Ken Britten

Sunset view of the sky with dramatic clouds over oak savanna hills.

Lovely look at the leading edge of the first major Pacific system coming into NorCal.

Image shows a low bridge of grayish rock, with lots of weird lumps and bumps. Underneath a medium sized dog is coming toward the camera with its tongue lolling out. In the background is blue sky with some puffy cumulus cloud showing through the opening of the bridge.

This lava bridge on the west side of the Sierra was big enough for a 40-lb dog, but not for me.

Nice sunset on the Middle Fork of the Stanislaus River.

View of Segla mountain on Senja island in northern Norway during the midnight sun. Small white flowers blooming in the foreground.

SEGLA PŘI PŮLNOČNÍM SLUNCI…
z letní noci na ostrově Senja na severu Norska u známého vrcholu Segla. Nakonec pěkně zasvítilo a v pravou chvíli i nějaký ten mrak připlul...

#bluesky #photography #landscape #landscapephotography #naturephotography #travel #nature #lofoten

I've been geeking out about intersections recently, in my role as a local climate commissioner. I've been impressed by two things about this document from Caltrans. First, it's progressive, and doesn't just talk about moving cars faster. Second, it's actually well written. Who'd have guessed?

And another one of my favorite campsites in the Sierra Nevada just got burned in a wildfire. I think that makes four in the last decade. Dammit!

Land of Trees

Image shows a tiny beige snake, a baby gopher snake, folded across my left hand. Background is a blurry scene of a gravel driveway bordered by dry grass, almost exactly the same color as the snake.

Found this cute little guy this morning, by almost running over it with my bike. It's fine, and apparently was content with a little of my warmth and a moment of social media stardom. A bit later, my dog was very interested in the smell left on my hand.

This is cool: it's a DNA-based source profile of some local honey being sold beside the road. And I wondered about the oak component, since oaks haven't flowered around here for months, and I'd never seen bees on those flowers. It turns out that the honeybees, like ants, harvest syrup from aphids.

As someone who got a doctorate studying one small part of the machinery by which birds see, I still have no idea. But I see that inclined-head posture a lot from our bluebirds, and I speculate they are pointing their lateral fovea - the area of highest acuity - at the nearby ground.

These were coming in to the feeder like sparrows. Never tired of them, though.

Haha, yes. Are you a small insect? Tasty or toxic?

The messy reality of feeding Alaska - High Country News After Trump threatened Canada, a writer discovers the uncertainty of the state's food supply chain.

I've never thought much about logistics, but I think a lot about Alaska. The intersection of the two is fascinating, it turns out. www.hcn.org/issues/57-9/...

I like it. What would you suggest instead?

My point is that the loggers preferentially take the big trees, which are far more fire tolerant, and which don't support such extreme fire behavior, while leaving the smaller trees that grow in high density supporting hotter fires, but which have little market value.

The image shows a pale-green native plant with 8 spread stems, each with small, pale-green foliage and purple flowers, growing out of short, dead grass and bare earth. Next to it is a radiant-heat thermometer, which registers a soil temperature of 160.7 degrees F.

These summer forbs don't get half the respect they deserve. Here's a vinegarweed (Trichostema) in the heat of the Central Valley summer. It is growing and flowering despite the last rain having fallen months ago. Ask any pollinator: these plants are the BEST!

Huge congratulations to Enzo for this truly magnificent image and for being selected as finalist in NZ Geographic Photographer of the Year! Enzo is an outstanding wildlife photographer, I highly recommend you follow him!

Agree completely, but try to convince the timber companies to cut the scrawniest trees!

Curious about which fields poast the most?

Medicine / Social science / Environmental science / Biochemistry

Note that these aren't corrected for field size, so love the strong showing from earth science too ⚒️🧪

Bidaiak

#nature #photography #icm #woodland #green #spring #naturwphotography #abstract #bluesky

Screen capture of the PurpleAir PM2.5 map, showing a few high values surrounded by green lower values. The high values are in the Napa Valley and points south and west, and for once the Central Valley air, off to the east, is cleaner.

Livin' on the edge... of a big cloud of smoke from the Pickett fire burning over by Calistoga. The orange 81 is a neighbor of ours. The patchiness goes to show how hard it is to predict the movement of the swirls of smoke.

I'm all about the primacy of vision, sure. And I spent a big chunk of my career thinking about MT, so I kinda appreciate the shout-out. But still, even I have to say this is too much.

Flower season is near its peak at 9800’ near Sonora Pass.

Long and interesting piece digging deep on an example of where inefficiencies in government programs come from. Surprise, surprise, it turns out to be capitalism owning the government, not everything-bagel liberalism. washingtonmonthly.com/2025/07/09/t...

Beautiful, minimally disturbed lakeshore by Trehörnigen, Sweden.

Fun exchange between me and the cashier at a state liquor store outside of Lillehammer, Norway:

Me: “This is a great store, I want it in my town!”

Cashier: Where is that?”

Me: “Winters, California.”

Cashier, after a brief pause: “Give me 14 days.”

Me: “OK, see you then!”

Honeybee and hummingbird in flight. Bird has purple head, orange spot on throat, blue spot on breast and a green body. Oh, and black on side of head.

For #Stunday a Honeybee and Fiery-Throated hummingbird flying
Costa Rica 2019

#EastCoastKin #photography #PhotographersofBluesky #PhotographersUnited #birds

An old friend of mine thinks that is the song for the upcoming revolution. I am not convinced. What do you think?

A woman holding a phone, getting ready to take a picture while sitting on the top of a cliff. In the background is her subject, the steep, green islands on the Norwegian coast.

My wife, waiting for the light to be just right.

Dark image of a large, top-heavy sailing ship sitting in a museum. You are looking from the bow, and can see the bowsprit and a number of open gun ports.

The Vasa, which sank on her first trip in 1628. The parallels between her sinking and that of the Bayesian (modern superyacht) run deep.