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The Last Travel Pod Post

If you have never seen our old travelpod blog which is shutting down, here is the last post in it’s entirety:

Star Date Sunday, June 11, 9:15 AM PDT

This is the last post from Travelpod to you for three reasons. I thought the last post might be it but this is definitely the last post. We so much enjoyed this phase of travel and are now happily “home” at Ananda Village, fully engaged in community life, and many volunteer projects as well as cycling, railfanning and working in garden and yard (yes yard, heh heh).

First off: Blog shutting down

The Travelpod blogging system we were using got bought out by a bigger “borg” and they are shutting it down June 18 so I need to send this to you before they do.
Screen Shot 2017-06-11 at 9.17.41 AM
HOWEVER – An enterprising young soul has undertaken the task of providing archive space for the history and I have migrated a copy over there. If you want to see any of our travels you can find them at the following link: http://bit.ly/PhotoKent_TravelArk I hope to resurrect them elsewhere so we will see.

Secondly: We sold CharLi

We sold CharLi, our RV to a wonderful couple in Oakdale, Ca, about 3 hours south of here. They have been looking for a long time for this model and were thrilled to be able to buy it. The added bonus for us was his willingness to buy the tow package also. And he was able to uninstall it so I hitched up Mr. Toad one last time to CharLi and drove both down to his home where we spent all day removing the system. He will install on his jeep. So we are done. See photos below of CharLi with new owners, and a photo of Jim under the Jeep removing the tow bar. Not an easy task!

The Happy new Owners

Removing tow system

Lastly: I have a new blog

I have begun a new blog called “PhotoKent’s Musings” which I am just beginning to use. It will feature some photos I take and also some photos I may have shot in previous years but I will talk about how I made the photo. So it will be less of a travel blog and more of a creative process blog. You can click on this link to find the blog: https://photokent.blog. (oh wait, you are here already)

If you wish to subscribe to updates when I do make a post go to the bottom of the home page and add your email address then you will get an email notification when I post which is usually weekly or so. It will also appear on my Facebook page when I post too.

It has been a wonderful journey and now a new phase opens up. Please consider subscribing to my new blog. And above all, be filled with joy in your life!

Kent

PS here are some additional photos I posted all from iPhone

Sraddha & Kent at Luau

Working in the yard

Cycling with my buddy

Flying Over Needles

We arrived after long day of driving, settled into campsite, and by the time I went to fly it was getting to be sundown. The link to the youtube video is at the bottom.

Didn’t have a great experience here which is nothing against Needles. We arrived after long day of driving, settled into campsite, and by the time I went to fly it was getting to be sundown. The link to the youtube video is at the bottom.

Walked out to the point near the Colorado River and set up to fly but the DJI Mavic wanted a firmware update. Ok, last time I did an update it went fast and smooth. Looked like i had good internet cell service on iPhone so I hot-spotted the iPad to the iPhone and started the download.

Waiting and Waiting and Waiting – golden light passing fast.

And waited and waited and waited. Meanwhile the sun crept out from behind the clouds to give me the golden light we crave whilst I waited and waited.

Finally as the sun was setting I could take off.

Was able to take a little video.

click on link below for a quickly cobbled together video

Flying over Needles

The Older Posts are from a previous Blog

Hi All.

FYI, just to let you know the posts before the First Flying Video published January 24, 2017 were from another WordPress blog I had created back in 2014 that I imported over.

Arivaca Cienega

Anticipating high winds today, we ventured out early this morning to walk around one of the better birding places in area just west of beautiful downtown Arivaca.

Looking through Arivaca to the Bobquivari Mountains from the Cienega — Looking west through Arivaca to the Bobquivari Mountains from the Cienega

Anticipating we would see some little birds, I decided to try out the big 200-400mm zoom lens and camera. S had returned from Oregon with it's strap and assembled on the lens which weighs 8 pounds (11 with camera). I was excited to head out in search of prey to shoot (with my camera of course). I shot most of these at 560mm fully zoomed in with 1.4 extender enabled. Most were 1/1000 or more, ISO 1000 or so. F5.6.

Note: that these photos were all jpg's processed on my iPad so they aren't as rich as usual. Check my flickr page for some better ones.

As we began our walk we spotted a couple Kestrals high up in the cottonwood tree, their backs to us. As we cautiously approached they looked around, the finally the male Kestral darted over to the female and before I could raise up the camera to shoot, the mating season was over. He flew off to have drink wiht his mates no doubt, while she put her herself back together and adjusted her makeup before flying off in search of a nest.

{Photo of kestral to go here.}

Further along the path we heard the melodious sounds of a Bewick's Wren. He darted all around us, eventually landing in a high snag where I finally shot him singing merrily away. S remarked with wonder as to how so much joy and beautiful song could be sustainably emanating from such a little tiny creature tinier than a housefinch.

My mistake was not taking the monopod because, upon viewing some of the photos, I immediately saw they were not as sharp as I could have liked. As we strolled, ever so slowly, around the trails of this refuge, we saw at least 15 different species.

Photographing little birds is difficult. They hide in the thickets and behind trees. ID through binoculars easier but catching them in open to photograph takes patience. I was hunting a green tailed Towhee for 20 minutes and finally spotted him out in open (see shot below) where is flitted for a bout 4 seconds. Just enough time to raise up the camera and photograph into the darkened woods.

We saw Red Tail hawks, Cooper's Hawk, Grey Hawk. We saw several little birds in thickets.

Even a pair of Coyotes hunting the tall grass for breakfast. We happened onto this pair out in the tall grass. Heard them yipping and digging and scurrying around. They didn't see us at first but when I popped off 4 shots in quick succession, the noise made by the high speed camera clicking alerted them we were present and they bounded off. This shot below was the only decent one I got and then some tall grass blurred its face a little.

Coyote Hunting — Coyotes hunting in tall grass

We saw these really cool butterflies, too. Can't you tell I don't know butterfly names? They fly fast and dart around in the Willow trees so it is hard to catch them. Finally one landed to feast all alone on the willows seeds and I was able to get a decent shot.