Category Archives: Nature

California Lupin – Lupinus albifrons

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Some of the first, easily noticed, spring flowers are the Silver Lupins that pop up. … They are mostly noticeable because they are purple/blue, and stand out from the normally dusty colors of Southern California.

This plant jumped up on a firebreak along Tecolote Canyon after our most recent rain.

Lupinus albifrons, Silver lupine, white-leaf bush lupine, or evergreen lupine, is a species of lupine (lupin). It is native to California and Oregon, where it grows along the coast and in dry and open meadows, prairies, and forest clearings. It is a member of several plant communities, including coastal sage scrub, chaparral, northern coastal scrub, foothill woodland, and yellow pine forest.

Jack Foster Mancilla – LensLord™ – Home –

A Tale of One Moon and Two Times

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These two images were taken exactly seven minutes apart, on the same day, December 10, 2011, in Ocean Beach California.

It was my intent to wait until the moon got as low as it could, so that I could capture the Moon, the Pier, and the Surf, with maybe a little sand. Alas, it did not come to pass. We are all limited by external forces. ;-)

I got there early, and used my compass and “The Photographers Ephemeris” on my iPhone to plot where the moon would actually set. The Moon would eventually set just right of center in these two images, if it could be seen.

That was the problem. I had forgotten to consider that the eclipsed moon is very dark, in contrast to the dawning sky. … So, as the sky lightened, the moon faded away. It faded away long before it even got to the fog bank that you can easily see in the second image.

I find it very interesting to open both these images in two separate tabs of my web browser then use my arrow keys to jump quickly from one image to the other to compare the height of the moon, and the lightness of the sky.

Jack Foster Mancilla – LensLord™ – Home –

Woman in the Grass

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I like people. They are fun. They have a life of their own. And one of the greatest things that I get because I am a photographer is that I get to share some time with people that I like.

This is a friend. We walked around an island with my dog on a nice winter day in San Diego, between the winter rains of January 2011.

We spoke of hopes and desires for our tomorrows, and we spoke of times gone by. We shared a very nice day.

Jack Foster Mancilla – LensLord™ – Home –

Eye of the Horse

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Horses are huge. They are a kind of super sized mobile toy, like a giant red waggon that can take you anywhere, even over the rough ground that a giant red waggon could not cross.

Horses are alive. They are dreams, out of movies, fording rivers, carrying the righters of wrong, enabling humans to take giant leaps across the surface of the planet.

And they have giant reflective eyes. In the eye of this horse, you can easily see the horse’s owner, the horse trailer, the shape of this horse by its shadow. These eyes capture imaginations.

Jack Foster Mancilla – LensLord™ – Home –

Pacific Beach Sunset

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Sunsets have always grabbed my attention. Many people see them as signaling the end of the day. For me, they are the bringers of the night, but more important, they open my eyes.

Sounds a little silly, but, the night is full of many amazing things to see and hear. There are sounds, stars, the moon, lights, living things, almost all of which, can only seen at night.

The night sky opens our minds to the immensity of the Universe. As the sunset colors fade through twilight, and afterglow, the distances of the Universe open the consciousness for those that gaze upon the deeps. The very closest thing we can see at night in the sky, is the 238,857 miles away moon, and we can see way beyond that. The most distant object visible to the naked eye is M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, which is about 2 million light-years distance.

In between those two objects is a huge space filled with untold, and unimaginable, objects. That huge space is only a minuscule portion of the Universe.

How can looking at such things not open our minds?

Jack Foster Mancilla – LensLord™ – Home –

Racenes of Nodding Flowers

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I wanted to shoot something for the 10-10-10 day. I got busy doing some other things and did not get to go out into the world and shoot something that illustrated the day.

But, I did have this flower laying around on the tenth day of the tenth month in the 2010th year of the modern calendar. …

So here is my visual ode to that specific day.

Jack Foster Mancilla – LensLord™ – Home –

Spectral Web – Cone of Refraction

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In this study of a Garden Spider’s web in the evening sun, I love the way the web refracts the sunlight. Look at that little cone of colors, to the right of the spider, it is a soft focused part of the web, but the way the light is caught on the tiny droplets of the web. The tiny drops are the sticky trap part of the web.

This image is beautiful in its small version, but at twenty inches by thirty inches, it is an eye catching jewel.

Jack Foster Mancilla – LensLord™ – Home –

Under The Eaves – Wasp Nest

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We noticed this nest, just under the eaves on the front of the house. It must have been there for a while, and not really bothered anyone, but now we know, they are there, waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting, child, dog, or even the gardener.

If you look closely during the video, you can see some easily observable actions that these wasps do as part of their social life. At the top center of the nest is a wasp that is going along the sides of a single paper cell, enlarging the cell with a paper mâché from its mouth. Below center, you can see two wasps grooming each other. Just above center right, you can see a whole line of larva whose faces look like the caterpillar in “A Bugs Life.” And if you watch very closely, you can see a wasp doing the wasp version of the wiggle dance.

★★★ View HD Video on YouTube ★★★

You should watch the video on YouTube. When you watch, make sure you see it in HD, and then expand the video to fit your screen.

Jack Foster Mancilla – LensLord™ – Home –

Perseid Meteors 20100812-EarlyAM

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I did mention this was coming. This is a time lapse video created from 1100 still images that were taken on August 12th between sometime between 01:30 in the morning and 03:30 in the morning. If you really want to know the time, ask me and I can give you a specific time for each frame.

The exposures were five seconds long. I shot wide open as fast I could, trying to get the brightest image I could have, of the meteors, in relation to the stars. … The stars were exposed for five seconds, but the meteors ran through the frame very fast, not even close to a full second, so they had to be very bright to be seen.

If you look very carefully at individual frames, you will see many small meteors, but about 36 seconds into the video, you will see one humongous meteor. And, if you look really hard, you will see a cloud of glowing gas slowly expand for the next few seconds of the video. That expansion took place over three full minutes. Amazing!

Jack Foster Mancilla – LensLord™ – Home –