iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 18/09/2025

Popping in here to THANK YOU for coming out west on your tour! Unfortunately I have heavy deadlines the week you'll be near me, or I'd have definitely been there. I hope you have a great trip, and I can meet you another time. :) Looking so forward to the new book!

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 31/03/2025

Thank you! Only just over 2 weeks in, but he is doing extremely well! :)

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 30/03/2025

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.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 30/03/2025

Good for the soul! Thank you, my friend. :)

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 10/03/2025

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.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 03/03/2025

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.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 03/03/2025

Thank you, as always, for such a fantastic compliment. ❤

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 02/03/2025

#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.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 27/02/2025

I love that! And can so relate with missing one's own pup! I feel like the longer I'm away from ours, when traveling, the more desperately I accost any dog I come across. Haha. I love these photo shoots - any shoot with dogs is a win, but even moreso when there are this many!

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 26/02/2025

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.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 22/02/2025

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.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 22/02/2025

I wish I had a magic wand to fix this. :(

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 22/02/2025

Thank you, my friend. I don't have the energy or time for managing hives, but I'll give em as many flowers as I can. :)

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 22/02/2025

I am in love with your dof and treatment of this image. Gorgeous - really evokes a mood.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 22/02/2025

Damn, that is really lovely!

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 22/02/2025

Sorry! Virginia City, NV, has had the world outhouse races for over 35 years. :)

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 21/02/2025

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.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 20/02/2025

Ha. We have a small pond in our backyard, put in for the dogs. Originally it was 2 ponds with a river in-between, but too much maintenance! So we cut it back to the one, but hadn't built it right, so last summer we tore it all out and redid it. Here's how it looks now. :) Will look up oldbones, ty!

Backyard pond at night, with a Buddha statue and solar lantern reflected in the water. Beyond the lantern is a small waterfall.

Backyard pond, built for our dogs to cool off in the summer. Buddha sculpture with a tree branch behind, and a waterfall on one end. There is grass surrounding, and water lilies in the water.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 20/02/2025

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).

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 18/02/2025

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.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 18/02/2025

"Definitely not the croc" made me laugh out loud! Beautiful pups. :)

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Reposted by Kippy Spilker

Karen's Nature Art @karensnatureart.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

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

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 17/02/2025

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.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 10/02/2025

#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.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 10/02/2025

Thank you for sharing, and for your perspective on "subtle" drone use. ;) I absolutely agree.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 10/02/2025

In general, cold doesn't bother me much (so long as I know I can get warm eventually. Ha) and I so very much prefer Tahoe without all the people on it! It's magical. :) Thanks for the kind words!

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 09/02/2025

Than you for your kindness.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 09/02/2025

You give the best compliments. :) Thank you!

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 09/02/2025

#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.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 07/02/2025

Absolutely. He was stunning!

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 07/02/2025

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.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 07/02/2025

@annalarssonstudio.bsky.social here's another little pygmy for your viewing pleasure. :)

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 06/02/2025

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.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 05/02/2025

Thanks, Jaime. Got my allergies kicking in a bit .. I sure appreciate you. ❤️

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 05/02/2025

Thank you, kkranyak. Yes, I think you know very well how this feels, judging by your profile here. :) Never gets any easier, and yet we just keep on bringing them home to share our lives.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 05/02/2025

Thank you, yes! As Tahoe so often is. :)

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 05/02/2025

You and me both, my friend - to all of it. :) I'm hoping he's playing with Lucaya, Dante, and Britley! I have to believe it's true - hurts my heart too much to think that energy just stops.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 05/02/2025

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.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 04/02/2025

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.

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 02/02/2025

My bird book says glaucidium gnoma. And, interestingly, for size it says +sparrow. :)

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 02/02/2025

Damn, that's kinda frustrating on such an art-centric site. I'm sorry. :(

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 02/02/2025

If I ever find another, I'll be sure to share here. :) I love how you go about creating your own joy. ❤

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Kippy Spilker @kippy.geminai.com · 02/02/2025

Fyi. :( I presume this is not you under a different name.

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