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Sacramento Music Festival, 2013

Music! Music! Music! That’s what you get when you attend the Sacramento Music Festival, formerly the Sacramento  Jazz Jubilee. This is the third year we have volunteered at the Festival and it is fun. Our venue, the Youth Bands, is on the Delta King Dock. The venue is sponsored by the Delta King and we appreciate all it does to promote our youth bands. The venue is

small and easy to manage, and the kids are great. It’s been wonderful to watch them from year to year, gaining in competency. We have bands that continually restructure due to kids graduating and new kids coming in. And, we have bands that just disband after high school graduation. We lost two of those bands this year. As a shift manager, I’m responsible for each 3 1/2 hour shift our four volunteers participate in. It’s not a difficult job. We get the rest of the time to enjoy the whole festival. We do have some bands that are our favorites, and I have pictures of them. Because of the set up and tear down of our venue, I only brought my camera one day. But, I think I got some good pictures.

This is my last regular post. Hopefully, June 2, we will be starting my dream vacation of going across the U.S., visiting relatives, National Parks, the east coast, maybe Canada and the Northern U.S. So, this blog will become sort of a travelogue for the duration of our trip.

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UC Davis Arboretum, Davis, California

I do appreciate the coordinators of the photography meetups I attend. They get me out with my camera, and I learn. This meetup was at the UC Davis Arboretum. The only difficulty I had was finding it. Both my passenger, a young exchange student, and I couldn’t find the correct meeting place let alone the arboretum itself. Finally after going around in a big circle, we called the coordinator and said we hoped to meet him in the arboretum. Of course, we still didn’t know where it was! So, we asked. “It’s right in back of you,” said the student. And sure enough, it was. And it was a beatuiful 3 1/2 mile walk. It’s well worth going to, but understand it borders the creek on both sides. We did meet up with the coordinator and other photographer members, and had a great time.

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More Angel Island

Angel Island, now a California State Park, was a military installation. There are many garrisons on the Island, and during my walk, I came upon one that was about to have a cannon firing demonstration. I couldn’t miss this opportunity! But, when I hiked down to the beautiful grounds, the cannon was small. I don’t remember the size, but you’ll see it in a picture. The ranger did a great job of getting the small crowd involved in the preparation and educated us on the procedure to fire a cannon. However, she performed the deed by herself. I thought the garrison, its buildings and plants interesting. I’m also including a shot of a fountain sculpture we saw before boarding the ferry. Here they are.

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Angel Island

Rain, drizzle, mist, haze–why not! As the ferry brought us closer to Angel Island, I thought, “Oh this weather again!” That weather is not unusual for the Bay Area, especially for an island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. But why today, when I’m there to take photos along with other Meetup photographers.

I left my carpool of hiker/photographers to do the 5 mile hike up Mt. Livermore, and I walked the perimeter road. We each had different experiences. Up high, there were more birds and flowers. Down below were garrisons, seascapes and flush toilets!

There were moments of sunshine that blared through the gray day, and I took full advantage of them. Once I started going through my pictures, I found many good shots. So the day wasn’t so bad at all. With a little editing, and I do mean little, I found about 30 I liked. I’m going to make this a two-part blog because I don’t want to bombard you with a lot of photos to view. And, I’m only posting 20 total.

The weather didn’t deter visitors who packed picnic lunches, games for the family and brought bikes. Everyone was enjoying their experiences, even through the downpour. All in all, it was a good day. Thank you Laura for driving; you are appreciated!

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Candid

You know how it is, you take your camera to a party and there you go getting in everyone’s face. Some don’t mind it. Some do! I took some candid shots at my grandson’s birthday party and at my friend Julie’s surprised birthday party. I was please with some of the shots.

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More Lotus, CA

Here are some more images from our camping trip to Ponderosa Resort in Lotus, CA. Every day when I walked the dog, I took my camera. Each time we discovered a different part of the campground along the river. We also discovered which dogs were friendly and which were not. Again, I didn’t take the tripod. It was just too much to handle with the dog–even though he’s a 17 lb Schnoodle! This was a house in Coloma. I just had to stop and take photos. It was showing its old age, and it was for sale.

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Camping in Lotus, CA

When you come across a campground as beautiful along the American River as the Ponderosa Resort in Lotus, you really don’t need to go anywhere else to take pictures. So, I spent most of the week trying different things with the camera. Lessons learned: use a tripod for creating glassy river water, hook the dog to your belt so your hands are free and don’t bring your coffee along! These images have received minimal editing because I’m still at the point of just learning the tools with PE9. I will be interesting to see how they change when I do understand how to truly edit them.

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More Merced

During our square dance weekend, we also went to the Merced Ecological Reserve. It was smaller than others I’ve been to, but I did manage to get some shots. This is where my comfort zone is, but I still didn’t take the time to play with different exposures, etc. Also any editing done was basic cropping and auto editing. I’m going through PE9 For Dummies!

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Merced

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While at Merced for a square dance festival, we came upon an international bike race. These photos are of the time trials. While taking these shots, which are not in order because I can’t figure out how to move them around, I learned the following: 1. My hand to eye coordination needs work. I had a difficult time shooting them coming across the finish line–way too fast. 2. I should always carry a tripod. The pros had their cameras on a tripod, hanging upside down, shooting remotely because the fence was in the way.
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Help with repairs
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I’m not sure whether the cyclists were exercising or checking out their bikes.
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The finish line. You can see the cyclist’s elapsed time.
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The countdown at the beginning.
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Cyclist working with wheels.
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Time trials hadn’t started yet. Cyclist were practicing