Posted on by Anne Sandler · 44 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #311: What’s in a Garden

When I started photography, the first thing I wanted to learn was how to get that soft background behind a flower. I didn’t know the term for that was macro photography and that soft background was bokeh. This led me to truly appreciate floral beauty and the gardeners who create that beauty. Ann-Christine’s challenge this week is on gardens.

I do appreciate the wonderful volunteers who work hours to keep our public gardens looking gorgeous for us to enjoy. One of those gardens is the WPA Rock Garden in Land Park, Sacramento. It’s a small one acre hillside garden comprised of a series of rock-lined beds and meandering paths. The garden was established in 1940 through the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. 

Aside from one paid employee, the garden is taken care of by volunteers who do a fantastic job. Whenever I see a volunteer, I always thank them for making this possible for me to photograph.

Here are some photos I took on a recent visit this month.

Situated in Land Park and near the pond, the garden gets a lot of park visitors who are curious and just enjoy both the park, pond and garden. It’s a wonderful place to relax.

There are many gardens in Sacramento for us to photograph and I appreciate this opportunity to show you The Rock Garden. Thank you Ann-Christine. When you post your response , please be sure to place a link to Ann-Christine’s post and use the Lens-Artists tag. Last week we zigged and zagged. What a fun challenge from Patti. Next week Sofia will present her challenge so be sure to look for her post.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 50 Comments

Lens-Artists Challenge #301: Floral

Thank you Sofia for this wonderful challenge. You would think that as much as I enjoy floral photography, this would be an easy challenge for me. Well, when you have a lot of choices, it’s hard to pick what you think is the best. So, I narrowed it down by floral venues and seasons in my area.

Looking back at these images, I realize that I enjoy getting very close with my macro lens. In fact, most of my pictures are close ups! I don’t do much editing. I start in Lightroom, and if necessary bring the pictures into Topaz for sharpening. Typically I don’t have to do anything with color adjustments. The flowers do that for me. I might put a slight black vignette in to accent the flower.

Let’s start with April. That is tulip month. Each year wonderful volunteers at Ananda Village, Nevada City, plant a tulip garden that is terraced and open for the month of April. It became so popular and crowded that they started selling tickets for certain start times. During the last 2 years, we chose to photograph a small tulip patch at our local Jensen Botanical Gardens. If we go early enough, we are the only photographers there.

Ananda Village

Getting up close at Jensen Botanical Gardens this year.

Horton’s Iris Farm in Loomis is a commercial venture, but they don’t mind us photographing their beautiful blossoms. I’ve never seen such a variety of colors.

We are truly missing Daffodil Hill which closed in March of 2019, the day after our last visit. It was so crowded and people were not sticking to the paths, trampling the flowers. We arrived when they opened. By the time we left, traffic was backed up to get in. This was a family run, free event. It’s sad that visitors abused it. I think they needed to do what Ananda Village did.

Our community suffered another loss last year with the draining of the pond in William Land Park. It was drained because of the bird flu and its proximity to the zoo where many birds are housed. Here’s a lotus in color (with a visitor) and one I processed in black and white. I edited the black and white first in color and brought it into NIK Silver Efex.

I cannot forget my sunflowers. Each June I look forward to going out the the fields, ignoring the bees, (I’m allergic to them.) to soak up happiness.

I’ll end this post with my favorite–roses. These are from the McKinley Rose Garden in Sacramento.

I had a lot of fun choosing these flowers and I hope you enjoyed them. When you respond to this challenge please remember to link to Sofia’s original post and use the Lens-Artists tag.

Last week we saw and enjoyed delicate images of all sorts in response to Ann-Christine’s challenge. They were all beautiful and some very clever. Next week, look for John’s challenge.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 62 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #290: Circular Wonders

When I first read Ann-Christine’s challenge, the song “The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round” came into my head and I can’t get it out. My youngest grandchild is 13 years, and I still remember that song. I’m hoping to get some of you to find it catching also. No, I’m not mean; I just like company!

Okay getting serious now, circles have no beginning or end and are continuous. I’ll start with metal and rust. I love the texture and patina of rust as it ages.

Nature’s floral treats are round also.

Now to round out my post with some fun single images.

Darn, I couldn’t find a bus with wheels. We’ll just have to imagine it. When you respond to this challenge, please link to Ann-Christine’s amazing post and use the Lens-Artist tag. Last week we learned some compositional rules. Thanks John. All your responses were great. Next week Patti will be challenging us, so be sure to look for her post.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 54 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #276: Looking Up; Looking Down

This week James of Jazzibee wants us to look up and down; but in order to do that, I have to look back! Yes, look back in my archives. I chose to look back at 2019. This is what I found.

I try to pay attention to my surroundings when I’m out on a photo outing, but I tend to miss tiny details. So I try to look down for flowers, butterflies and other insects. Looking down I found:

A butterfly and a big black bee. I haven’t seen one since.

From a bridge I saw two people rowing in the river and one person finished for the day.

From a parking lot in Old Folsom, I was looking down on the ice rink. And from a window in the same lot I could look down on the street.

Here are three more: a lotus leaf in a pond, a rusty pail, and a daffodil.

I tend to pay more attention to the scenery that surrounds me, and I look up.

Calaveras Big Trees State Park. Giant Sequoias.

Apple Hill in the Fall.

Culinary Institute of America Napa Valley. Lobby and one of the buildings.

I’ll close with images of a ceiling of a covered bridge, a bird on a branch, and a staircase.

Thank you, James, for urging all of us to be aware of our surroundings when we are on a photo outing. I enjoyed my trip back into 2019.

And I thank you for all your wonderful responses to last week’s challenge. I certainly saw varied frame filling. It was a lot of fun. When you respond to James’s challenge, be sure to link back to his post and put Lens-Artists in the Reader. Next week Patti will be challenging us, so be sure to look for her blog post.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 78 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #264: Primary Colors

I’m certainly drawn to color. Red especially. So, it delights me that Sofia picked this topic as her challenge this week. On Monday, I was rear ended by a large pickup truck, so I’ll keep this short and sweet. I’m okay.

Red. Let’s start off with my favorite:

Next yellow:

Blue:

I’ll end with some colorful photos:

Thanks Sofia for bringing some color into my life when I need it! Much appreciated. Please link to Sofia’s post when you publish and use the Lens-Artists tag. I totally enjoyed your responses to John’s topic of Faces in the Crowd last week. There was some great images and street photography. I’m up next, so look for my post. Until then, stay out of the way of pickup trucks especially when you’re sitting still at a stop light! Stay safe.

If you want to know more about the Lens-Artists Challenge, please click here.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 19 Comments

We’ve got a lot of catching up to do: Ruhstaller Farm

I just love the Yolo Art & Ag Project. They allow us photographers and artists to visit the most amazing country places. This post is about our visit to the Rumstaller Farm in Dixon California. And this place was amazing!

This is an excerpt from their website:

We Grow Beer.
Easy to say…hard to do. Just spend a morning with us! This is where our beer is born, where its soul comes to life. Dirt, sun, rain, wind…sweat. It’s an opportunity to grow the highest quality, most unique tasting beer in the world…not with engineering, or in a lab…but in the Dirt!

Yes, they brew beer, but there is much more. They grow the hops, have walnut and citrus orchards, sheep, dogs, sunsets, bonfires and concerts.

It’s all in one large area where people can relax on their old furniture, visit the bandstand, buy their beer and wine, etc. In fact, you can spend a relaxing few hours viewing the orchards and hops growing areas, or sit in a comfy couch or chair. It’s up to you. Here are some pictures.

I know these are a lot of pictures, but I do have more. This is a wonderful farm that I will visit again–and again!

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 42 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #257: Simplicity Photography

I always learn more about my photography approach when I work on these challenges. Through Philo’s challenge, our guest host this week, I’ve learned I’m not a true minimalist type of photographer. I may be simplistic, but not in a minimal sense. For me simplistic means concentrating on one subject without a busy background.

For those of you who have been following my blog, you know I love do photograph macro/close ups of flowers. I get in close and fill a frame. One flower.

Sometimes I do leave some negative space, but it’s still a tight crop.

How more simple can you get than a lone tree providing shade for cows?

Maybe a shoreline, providing a relaxing place can be a simple image.

How about an insect gathering nectar from a flower? For me these are simple images telling one story with one strong image.

A woman was showing off the find of a beautiful shell.

A shore bird walking along with it’s shadow, makes a simple statement and does show some negative space. There’s hope for me after all!

Thank you Philo for helping us realize the simplicity in our photography. Please remember to link to his post and use the Lens-Artists tag. I’m sure he wants to see all your great posts through the week. Next week Next week, Dawn Miller of The Day After will be leading our challenge, having us look at fences.

If you would like to participate weekly in our Lens-Artists Challenge, click here for more info. 

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 18 Comments

Flower therapy: Jensen Botanical Gardens & Green Acres Nursery

It’s hard to remember the cold, rainy weather when the sun is shining and the temperature is in the low ’90 degrees (fahrenheit), but that’s where we were just last month. Given a nice day, Ray and I went to find the small tulip patch at Jensen Botanical Gardens. We didn’t realize just how small would be! But, the tulips were beautiful just the same.

After that, we went to my favorite floral place, Green Acres Nursery.

Flowers and macro are my therapy. I hope you enjoyed seeing these as much as I had photographing them. As for the weather, we went from the high ’60s to low ’90s in one day. Fortunately our furnace broke a couple of days ago and the air conditioner still works. Stop to enjoy the flowers everyone!

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 33 Comments

Lens-Artists Challenge #241 – Spring

I have two favorite seasons: Spring and Autumn. Choosing between them, although difficult, Spring would win. Both are photographic wonders, but I don’t have to travel so far to experience Spring’s beauty. Sacramento is a wonderland of blossoms and regeneration of wildlife. This week, Sofia of Photographias encourages us to share our thoughts and images of Spring.

Every Spring Ananda Village, in Nevada City, volunteers plant amazing tulips for visitors. It is getting so popular that we now have to make reservations.

North Table Mountain was formed by volcanic activity and has an array of beautiful wildflowers each Spring.

Speaking of wildflowers, there is nothing more beautiful than a mountain of wild California Poppies.

There are also beautiful rose gardens in the Sacramento area. These were taken at the McKinley Park Rose Garden.

Each Spring the owners of Maple Leaf Gardens used to host an open house for the public.

Wild mushrooms also make an appearance in Spring.

Spring is also the time for birds to nest.

Each Spring, geese families strut around the pond in my neighborhood. You’ve got to watch out for the dads though, they are very protective of their goslings.

Spring is definitely a time for renewal, hope and beauty. We will be ready for it after the Winter most of us have been experiencing.

Thank you Sofia for this challenge that brought beauty to our computers. When you respond, please remember to link to Sofia’s post and tag Lens-Artists. I will be challenging you next week, so look for my post.

If you would like to participate weekly in our Lens-Artists Challenge, click here for more info.