I’m not too fond of fog when I’m driving, but when I have my camera in my hand, I love it. On one foggy morning we (Marlene, Linda, Ray and I) ventured out to two local parks hoping to get foggy images.
The fog was lifting when we arrived at Boulder Ridge park in Rocklin, but still thick enough to block the visual of most of the park. This time of the year, the trees are bare and stand tall against the fog.
This large park is popular with locals. But it was damp and cold while we were there, and the hillsides weren’t visible. When we couldn’t see the rest of the park, we left and followed in our cars to Coyote Pond in Lincoln. The fog had lifted there and the beauty of this small neighborhood park was waiting for us.
Ray happened to be sitting, looking at his camera.
It’s great that we have such beauty easily accessible in these COVID days.
This challenge from Tina Schell of Travels and Trifles seemed easy at first, but when I started digging through my photos, the challenge became emotional and difficult. The pandemic wove its way into our lives touching all aspects even photography. There were fewer outings, no lunches afterwards, less day trips. Picking the favorites out of a challenging year was tough.
Before the first lockdown, we did make it to Mare Island (A former Naval installation) where I spotted the perfect natural frame for an old brick building. I do love structures.
I did win an honorable mention for this photo in the McKinley Rose Garden contest.
Our photo shoots mainly consisted of meeting at the designated place shooting masked and then going our separate ways. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial at the World Peace Rose Garden in Sacramento reached deep into my soul since my husband served in Vietnam. This piece particularly touched me. A prisoner waiting for what?
I did take two longer trips. One with husband Richard as we searched for the beautiful California poppy and one with my friend Jean as we looked for Fall color, but instead found this beautiful lake.
Out again with our small group, we searched for Fall color before it disappeared. As we were going home, we came upon this.
But my favorite is the simple love of a child for her mother. In this case the child is Glory, 6-weeks I think when this was taken, and her mother. This was taken at the Sacramento Zoo. I call it, “This is MY mommy!”
And so, we are now two days into 2021 and things are looking up. We have vaccine choices in the works and hope. Take care and stay safe!
I know that Sandhill Cranes like to gather in the middle of a field which puts them out of reach for my prime 300 mm lens. I go to photograph them because sometimes they are closer to the road. In fact one year they were beside the road. I remember yelling at Laura to stop the car while we were in the middle of our side of the road. No other car was in sight and I got great images!
This time Ray and I were joining two other photo buddies at Woodbridge Ecological Preserve to catch the Sandhill fly in. I knew I would have trouble getting them even with my 300 mm lens. I actually thought since we were meeting at 3:30 p.m., we would be driving around for about 45 minutes, and maybe we could catch some of them closer to the road. We didn’t drive around!
We spent the entire time at Woodbridge. The Sandhills were there, but in the middle of the field. Too far for me. I tried with my Nikon D7100 which performs poorly in low light. That’s the camera the big lens fits on. I started taking pictures, but wasn’t happy with any of them.
So I thought, what’s 100 mm less? I learned it means a lot! But my Fuji is much better in low light, so I took it out and started shooting with a 55 – 200 mm lens. I would have gone home, but I wasn’t driving. Since I had both cameras on burst, I had a lot of bad photos to go through the next day! The Fuji managed to get a few okay Sandhill images and a nice mostly cloudless sunset!
So there you have it! Lesson learned; ask what the agenda is for the evening! Those pesky Sandhills.
Just say these words to me “road trip and camera,” and I’m ready for a fun morning. So off Ray, Marlene and I went, meeting Lucille and Gert along the way, to find some Fall color. We started outside of Lincoln, California in Placer County and drifted around the area. We saw touches of color during our drive, stopping where we could. I do wish farmers would create parking for us!
Here’s our first stop. The trees were bright red, but the lighting was not that good and a fence was prominent. They dying grape vines gave a nice orange hue.
I followed Lucille around the corner. This is what she found.
Our second stop was up the road at a county park that was already full. They let us in so we could use the bathroom. It was a long bathroom break!
Our third and last stop came as we were on our way home. We stopped when we saw orange blazing on the hillside.
So, while we didn’t find amazing Fall color, we did find amazing photographic opportunities. I love those road trips because you never know where you’ll end up or what photos are waiting for you to take.
For me, this challenge is like giving a kid a bunch of toys and saying okay pick one! Which one do you pick? Why do you pick it? So, what subject do I pick? What photos do I pick? Yikes!
This challenge by Tina Schell of Travels and Trifles caused me to think about how my photography progressed through the years. I went back to 2012 when I bought my Nikon D3100. This was a used entry level consumer DSLR. I was closing my business and looking for a hobby and didn’t want to invest a lot into something I might not enjoy.
I took the camera on a Mexican cruise that year and had fun photographing the colored lights aboard the ship.
I was still using my 3100 in 2013 when I made my first visit to a wildlife preserve (Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge). Fortunately this little guy was on the ground and close. My post processing hadn’t reached the Lightroom stage yet.
In 2014 I had my first experience shooting light trails. I had upgraded my camera to Nikon’s D7100 which was Nikon’s highest level consumer camera. This was taken in Sacramento. I did have freeway shots, but I wanted to show you something more.
In 2015 I went to Bodie, a State Park and old ghost town, where I experienced my first bout with altitude illness. There I practiced HDR, popular then, on the old structures that were in danger of falling. By then I was processing with Lightroom and Photomatix Pro.
My first shot at the Milky Way came in 2016. I’ve had better success since, but astrophotography has never become a favorite of mine. This is strange because my husband is an astronomer!
Sometimes you take a leap of faith. This picture taken in 2017, provided me with an entry for what I thought was a small town photo contest my friend told me about. This was in Sonora in the Gold Country. Little did I know, the best of Sacramento were also entering. Two of my photos made it to the wall and one made it to the final choice table. My friend had one image make it to the wall. She was delighted to have been chosen among the talented photographers and so was I. This was the one that was so close to being a top winner in 2019. I didn’t enter that contest this year because it was nerve racking, and with COVID my nerves were already under pressure.
I love slow shutter photography and would go to our local mall when they had small carnivals to practice. I captured this in 2018.
While I’m not a birder, I can’t resist an easy shot. My friend took me to what I call the nesting trees. Egrets and other large birds choose to make their nest in the cluster of trees and put on a show for photographers. By then I got an old-used prime F/4 300 mm. Although heavy, it has clarity. So, here’s my 2019 entry!
And here we are in 2020, the year we thought we’d never experience. Photography is a little more difficult these days, but it still provides the relaxation and mental stimulation it always did. I’m so happy I started back in 2012. This has become my passion. I hope you enjoyed my photographic journey.
We were hunting deer when we went to Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael. The nature center is about 15 minutes away and is on the American River. It’s a beautiful natural wooded area surrounded by the river and a golf course. It’s rutting season for the deer and we were hoping to shoot some–with a camera!
While we didn’t see any males rutting, we did see a lot of deer that were close enough for me to get with my 55 – 200 mm lens. It was a great morning. When I complained that I was out lensed with my photo buddies’ 400 mm or more, one said that I shouldn’t complain since they were so close! But, I like to complain!
Here are some deer shots from that successful morning.
And Effie Yeaw never disappoints with its beautiful environment. We got there early enough to watch the last of the fog glisten in the sunlight.
We live in the now, and these days we think back to the then. This is Amy’s, “The World is a Book” challenge this week. What is the difference between then and now.
I think our spontaneity is gone. Are we in the purple, red, orange tier? How far would we be going? Would we need to car pool? These are all questions we need to ask ourselves before we deem it okay to do an activity. We used to be able to go out to dinner on the spur of the moment. Now we either take out or cook. Sometimes we can eat out if our location is in the right tier. Even then, we may have to eat outside!
So, Amy wants us to show the difference through our photography of our then and now. For me the big difference is that our photo outings have been with our photo pod and have been close to home. I decided to post images from November 2019 and November 2020.
This year has been a little different with outings no more than 30 minutes from home. The longest drive was to Woodland. We also went to U.C. Davis Arboretum and Effie Yeaw. Tomorrow we will be going on another short trip to Lincoln to find some fall color.
U.C. Davis Arboretum, Davis
Effie Yeaw
Woodland Library
I’m looking forward to when we can just get up and go wherever we want. Maybe a 2-hour ride to the ocean! In the meantime:
Camera, check! Lenses, check! Waist pack for when walking, check! Hat, check! All ready for a nice stroll with photo pod buddies along the trail at the UC Davis Arboretum. It’s been a long time since we’ve been to this end of the arboretum, so I was especially excited to see scenery I hadn’t seen in a couple of years. The arboretum didn’t disappoint.
There’s a lake where Putah Creek widens. It’s simply beautiful and one tree drew my attention.
And here’s the lake from the other side.
In the Spring, there are more blossoms on trees, but the bridges and pathway colors were beautiful.
One bridge had locks fastened on its wires.
It was serene and beautiful. People were relaxing like this young couple.
We did drive to the other end of the arboretum. We couldn’t walk because part was closed off. This was the end we were more familiar with. The flower garden was almost bare but the light on the gazebo offered great shadows and patterns.
Just as I checked everything before I took off on our walk, I checked it all again as I put the camera, lenses, waist pack and hat in the car. It was another great photo outing.
These days, we’re not doing many full day trips, but opting for a few hours near by. So, last Sunday, we (Ray, Karen and I) went to Woodland, a small town about 30 minutes north of Sacramento. It’s been a while since I’ve photographed in Woodland, and it was a nice walk.
We took photos of the old courthouse. I was practicing lines and patterns. The courthouse is a beautiful old building which was replaced by a more modern structure. It was also nice to see a memorial to Yolo County Police Officers.
We walked along streets and found some nice structures and flowers. I’ve also discovered that Photoshop has now an easy sky replacement and I had fun working with it in post processing. Now I have to get some skies of my own!
We ended up at the library where we found more flowers and a beautiful building. It was breezy, maybe too much for a macro lens. I shot these with an 18 – 55mm lens.
Before heading back, we went out of town and into the countryside to find barns. We did find a couple, and one was pink!
It was a wonderful short get-a-way. We’ll have to find more since COVID is still raging.
I’m sure we’re all waiting and hoping for new beginnings right now. This pandemic is getting old and depressing. We need some sunshine in our lives. This challenge from our guest host Ana of Anvica’s Gallery, is about sunshine and how it helps us get through difficult times with a little self help.
Here’s what she says: “Not every day can be wonderful. There are times in life when suffering is there, for many reasons, and it is difficult to overcome. Those moments are part of life and no one gets rid of them. But how we live those situations and what we learn from them, is within us. Although a pleasant ray of sunshine always helps, right?”
However, in photography the sun helps us in many ways. First it makes shadows for us.
It can help the sunflowers smile and form a sunburst to pop through trees in a forest. It can also be a light at the end of a natural tunnel.
And at sundown it can create magical beauty.
The sun helps us see positivity and can brighten our world. In his blog regarding this challenge John RH quoted some lyrics from “Here Comes The Sun” by the Beatles. Here are all the lyrics:
Here comes the sun, doo da doo doo Here comes the sun It’s all right It’s all right
Yes, one of these days, it will be alright especially if we do some self help. Oh, if you look for the song, try to stream the Richie Haven’s rendition. I’m playing it now, and I’m feeling better. Thank you Ana!
Slow Shutter Speed 