After 5 days in San Francisco it was time to pack and head towards Yosemite National Park. The drive it self was quite boring, but when entering the park and especially Yosemite Valley we were amazed. The grand wild river, the landscape and the mighty El Capitan. That huge monolith rock formation is just amazing!

After the road trip to Santa Cruz the weather changed and the sun was replaced by mist and rain. A perfect time to visit the nearby Redwood Regional Park. We hiked along a nice trail and in the forest forgot about the not so great weather.

I could not resist the next day after my previous visit, see previous post, to go back to the "Groene Jonker" with sunny weather at sunset. Although the bird activity was low, I still managed to get some cool "yellow sunset" shots.

The last time I visited "Groene Jonker" it was sunny and quite warm weather. This time around it was grey, windy and not so warm. In the end there was still enough to see and photograph. Especially the numerous aquatic birds that were present. With my favourite of the day being the "Eurasian spoonbill" and the "Ruff".

What to do with a week of vacation? That was our question, go to a city here in Europe, because time is limited or just something else. Well even though the long journey we decided to go to San Francisco and Yosemite National Park. 

Recently I discovered (pointed out to me by Leo Durghorn) a "newly" developed nature reserve near where I live. This used to be agricultural and farming area that is now "given back to nature" with the intent to serve as a retreat for (water)birds. 

When on my birding outing, see previous post, I stumbled upon a young fox in the Oostvaardersplassen. This little fox was just relaxing and enjoying the sun, even falling a sleep as I walked away.

Ever since I had a serious telephoto lens I wanted to try bird photography. This is now a couple of years, but I really never got into it, or at least tried it. Now having more experience with shooting with long telephoto lenses and more comfortable with the new Fujifilm setup it is time to have a go.

My photography teacher once said “If you want to advance in photography and find your own style, go and create series”. I think he used the word “create” specifically as series do not simply appear (sometimes they do), but in general it takes effort, work and insights to form a real series.