Posted on by Anne Sandler · 7 Comments

The challenge of big trees: Calaveras Big Trees State Park, Big Trees, CA

So, what’s the challenge? A tree is a tree! Not when they are giant Sequoias! This was my first time at Calaveras Big Trees State Park , and I enjoyed it. It wasn’t quite as amazing as Sequoia National Park, but it had the same enormous trees.

Sequoias are redwoods, big in girth and not as tall as the coastal redwoods. Jean and I took the short, supposedly 1 1/2 mile walk around the North Grove. I walk my dog 2 miles about 6 mornings a week, but this walk took twice as long! There was so much to take pictures of. We started at the Discovery Stump and continued past the Three Graces, the Mother and Son, The Abraham Lincoln Tree, and the Old Bachelor. Some of the other visitors were picture worthy too!

Back to the challenge of taking these shots, you can’t get the entire tree in the image, especially with a crop sensor camera. I did try though! Here, take a look.

  • Discovery Stump.
  • A little
    Autumn color.
  • The path.
  • A piece of a downed log.
  • Jean provides perspective.
  • I asked permission before I shot this one.
  • This person put his camera on the dirt when he took this picture.
  • The light was hitting the forest perfectly.
  • Roots of a downed tree.
  • The tree on the left was named “The Twins.”
  • Continuing along the path.
  • Looking up!
  • This downed tree took about 1 block.
  • Last look.
Posted on by Anne Sandler · 8 Comments

Hey, you said this trail was flat! Auburn Quarry Trail, Auburn, California

He really didn’t lie; but when my dear photo buddy Richard promised us a flat trail with one or two hills, he under exaggerated.  You see, Richard is an experienced hiker. We are not! The hills were a huge mountain for us. Now, am I exaggerating?

I do like to complain and Richard gives it right back. We, in our little Camera Totin’ Tuesday group, have a lot of fun. Through all the griping (I wasn’t the only one!), we had fun. After all, it’s the interaction of the group that makes a photo outing great.

We followed the Auburn Quarry Trail, part of the California State Park system, along the American River, and when we reached the top (as far as we were going to go), we were fortunate to come upon a few mountain climbers practicing. The sun was powerful that day in Auburn, so I had to deal with exposure issues. I shot mostly handheld HDR, but wasn’t satisfied with the results. So I basically edited one of the three shots in Lightroom. In the end, I was satisfied. Take a look. No captions needed.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 4 Comments

On the road again: Bodie and Mono Lake, California, final chapter.

Catch a breath, relax and gaze. That’s one way to take in Mono Lake. Photo buddies Marlene, Laura and I took it in with our cameras. We were there as part of our weekend trip to the ghost town Bodie.

Mono Lake is a large, shallow saline soda lake 8.321 miles long. It’s at least 780,000 years old and is among the oldest lakes in North America. While we enjoy its beauty, migratory birds call it home for a while and brine shrimp swim its waters.

You can see Tufa Towers as you walk down to the lake. These salt towers are formed because having no outlet, trace amounts of salts and minerals brought into the lake by freshwater streams have accumulated over the centuries. This resulted with Mono Lake having a salinity two to three times the Pacific Ocean. Tufas are the result of the combination of minerals in fresh and salt water. They take on all sorts of shapes and various neutral colors.

The images you’ll see in this post are of sunset and sunrise (Only Laura can get me to wake up at 4 a.m.) when the lake looks most beautiful. Just catch a breath, relax and look.