All Laura had to do was ask if I wanted to go to the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum and I jumped at the chance. I haven’t been anywhere since my August 2023 auto accident for more than 2 – 3 hours. Since Laura was driving, the 3 hours both ways, I knew if I needed rest, I could sleep. It was a wonderful day out. I had never been to the arboretum, and anything floral has me feeling great. Laura wanted to photograph the humming birds and I just wanted to leave.
The humming birds were confined to one bush that was blossoming. I got my one hummer picture and walked around. Laura has patience, where I don’t, and a longer lens. She stood by the bush for about 1/2 an hour, taking pictures. Of course, she was more successful in the number of hummers.
Here’s my one picture! Of course, the colorful hummers sort of blended into the bush.
We walked around through the various zones. It was relaxing and fun. Here’s a sample:
Our day didn’t end at the arboretum. We took the long way home through Half Moon Bay, stopping at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse. Those pictures will be in my next regular post.
When you’re a suburbanite, driving on various country roads that are labeled County Road __ or __, can be confusing. And you can never count on your GPS to get you there. That’s why I appreciate directions given by the organizers of the Yolo Arts & Ag visits! The visit to the Pollock Farm in Woodland was no exception.
Fortunately, we only had one wrong turn. This farm is 137 acres of olive trees. The owners Lynnel and Herb Pollock have left the original structures dating from 1861 – 1872 to decay at their own pace, giving photographers and artists a wonderful opportunity to capture those times. They live on the property in a 1950s house.
Here’s a glimpse of what we saw.
An artist chatting with a photographer.
I love how carefully the wood is chopped and stored in this last photo. Might we expect a cold winter? That would be great!
It’s nature at its closest: Effie Yeaw Nature Center. This amazing place is on the American River in Fair Oaks, about 15 minutes from my home. This Sacramento County Park has a visitors center and bathrooms near the center. Other than that, it’s up to Nature to make changes. Sometimes when we visit, there are no deer in sight and other times: WOW!
Our visit in August was one of those WOW moments. We saw many moms, their fawns and young bucks. I also got a good shot of a woodpecker and two of the American River.
WoodpeckerWhat’s she thinking?A Jack RabbitAmerican RiverAmerican RiverOlder buck
The deer at Effie Yeaw are used to us humans walking by, but we are still careful not to get too close. It’s all about respect and that this is their home we are walking through.
It’s been three years since we went searching for sunflower fields. The pandemic shut us down in 2020 and it has taken us that long to go scouting. By scouting, I mean getting in the car and heading out to the countryside of Yolo County. After getting lost on various County numbered roads, we did find two or three fields.
One had a beekeepers boxes on the side of the field. Since we were respectful of the owners private property, we did not walk into the fields. We stood on the side and used our long lenses. We also took advantage of flowers in the front of the field. Because of this, the bees didn’t bother us.
Here is a sample of our Sunny bounty. Sunflowers help me smile. They are happy flowers!
This is my lucky morning. I was trying to think of how to approach Brian of Bushboy’s challenge on fragments when I remembered taking my new Fujifilm XT3 camera down to Old Sacramento for some practice in May of 2020. My photo buddies and I masked up for the morning and drove down to the waterfront. I was trying all sorts of photography, like these closeups.
You can all these fragments of a train, boxes near the train depot and the gate closing in a train. I thought my new camera did well.
Could a fragment be a moment in time? Here we have some children having fun on the swings in front of the old school house in Old Sacramento enjoying their portion of play time.
Oh, I just love the candy shop and the tasty free and for purchase treats they offer. Can a candy shop be fragmented into separate bins of candy?
My final image isn’t a fragment, but an image of a train that has been moved elsewhere.
Since that day, my Fuji and I have been on all sorts of adventures. I’ve grown to love that camera, but, like life, it took some getting used to.
Thank you Brian for taking me on my fragmented memory. Looking back is such fun. When you reply to Brian’s post please remember to link to it and use the Lens-Artists tag. Last week was such fun as we saw all your buggy images. Some species I’d never seen before. Next week, look for Tina’s challenge on her Travels and Trifles blog. I wonder what she has in store for us. Until then, stay safe!
What’s a rock garden? Wikipedia has a full history and description for you here. Our small WPA Rock Garden was built by the WPA in 1940. The WPA was an employment and infrastructure program created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 during the Great Depression. In 1988 Daisy Mah, a park employee, put her vision for the current garden into fruition. Its paths wind in, out and around, and is maintained by a group of volunteers.
We enjoy walking through the garden looking for small gems. Marlene was with me and is good at finding insects, but none were found that morning. But there were many beautiful floral delights. Here are some of them.
This was a great way to end a visit to the zoo. We’ll be back!
You know the old saying: Be careful what you ask for. Well, we asked for it: RAIN. And we’re getting it. I’m not complaining about the rain, but I am complaining about the cold, damp, fog that we’re getting along with it. We will have one day of partial sunshine this week. But not rain everyday it’s not sunny.
This is challenging for photographers. Our images end up flat. We recently went to Bodega Bay for three days, and, of course, it was foggy (which you expect in the morning at the coast) and overcast. We did manage to get out for a while during our two full days there.
Here’s day one. We went to a wharf in the tiny town of Bodega Bay. We did get some sun coming through the clouds. Some of the pictures just called for black and white editing.
After the wharf, we drove up a hill to look down on the bay. Again, taking advantage of some sunlight.
Clouds make for amazing sunsets.
In my next post you’ll see the beach and other sites. Till then, let it rain. Can it rain without a cloud cover? I didn’t think so.
Grab a cup of coffee or tea and relax because there a more than my normal pictures in this post. I was surprised and amazed at the amount of information and presentation at the California Museum. Two hours wasn’t really enough to absorb everything especially when you are photographing the exhibits.
Here’s the introduction to the place in the gift shop.
The visiting exhibit, Celebrate Women, was geared to women and young girls, helping them understand that they can aspire to be like many of the famous role models. Each exhibit had a view screen with more information. You can see how inviting the exhibits were. Because I was busy taking photos, I didn’t look at the exhibit screens and probably missed a lot. What we do for cool images! Writing this blog, I know I have to go back, without my camera.
The stairs offered us photographic opportunities too!
We will get back to the inside exhibits, but we did go outside to the back courtyard. I should say the beautiful back courtyard. One wall was artistically done with encouraging statements, and architecturally all the buildings surrounding it blended.
Various nationalities have left their impact in California. We know the Chinese and Mexicans certainly left their imprint in California. A lot of space was given to these nationalities showing and explaining their contributions to what California is today.
We’ve learned that the Chinese helped build the railroads and more. But, how about the food we enjoy today.
Mexicans brought their culture and holidays like DÃa de los Muertos, Day of the Dead. Below are three-sided cards made by school children to honor the holiday. The painting struck me as amazingly detailed.
What I wasn’t prepared for was the Filipino influence on California history. It is described in this exhibit.
Of course, the entertainment industry had and has a big impact on California. Here are three showcases honoring the entertainers and the industry.
One hallway, honoring our Native American cultures, which I think was a permanent exhibit. Artifacts were behind glass and the hallway was dark. Meaning, difficult to photograph. I did get some pictures from the ceiling. The beautiful paintings ran the entire hallway.
We can’t forget about health. A considerable amount of space was dedicated to healthy eating.
Before we left, the last exhibit I saw honored the nurses who helped us through the darkest days of the Covid pandemic.
I’ll say it again, The California Museum was amazing. I will go back!
There are days when you just need some therapy–Macro Therapy. I’m fortunate there’s a Green Acres nursery, in Citrus Heights, about 10 minutes from my home. Recently in July was one of those mornings. I was feeling a little blah so I grabbed my macro lens and camera, and off I went.
Green Acres is great because they don’t mind us coming in with our cameras, taking our time and taking home picture memories of their products. Here are half of mine from that morning.
I still need to process the rest, so be on the lookout for more gorgeous flowers. Oh, macro therapy does help!
It’s either go out super early in the morning or go to a museum when it’s hot. In June we chose the museum–The Sacramento History Museum in Old Sacramento. As many times as I have been to Old Sacramento for various things, I never knew of this museum. I had my doubts as to whether it would be worthwhile. Was I surprised!
Not only did it give a great view of Sacramento’s history via pictures, text and artifacts, it was a photographer’s dream.
Just to give you a bit of the background, Sacramento was founded during the gold rush. You can read all about its history here. Being me I did all my photography before I started reading about my State Capitol’s history!
Here are some images of the lobby area.
The town’s newspaper, the Sacramento Bee. has a rich history in the area and is the newspaper I read daily. Of course, I now view it online. Here are exhibits dedicated to this newspaper.
As we were walking to our car, we saw a docent in period dress leading a tour and coming down to the museum. I thought this was a great museum to learn about Sacramento. It’s going to be a hot summer, so get ready for more museums!
Slow Shutter Speed 