It’s been raining in California since late December. At first it was welcomed in this normally dry state, but now in February, with two atmospheric rivers passing through, we need a break. We photographers need some sunshine or at least a cloudy day!
Here’s a photo taken this week of the little creek in my neighborhood. It just about crested after one of the storms. Don’t worry it flows into the American River. But this happened overnight! The next day it was at normal flow.
Needing to take our cameras for a walk, we visited our indoor favorite, the Antique Trove in Roseville. There’s always something new to photograph. This time I decided to give myself a macro lens challenge. I photographed everything up close. I did have fun.
Here’s a sample.
We had a respite yesterday with just clouds. That was great. Sun would be even better!
With Sacramento County opening up, we took the opportunity to visit the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento–not once, but twice! We wanted to see and photograph the Tiffany Glass exhibition from the Driehaus Collection.
Even though they are open, you have to reserve your spot. We were lucky. Our small camera group got tickets for the once a month free museum day in Sacramento! But our luck ran out because the Tiffany Glass exhibition wasn’t due until the following week. But the Museum is interesting in itself. It has two distinct parts: original and old and new and modern.
Here are pictures of the original and the new buildings. They are cleverly joined together so patrons can walk from one to the other without going outside.
Now I’ll show you some of the architecture inside the buildings. First let’s look at the old side. Rich wood and ornate moldings bring you into a page of history.
The ceilings are ornate.
Another ceiling in the ballroom.
Looking into the ballroom.
The ballroom.
Beautiful staircase.
Entry.
Beautiful furniture and art.
Now for the new more modern addition.
Sculptures in the main hall.
View from the second floor.
If the cafe were open, people would dine here.
This is a projected, moving image on a stairwell wall.
Chandelier in the entry way
But what about the Tiffany exhibition? We did go back the following week. Paid to get in and were told after we took a few shots, that we were not allowed to take pictures! At least the guard let us get some pictures before he shut us down.
I’m going to end this post with a painting I thought was amazing. I don’t think my photo can convey the emotion it evokes and its artistry.
What is perfect? Does it really exist? And, does practice get you there?
I think perfect is hard to achieve, and would you want to achieve it? Probably not. But I did want to get to the point where I could confidently take a picture with my new Fujifilm camera. I had a few disastrous pictures during my last outing. I may have confused the ISO dial with the shutter dial. I ended up with a lot of noise in some of my images.
So off I went to Old Sacramento our good old standby for street photography and everything else. I just wanted to get to the point where I truly understood how to shoot on manual. So, I would set the camera on aperture priority, check the data and then proceed to manual and play with the settings. I tested the camera in all situations.
Landscape:
I tried close ups:
And some shots to see how the camera would perform:
And, how about indoors without flash? Besides, I was getting hungry and needed some sugar:
While I didn’t get award winning shots, I did learn how to shoot the camera. Now on to understanding other factors like how to do HDR and more of what this camera does. It does a lot!
For my next outing, I left the Nikon at home. The Fuji and I did well together and got some great shots. I’ll show you the results soon.
Oh, it’s wonderful: two days of sunshine, and one more to come! After, that showers begin again. I have managed to get out with my camera during the sunshine, and you’ll see those images later after they’re processed.
We drove to the art gallery after lunch and stopped along the way for more picture taking. You know photographers, we just keep clicking when we see something pretty. On approach, the gallery is pretty, the grounds are beautiful, but I wasn’t feeling the art. But, as I’ve learned by having my images critiqued, art is totally subjective. (I did find out that my “Droplets” picture did make it to the table from which the winners were chosen!) While I may not like something, someone else will.
The grounds that the two galleries sit on are beautiful, complete with a lake. I did the best I could with the limited access we had to the grounds. The highlight of the trip was the stop at the Lake Berryessa, in Napa County, and its spillway or Glory Hole.
So, here are the images of the country side, art gallery and Glory Hole!
Road entering the gallery.
Walkway to the gallery.
I did like this piece.
I liked this too.
And this.
I loved the colors in this.
The lake.
Mustard growing in the grape vines.
We had great clouds that day.
Beautiful day.
The road between galleries.
This was the art I didn’t care for.
I liked the colors in this chicken.
A grouping.
Robert Carston Arneson was an American sculptor. Is this his work; does it relate to him?
It’s 4:50 a.m. and way too early to be up, but I can’t go back to sleep. Today I’m taking my photos down to Columbia in Tuolumne County for the competition. Since I blogged about two of my images making the finals, a lot has happened, and the person responsible is my photo buddy Lucille.
I was talking about my 8 x 12 prints and that I wasn’t thrilled with them after getting them home and seeing the difference in color on my monitor. I’m also thinking she wasn’t happy with the idea of me taking small prints to the competition. She invited me to her home and together we worked on producing larger prints.
When I left, a whole new world opened for me. I couldn’t believe how wonderful the pictures looked larger. I thought I couldn’t resize them and not lose any of the image. The whole new world is that of do I want to start investing in printing and selling my pictures. I thought about it and decided to wait to see what happens in Columbia. I’m not sure, even if I do well, I want to walk through that door. Do I really want all that pressure at my age? Do I want to turn this photography passion into a small business? I have lots of questions and, right now, no answers.
And, now for the cold. I’m not talking about the weather even though it has been cold and raining for weeks. I’m talking about the sneezing and coughing kind. I’ve been tired for a few days, thinking it was just jitters and being anxious. I’m anxious especially since streets in Tuolumne were flooded a couple of days ago, and I don’t drive a boat!
But, last night at a Toastmaster contest, I realized I had a cold. Just my luck! I fully intend to take my photos down. However, whether I say for the weekend events will depend on my friends Sandy and Ken accepting me with a cold. I’m due to stay with them in Tuolumne City.
Right now my mind is in a quandry and my body is working hard to get me through the weekend. Since, this is a blog about pictures, here’s a few from another rainy day outing at Emigh’s Hardware in Sacramento. When I shoot in a crowded store, I try to isolate my subject and shoot mostly close up.
If I thought 2019 would start off with a BANG, I was wrong. I didn’t hold a camera in my hand for the first two weeks. After that there were five photo opportunities, but few great photos. A lot had to do with the rainy weather, which we’re still having, and also with my not feeling well.
So here we are in February and the rain is still coming down. I’m not complaining because California needs the rain. We have a great snow pack now that will hopefully see us through the dry summer. What does that mean for photography? If you can’t make it up to the snow, you’re shooting inside! I’m amazed at how many businesses welcome photographers. This year we’ve been to the Antique Trove in Roseville twice, most recently today. You’ll see those pictures in my next post.
So, here are some picks from January!
These were from an experiment with oil and water. It’s more difficult than the tutorial made it seem!
These are from an outing to Old Folsom Historic District. It’s a section of Folsom where you can walk, shop and eat. Best of all, the parking is free!
This next outing was to Old Sacramento. I’ve shown you images from there before. It’s always a challenge to find something new.
It seems that every Tuesday is triple digit day! You have to plan to have an outing early in the morning so it’s over by 10 a.m. because even shooting early in the evening, it’s still hot. So, to beat the heat on a recent Tuesday the group chose to invade Bushnell Gardens, a nursery in nearby Granite Bay. We had already visited Green Acres and wanted a different type of nursery.
We got there when it opened, and by 10 a.m., I was feeling the heat. It seems the older you get the less you can handle heat. I’ve started carrying one lens because I want to practice and don’t want to carry anything extra in the heat. I ended bringing my Nikon 18 – 140 mm into the nursery, and I think it did well with close ups, etc. I find that limiting myself to one lens is a great way to enhance my composition knowledge.
So here are some of the images I shot on that very hot morning.
It’s great that stores allow photographers to come in out of the rain to shoot inside. On a recent rainy day, my Tuesday group invaded Emigh’s Hardware store–with permission! While our new house is being painted and floors are being put down, I have time to shoot. Even with the rain, it was good to get away from packing for a few hours.
And, we did shoot for a few hours. Emigh’s, located in Sacramento, is much more than a hardware store. They have a small nursery, an enormous selection of outdoor fun stuff, outdoor furniture and of course hardware. When you walk into the store, you are greeted and asked if you need help finding something. While walking through the store, I was asked several more times.
I totally enjoyed taking pictures in their outdoor decorations area. Really it was more of a separate room. I also ventured out to the nursery while the rain had slowed down to a mist.
It was a much needed fun morning. Moving is like riding a roller coaster. Our buyer fell out of contract, but our fabulous realtor resold the house in one day–for more money! But, that was a tough 24 hours for me.
I’m looking forward to Tuesday when no rain is predicted and I still can refrain from packing. We just have to figure out where we’ll go. That’s next on my list!
What is this fish trying to say?
This was the centerpiece of a windchime.
This was a sun wall decoration.
I also tried to create abstracts from windchimes.
All that glitters.
These were shells that I tried to do something artistic with. Not sure I made it.
A crystal in a decoration.
Here’s looking at you!
An indoor plant.
A butterfly wing on a windchime.
I forgot what this was, but it works well as an abstract.
This is de’ja vu. When these pictures were taken, we were trying to escape the heat by shooting inside. As I type this, it’s about 107 degrees Fahrenheit! It’s going to be a long hot summer.
Since our Tuesday group shoots each week, we try to find indoor places, go on a road trip to the bay area or get up very early to beat the heat. A few times, we’ve called a virtual trip, asking members to shoot something and post it. It’s amazing what photographers come up with. But this particular Tuesday we were inside.
Alpha Fired Arts, in Sacramento, is a creative outlet for hobbyists, professional artists and teachers who shop for supplies. They even have paint your own ceramics available where you purchase anything from pre-made mugs to more elaborate items, and paint them. They are then glazed/fired. This is a perfect place for kids’ parties.
With triple digits outside, we were delighted to be invited inside by Ray’s wife, Sally, who is a pottery artist. When you enter, you’re inside the store, the painting room is to the left and small gallery to the right. Beyond the double doors in the back the creative work area lies. And, beyond that, are the kilns. We could not escape the heat in there!
I’ll show you pictures of it all. While the pottery was beautiful, it was a challenging shoot. I wanted to shoot from different angles and remain true to the artistic intent. All images were handheld and without flash.
I’m hoping it’s not a hot summer, thinking maybe some cooler temperatures will prevail–SOON!
This cube was in the gallery.
This artist created many shapes.
This one also.
I’m not sure whether the same artist did this.
I liked the colors in this one.
This bowl is one of my favorites.
This is the paint job on a dish. I liked it.
I’m not sure what this is, but it needed to be shot!
This is the work room behind the double doors.
This artist is creating flowers out of left over clay.
You just have to like Jelly Belly jelly beans. They tempt you with so many flavors like popcorn, chocolate, cherry. These are just some I like. So, when we decided to do a shoot at the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, I knew some of the shooting would be a challenge, but at the end would be a bag of belly flops for me to buy.
First let me explain what belly flops are. They are the candies that just are not perfect. Some are not shaped correctly and some are double or triple beans stuck together. They taste the same as the pristine jelly beans, but cost a lot less.
So there’s the candy at the end of the rainbow; what about the photographic challenge? My challenge was to shoot inside without flash, through somewhat dirty glass at the factory below us. This was my first time shooting with a circular polarizer filter. I also decided to use my Sigma 17 – 24 mm, F/2.8 – 4 lens, hoping that would add additional needed light. I also needed to get everything in focus. I think I was successful, but the subject was sort of boring. When you look at the images, you will get an idea of what they do in the factory.
An additional challenge was put before me: the windows at floor level were cleaner than the ones at standing height. So I squatted my way through the self-guided tour. It took a week for the muscles in my quadriceps to relax! When the tour ended, I was really too tired to shoot the colorful goodies in the store. I did a little, but oh my!
I do like Jelly Bellys and took home a 5 lb. bag of flops. I’m going through them slowly, restricting myself to a certain amount each day.
The Jelly Belly Factory entrance.
The tour has started. Only a certain number of guests are allowed to tour at one time.
This rooster is made from Jelly Bellys.
On the factory floor.
I think they are sorting and packaging.
Another look.
This boy is looking at a picture of Ronald Reagan made from Jelly Beans.
Here’s another of Abe Lincoln.
More of the factory. These are different rooms.
Jelly beans in crates.
The beans are spinning.
More colorful beans are stacked on the floor.
These guests are getting a private tour–on the factory floor!
Colorful balloons in the entry.
Hey, these aren’t jelly beans!
I wonder what flavor these are?
A dad and daughter gaze at the giant jelly bean outside the entry.
Slow Shutter Speed 