Posted on by Anne Sandler · 6 Comments

Four in a row: Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge and 3 more!

Honestly, I’m not much of a birder, that is a photographer who loves to photograph birds. But I do like to get out during the season and do my best to capture some of our feathered friends. A great birding day, for me, is when I can photograph our amazing bald eagle. I recently went on an all day outing with Laura, who is an amazing nature photographer, to four wildlife areas within 2 hours from home.

First stop was the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge in Willows. Wow, just one drive around and we saw eagles, hawks, and sandhill cranes. Here are some of my images:

    From there we went to Llano Seco Wildlife Area near Chico. We had never been there and were surprised to see just one viewing platform. I took the opportunity to do some landscape photography:

    From here things get blurry in my brain. I should post these blogs when I’m fresh from the activity! We were out on January 11! I think these birds are from Colusa National Wildlife Refuge. It’s much smaller than Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, but there were photographic opportunities:

    Our final stop was Gray Lodge Wildlife Area in Gridley. The sun was beginning to set and we caught a golden glow on the birds and landscapes. The mountains in some of the landscapes are the Sutter Buttes. For sunset, we went to our favorite spot in the area to photograph a spectacular sunset:

    So this was the beautiful end to our fantastic day! Could it get any better?

    Posted on by Anne Sandler · 7 Comments

    The end and the beginning: The Fountains & About Town

    The beginning:

    I’m sure you all know that things don’t always turn out as scheduled. For instance, Marlene and I had planned to go to the Sacramento Zoo for the first photo outing of 2020; however, I left my camera case (full of gear) at my kid’s house. I didn’t think my Nikon D3100 and an 18 – 55 mm lens would do well at the zoo. So where to go?

    Marlene said that she had three things to take pictures of, but never got to it. This seemed perfect! A short but sweet shoot and all in Sacramento. We just wanted to get out with our cameras. The first on her list was a horse statue, but it had galloped away. Where, we didn’t know. So, on to the next, a bigger than life sized lumber jack statue outside a Lumberjacks restaurant He hadn’t stomped away!

    It was overcast, and I tried to get the lumberjack at various angles. Practice! Practice!

    Next was the bigger than life size chicken. I tried to get various angles, but it was fenced in. But, it was unusual!

    You’ll have to click on the image to see the entire metal sculpture.

    The end:

    For the last shoot of 2019, Marlene and I decided to tempt the possibility and do some street photography at The Fountains, in Roseville, an outdoor mall featured in this blog many times. I thought on December 26 there would be a lot of bargain shoppers, but I was wrong. One store owner allowed us to take photos of his beautiful inventory, and a lot of it was on sale. Here’s what we found.

    • Look for new stock!
    • Flower Power!
    • Dogs are allowed in some stores.
    • Now, here’s a sale!
    • Window shoppi ng.
    • Inside the store.
    • Art in 3D!
    • A global effect.
    • A beautiful arrangement.
    • Resting by the fire pit.
    • Relaxing while waiting.
    • Heading home with dog and purchases.
    • A Goldendoodle brought a shopper with him.

    There you have it. The beginning and the end. A little backwards, but then………

    Posted on by Anne Sandler · 11 Comments

    But I’m still posting 2019! Victorian Christmas in Nevada City

    It’s the third day of 2020, and my first shoot of the year was a real estate shoot. I am anxious to get out with my camera for something else! I guess that will happen sometime next week.

    In the meantime, I do have a couple of outings still not posted like the Victorian Christmas in Nevada City. This is a yearly happening in this small touristy town in Nevada County. The streets are decorated, all vehicle traffic is closed off on the main street, vendors take up the streets and people walk around in period costumes.

    I once went to this at night, 2013, when the temperature was down to 25 degrees F! It was great that vendors were selling hot drinks! I had just started this photography hobby and now that I look back, the pictures were not that good. They were the best I could do at the time. It’s amazing for me to see the difference!

    So back to the present and my images from this outing!

    Vendors and visitors in costume. I hope the woman in the Christmas tree won the best costume!
    Street entertainers!

    I didn’t take a lot of pictures since it was crowded and cold. One last story: We were having a difficult time finding a parking spot. As we were going up and down residential streets, I saw a woman and her driveway was empty. Since I was driving, I asked Marlene and Ray to see if we could park in her driveway. I was willing to pay for the privilege. She not only agreed, but with Ray’s help moved some fencing to make room for us. She said she didn’t want any payment. How nice was that! We did buy her a small gift.

    I’m probably not going back to Nevada City for the Victorian Christmas. However, I might visit another small town next year!