Posted on by Anne Sandler

On the road again: Sedona, Arizona, the final chapter: Catapillar Point, Out of Africa and Tuzigoot

It wasn’t supposed to be a journey’s end, but it was. We were going to take a day on our way home, from Sedona, to drive through Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Parks, but I fell on the way to Bakersfield. It’s amazing how people rush to help when you have gray hair! I’m okay–just a couple scrapes, one big bruise and a sore shoulder. With that happening, I decided it would be best to head home.

Yes, I’m disappointed because those National Parks are my favorite. I’ll try to get there in the fall. In the meantime, I want to show you a little of the Out of Africa Wildlife Park. This isn’t like a safari park where you drive through and the animals are walking about. This park is a sanctuary. On this trip, we saw a small animal show, a tiger swim and play show and rode through an area where the animals roamed free. You’ll see from the pictures that these animals are very used to humans, especially the giraffes! The zebras can become a little testy!

Tuzigoot is a National Monument of Native American ruins. When you see the small rooms, you’ll wonder what the Southern Sinagua tribe would think if they saw our large dwellings! We decided not to visit their other dwellings, Montezuma Castle and Well, because we saw them during our last visit.

Caterpillar Point  was our last stop on this trip. It was a rocky stream bed, some small water falls and lots of wildflowers including a century cactus bloom.

Take a look at our last two days before we ended our journey and headed home.

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Birds of a feather: Suisun Wildlife Rescue Center revisited, Solano County, California

Many of the animals never leave here, so it was like visiting old friends when we photographers made our annual trek to the Suisun Wildlife Rescue Center just outside of Fairfield, California. This was my second trip there through a Meetup organized by the Wildlife and Landscape group. It’s actually a fundraiser for the Center that is run solely through contributions.

This Center is a non-profit volunteer organization, dedicated to the rescue of native California wildlife and to the preservation of the Suisun Marsh, working through the dual avenues of wildlife rescue & release and environmental education.  While some animals are able to be released once they are well, many are not. Birds with wing problems, an albino snake, a coyote and many eagles are just some of the wildlife that cannot be released.

But, they do work for their keep. Volunteers take them to schools through an educational program. While they educate, the animals are cared for by an all volunteer staff. And the staff brought out the animals in turns so we could photograph them. While we were shooting, we were told about the animal’s personality, how they were brought into the Center and whether they would ever be released. When you look at the images, in many cases, you can tell why they will remain at the Center.

Posted on by Anne Sandler

A full day of beauty: the UC Davis Arboretum

When you’re in or near Sacramento, California, you’ve got to visit the UC Davis Arboretum. Laura, Marlene and I walked the approximate 5 – 6 miles around the area, stopping for lunch. Even though I carried my cameras on a two-camera sling and everything else in a photo vest, my back was protesting during the last third of the trip.

The arboretum is a 100 acre park that borders Putah Creek. About 17 gardens have been planted along the creek, giving variety to the eye and much to shoot for photographers. I don’t know whether I’m just getting better at my craft or whether the gardens were beautiful even though it wasn’t spring yet; but, I do have a lot of photos to show you. So I’ll do it in three parts. Tonight I’ll show you the wildlife, next the landscape and finish up with the people.

The arboretum wildlife consists of birds, turtles and water fowl. And, they were pleantiful when we were there, especially the egrets. I’ve always seen one or two at the arboretum, but there were more that Sunday. No more words–here are the images.

 

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Photography is just ducky: The Las Gallinas Wildlife Ponds, San Rafael California, Part 2

The drought is now severe in California. Less water in areas means less wildlife. It is dismal here right now. Fortunately, we live in an urban area, and, although we are on water restrictions, we have water. As I said in part one of this post, there were few large birds to be seen during our outing.

But that didn’t stop us from trying to find them. On our way home, we stopped at a wildlife view area off the freeway. Again, no birds, but nice scenery. And, we were able to help a family stranded after they locked their keys in their car. There was a reason for us to pull off the highway.

Then we stopped at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area which is just about 25 minutes from my home. We did catch some wildlife there. I think my bird shooting is over for this year. I might go back to Yolo, but I won’t make the 90 mile one way trips again. We are still hopeful for rain, but we’re mostly getting overcast skies and fog.

Here are the images from our stops along the way home.

Posted on by Anne Sandler

When Mother Nature makes shooting tough: Gray Lodge and Sacramento National Refuge Wildlife areas, part 2

In addition to Mother Nature, sometimes WordPress makes things tough. I think some of you may have received all the images for both parts of this post and some I didn’t intend to post. I truly don’t know how that happened. However, I don’t know that all of you did. So I’m going to do the last part of this blog post anyway.

We are still fogged in during the morning and early afternoons here in Sacramento, and photographing is still difficult. Difficult unless you want to shoot foggy images. But, we’re trying to shoot wildlife!

And, here’s some more (or once again) some wildlife!

Posted on by Anne Sandler

When Mother Nature makes shooting tough: Gray Lodge and Sacramento National Refuge Wildlife areas

Sometimes photography can be a challenge, especially in fog and overcast skies with only a 300 mm lens! That’s what we were shooting in when we went up north to the wildlife areas to catch the birds in action. Not only was the weather bad, but there wasn’t much water and the bird population was way down.

Usually at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, you can see a few bald eagles. We didn’t see one! One photographer in the meetup did capture one and his image was great. I’m thinking that he was using a longer lens. It was very disappointing.

Further west, the Gray Lodge Wildlife area was not much better. There were enough birds for the hunters to shoot, but not the numbers we normally see. But we did have fun.

When you travel to these meetups with other photographers, they don’t mind stopping and shooting something ineresting that may have nothing to do with your original purpose. We made a couple of those side trips–three of us in the car. Plus we had the extra joy of having the GPS get us lost.

All in all, it was a fun 12-hour day. I hope you like these fogged and overcast images! This will be a two-part post.

Posted on by Anne Sandler

Late morning practice: Nimbus Fish Hatchery, Gold River, California

I love the Sacramento Photographers Facebook group. It’s where I learn by seeing what others post, asking questions and attending activities. It’s through this group that I found out about the Nimbus Fish Hatchery, and I thought it would be a good place to practice shooting on manual.

And it is. There were birds, people fishing, a nice path to walk on and a great visitor’s center. I wish I were feeling better so I could have stayed longer, but I did what I could. Also, I shot my D3100 on aperture priority because I couldn’t remember how to change the F stop in the manual setting. Now I’m wondering whether I ever had that camera on manual!

I also realized that I need more practice shooting flying birds and getting them in focus. So, this morning while getting a pedicure, I read all about focus for the D7100. I am determined to push and advance in my photography knowledge this year.

I will go back to the fish hatchery and practice. And, I will continue enjoying the Sacramento Photographers group.

Posted on by Anne Sandler

New year, new project: Marina Bay Trail, part 2

Can the 365 challenge a success after 5 days? I truly don’t know, but so far so good. I’m in an accountibility group, and that helps me post each night. Oh, the session with Gem has to be redone. One of the photographers gave me some great advice–that is until she typed something to do with hyperfocal length. My head has stopped spinning now! Actually, I have heard and read about that, but I think it’s beyond my math abilities and understanding. So I will take the rest of her advice and try again right after I post this blog.

Also, I signed up for a free online course that lasts a month. It’s all good except for the amount of emails that appear in my box each day! So far after four lessons in Module one, I haven’t learned anything new. But, there are more lessons and three more modules.

I’m hoping all this effort shows in tonight’s image of Gem. Now for the birds on the Marina Bay Trail.

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New year, new project: Marina Bay Trail, Richmond, California

I never wanted to get into portriat photography, but today Gem, my dog, was my subject and he did a great job of trying to sit still and look at me. I’m only on day 4 of the 365 challenge and was shooting Gem because I didn’t get out. But, I was learning. I’ve made a secondary challenge to shoot most of my daily photos on manual, and Gem had to be very patient while I was doing the learning curve! I was so excited that I finally managed to shoot him on manual, but he didn’t high five. That’s okay, he got his treat anyway. I’m sure there will be more shots of Gem throughout the year.

Yesterday, I went on an all day Exploring Photography Meetup to Richmond and had to process one of the images so I could post in the challenge group. I posted a sunset, which, as it turns out, wasn’t the best of the sunset shots. But, day 3 was covered. I’ll show you part of the day’s images in this post and finish it up in the next.

The Marina Bay Trail is somewhere between 3 – 4 miles along the Richmond shoreline. They have a yacht club, marina, condos, etc. It’s in stark contrast to the city of Richmond. I think I’ll show you the grounds in this post and the birds in the next.

I’m getting out to shoot tomorrow so Gem won’t have to model.

Posted on by Anne Sandler

A birding shoot gone wrong: Tundra swans near Marysville, California

I don’t know how I did it! I even told my photo buddy Liz to shoot between F/9 – F/13. So why did I have my camera at F/5.6?

Of course I didn’t realize it. I thought I had closed the aperture to get the best depth of field. It took me a few days to find the time to figure things out. I remember thinking something was wrong with the lighting and increased my ISO. After all it was overcast. I guess we learn from mistakes, and I’m sure this isn’t the last I’m going to make!

We did have a good time shooting the swans. There were a lot of them, and we were amazed at how they just settled down on the farm lands. Imagine waking up to look out at the beautiful Tundra Swans. Here are some images I thought were salvageable and okay.