Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Window Seat

I always like to get a window seat when I fly. I love watching the view from the air - it's such a different viewpoint. Of course, I get that viewpoint when I fly my paraglider, but I'm nowhere near as high. And, of course, I like to try to capture that view with my camera. It's difficult to get good results through a small dirty scratched window, with the vibration of the plane, and the haze from 4 or 5 miles of atmosphere. But the results can be unique. (for example, this or this)

These photos were from the flight back from Loreto, Baja, Mexico to Los Angeles.

Baja island

Baja peninsula

Sometimes it's the "texture" of the scenery that attracts me. This is some of the mountainous interior of Baja.

Baja interior

The Colorado river delta made some intriguing patterns, somewhat fractal.

Colorado river delta

Colorado river delta

These are all fairly heavily processed, especially to increase the contrast. Lightroom's "Dehaze" feature works well on aerial shots.

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Print of the Week

sea anemone

Taken at the Monterey Bay Aquarium (highly recommended) on our last trip. I love the abstract shape and colors but also that it's a living creature. Yet another example of how amazing nature is. Who needs space aliens!

Although they are mostly sessile (stay fixed in one spot) like plants, anemones are actually predatory animals. And they can move around, although usually so slowly that you wouldn't notice. Some kinds can even detach from the ground and swim. 

Monday, October 23, 2017

Last Flight


My last flight, of both our three days in the Owens Valley and of our two month road trip, didn’t disappoint. I haven't done much XC (cross country) so I had had my fingers crossed for something on this XC/thermal clinic.

I had another good launch, thankfully. I have to admit being a little nervous with an instructor and a bunch of other participants watching closely, and video being recorded for analysis. Especially after the first person to launch on our first day got a pretty severe critique. Luckily the worst comment I got was that my launches were too “casual”. i.e. I could add a little more energy.

Paiute launch

Our last flight was from the Paiute launch (or Piute?). This launch is up a very steep, narrow, rocky road and I was glad I wasn’t driving! Our instructor (Kari) launched early to try to give us some guidance in the air. I caught some lift right away. Launch is about 2430 m (8000 ft) and I managed to make it to 2760 m (9000 ft) not long into the flight. But the thermals were broken and most didn't seem to go very high.

After about 25 min I was getting low and approaching "last chance hill". I wasn't having any luck finding another thermal and I was pretty sure I was headed for the LZ (landing zone). Some of the other people had already landed, but frustratingly there were also a bunch of people managing to stay up above.

Meanwhile, Kari got on the radio to say she had hopped over to the next spine to the north (downwind). In my struggles to stay up I had lost track of her, and I was in no position to follow anyway. One of the other participants was higher and seemed to be heading in that direction. I was bummed that they were going to head out while I sank. :-(

Then I felt a little something and tried to head for what I hoped would be some lift. Sure enough I found a thermal and managed to climb from my low of 2080 m back up to 2360 m (about a thousand foot climb). Not super high (still below launch) but enough (I hoped) to take a stab at heading north. Thankfully I found another small thermal on the way and topped up to 2400 m.

Chasing Kari really made me realize just how big the Owens Valley is. From the bottom of the valley to the top of the mountains is about 10,000 feet, almost two miles! Even though we were in just one tiny corner, her glider ahead of me looked tiny relative to the scenery.

By the time I caught up at the next spine I was down to about 2000m. But I was higher than Kari, and could see there was some lift. We searched together, finding little bits of choppy lift but only enough to maintain.

Eventually Kari decided to head out towards the highway in the valley. I had tried to stay above Kari to give myself some margin since she was way more skilled and on a better glider. But by this point I was below her. I was pretty sure I wouldn't make the highway from my present height so I decided to search a bit more. Worst case I'd just land a bit shorter. Best case I'd find another thermal. In paragliding, more height is like more gas in the tank, allowing you to make a longer glide. Just as I was about to give up, at 1660 m, I felt a tug on the wing and turned into the best climb of the flight. It was about 3 m/sec (600 ft/sec) - not super strong but decent. I managed to hang onto it till 2180 m (climbing about 1700 ft).

Meanwhile, Kari hadn't found any lift in the valley and had landed, short of the highway as I had figured, but on a side road for an easy retrieve. Up high, I could relay her position by radio to the rest of the group.

Now I had a decision - should I try to continue north along the foothills? I headed towards the hills but right away changed my mind and decided to use my height to glide out to the highway. Without Kari, I was a little nervous about continuing and landing somewhere with a long hike out to the nearest road. The rough conditions were another factor in the decision.

I hoped for some thermals over the valley, but I didn't find much. I angled to intersect the highway at a decent height to pick an LZ. As I approached I had my eye on a clear spot next to the road.

huge landing strip next to the highway (image courtesy of Google maps)

It turned out to be a large pullout with a couple of piles of gravel but no power-lines or barbed wire fences. Of course, there was no windsock or streamers so it was a little hard to judge the wind. I almost landed short since the wind was stronger than I guessed (poor judgement) but in the end I made a good no-step landing on the end of the pullout and laid my glider down on pavement (much preferable to the sagebrush!)

While I still had radio coverage from the air I let them know where I was landing. After landing I was out of radio contact and had no cell phone coverage, so I was happy to have my inReach satellite gps/messenger to pass on my exact location.

Here's a 3D visualization of my flight (watch it fullscreen for best view).



The flight only lasted an hour and ten minutes, I've had longer flights. But it was my longest in straight line distance - 13 km. In overall paragliding terms, that's nothing, people routinely fly hundreds of kilometers, but it was satisfying for me, nonetheless. And it was the best flight anyone in our group managed in the three days we spent with Kari.

Friday, October 20, 2017

Loreto Diving part 3

going diving

Here's the final batch of diving photos from the last four days of our 12 days of diving around Loreto, Baja, Mexico with Dolphin Dive Baja. Highly recommended!

lets go diving!

I recently read a book about octopus and squid so when we got to Loreto I asked Rafael if there were many around. He said "no" so I wasn't expecting to see any. But we ended up seeing three different ones. Often they are just a well camouflaged blob in the back of a dark hole. One did come out briefly but I wasn't in position to get a photo. This one was at least recognizable with its eye looking out.

octopus

Another good sighting was this giant Elegant hermit crab. This shell was the size of a football. When Rafael waved us over all we saw was a seemingly empty shell. But as we watched the hermit crab emerged. Quite a bizarre looking critter!

Elegant hermit crab

This just looks like bubbles - it's hard to tell what it is. But it's actually an anemone all closed up. It opens at night to feed.

Beebe's anemone

These coral hawkfish are fairly common but they're a bit skittish so I was happy to get this closeup. Love that top fin!

Coral hawkfish on orange cup coral

As always, I love the hidden details. Here's the underside of a starfish.

underside of starfish

Although the Sea of Cortez doesn't have a lot of hard coral it makes up for it with lots of sea fans and soft corals.

backlit sea fan

This next one is a basket star, a kind of starfish where the arms branch many times so it appears they have a lot of legs, although when they're all wrapped up it's another one where it's hard to tell what it is.

Basket star

One time Rafael waved me over to look at a scorpionfish. That seemed a little odd since they are quite common. But then he indicated that it was something small on the back of the scorpionfish. Sure enough there were tiny shrimp on it. I could barely see them unless they moved. I'm going to have to start carrying a magnifying glass like he does! Later, when I was looking at one of my photos of a scorpionfish I noticed what I think is one of the shrimp (look on the right side of the "forehead")

Scorpionfish

There aren't a lot of obvious anemones here. I spotted this one in the back of a crack in the rock. I'm not sure what kind it is.

anemone

We ran into a few Agassiz nudibranchs and I managed a little more interesting angle on this one:

Agassiz's nudibranch

We saw a few of these Mobula rays (related to manta rays, but smaller)  but mostly in the distance. This was the best shot I managed:

Mobula

Usually what we saw was more like this distant shot of a spotted eagle ray:

Spotted eagle ray

People that are only diving for a day or two here often like to go to see the sea lions, so we ended up diving at this site a few times. We didn't mind since it's always fun to see the sea lions and it's a great dive site regardless.

sea lion

On our last day of diving we were lucky enough to see another group of dolphins. Previously we saw bottlenose dolphins, these ones were common dolphins. (check out Shelley's video)

Common dolphins

If you want more, see all 77 photos in this album

See also: Loreto Diving part 2 and Diving in Loreto

Monday, October 16, 2017

San Javier

On our second day off from diving we rented a car and drove up to San Javier. We went for a short hike up one of the side canyons before it got too hot. The bushes (thistles?) in one area were full of butterflies of several different kinds.

Painted lady butterfly

Queen butterfly

butterfly

I couldn't figure out what this last one is. Anyone know? The wasps and bees were also enjoying these flowers.

wasp

There were also small toads hopping around everywhere! They were quite small (1 cm, .5 in) so I'm assuming they had recently hatched, probably a result of the rain associated with hurricane season. I think they are red-spotted toads which grow to 7 cm (3 in).

Red-spotted toad

The one above looks quite plump despite its small size, but some of them were quite a bit skinnier, presumably more recently metamorphosed from tadpoles. There were also tadpoles in some of the pools of water.

The dragonflies were taking advantage of the water to mate and lay their eggs:

dragonflies mating / laying eggs

There were lots of turkey vultures around. Not the prettiest birds, but impressive fliers.

Turkey vulture

And a few great egrets. I didn't see them feeding on the toads, but presumably they'd make easy pickings.

Great egret

Surprisingly, we also saw an owl. We could hear some noise in the trees ahead and when we came around the corner two birds flew out. This one flew a short distance and perched on a rock outcropping where we got several photographs. I think it's a great horned owl, except they are supposed to be nocturnal. The other bird flew away and I couldn't tell if it was another owl or something else. The photograph isn't great but zooming in, it almost looks like the owl has something fluffy like a chick in its claws. Perhaps it had raided another bird's nest?

Great horned owl

This vine was flowering all over the place, adding a lovely splash of color to the desert. I was told the name but didn't pay attention, assuming it would be easy to identify something so common. But I couldn't find it in a quick search on-line. Can anyone identify it?

flowering vine

Cactus and flowering vine

Even without flowers, the desert here is quite a rich environment. (Although it's not always this green.)

hillside with cactus

Interesting exposed tree roots along the arroyo:

tree roots

We did make it to the actual Mission San Javier, although that's less important than the scenic drive.

Mission St. Javier

And we visited the 400 year old olive tree (part of the mission gardens).

400 year old olive tree

Sunday, October 15, 2017

Loreto Diving part 2

More diving photos from Loreto, Baja, Mexico from our second four days of diving. We've had some great long dives. The other day we did two 90 minute dives. Great to have so much time to look around, but 3 hours underwater is tiring!

I'm afraid there are a lot of photos. Because I don't dive that often I get excited about all the new (and amazing) subjects.

One of the recurring themes is the abundance of the fish.

Shelley and bigreye jack/trevally

Sergeant majors

The first few sea turtles we saw were in the distance and it was hard to get good photos, but we finally found one that let us get a little closer.

turtle

Green moray eels are quite common, but we didn't see as many of the smaller Jeweled moray eels:

Jeweled moray eel

This was the only giant jawfish that we saw. (Of course, Rafael was the one who found it.) It's amazing how they can build a stone lined hole in the sand with only their mouth. They tend to be quite shy so it's hard to get good photos of them.

giant jawfish

Another less common find. I think it's a tube anemone. I love the bright center color.

tube anemone

This stuff is everywhere. It looks quite attractive close up, but from experience I can tell you it's not a good idea to stick your hand in stinging hydroids when you're busy trying to take photos!

Stinging hydroids

I can never understand divers that only want to see the big stuff like sharks. There's so much other interesting stuff to look at. I thought I was taking a photo of the orange cup coral, and then I noticed this tiny red-head goby on it.

Redhead goby

The blennies in their holes are another good example. They are quite small and it's easy to overlook them, but once you start to notice them you realize that they are everywhere. They are another tricky one to photograph because when you try to get close they also hide in their holes.

Blenny

Another small, well camouflaged fish that doesn't like you to get too close with the camera. Love the eyes and the "crown".

Lizard triplefin (?)

These guys are bigger and when they defending their "nest" (the cleared area on the rock behind) they don't run away, so they're a little easier to photograph. They aren't colorful but they have such bright blue eyes!

Giant damselfish defending nest site

The yellow-tailed surgeonfish are a bit more colorful.

Yellowtail surgeonfish

As are the lobsters close up:

lobster closeup

It can be difficult to figure out what someone is pointing at underwater. Rafael motioned me over to look at something in this soft coral, but I assumed it was going to be something tiny like a shrimp and it took me forever to see the fish. Thankfully it stayed put long enough to take its picture.

Long-nose hawkfish

Interesting shape and pattern on these sea stars:

Bradley's sea star

At some of the dive sites there are beaches nearby where we can land in between dives. This beautiful spot is known as Honeymoon Bay.

Honeymoon bay on Danzante Island

The water is so clear that the boat almost looks like it's in mid air.

dive boat in clear water

I happened to catch this guy as he flew by: (it looks blue underneath but that's just the reflection of the water)

pelican in flight

If you still want more after all these, see all 91 photos in this album.

Note: I'm not an expert at identifying all this stuff. If you notice any mistakes, please let me know!