landscape photography – Page 22

Posted on June 9, 2021 by Anne Sandler · 15 Comments

A wonderful day trip with Alyse: Pacific Grove

It’s a good thing I always take my camera with me when I travel out of the Sacramento area. Typically, when I visit Alyse in San Jose, I will photograph the beautiful flowers in her neighborhood while I walk. We also go to the movies, which I seldom do at home. This trip in May, she wanted to take me to Pacific Grove. She said she would sketch while I photographed. An artist, Alyse hasn’t drawn or painted anything in years. I was delighted that she would be sketching.

As always, Pacific Grove was beautiful. It was the weekend and Alyse and I weren’t the only ones there! So, I tried to incorporate them into the pictures. You may have seen some of these images in a recent Lens-Artist post challenge on Blue and Green. In that post I promised that there would be more photos because I had just edited a few.

The Pacific Grove coastline is so lovely that I don’t think you’ll mind seeing a few pictures again! But I’ll try not to duplicate.

This tree attracted my attention even though the lighting was terrible.

I’m glad Alyse and I took this day trip. I have wonderful photographic memories and she has, what I hope to be, a return to doing her art.

Posted on May 24, 2021May 24, 2021 by Anne Sandler · 33 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #149: Cool Colors, Blue and Green

I am moved by color. I am absolutely drawn to warm colors naturally, but can appreciate the cool colors when nature gives us beautiful green grass and blue skies. This week Tina asks us to feature blues and greens in our posts. It worked out for me since I was in San Jose this weekend, and my dear friend Alyse and I drove down to Pacific Grove. She sketched while I photographed.

Pacific Grove is on the ocean near Monterey. It’s also the site of the well known Pebble Beach Golf Course and Tournament. So, I found a lot of blues and greens to photograph. I’ve got four images to show you today because that’s all I’ve been able to process.

Let’s start with our first stop. This area is known for its wind blown Monterey Cypress trees.

Alyse was sketching this sculpture and the surrounding area. I’m guessing that the exposure to harsh weather and salt helped make it look blue.

A little further down the road, a group of cormorants were sunbathing on a huge rock. Some more blues and a spot of green.

Finally, we have an array of color with flowers along this rocky coast.

I hope to process the rest of the pictures this week. They will be featured in a blog post soon. Thank you Tina for setting us off on a cool color search.

Posted on May 19, 2021 by Anne Sandler · 2 Comments

In the country with Yolo Arts & Ag: Hungry Hallow Ranch

I love suburbia with all its conveniences, but I also like to visit the forests, beaches and country sides. The Yolo Arts & Ag program allows me to take my camera onto ranches, orchards and farms that open their facilities to artists and photographers for two half days a month. It’s a great opportunity for us to wander in and out of barns, see old machinery and have a glimpse of a life we don’t live.

The Hungry Hallow Ranch in Capay was a large facility that gave us access to the entire property. But when we entered, we mostly saw machinery in barns, old vehicles, young olive trees and hay bales. Marlene, Ray and I said that there was nothing new here. Richard was excited saying that this is what he loved to photograph.

I think Richard was right. I did find a lot to photograph and learned a lesson. Don’t judge a photography shoot by first glance. I made the most of our morning. I took close ups of machinery.

Then there was an artist painting.. There were many, but I liked this shot the most.

And the olive orchard. You can see that the trees were young.

And the barns.

I also found a grape vine or two, a wood pile large enough to cover the side of a barn and an awesome tree.

It ended up being a fun morning of discoveries. And lunch was at our favorite Road Trip Bar and Grill in Capay.

Posted on May 11, 2021May 11, 2021 by Anne Sandler · 14 Comments

A Visit to Lodi: Micke Grove Park & the Deshmesh Sikh Temple

About an hour south of Sacramento is a municipal park that houses a Japanese Garden and a small zoo. Of course we, Ray, Richard and I, had to go visit Lodi and Micke Grove Park. This park is part of the San Joaquin County park system and home to a Fun Town for children, zoo, Japanese Garden, small lake, golf course, softball fields, water play features, horseshoe pits, museum and children’s playgrounds. We walked the garden and zoo.

The garden was small but beautiful. However, it was either in super sunshine or dark shade. In retrospect, bracketing would have been what to do, but I didn’t take my tripod. Here are some images. I liked the water reflections.

Next we went about a block to the zoo. It was a lot smaller than our Sacramento Zoo, the enclosures were thicker so we couldn’t have the fencing disappear, but it was interesting.

Some of the birds.

They did have a snow leopard.

After leaving the park, we had lunch and then went to visit the Deshmesh Sikh Temple which we happen to spot on our way to the park. They were very courteous and let us inside with our cameras.

It was a fun day in Lodi. There is more to Micke Grove Park to see though. We just might be back!

Posted on May 3, 2021 by Anne Sandler · 22 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #146: Focusing on the Details

Given this week’s challenge by Patti to focus on details, my mind went back to a Toastmaster Photo Club I tried to start and a speech given by a professional photographer in the group. He talked and demonstrated about a different way to focus on details: finding the picture within the picture.

He showed us how to focus on the details of an image to find more images by cropping sections. His example was of a construction site. First he showed us the entire landscape of the site. Then he focused in on a worker, continued with more sections and ended with a pair of shoes. It was an amazing lesson.

Today I’m going to try the same with a landscape taken yesterday at Scotts Flat Reservoir in Nevada City. I was hiking with my daughter-in-law Jess and granddaughter Olivia. Here’s my picture within a picture.

First the landscape.

Next I isolated Jess, Olivia and their dog Hana.

My final capture from this landscape is of a log on the beach.

Although the official Toastmaster group disbanded, a few of us kept meeting until 14 months ago when the pandemic shut us down. We continued to share information, but I will never forget this lesson on details and finding the picture within the picture.

Posted on April 28, 2021 by Anne Sandler · 5 Comments

In search of poppies: Sutter Creek

You never know where you’ll end up when on a photo outing with your photo pod. You start out with a destination in mind and a fork in the road can lead you somewhere else! That’s what happened when we started out to find a field of the California Poppy, our State flower. Our destination was Jackson, but I’m not sure where we ended up. Not Jackson and no poppy fields.

So we decided to capture the flowers and poppies in Sutter Creek. It’s always fun to visit that small town anyway, and it was getting to be hungry time. We found potted poppies and other things in the town.

On our way back to the town we spotted a mine from the road, but it was too early to enter it, if we could due to the COVID pandemic. So we took our pictures from the road and went into town.

Now in Sutter Creek. Stores and restaurants were just beginning to open.

With full tummies and a nice walk around town, we headed home. We stopped along the way to photograph this barn and vineyard.

We weren’t done yet! We spotted a model airplane airport and Ray instinctively drove in to see what was happening. Once in, I remembered I stopped there with Richard, but there was a new type of plane that I’d never seen before. The wings were like cellophane and it buzzed around the sky fast.

I still want that poppy field and hope to get to it before it’s gone. But, we did have a fun journey!

Posted on April 21, 2021 by Anne Sandler · 18 Comments

Seeing it foretells drought: Salmon Falls Bridge, Pilot Hill

Let’s be honest, we’d rather not be able to see the Salmon Falls Bridge because that would mean there’s plenty of water feeding into Folsom Lake, which is at approximately 65% of its regular level right now. Located in Pilot Hill, El Dorado County, the bridge is the remainder of a flourishing gold rush area town that was founded in 1850. You can read more history by following the above link. Preceding a drought or a drought condition, the bridge is visible, so we went to see it.

The approach from the closest parking lot. And walking closer to the bridge we did find remnants of an old structure.

We needed to cross the stream to access the bridge. In this picture Marlene is getting help from Gert and his hiking stick. And leave it to visitors to use their imagination, making tee pees out of sticks.

We made it to the bridge. People were fishing, walking, etc. We weren’t the only curious folks. I waited to take these pictures.

We walked across the bridge and along the way found pelicans and cairns and other neat things.

Now that I’ve had the opportunity to see this disappearing bridge, let’s hope for a good rainy season for 2021/2022. I hope you enjoyed seeing it too.

Posted on April 14, 2021 by Anne Sandler · 16 Comments

A Yolo Arts & Ag adventure: Oliver Farms, Woodland

The season has begun. Each month (Not every month during the pandemic.), during spring and summer, Yolo Arts & Ag hosts local farms and orchards for photographers and artists to spend the morning, doing their art. While I don’t get to all of them, I’ve taken the opportunity to go to most and I haven’t been disappointed. In March we were invited to the Oliver Farm in Woodland. Marlene and I took the opportunity.

Sally Oliver has left the farm buildings as was after her husband passed away 2 years ago. The almond trees are gone and she now leases the grounds to a certified organic farm, producing radish
seeds and curly chard among other rotating row crops.

I found the old buildings a photographic delight. Here are some images taken that morning.

On the way home, we stopped to take pictures of wild mustard growing in an orchard.

The next visit is scheduled for May. Where will Yolo Arts & Ag take us?

Posted on April 11, 2021 by Anne Sandler · 33 Comments

Lens-Artists Challenge #143: Colorful April

This challenge is having me feel melancholy. It’s been two Aprils since we were able to visit Ananda Village and photograph their beautiful tulips planted on the terrace. But Amy’s challenge of Colorful April didn’t say which year so I’m going deep into my archives for this one.

The year 2019 was the last visit we made to Ananda Village’s Crystal Hermitage Garden and their April display of tulips. The garden is currently closed because of the pandemic. I miss seeing the beautiful flowers in a calming and spiritual setting. Here are images from my 2019 visit.

It’s nice to have these visual memories. Hopefully we will be back to Ananda Village in 2022.

Posted on March 30, 2021 by Anne Sandler · 10 Comments

An end to a wonderful get away: Napa

Here in California when we think of Napa Valley, we think of grapes, wineries and wine. And, there was no shortage of that on the third day of my short get-away trip with Sandy and Peg. Here are some scenes from off the road.