Kippy Spilker
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kippy.geminai.com
Kippy Spilker
@kippy.geminai.com
380 followers 86 following 440 posts
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.
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kippy.geminai.com
Two weeks ago we drove through a snowstorm to meet Gerald, who became our new family member that day. Caught as a stray with wounds consistent with jumping or being thrown from a moving car, he has brought that beautiful lab energy back to our home. He is very loved. Dets in alt text. #adopt #dogs
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. We were told Gerald is not interested in sleeping on beds. :) Three dogs snuggle on a colorful bedspread. One black lab, one white husky mix, one brown shepherd mix. We were also told Gerald wasn't interested in sleeping on couches. A small white husky mix and black lab mix sleep on a couch while a brown shepherd mix sleeps on a dog bed in the background in a living room. Gerald's first day smiling. About a week after joining our family, he finally started smiling. A black lab smiles up at the camera. There is a wooden stand to the left and tan rugs on a wooden floor.
March 30, 2025 at 3:53 PM
kippy.geminai.com
Yesterday we saw a lot of #SomethingBeautiful during a gorgeous day paddle on Mono Lake, outside Yosemite National Park. After exploring the south tufa, we spent time on geothermal Paoha Island. What a great day to be in the caldera of a volcano.

#PhotographersUnited #Kayaking #Tufa #Geothermal
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. Geothermal activity along the shore of Paoha Island. There are rocks and bushes, with steam rising up among them. In the background is a walkable mud surface and more scrub/sagebrush.
March 10, 2025 at 10:55 PM
kippy.geminai.com
I'm lucky in that much of my job relies on me finding #SomethingBeautiful in our state. This was taken on one of those days, where our staff went kayaking on Lake Tahoe, in clear-bottomed boats. I took this photo of a beautiful day 'hard at work.'

#PhotographersUnited
#ILoveMyJob
#DronePhotography
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.
March 3, 2025 at 10:27 PM
kippy.geminai.com
#SomethingBeautiful in a quick cell phone snap, while on a bike ride today. This blue heron patiently allowed me to take a photo. Loved the reflections.

#Wildlifephotography
#CellPhonePhotography
#PhotographersUnited
#Photography
#Booksky
#Herons
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.
March 2, 2025 at 1:42 AM
kippy.geminai.com
If you've traveled through the Reno-Tahoe Int'l Airport, you may have encountered #SomethingBeautiful of the canine persuasion - the volunteers of Paws 4 Passengers. Leaving smiles in their wake, they are 4-legged angels. Their people aren't too bad, either. ;)

#PhotographersUnited
#Dogs
#Flying
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.
February 26, 2025 at 10:00 PM
kippy.geminai.com
#SomethingBeautiful, for sure! A sign that spring is on the way, when the stonecrop starts waking up. :)

#CellPhonePhotography #PhotographersUnited #SpringIsComing #Succulents #Stonecrop #Gardening
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.
February 24, 2025 at 1:33 AM
kippy.geminai.com
Made our way up to #SomethingBeautiful today. Almost 600 feet of elevation gain, I'm definitely feeling this snowshoe, but it was so worth it. This is Lake Tahoe as seen from near Captain Pomin Rock. #Photography #PhotographersUnited #LakeTahoe #Snowshoeing #SierraNevada #Nevada
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.
February 22, 2025 at 9:41 PM
kippy.geminai.com
A couple summers ago we put in a pollinator wall, and a big part of it is this Candy Swirl Honeysuckle. #SomethingBeautiful and also something good for the environment. I loved this shot of the bee, flinging pollen as it hovered.

#Photography
#PhotographersUnited
#Pollinators
#Bees
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.
February 21, 2025 at 6:49 PM
kippy.geminai.com
A meteor shower over the Black Rock Desert (where Burning Man is held) in northern Nevada provided a whole night of #SomethingBeautiful last July.

#Photography, #Astrophotography, #BlackRockDesert, #PhotographersUnited, #MilkyWay, #MeteorShower
A dark desert playa at the bottom and a sky packed with stars, Milky Way, and also shooting stars (meteor shower).
February 20, 2025 at 8:18 PM
kippy.geminai.com
A few years back, there was #SomethingBeautiful outside the french doors in our dining room. This gorgeous (and patient) Coopers Hawk is no dummy - lots of songbirds visit our waterfall. Not bad for shooting through glass.

#Photography, #BirdPhotography, #NaturePhotography, #PhotographersUnited
A beautiful coopers hawk, with feathers ruffling in the breeze, perches on a wooden fence. A photo of a coopers hawk, sitting on a fence above a homemade waterfall. The photo is taken through a door so you can see the glass panels and framing, and also the wall of our neighbor's house in the background. The waterfall has some grasses growing in one corner.
February 18, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Kippy Spilker
karensnatureart.bsky.social
Working on this page brought back great memories of attending the bumble bee workshop at Nachusa Grasslands back in 2021. We were able to get close looks at many different species, but the conclusion was that our native bees are precious and need care.
#SciArt #insects #naturejournal #prairie
Watercolor and ink paintings of 5 different species of bumble bees plus a miner bee and a leafcutter bee. Handwritten ink notes are interspersed among the illustrations. August 7, 2021, Nachusa Grasslands, 88 degrees- felt like 95+, hot and humid with some clouds. Five species of bumble bees are depicted. Bombus pensylvanicus- American Bumble Bee- found on early goldenrod, Bombus auricomus male- Black and Gold Bumble Bee- big eyes! Territorial. Below that is the female feeding on beebalm. Then Bombus vagans-Half-black Bumble Bee- hairy looking! In the middle is Bombus affinis-Rusty-patched Bumble Bee feeding on Joe Pye Weed. Below that is a Bombus citrinus female- Lemon Cuckoo Bumble Bee and the male feeding on Joe Pye Weed. The queen invades host colony, kills other queen, eggs and larvae and forces workers to care for its own eggs. Hosts-B. impatiens and B. vagans. At the top right are 2 smaller native bees- Andrena aliciae- yellow-faced miner bee and Male leafcutter bee- brushy front legs. Note at bottom- Rusty-patched Bumble Bee workshop (federally endangered) - looked for B. affinis, B. pensylvanica, B. vagans, B. citrinus male and female and others. Between all the groups, 15 Rusty-patches were seen! Preferred habitat- border between woods and prairie
February 18, 2025 at 2:57 AM
kippy.geminai.com
Feeling a little overwhelmed of late, had to take a bit of a mental break to quiet thoughts. I endeavored for my brain to look like this photo, #SomethingBeautiful photographed while drifting by on a kayak on the Cosumnes River.

#PhotographersUnited
#BirdPhotography
#Kayaking
#Silence
#Solitude
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.
February 17, 2025 at 7:59 PM
kippy.geminai.com
#SomethingBeautiful from another angle, following up yesterday's post. This day out on the water, it looked like we were paddling through liquid silver. Gorgeous, every step of the way.

#PhotographersUnited
#LiquidSilver
#Kayaking
#Photography
#WinterPaddling
#LakeTahoe
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.
February 10, 2025 at 11:19 PM
kippy.geminai.com
#SomethingBeautiful from a few years back, when we kayaked about 12 miles round trip, to Emerald Bay in south Lake Tahoe. Too much ice for us to get out on shore, and the water was like liquid silver.

#WinterKayaking
#LakeTahoe
#PhotographersUnited
#IceIceBaby
#GoodDays
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.
February 9, 2025 at 9:17 PM
kippy.geminai.com
Last night at a work event, I saw #SomethingBeautiful. I'm not sure Olaf the Owl thought the same. haha. He stared at me for nearly a full minute like this. Perhaps he sensed my adoration ...

#PhotographersUnited
#Owls
#Falconers
#Raptors
#UnrequitedLove
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.
February 7, 2025 at 8:11 PM
kippy.geminai.com
I was sitting still in my kayak, shooting something else, when some coots drifted by me. I had the audacity to LOOK at them, and they took off. I didn't mean to startle them, but it did make for a beautiful photo.

#SomethingBeautiful
#WildlifePhotography
#PhotographersUnited
#Birds
#Coots
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.
February 6, 2025 at 9:00 PM
kippy.geminai.com
Christmas Eve morning, 2016, we found ourselves paddling into #SomethingBeautiful (and also Something Intimidating) on Lake Tahoe. We didn't go far and we didn't stay out long, but Tahoe almost never disappoints, especially in the winter.

#kayaking #storms #PhotographersUnited #LakeTahoe
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.
February 5, 2025 at 4:05 PM
kippy.geminai.com
We said goodbye to our beloved english lab, Larry, a week ago today. This morning, as I pulled into a road near work, this was what I saw. Just physics, but I'm still going to take it as a sign of happier times to come.

#SomethingBeautiful #Rainbows #PhotographersUnited #CellPhonePhotography
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.
February 4, 2025 at 4:04 PM
kippy.geminai.com
A kayaker heading out to fish before sunrise, Lake Alpine, CA, 2018.

#SomethingBeautiful
#PhotographersUnited
#LakeAlpine
#Fishing
#Kayaking
#Sunrise
#Photography
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.
February 3, 2025 at 6:40 PM
kippy.geminai.com
One of my favorite drone photos, also a Nat Geo editor's choice, back in the day. A photographer friend of mine walking up Crescent Dune, outside Tonopah, NV, one freezing cold early morning.

#SomethingBeautiful #PhotographersUnited #DronePhotography #Photography #Nevada
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.
February 2, 2025 at 5:58 PM
kippy.geminai.com
"Is that a sparrow?" I inquired, as we were snowshoeing in Ebbett's Pass. As we approached I could tell this was no sparrow, but it wasn't 'til I had my camera up that I realized it was a tiny little owl! Pygmy owl, to be precise.

#SomethingBeautiful #PhotographersUnited #wildlifephotography #owls
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.
February 1, 2025 at 11:39 PM
kippy.geminai.com
May 10, 2024, the first of recent northern lights events we could see in Nevada. We eventually found ourselves at Fort Churchill State Historic Park. This shot is bracketed, to showcase the structures and the skies.
#SomethingBeautiful #PhotographersUnited #Astrophotography #AuroraBorealis
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.
January 31, 2025 at 4:07 PM
kippy.geminai.com
There was #SomethingBeautiful in the sky in 2020. Neowise Comet photographed at Mono Lake, CA, at Blue Hour - 4:29 a.m.

#comet
#MonoLake
#Astrophotography
#photography
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.
January 30, 2025 at 3:54 PM
kippy.geminai.com
This is the Larry. Technically it's "Everybody Loves Larry," & that is the truth.

Tired of fighting cancer at nearly 13 years old, tonight he crosses the rainbow bridge. So today is one more trip to the river, lots of bacon, broccoli, & snuggles.

#SomethingBeautiful
#BestBoy
#RainbowBridge
#dogs
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.
January 28, 2025 at 9:16 PM
kippy.geminai.com
Up at 5:30 a.m. to get to the trail for this hike. We go early because our dogs don't have great recall (our fault) and we like to allow them off-leash. What a gorgeous autumn 2023 hike to Scott Lake, near Hope Valley, CA.

#SomethingBeautiful
#Dogs
#Hiking
#Autumn
#SierraNevada
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.
January 27, 2025 at 4:00 PM