Lema Ranch #1 by photosynthesis

Photography • Landscape • posted on Nov 02, 2013

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Description

First, just to clarify, my last posted image - Spirit Of The Tree - is actually a composite of two images. Most of it is a single image, but the face in the very middle is actually from a totem that I took in Vancouver. I tried to blend it in fairly subtly, but my intention was not to deceive - I thought that viewers could easily see the manipulation, but I gather from the comments that wasn't necessarily the case. As for this image, we just returned from a few days in the Redding - Whiskeytown (northern California) area. There are a multitude of interesting hikes in that area & this is from one we did today at Lema Ranch. Lema Ranch is a beautiful complex of hiking trails surrounding a group of ponds that was established & is maintained by a philanthropic organization known as the McConnell Foundation. Here's some info from their website: "The Lema Ranch trails – four miles in all and set on about 200 acres – are paved and showcase four ponds. The ponds, built by the Lema family in the early nineteen-fifties, were enhanced in 1997 to encourage aquatic plant communities that provide wildlife habitat and improve the water quality. Biofilters – heavy plantings of aquatic plants intended to slow down and cleanse the water as it runs into the pond – were incorporated into the restoration of the ponds. In order to preserve the natural serenity of the area, and to protect the many species of wildlife found on the trails, no bicycles or dogs are allowed on the Lema Ranch trails. Those walking the Lema Ranch trails will notice a diversity of plants, from graceful weeping willows to manzanita, oak, pine trees, and native grasses. Many species of wildlife can be spotted by the careful observer, including ducks, red-winged blackbirds, egrets, woodpeckers, and many other birds. In the winter, otters and muskrats occasionally show themselves in the ponds." Took lots of photos there (including some of great egrets) that I will post in the next few days. Please zoom...