I post my 5 favorite images of a property that Save Mount Diablo has acquired. The selection of what is my "favorite" changes from time to time and I often revisit properties and capture new images, so consider these to be "snapshots" at a particular point in time. In addition, "favorite" doesn't always equate to "best" - often my favorite images are those that I think best represent the nature of the property, which doesn't necessarily mean they are technically my best.

I will start this series with SMDs latest acquisition - Viera North Peak.

Viera North Peak

As the property name implies, Viera North Peak is located on the eastern slope of Mount Diablo's North Peak. This 165-acre property is rugged, spectacular, and difficult-to-access, and was a top acquisition priority for the organization for many years due to its location, high resource values, and high visibility on the slopes of North Peak.

All of these photos were captured during May of 2009.

Viera North Peak summary on Save Mount Diablo's web site

Image #1

This image was taken in the early morning light on my third visit to Viera. I hiked in to a spectacular rock outcrop on the property that is a great vantage point to view the surrounding landscape - including the summit of Mount Diablo (and summit museum) shown in this image.

Image #2

The Mount Diablo Jewel Flower (Streptanthus hispidus)

This image was taken on my second visit to Viera. We hiked to the property in the late afternoon and found this rare wildflower - a Mount Diablo endemic - on the same rock outcrop from which Image #1 was taken. I hiked back to this location a few days later and found that most of the flowers had gone to seed.

Image #3

The Viera North Peak property has many small, beautiful, rocky meadows. We speculate that the rocks in these meadows prevent wild pigs from "rototilling" them, so they remain filled with wildflowers like these Ithuriel's Spear.

Image #4

Although much of Viera North Peak is composed of steep rocky hillsides covered in chaparral, it also has two beautiful tributary streams that were still running strong late in the spring. Along these streams the chaparral gives way to lush streamside vegetation like this Big-leaf Maple.

Image #5

Pink Spineflower (Chorizanthe membranacea)

Another cool wildflower found on Viera North Peak. I photographed this specimen against the lichen-covered rocks of the outcrop mentioned above.

Photography Notes

All of these images were taken with a Nikon D300 digital SLR. The landscape images were taken with my primary "hiking" lens - a 16-85mm DX-format Nikkor zoom lens. The macro photos of flowers were taken with either my trusty 70-180mm Micro-Nikkor zoom (possibly my favorite lens of all time) on a tripod, or the 105mm VR Micro-Nikkor hand held.

Additional Links:

Save Mount Diablo
Calflora - information on wild California plants for conservation, education, and appreciation

Remembering Roger Epperson

2008-12-09T19:49:00.001-08:00

We received terrible news today that our friend, Roger Epperson, died in a drowning accident in Hawaii.

Roger was a great, great human being with an equally great sense of humor (he was one of the "good ones" as Claudia says). He was also the park supervisor for the East Bay Regional Park District's Black Diamond Mines, Morgan Territory, and Round Valley Regional Preserves - not coincidentally these are my three favorite Regional Parks.

It would be impossible to list all of the significant contributions that Roger made to open space preservation and stewardship in the East Bay. He received a Mountain Star Award from Save Mount Diablo in 2002 in recognition of those contributions.

I took this photo of Roger on the evening of the third day of Save Mount Diablo's 2006 Four Days Diablo hiking trip. We traditionally spend that third night at the Morgan Territory Backpack Camp. Roger was responsible for creating that campsite (along with similar campsites in Black Diamond Mines and Round Valley), and he always made sure it was ready for us. He and his wife Carol (and sometimes their dog Kua) would often join us there for dinner. After dinner we hike up to a ridge above the campsite to enjoy sunset and one of the best views of Mount Diablo that exists - this photo shows Roger in his element, enjoying that spectacular view of the mountain from one of his favorite places with a group of friends who share his love and passion for nature, open space, and parks.

Our sympathy goes out to Roger's wife Carol, his family, and many friends. However, I doubt that Roger would have wanted us to dwell on the sadness. So please, go take a hike in Morgan Territory, Black Diamond Mines, or Round Valley, and think about Roger every time you do - whether you recognize it or not his fingerprints are all over those amazing places.

Peace Roger, we won't forget you.

1/1/2009 Update: Roger's Hike - New Year's Day

Friends and family gathered on New Year's day to remember Roger. Here are some of my photos from the hike:

http://www.heinphoto.com/trips/20090101_rogers_hike

12/11/2008 Update

Here is a great slide show tribute on YouTube created by one of Roger's friends.
A Contra Costa Times article about Roger written by Denis Cuff.
The Contra Costa Times has also set up a Guest Book where you can post condolences for Roger.
Here is a link to a nice 1999 story about Roger in the San Francisco Chronicle.

2009 Hein Natural History Photography Calendar

2008-12-05T19:37:00.000-08:00

2009 Hein Natural History Photography Calendar

I also create a separate "Images of Diablo" calendar for Save Mount Diablo that is a gift to supporters who make an end of year donation of $250 or more.

Pelagic Birding Trips to the Cordell Bank

2008-11-18T19:17:00.000-08:00

The Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary

A few times a year Claudia and I join a group of friends on a pelagic birding/wildlife trip from Bodega Bay into the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary. The Cordell Bank is a seamount located 18 nautical miles due west of the Point Reyes Lighthouse that rises to within 115 feet of the surface. Rich ocean currents and upwelling around the Bank make it a spectacular destination for pelagic wildlife observation.

Whenever you visit the Cordell Bank, there is also the possibility that you might encounter an extreme rarity - for example the Northern Hemisphere's first record of Great-winged Petrel occurred on one of these trips.

Pelagic Trips to the Cordell Bank

These trips aboard the 65-foot New Sea Angler typically depart at 7:00 AM from the Port 'O Bodega. The ride out to the Cordell Bank usually takes 2.5 to 3 hours depending on the wind, the sea conditions, and whether or not we get distracted by wildlife along the way. If the seas cooperate, we will sometimes head even farther west to deep water hoping to find seabirds that resist visiting nearer to shore. It is not uncommon to spend 10-12 hours on the water.

Our trips are privately organized, but Debi Shearwater (Shearwater Journeys) runs commercial trips to the Cordell Bank aboard The New Sea Angler several times a year.

The New Sea Angler

The Bodega Bay Data Buoy

As our friend Rich says, the Pacific Ocean usually isn't (pacific that is). During the summer months there is often a continuous 15-25 knot northwest wind. The combination of wind and the swell it helps create can result in uncomfortable conditions for humans trapped on board a small boat for 10-12 hours. For those (like me) who fight seasickness, the sea conditions will largely determine what kind of day we will have.

For better or worse, you can easily monitor the nearshore weather conditions from the comfort of your home. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) maintains a series of coastal data buoys that transmit the current sea and weather conditions to the National Data Buoy Center web site. Here is a link to the Bodega Bay data buoy web site:

http://seaboard.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=46013

In a perfect world, you would like to have wind speed less than 10 knots (but you want some wind so that the seabirds will be flying), wave height less than 5 feet, and the wave period as long as possible. It is rarely a perfect world...

A 3-Meter Discus Data Buoy
(photo from the NOAA/National Data Buoy Center web site)

Our Trip on 11/16/2008

Did I just say "it is rarely a perfect world..."? On Sunday, November 16th, we arrived at the Port 'O Bodega at 6:30 AM, and I almost threw up as soon as I got out of the car. I had been fighting a stomach problem for the last day and it had not gotten any better (and the early start and anticipation of a pelagic trip never helps a questionable stomach). Although I considered bailing out, friends convinced me that I should suck it up and give it a try. After all it would be at most, only 10 hours of misery.

Sometimes you just get lucky...

The seas were calm, there was enough wind to keep seabirds in the air, and the light was good for photography and visibility. In the first couple couple of hours we observed seven species of Shearwater (Sooty, Pink-footed, Flesh-footed, Black-vented, Manx, Buller's, and Short-tailed). We also encountered semi-rarities like Laysan Albatross and Tufted Puffin in addition to many of the expected "usual suspects".

At one point we stopped, shut off the engine and could see and hear 20-30 Humpback Whales all around the boat - sometimes seeing ten "blows" at once. We also saw Blue Whales (and felt their underwater calls through the hull), had Pacific White-sided Dolphins and Dall's Porpoises surfing the bow wake, and watched a pod of six Orcas and their encounter with some nearby Humpback Whales. It was a glorious day at the Cordell Bank!

Mini Photo Gallery

You can also view more photos from this trip on my main web site:

http://www.heinphoto.com/trips/20081116_cordell_bank/index.html

Shearwaters: Flesh-footed, Pink-footed, and Buller's

Albatross: Black-footed, and Laysan

Alcids: Cassin's Auklet and Tufted Puffin

Mammals: Pacific White-sided Dolphins, Orcas, and Humpback Whales

Our friends on board the New Sea Angler enjoying the
unusually calm seas and wildlife of the Cordell Bank

Comments on Pelagic Bird Photography

Pelagic bird photography has to be one of the most difficult disciplines of wildlife photography. While standing on a moving deck (sometimes pitching violently) in windy, rainy, and/or overcast, low-light conditions, you must try to locate, frame, and focus on fast-moving seabirds in order to capture sharp images. You are often either seasick, or trying not to become so (and peering through a camera viewfinder doesn't help). The "keeper rate" is very low - suffice it to say I have many images of a sharp ocean and an out-of-focus, poorly-framed seabird. However, occasionally the gods smile on you and you are blessed with a combination of calm seas, light winds, and good light.

For pelagic bird photography, I am currently using a Nikon D2X digital SLR with a 300mm f/2.8 lens and a 1.4x teleconverter, which results in a 420mm f/4 lens. This is a heavy combination, but it can still be hand held and it provides an extra stop of light over other lenses with a maximum aperture of f/5.6 that are commonly used for pelagic bird photography. The extra stop helps with auto focusing in low-light conditions and allows a faster shutter speed to be used.

I usually also bring along a second camera body with a mid-range zoom lens to take photos of marine mammals that might come close to the boat (bow-riding porpoises and dolphins for example).

Additional Links:

Nature's Beloved Son: John Muir's Botanical Legacy

2008-10-26T17:55:00.000-07:00

Claudia and I attended a release reception for a new book this past week: "Nature's Beloved Son: John Muir's Botanical Legacy", published by Heyday Books. The book documents a lesser known aspect of Muir's work - his interest in botany and the botanical specimens that he collected during his travels. The book's authors are Bonnie Gisel and Stephen Joseph.

Stephen Joseph is a friend and fellow photographer who is known for his stunning panoramas of Mount Diablo. Stephen spent years photographing and scanning Muir's actual botanical specimens borrowed from herbarea around the world. As you can imagine, some of the specimens were in very poor shape, so he had to spend many hours digitally "repairing" them in Photoshop. The results are spectacular.

Bonnie Gisel is a Muir scholar and environmental historian who is also curator of the LeConte Memorial Lodge in Yosemite National Park. Bonnie contributed her extensive knowledge of Muir's writings and his travels and interspersed that wonderful history with Stephen's photos.

Heyday Books, did a magnificent job designing the book. The first printing will likely sell out quickly, so if you are at all interested, you should try and get your hands on a copy of this unique book sooner rather than later.

Additional Links:

Memories of Alaska: Gambell and Wasilla

2008-10-13T16:08:00.000-07:00

All the recent political talk about Sarah Palin, Wasilla Alaska, and what constitutes foreign policy experience got me thinking about our last trip to Alaska in June of 2004. One of the places we visited on that trip was the Alaskan village of Gambell, which is situated on the northwest tip of St. Lawrence Island.

The Gambell Alaska Post Office (Claudia Hein)

St. Lawrence Island is located in the middle of the Bering Sea, and although it is part of Alaska, it is actually closer to Russia (35-40 miles) than it is to mainland Alaska. On clear days you can, in fact, see Russia from Gambell (but not from Wasilla, Anchorage, or Juneau).

Map showing St. Lawrence Island located between
mainland Alaska and Russia (Google Maps)

View of Russia taken through the window of the plane on
final approach into Gambell.

Gambell is a Yup'ik Eskimo village of about 800 people and is a destination for birders due to its proximity to Russia/Asia and the possibility of seeing Asian birds like this Common Ringed Plover, which are rare in the US:

Common Ringed Plover at Gambell, Alaska

Gambell is also known for spectacular colonies of nesting seabirds like these Least and Crested Auklets:

Adorable Least Auklets on Gambell's Seabird Cliffs

Crested Auklets on Gambell's Seabird Cliffs

Our trips to Alaska have also included multiple stays in Wasilla (Editorial Note: Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla when we visited in 2000. She was chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission when we visited in 2004 and was elected Governor in 2006. To our knowledge, she has never actually visited Gambell, Little Diomede Island, or any other place where you can actually see Russia from Alaska - not that this really matters in the grand scheme of things.)

Wasilla is a convenient place for a stop over on the way to or from Denali National Park and other destinations in the interior of Alaska like the spectacular old Denali Highway that runs between Cantwell and Paxson.

Denali Highway Reflections

Tangle Lakes along the Denali Highway

Lesser Yellowlegs near Paxson, Alaska

More Alaska Galleries:

http://www.heinphoto.com/trips/20040619-Alaska/20040619-alaska.htm

http://www.heinphoto.com/places/alaska.htm

Open Space an Important Factor in National Ranking

2008-09-27T15:07:00.000-07:00

A recent story in the Contra Costa Times reported on US News and World Report ranking Walnut Creek as one of the best places to retire in the United States:

A moderate climate combined with roughly 2,700 acres of open space and other attributes landed Walnut Creek a spot on the national magazine's list of cities that offer "ample opportunities for active retirees to focus on their physical and mental health."

Access to a large amount of open space was one of the important factors in the ranking. In fact, Walnut Creek residents enjoy quick and easy access to a number of large, adjacent parks including Lime Ridge Open Space (jointly owned with the City of Concord), Shell Ridge Open Space, Castle Rock Regional Recreation Area, Diablo Foothills Regional Park, and Mount Diablo State Park.

The City of Concord has the opportunity to take similar advantage of adjacent open space by supporting a large, world-class Regional Park as part of the reuse plan for the Concord Naval Weapons Station (in the interest of full disclosure, I am a member of the Community Advisory Committee for Concord's reuse planning process).

Large Regional Parks obviously provide much more than "dirt and weeds" (as some Concord City Council members seem to think). In addition to the recreational and interpretive benefits, easy access to large public open space can also bring local, regional, and even national recognition to a city as a desirable place to live, work, and retire.

Lime Ridge Open Space
Walnut Creek, California

Shell Ridge Open Space
Walnut Creek, California

Hikers on the Kovar Trail overlooking Walnut Creek at
the start of Save Mount Diablo's "Four Days Diablo" hike.

Additional Links
Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation
Concord Commnity Reuse Project

Support East Bay Regional Park District's Measure WW

2008-09-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

From Save Mount Diablo's E-News:

If you live in Alameda or Contra Costa County, the most important thing you can do to help our local environment this year: Vote Yes for Measure WW.

Measure WW will not raise your taxes. It will fund Regional Park acquisitions, open space preservation, new parks and trails for walking, hiking and biking, environmental maintenance, and the rehabilitation of aging park facilities, wildlife habitat restoration, and more.

Measure WW is a local measure and requires a two-thirds approval. It is close to the bottom of the ballot and a long list of other measures, so we need everyone to make sure they remember it and talk to their friends.

Additional Links:

Yes for Parks Web Site

SMDs Latest Newsletter Article on WW and EBRPD

Mount Diablo from the Stewartville Trail
Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve

Summer Buckeye Grove
Morgan Territory Regional Preserve

Fall is Here!

2008-09-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

According to the calendar and the morning news, fall arrived at 8:44 AM this morning when the sun's path crossed the equator (the Autumnal Equinox). However, Claudia and I use a different metric based on observations of the natural world - in our case, fall begins with the arrival of the first White-crowned Sparrows to our back yard.

White-crowned Sparrow

According to my records over the last 14 years, we have seen or heard our first back yard White-crowned Sparrow somewhere between September 19th and September 28th. However, this variation in arrival dates is probably due more to poor observation on our part than to the bird's migration habits - I believe the actual variation in arrival dates to be much smaller.

We happened to be home for most of this weekend, and paid particular attention to the sights and sounds coming from our back yard as we went about our chores. Although we did have one relatively unusual sighting at our feeders (a migrant Black-headed Grosbeak), for the most part it was the "usual suspects" who have been with us for the summer: Mourning Doves, House Finches, California Towhees, Western Scrub Jays, Northern Mockingbirds, etc. However, this morning (September 22nd, 2008), I knew that fall had officially arrived when I heard the first White-crowned Sparrow singing outside our window at dawn. I didn't need to look at the calendar to know fall was here - it was singing to me from all directions as I walked outside to retrieve the morning newspaper.

That song will be with us through the winter into late spring when the sparrows leave, seemingly as suddenly as they arrived, for their breeding territory to the north (we have heard that same song emanating from willow thickets in Alaska during early June). Until then, we will simply enjoy their company and this reminder of one of nature's patterns that continues on around us (or maybe in spite of us) as we go about our busy lives.

The New California Academy of Sciences Museum

2008-09-21T17:04:00.000-07:00

Claudia and I were in line at 8:15 this morning for a member's preview of the new California Academy of Sciences museum in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The new museum is spectacular.

The most exciting new exhibit is the rain forest dome. The photo below shows the Amazon flooded forest tunnel, which is at the bottom of the rain forest dome (you can see the walkways spiraling up to the top of the rain forest canopy at the top of the photo). The Rain Forest exhibit holds a variety of tropical birds, butterflies, reptiles, amphibians, and insects. Among the birds in the rain forest dome, I recognized both Violaceous Euphonia and Silver-beaked Tanager from our trip last winter to the Asa Wright Nature Center in Trinidad.

The Amazon flooded forest tunnel.

The Rain Forest dome.

The Water Planet exhibit.

The California Coast exhibit.

The Cal Academy will reopen to the public with a free day on Saturday, September 27th, 2008.

Launching the Heinphoto Blog...

2008-09-21T16:49:00.000-07:00

I am launching this blog to supplement my photo web site as a place to post photos, personal thoughts, and other content that doesn't fit into my photo galleries.