Posted on by Anne Sandler · 161 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #314: Shorelines

Where do you find peace and relaxation? I find mine wherever water touches land. Yes, any type of shoreline. It may be a beach, a lake, a pond, a creek; you know where I’m going. I’m heading to the shore.

Here in Sacramento, rivers are easy to find. River shorelines are muddy and rocky with some areas reserved for swim areas. This part of the river is located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers. I believe it’s part of the Sacramento River. The American River is noted for riding the rapids, while the Sacramento River is used more for industry.

The Sacramento River

The Mississippi River is heavily used for transporting containers on barges moved forward by push boats. This image was taken in Arkansas along the mighty Mississippi. If you look in the mid to upper right, you’ll see a barge with containers on it waiting to be pushed to its destination. The second image shows a push boat in action. We were told that the crew stay on the boat the entire trip, moving 24/7, and only docking for supplies.

Let’s visit the beaches next. There are beautiful sand beaches where swimming is fun like this beach on Lifou Island in New Caledonia.

Then there are the rocky beaches where we sit and watch the waves hit the shore. Like the Marin Headlands in Northern California. The man in the second photo is wave watching at Pacific Grove on the California coast.

Let’s look at a creek next. We have many creeks running through the Sacramento Valley. Most popular is our local Dry Creek. There is a park nearby and the creek offers children a summer respite from the heat. During the winter, it is a beautiful place to take photos. Although this photo doesn’t show it, there are large rocks to sit on and relax.

We can’t forget about lakes. We have many around us. And when we drove across the country, we found beautiful lakes in middle America. This is Mono Lake in Northeastern California. It is a salt lake and known for the tufa towers jutting out of the water.

We found a beautiful lake in Alberta Canada while visiting Glacier National Park. Lake Waterton, Waterton National Park, Canada.

There are more types of shorelines, but I think this post is full. Please show us your shorelines from near and/or far. It’s any place where water touches the earth, and you also find peace and relaxation. When you post for this challenge, please link to my post and use the Lens-Artists tag.

I totally enjoyed seeing everyone’s cool colors last week. Thank you, John. It helped cool off our hot California summer! Next week Ritva will be challenging us. Please look for her post. Until then, enjoy, take lots of pictures and be happy.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 25 Comments

When the temperature rises: Pottery World

When it’s steaming outside, we go inside to take photographs. Most stores don’t mind. One such store is Pottery World in Rocklin. We look for a store that has an array of subject to photograph, and recently we went to Pottery World.

Here are some examples of what we found.

I like to go in close and sometimes crop even further. I’m looking forward to October when we can stay outside longer! It’s been a hot summer!

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 60 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #313: Cool Colors

Who doesn’t like something cool in the summertime? A cool drink with plenty of ice. A day at the coast enjoying the ocean. Cool and inviting colors. This week, John wants us to delve into the world of cool–whatever our interpretation. I chose nature.

Let’s look at flowers first. You know I love to photograph flowers, especially tulips (deep purple) and orchids (pink).

And who doesn’t feel the coolness of fog. Its mist lingers in the air as it darkens the scene.

Machinery and tools are another subject for cool. Patina can turn a discarded piece of a machine blue while steel has a totally cooling effect to our senses.

A lush rainforest is so cooling on a hot day. The color green just envelopes you as you walk along the path.

On a recent vineyard outing this artist was painting, and to my surprise all the people were wearing cool colors and she was surrounded by green foliage.

My last picture was taken at a community park where greens and blues abound. So totally relaxing!

And so ends my cool adventure. Thank you John for helping me see how nature can be so relaxing and sweet. When you post your response, please remember to link to John’s post and use the Lens-Artists tag. Next week, I’ll be back with another relaxing challenge, so look for my post.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 39 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #312: Sense of Scale

We live in a three dimensional world. Photography shows the world as two dimensions unless we give the image a sense of scale. In this week’s challenge, Sofia encourages us to use many ways to show our photos in three dimensions using a sense of scale.

Using people to show magnificence.

Living in California, I can’t escape visiting BIG trees. This one is in Calaveras Big Trees State Park. My friend is standing in front of a tall redwood tree. No, I didn’t shrink her!

My next two show mountain height. Climbers practice here. There are much higher mountains in California. But this one makes for great practice and good photo opportunities. You have to look hard to find the person in the photo on the left.

Here we are in the California dessert. That’s my husband walking through a canyon.

Using a tall tree in the foreground.

This next image is of the Yosemite Water Fall during the drought. Photographers use this shot to capture the “Fire Fall.” I got the fire, but not the fall. The foreground gives the mountain a sense of scale.

Now I’m twisting the theme a bit. As I was going through my images, I came across this picture of the now inactive Empire Mine in Grass Valley. It shows a scale of depth as the tracks go down into the mine.

Finally, this last image definitely has me plunging in a downward spiral showing the depth of the three stories. What kid wouldn’t like to ride down that staircase?

Thank you Sofia for showing us the importance of scale in helping to give our photos a three dimensional look and feel. When you reply with your post, please remember to link to Sofia’s post and use the Lens-Artists tag.

I truly enjoyed seeing all of your gardens last week. Next week John is hosting our challenge so please look for his post. Until then have a wonderful week!

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 44 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #311: What’s in a Garden

When I started photography, the first thing I wanted to learn was how to get that soft background behind a flower. I didn’t know the term for that was macro photography and that soft background was bokeh. This led me to truly appreciate floral beauty and the gardeners who create that beauty. Ann-Christine’s challenge this week is on gardens.

I do appreciate the wonderful volunteers who work hours to keep our public gardens looking gorgeous for us to enjoy. One of those gardens is the WPA Rock Garden in Land Park, Sacramento. It’s a small one acre hillside garden comprised of a series of rock-lined beds and meandering paths. The garden was established in 1940 through the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. 

Aside from one paid employee, the garden is taken care of by volunteers who do a fantastic job. Whenever I see a volunteer, I always thank them for making this possible for me to photograph.

Here are some photos I took on a recent visit this month.

Situated in Land Park and near the pond, the garden gets a lot of park visitors who are curious and just enjoy both the park, pond and garden. It’s a wonderful place to relax.

There are many gardens in Sacramento for us to photograph and I appreciate this opportunity to show you The Rock Garden. Thank you Ann-Christine. When you post your response , please be sure to place a link to Ann-Christine’s post and use the Lens-Artists tag. Last week we zigged and zagged. What a fun challenge from Patti. Next week Sofia will present her challenge so be sure to look for her post.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 30 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #310: Zig Zag

Have you ever zigged when you should have zagged? Or better said, gave Lightroom a challenge! I will warn you–don’t change a file name—ever! I know after you’ve imported into Lightroom to change a file name first in Lightroom and then on your computer. But my Zig occurred when I changed file names before importing into Lightroom. The Zag was a disaster.

I’ve managed to salvage some images of zigging and zagging, so here they are. Warning, they are out of the order I was trying to put them in, but I don’t want to tempt fate again! So here are my offerings for Patti’s fun challenge. I actually had fun finding these.

My zig zag problems aside, this was a fun challenge. As you post your ZZ’s please remember to link to Patti’s original post and use the Lens-Artist tag. A big thank you to our July guest hosts: Leanne, Elizabeth and PR. They presented creative and wonderful challenges.

Next week, Ann-Christine will lead our challenge, so be sure to look for her post.

Interested in joining the Lens-Artists challenges? Click here for more information…..