Meet me up Scotty: The Ruth Bancroft Garden

Which Meetup do I want to go to? Yes, if you belong to enough Meetup groups, you’ll have a choice. I joined my first Meetup group when I ordered my Nikon D3100–before I had taken my first digital SLR shot! That was 26 months ago, and I think I was excited about my new hobby.

Most photography Meetups try to do at least one outing a month. Some groups do more. They each have their own personality and leadership. Many of us belong to a few, so we run into each other as we travel. Through the Meetup world, I have met new people, made new photo buddy friendships, learned new information, have gone places I didn’t know about and have had fun.

On a recent Meetup, we went to the Ruth Bancroft Garden while they hosted their Sculpture in the Garden show. The garden features various cactus from Mediterranean climates and other dry regions around the world. Its founder, Ruth Bancroft, lives next door and is 105 years. The garden became the first preservation project of the Garden Conservancy, a nonprofit organization and has been open to the public since 1992.

Well maintained, this garden was easy to walk through. It was small, but still took us a few hours to take our images. The next outing I went on was to a garden that was not well maintained. But, first take a glance at the Ruth Bancroft Garden. I’ll show you the cactus in this post and the sculptures in the next. I was able to identify some of the plants from the garden’s brochure. Too bad, I did somehow catalog them by their numbers!

I wonder what Meetup I’ll be going to next!

 

Self-taught photography lessons

Yes, I teach myself lessons all the time. However, they are never planned or easy! Yesterday, not feeling well, I decided I needed to go up to Dry Creek, practice HDR and work with my new prime 50 mm lens. I was bummed out because we were supposed to be in Adin, California at a star party. I was looking forward to trying some night sky photography. But our trailer lost a wheel and axle in Anderson and we came home with the truck loaded with our clothes, food, camera gear and telescopes.

So, you can understand why I needed to do some photography at my favorite, close-by creek. Dry creek which is usually quiet was teeming with families on every possible square inch of beach area. They were just enjoying the water, but it was difficult to find a spot to do some HDR. I did find a couple of areas, and set up my tripod. But, without photo buddy Jayne with me, it was a struggle (She helps me a lot!). Now I am totally one with the tripod, having won the battle. I do have tenacity! It wasn’t until I was taking the images off the SD card that I realized I was shooting JPEGs and not RAW files.

Also, I’m learning to speak up for the sake of a picture. I did ask a woman who was going to take an empty chair if she could leave it so I could take my shot. Then another woman, who didn’t own the chair sat in it. I politely asked her to move while I took my shot. They were very understand and obliging. I would have been faster if it weren’t for my struggles with the tripod.

I was only there an hour and couldn’t believe I had taken 72 pictures, but I did. What lessons did I learn? First, if you’re not feeling well, stay home. Second, practice with the tripod and check the camera before you leave. And, third, people are nice and willing to help you–just speak up. Here’s the result of my efforts.