When people think of California they visualize Los Angeles, San Francisco and maybe San Diego. They don’t see California as an agriculture state, but it is. Most of the produce we bought during our 2013 cross country trip was from California. Farming and ranching is a big deal for this State.

So, it makes sense to have a museum dedicated to agriculture: The California Agriculture Museum. Five of us visited this recently re-opened museum in July. It was fun to see the old tractors. Featured at the museum is the tractor collection of Fred Heidrick Senior, consisting of rare examples of tractors, harvesters, trucks, autos, horse-drawn implements and other artifacts that tell the California story. For me, the most fun were the wheels.

I’ll admit that I have trouble shooting in museums because you just can’t isolate an object. In this case the tractors were close to each other. I decided to focus in on wheels–big and small. Once I did that, it became fun.

Shooting inside was also interesting. The lighting was more even than we found at the California State Railroad Museum. I tried shooting with and without the tripod and with and without the flash. I think I ended up mostly with the tripod and no flash. There were instances where using the tripod was impossible, getting the right angles, etc.

It was a fun morning, and I hope that after seeing these pictures you’ll have a greater appreciation for the agriculture we have in California.

This tractor was by a barn set.

Help! Maybe this was used in harvesting?

Here’s a wheel.

The back of a tractor.

Several wheels. You have to love the colors.

Around and around we go.

The old tractors ran on kerosene.

A fan in the front of the tractor.

This tractor had a canopy.

Wheels of all sizes.

Wheels of another kind.

A horse drawn buggy.

Another buggy.

A horse drawn gasoline truck?

A touring car.

The old chuck wagon.