hood ornaments – Slow Shutter Speed

Posted on July 21, 2024 by Anne Sandler · 42 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #308: Perfect Pairs

In a perfect world–wait! There’s no perfect world! Given our imperfections, guest host, Elizabeth of Albatz Travels challenges us to find perfect pairs. This is an exciting task since we interpret what we see so differently.

My first pairing is of two regulars at Mather Lake, a fishing spot and swans’ home. This pair is so different, but can usually be found at the lake at the same time.

Next there are insects and plants helping each other and us. My example are sunflowers and bees. Sunflowers provide the pollen bees need to pollenate and we love the bees honey.

The sun creates shadows and those shadows can change the object they are shadowing. This ship sculpture is at the Sacramento River Walk.

Distance can play tricks. What looks like a giant fork is actually a sculpture made from regular sized forks. Taken at the The Culinary Institute of America at Copia.

Our local Effie Yeaw Nature Center is home to many wild animals, especially deer. They don’t fear us humans, but are wary of coyotes and other animals. We have bucks and does.

Who remembers hood ornaments? I barely do. But our local California State Automobile Museum brings us back in time when cars were adorned with beauties like these. They aren’t at all alike but serve the same purpose.

You know, if you ask me, these are perfect pairings! Thanks Elizabeth for this fun challenge. When you respond, please remember to link to her original post and use the Lens-Artists tag.

Last week we traveled to many tourist attractions through a challenge given by Leanne Cole. Your responses took us around the world. Thank you all for participating. Next week PR of Flights of the Soul will present Balconies. Be sure to look for her post.

In the meantime, enjoy and stay healthy!

Posted on November 8, 2023 by Anne Sandler · 14 Comments

Up Close at the California Automobile Museum

The California Automobile Museum in Sacramento is a photographers challenge. They have beautiful autos, but they are behind ropes which makes it difficult to photograph. Whenever I go there, I tend to pick out a part of the car to photograph. We haven’t been there in years and the cars in the museum have changed. There’s always something new to see. This time my friend Ray and I checked it out.

I was concentrating at photographing the hood ornaments. We don’t have them any more!

I like the pieces of the old, old, old cars; (Okay I don’t know the years, probably 1920 on.) much older than me. I liked where they put the headlights, steering wheels and foot pedals.

They also had a few old race cars.

These two are from the 1950s. I remember the Chevy but not the Ford convertible. Do you?

It’s amazing how car design has changed. Take time to go down memory lane at an auto museum near you.

Posted on October 7, 2019October 7, 2019 by Anne Sandler · 6 Comments

Cars, cars and more: Concours d’Elegance at Ironstone Vineyards

I have been to car shows, but not one had this many vintage vehicles! I’ve been to Ironstone Vineyards in Murphys before to photograph flowers and the grounds. That alone took most of the day! But there were cars and trailers all over, including an amphibian car that I missed!

We stayed until about 1 p.m. (got there at 10 a.m.) but had to leave after lunch. I would have liked to have gone back to shoot the flowers, but I needed to get to my son and daughter-in-law’s house warming. The drive each way is 2 hours. However, I did get to photograph most of the cars. No, I’m not going to show you all of them! But, this will be a 2-part post.

While editing these photos, I came upon a dilemma. I come from a journalistic background, and as a non-fiction writer, we did not embellish our stories in any way. We basically wrote the facts in an interesting and readable way. Photographing this car show is basically telling a non-fiction story through photographs. So, do I do some image altering edits, or stick to the basics. Most are basic edits, but I did add some filters to some to make them look older. What do you think?

Let’s begin with hood ornaments which were straight edits. I do like to get up close and some were beautiful.

Now for some of the scenery and full or mostly full images of the vehicles. If I had my way there would be greater separation between cars and only me at the show! I can dream, but I truly don’t mind crowds. I just make the people part of the image.