Kippy Spilker

@kippy.geminai.com

377 Followers 86 Following

Photographer and Creative Manager, I'm a Buddhist-wannabe, hoping to make a difference. Avid reader, enthusiastic kayaker, inexperienced bicyclist, mediocre hiker. Married to my best friend, and mom to fur-kids only. Brevity is not one of my virtues.

Gerald's first time out in our yard. Two dogs, one black lab and one white husky mix, roll on the grass on their backs. There is a fence and a bush in the background and the wall to a house in the left.
The bow of a wooden kayak, on blue-green water, faces a wall of tufa spires sticking out of, and reflected in, the water. On top of one of them is an osprey nest.
An aerial (drone) photo looking down into the clear aquamarine waters of Lake Tahoe. There are large boulders, and a group of people in clear-bottomed kayaks visible.
A blue heron is reflected, along with a bit of the snow-capped mountains, in a calm pond, surrounded by dormant grasses. There are wispy clouds in the blue sky.
A group of people in red shirts, with their respective dogs (of all sizes and breeds), pose in front of an Air Force plane at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport. The blue sky has big puffy clouds in it.
A cell phone photo of a riot of colors, in all shades of punks and greens, a stonecrop plant waking from winter dormancy. It is interspersed with dead grasses, twigs, leaves, stones, and dried Russian olives.
Snowy and rocky ground, with pine trees all around. There are mountains and a beautiful calm Lake Tahoe in the distance. There is a somewhat broken log/wooden seat visible.
Orange and pink honeysuckle blossoms on a large leafy Candy Swirl Honeysuckle plant. There is a bee hovering over one of the blossoms and flinging little bits of pollen. Its wings are blurred, and there is a wooden fence in the background.
Backyard pond at night, with a Buddha statue and solar lantern reflected in the water. Beyond the lantern is a small waterfall.
A dark desert playa at the bottom and a sky packed with stars, Milky Way, and also shooting stars (meteor shower).
A beautiful coopers hawk, with feathers ruffling in the breeze, perches on a wooden fence.
A great white egret stands on a curved branch of a downed tree. The background is a soft, dark tangle of branches and grasses, and there are grasses in the foreground as well.
The tip of a wooden kayak bow at the bottom, and water that looks like liquid silver, due to the gray sky conditions. There is an island directly ahead (Fannette Island) covered in snow, and then a shoreline covered in snowy pine trees with a mountain rising behind. There is a road in the distance, but at this time it was closed, due to the snow.
The bow of a wooden kayak, up against ice along a snowy shoreline. It's a gray day, and the trees and distant mountain are snow-covered.
A man holds a beautiful great horned (I think) owl, which is focused very strongly on the photographer. This is at an event, so indoor lighting, and a slide show playing in the background.
Three coots take off running across the water in preparation for flying away. There is fairly calm water in the foreground, and a snowy shoreline with snowy mountains behind them. There is a lot of water splashing, as the coots flap and look as though they're walking on water.
A lone kayaker in a wooden boat faces a storm in the distance on Lake Tahoe. There are snow-covered rocks to the left and pine trees on the shoreline in the distance. The sky is full of very dramatic storm clouds.
A double rainbow in a stormy sky, as the mountains glow gold from alpenglow at sunrise in the high desert. There are homes, businesses, and sagebrush in the foreground, all aglow.
An alpine lake during the blue hour, just before sunrise. The shore is dirt, there are pine trees along the shoreline and mountains in the distance. Mist rises from the calm water, where the sliver of a moon is reflected, as a kayaker paddles out to go fishing. There is a slight orange glow where the sun will rise in a short time.
A glowing sand dune in early morning light, with more dunes and mountains in the background. A lone photographer walks up the crest of the dune with a tripod and camera. Photo taken with a drone, so a nice, unique aerial view.
A small pygmy owl with its head turned away, shows two dark areas that look like eyes. It's sitting on a tree limb and the sky is light gray behind it.
A tiny (but fierce, as I've come to understand) pygmy owl, puffed up against the cold, sits on a winter branch, with white sky behind it and a few fall leaves still clinging to another branch on the tree.
Bright pink striated skies, with green at the horizon and purple at the top, showing a starry night above the aurora borealis. There are ruins of the Officers Quarters and another building at Fort Churchill State Historical Park visible, with a dirt trail running through the desert scrub. The entire photo is naturally tinted pink, and there are mountains in the background.
Dark blue sky with stars and comet, fading to orange and white at the horizon. All is reflected in a very calm Mono Lake, with tufa spires jutting up out of the water, resulting in an otherworldly feel.
A black english lab in an orange harness sits in the snow, while looking at the river. There is dormant vegetation on the sides of the shorelines.
Two dogs drink from the shoreline of an alpine lake. A wispy-clouded day is reflected in the still water, there is a large rock in the foreground and many other smaller ones strewn about. The lake is surrounded with pines and deciduous trees with vibrant fall colors.
A wooden bridge crosses over a slow-moving river. There are rock walls along the sides of the river, and pine trees with deciduous trees in fall foliage mixed throughout, filling the rest of the scene. The deep blue sky has wispy white clouds. A perfect fall day. From the original posting: "I fell in love with Alpine County, CA the moment I first experienced it, and Jeremy agreed so much that we decided to get married there. In fact, we got our wedding license about 300 yards to the left of where this photo was taken, in Markleeville. Every time I pass this bridge I think, 'I have to shoot that someday.' I got up at 5:30 this morning and drove up to the mountains, listened to music, enjoyed the sunrise. On my way back through, the light was just starting to hit this area and I thought ... today's the day. This town was seriously threatened this year, by the Tamarack Fire. In fact, on my way back out of Markleeville, I was stopped because they are now clearing out all the burned and dead trees. I'm so glad the firefighters stopped the fire before it wiped out this beautiful town. In 1989, this East Fork of the Carson River was designated a 'Wild and Scenic River' by the State of California. I concur."
A large totem pole stands in the middle of the desert scrub and dirt. There are mountains in the distance and the sun is just coming up over them. Sunrise-pink clouds in the blue sky.
Boardwalk pizza at Seaside Heights, NJ. A huge slice of pepperoni pizza that spans across two paper plates.
A drone shot of Seaside Heights amusement/shopping/boardwalk area. Games, rides, sand/beach, and shopping in the left, the Atlantic Ocean on the right.
A macro photo of a snakefly, with red on the back of its head, brought out by the plump red berries it is surrounded by. There are a lot of green leaves also in the picture, and a dark background. The snakefly is partially covered by one leaf, as it made its way up one of the leaves in the back to check out what I was doing.
Snow-laden pine trees, with blue sky behind. The sun is just peeking over and through one of the branches, as tiny hoarfrost crystals blow down from above. Everything is rim-lit with the rising sun.
A lone kayaker sits on a quiet alpine lake, with a tree-covered island to the right, and the early morning sun streaming toward, and lighting up, the wooden boat. There are mountains in the distance.
A large wall of waterfalls, falling into deep blue water. Fall foliage surrounds and grows along the large rock wall.
A waterfall in the Lake Tahoe area, photographed in 3 different seasons. Left is spring/summer, all green plants and a very full flow. Middle is fall with less water and a lot of orange and yellow plants and leaves surrounding. Right is winter, which we snowshoed into. You can barely tell there's a waterfall under huge heaps of fresh white snow (there may not have been water actually flowing).
A Hawai'i sunrise, reflected in still water resting among the rocks. Palm yes silhouetted along the shoreline and deep yellow and orange clouds decorate a blue sky.
Close-up image of an immense old Bristlecone pine tree trunk, there are swirls of all earthy shades of browns and creams.
A coyote in winter coat, plods through the sparkling snow. There are some plants and grasses showing in the foreground, and snow being kicked up by one of its paws.
A wild iris in a dew-laden field. The iris is lightly purple and everything is backlit, and all the blades of grass have dewdrops on the tips, lit up and in bokeh, as the narrow focal field is just on the flower.
Humps of dry earth heave up into the air, in the canyons located in western Nevada. There is golden tumbleweed and other plants to the right, and in the distance are California's snow-capped White Mountains. This photo was taken in late May of 2024.
Hand-written boarding passes, for our flight from Johannesburg to Maun. We had so many challenges with our flights over to Africa, that when we got to the counter at Johannesburg, with limited time to get to our gate, when they told us the printer broke down, it was just par for the course. Clearly this wasn't such a unique issue, though, as the agent turned around, grabbed a stack of blank boarding pass cards and started writing. When we went to check in for the Maun flight, they discovered she'd forgotten to write one part on one of the tickets, so we got a custom escort (soooo much quicker) back to the Johannesburg ticketing area, and then back to our departure gate, where I snapped this quick photo. These are the only boarding pass stubs I've ever saved. Gotta be flexible, with international travel.
A photo taken looking into a beehive. Tons of bees working hard on their honeycombs.
The bow of a wooden kayak in the foreground, there is a golden sunrise on the horizon. Dramatically-lit scattered clouds decorate a blue sky, with golden crepuscular rays shooting into the sky. The mountains and trees are silhouetted along the shoreline.
Aphrodite, one of the unique sculptures on Guru Road. She is a tower of stacked rocks and clay pieces, alongside a dirt path that cuts through dry desert grasses. There are mountains in the distance and off to the right is the Black Rock Desert. There are wispy clouds in a blue sky.
1884 1st edition of The Raven. It's a very large, heavy book. Visiting family in Wisconsin one holiday, we spent some time in Madison, perusing bookstores and eating great food. We spent a ton of time in a very magical Paul's Book Store, where we found this book. It was up on a shelf, out of reach, and I asked if we could look at it. They brought it down for us and we drooled and swooned, but didn't have the money for it (plus I didn't want to try to wrangle something that large home on the plane). A few months later, that book was still on my mind. When we got our tax return, I proposed we slate a portion of it to this book. My husband agreed, and I contacted the bookstore. They said they don't normally ship books, but they remembered us and appreciated our excitement and passion, so they made an exception. And so, our library was rearranged, to allow for this gorgeous book to live behind glass. We have since then added a similarly-sized-and-aged copy of Rime of the Ancient Mariner and a smaller sized La Fontaine's Fables (both illustrated by Doré). This photo shows the fabric cover of The Raven, of a kneeling angel, accented in gold, some of which has been rubbed off over the years.
Every Meridian Press print is a unique work of art, individually letterpress printed in multiple colors from several hand-cut linoleum blocks. Katherine Case carves the linoleum blocks using a traditional Japanese key-block technique and prints them onto all-cotton archival papers on an antique SP15 Vandercook letterpress at her studio in Reno. This particular piece is #10 of 50, "Cross Section of The Sierra Nevada" - mountains on the top, with stylized animals of the Sierra below. Please forgive my horrible photo of the piece - very hard to photograph glass with a cell phone. :)
Titled "A place for prayer," this is made from the root of a tree (I forget what kind). Mark explained that when a tree is growing, and its roots get damaged from things like huge winds, sap flows and causes the twists and "knotted" looking areas. He also said the gaps in the wood are where the roots grew around rocks - this particular root is likely well over 100 years old. There's an amethyst crystal (up near what I think looks like a horse head) and a turquoise 'waterfall' and an Asian-style home atop some gorgeous greenish rocks. Mark grew up, and then trained, with Japanese artists, and it shows in his work, and in his huge respect for nature.
A large iridescent painting on wood, covered in resin. Mostly blues and golds at the top, and then browns, greens, reds and golds toward the bottom. The Lake Tahoe region is very dark blue. Sorry for the toes in the photo. Gives an idea of scale, though.
A photo of a stylized bug, with a welded body, holding a large purple/blue crystal, and with enameled metal wings, painted with a blue and yellow fade. She was hanging on the wall facing up, and I asked to see her a little closer. When the artist pulled her off the wall and I saw that face, I was 100% sold. She is substantial, heavy, and gorgeous.
A large sea turtle, photographed from above, swimming along the ocean bottom.
A drone panorama showing lots of snow, pine trees, mountains, and some clouds in the distance, over Lake Tahoe (which is surrounded by snow-covered mountains). To the right is Spooner Lake. The long shadows cast by the early morning sun point all eyes to the crown jewel, though - beautiful blue Lake Tahoe.
The bow of a kayak, cutting through calm waters, headed toward an island with the remains of a stone tea house at the top. Beyond the island is a shoreline with beaches, trees, and tall mountains. The entire bay is bathed in golden sunrise light.
Rock in the water at Pfeiffer Beach. Huge rock, with a hole through it, where water would come through.
A close-up photo of light brown sand on the shore at Pfeiffer Beach, there are trails of purple sand, where it leads back to a solid purple section, nearer the water.
The view of a partially frozen alpine lake, photographer is standing in the snow on the hill above the lake. There are snowy mountains and trees in the distance, and the sun is just now cresting a distant hill, showing up as a sunburst, with rays shooting out. The snow in front is glowing orange where the sun touches it. All else is in shadow.
An alpine lake with trees in fall colors at the base of a snow-dusted mountain. A bald eagle (which I didn't even know was there) took flight from the pine trees on the left, right before I clicked the shutter. Trees, eagle, mountain, and clouds reflected in the calm waters.
A yellow hover fly (looks very much like a bee) on yellow stonecrop flowers. Green leaves in the background.
A circular fisheye image, showing the water, rocks, and trees of Frog Lake, CA around the outside, and the clouds at sunset in the middle. The sky is blue and the clouds are golden.
A drone photo looking down at a desert canyon (Wilson Canyon), with a winding paved road through it, and the Walker River running alongside the road. Clouds in the sky and snow-covered Sierra Nevada mountain range in the distance.