Posted on by Anne Sandler · 50 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #323: Silence

Egidio’s challenge on Silence has me standing on my soapbox. Television has ruined silence in this world or at least in my house. When my husband is home the TV is on whether he’s watching or not. My neighbor is the same way. “When I get up in the morning the TV goes on,” she says. She can’t handle the silence!

Me, I love the silence. I like to sit and read in silence. Work on the computer in silence. And, most of all, I like the silence when I’m out with my camera. Many of my images reflect this silence and quiet contemplation. When I walk with my camera, I relax and forget the world’s and my own problems.

For me still water helps me feel calm and my body and mind relax. I enjoy the calmness and mirror images of the water. The people on this lone boat must be experiencing a sense of wonder as they navigate this lake. A full moon shines on two shores of another calm and silent lake. How wonderful to sit and watch the moon rise.

I love tree arbors. As I approach them, I’m in awe by their graceful welcoming, and I feel enveloped in their natural sense of silence. I slow down as I drive through, wanting to savor the feeling. After all, they are bowing and welcoming me. The quiet countryside also helps!

People can also support silence through their actions or inaction. A couple enjoying the ocean while sitting in a bed of ice plant shows how the soft sound of the ocean can bring you into a calm and meditative state. Even walking along a creek can calm both human and canine. The three walk in silence.

Mountain views can bring you into awe and silence as you look at the breathtaking view. This is from Ananda Village in Nevada City. A small chapel is a viewpoint for those who want to meditate or pray. The mountains are part of the Sierra Nevada chain.

Fog has different effects on people. For me, it’s calming and sends me into silence and awe. So does a beautiful landscape, especially when it features an old structure. Notice, both images feature trees.

I’ll close with forest images. I love the forest especially when we are the only people camping. I sit and enjoy the smell and silence. Sometimes, nature provides us with something special!

Thank you Egidio for bringing us back into silence and helping us realize how we experience it through our photography. When you post your response, please link to Egidio’s original post and use the Lens-Artist tag.

I enjoyed seeing your responses to Ritva’s subjective challenge last week. They were diverse, creative and beautiful. Next week Patti will be our presenter. “In The Details” challenges us to choose a subject and focus on the details, photographing from different angles, distances using your camera or lens. She’d like you to post three photographs of your subject. This is just a hint, be sure to look for her post at pilotfish.com for full instructions.

In the meantime stay healthy and be safe.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 161 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #314: Shorelines

Where do you find peace and relaxation? I find mine wherever water touches land. Yes, any type of shoreline. It may be a beach, a lake, a pond, a creek; you know where I’m going. I’m heading to the shore.

Here in Sacramento, rivers are easy to find. River shorelines are muddy and rocky with some areas reserved for swim areas. This part of the river is located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers. I believe it’s part of the Sacramento River. The American River is noted for riding the rapids, while the Sacramento River is used more for industry.

The Sacramento River

The Mississippi River is heavily used for transporting containers on barges moved forward by push boats. This image was taken in Arkansas along the mighty Mississippi. If you look in the mid to upper right, you’ll see a barge with containers on it waiting to be pushed to its destination. The second image shows a push boat in action. We were told that the crew stay on the boat the entire trip, moving 24/7, and only docking for supplies.

Let’s visit the beaches next. There are beautiful sand beaches where swimming is fun like this beach on Lifou Island in New Caledonia.

Then there are the rocky beaches where we sit and watch the waves hit the shore. Like the Marin Headlands in Northern California. The man in the second photo is wave watching at Pacific Grove on the California coast.

Let’s look at a creek next. We have many creeks running through the Sacramento Valley. Most popular is our local Dry Creek. There is a park nearby and the creek offers children a summer respite from the heat. During the winter, it is a beautiful place to take photos. Although this photo doesn’t show it, there are large rocks to sit on and relax.

We can’t forget about lakes. We have many around us. And when we drove across the country, we found beautiful lakes in middle America. This is Mono Lake in Northeastern California. It is a salt lake and known for the tufa towers jutting out of the water.

We found a beautiful lake in Alberta Canada while visiting Glacier National Park. Lake Waterton, Waterton National Park, Canada.

There are more types of shorelines, but I think this post is full. Please show us your shorelines from near and/or far. It’s any place where water touches the earth, and you also find peace and relaxation. When you post for this challenge, please link to my post and use the Lens-Artists tag.

I totally enjoyed seeing everyone’s cool colors last week. Thank you, John. It helped cool off our hot California summer! Next week Ritva will be challenging us. Please look for her post. Until then, enjoy, take lots of pictures and be happy.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 49 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #293: Water in Motion

Oh boy, water is everywhere this winter. Rain storms have added water to our area’s rivers, lakes and creeks here in Sacramento. It’s also added mega snow levels in our mountain areas. Sofia’s challenge this week is to show moving water. Let’s get started.

Lakes. While some of our large lakes are in constant motion, they don’t photograph that way. You can tell by the gentle ripples and swirls in the water.

Donner Lake, Truckee, CA; Two-Medicine Lake, Glacier National Park, MT; Folsom Lake, Folsom CA

River. While we have two major rivers flowing through Sacramento County, I’m featuring the American River. It’s known for river rafting, boating, fishing and swimming. The image on the left features the iconic Rainbow Bridge in Folsom. The ripples are delicate enough to reflect the rocks and bridge. This beach is near another well-known bridge, the Fair Oaks Bridge. The American river has many swim areas.

Ocean. I don’t get to the Pacific Ocean often. It’s about a 2 1/2-hour drive, but when I do, I enjoy it. These pictures are from Pacific Grove with waves gently breaking on the shore; Pacifica which is further north and the waves break more violently, causing a major splash on this young man. Back south, we come to the Monterey shoreline, catching the ocean at sunset. The sun’s glow is beautifully reflected in the water.

Fountains. I enjoy catching water in stop-action. Fountains are great for this and so are water spouts. Here are three.

I’ll close with some miscellaneous water fun, waterfalls and drops.

Today the sun is shining and will continue for a couple of days. Then, we are getting more rain! I’d better get out and enjoy the sunshine while I can. If you haven’t posted yet, be sure to link to Sofia’s original post and use the Lens-Artist tag.

Pictures of people from all over the world appeared in my mail box last week, and I totally enjoyed seeing them all. Next week John will be presenting the challenge so be sure to look for his post. Until then, take care.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 16 Comments

Lens Artist Challenge #167: Colors of Autumn

It’s sort of early here in Sacramento for Fall color which is Amy’s challenge this week. In fact, we don’t get much of our own but have to drive about 2 hours to see the lovely yellows and oranges. So let’s look back on previous years and day trips.

Let’s look at what 2018 brought us when Marlene and I visited Markleevile.

In 2019, Jean and I went on a Fall Color search near the town of Murphys and Calaveras Big Trees State Park. Not much color to see!

The following year, 2020, wasn’t a banner year for colorful leaves. Jean and I went hunting in the Eastern Sierras.

Maybe we will get lucky this year. Laura and I are planning a hunting trip in a few weeks. Wish us luck. Thank you Amy!

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 25 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #158: Along Back Country Roads

Just what are back country roads? Could they be roads that are new to you and fun to explore? Could they be taking a wrong turn and ending up on a road that’s barely suitable for driving? For Wandering Dogs, Beth and her husband, it’s getting your tires dirty and seeing the beautiful countryside. So this week she’s challenged us to take that road less traveled.

For me, it means adventure and new roads, paved or not. I’ve mentioned my photo outings with my friend Greg, who passed away, in other posts. He, Marlene and I would set out in the morning and return in time for dinner–maybe! We didn’t know where he was taking us and sometimes neither did he. He had a passion for turning down side roads, especially when it said “Dead End!” These are from some of those trips.

Sometimes it’s the need to get away for an hour or two. Early on during lockdown last year, I was getting antsy. When Richard noticed me scratching at the front door, screaming “Let me out!” (A slight exaggeration, but true feeling!), he said let’s go for a ride. We didn’t go far; just up Highway 80, looking for small towns. One of these towns was Dutch Flat, and it was small.

  • The garage that housed the hearse.
  • The old hearse.

Another of our escapes had us looking for the Sugar Pine Reservoir. The was one of those times when taking the wrong turn could get you into trouble. The GPS showed us a way back, but it didn’t say how narrow and twisty a dirt road it was. It took us 4 hours to do what should have taken at most 1 hour!

  • We should have taken this as a sign of what was to come!
  • This was the only time I could get out of the car to take a picture!

Photo buddy Jean likes to get in the car and go with sort of an idea of where to head. For this outing we headed out to the Eastern Sierras in search of Fall colors, but Jean smelled water, and off we went. We found a stream and a lake and I don’t remember the name.

  • We found water and pelicans in the stream.
  • The Lake
  • We did find some color.

So these are some of my road less traveled excursions. Yes, there were more, but I’ll save them for another time.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 22 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #146: Focusing on the Details

Given this week’s challenge by Patti to focus on details, my mind went back to a Toastmaster Photo Club I tried to start and a speech given by a professional photographer in the group. He talked and demonstrated about a different way to focus on details: finding the picture within the picture.

He showed us how to focus on the details of an image to find more images by cropping sections. His example was of a construction site. First he showed us the entire landscape of the site. Then he focused in on a worker, continued with more sections and ended with a pair of shoes. It was an amazing lesson.

Today I’m going to try the same with a landscape taken yesterday at Scotts Flat Reservoir in Nevada City. I was hiking with my daughter-in-law Jess and granddaughter Olivia. Here’s my picture within a picture.

First the landscape.

Next I isolated Jess, Olivia and their dog Hana.

My final capture from this landscape is of a log on the beach.

Although the official Toastmaster group disbanded, a few of us kept meeting until 14 months ago when the pandemic shut us down. We continued to share information, but I will never forget this lesson on details and finding the picture within the picture.

Posted on by Anne Sandler

Looking for color: Sierra County

It’s been so long since I was on a day-long road trip. I guess I was complaining a lot so Jean said let’s go. I said I wanted to shoot the Fall colors but wasn’t so keen about going to Hope Valley again. She suggested Sierra Valley in Sierra County where she once lived, and since she was driving off we went. We, or I should say Jean, drove about 330 miles that day.

I found, after out last road trip, that Jean likes water–well, taking pictures of water. There are many small lakes in Sierra Valley and we stopped at one. Sorry, I don’t remember its names but it was beautiful.

If you notice most of the pictures don’t have clouds, but this one does. I’m getting better with Luminar sky replacement.

We drove and drove, stopping here and there. I was able to get a little bit of Fall color which was great since we didn’t reach our destination! Here are some images.

I caught a few other scenic images. We went through the small town of Sierraville. I thought the barber shop was aptly named!

We ended up at Jean’s old stomping ground, Loyalton.

We ended the day with dinner. I had the best burger since the pandemic began. We ate outside with plenty of space between tables. I had so much fun, and want to do it again soon.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 6 Comments

Why did I wake up so early? To do this blog?: Lake Tahoe, part 2.

There are some mornings like this. You wake up about 4 a.m. and just can’t get back to sleep. Rather than tossing and turning, it’s better to put the extra morning hours to good use–like writing this blog before I go on a photo outing.

Speaking of photo outings, let’s return to Lake Tahoe and the second day. We got a slow start, but that was okay because we weren’t in a rush. Our goal was to visit Fallen Leaf Lake, meeting our hosts there. Since we left before them, we stopped at the Tallac Historic Site. The Baldwin Estate was a rustic home set on the beach. The house was closed that morning, but I think they give tours during the summer season. Then we went on to Fallen Leaf Lake.

To get to the lake, you need to drive a narrow, curvy road with many single lanes. I was amazed that there were so many homes up there. Marlene did an excellent piloting job. However we didn’t realize that there were two lakes and our hosts went to the upper lake. No cell service. No getting in touch with them.

After deciding we didn’t want to share our lunch with wasps, we drove back down the hill to the Emerald Bay overlook named Inspiration Point. There we were entertained by a gentleman who was “singing for his supper” or so his sign said. In Emerald Bay you could still see the deep blue color of the water. Because of the drought, the lake’s water level was down. Fortunately, because Lake Tahoe is deep, its beauty shines on.

You can see for yourself!

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 2 Comments

Photographer playtime: San Jose, California

For me, photography is playtime. Just going out with the camera slung over my shoulder fills my soul and invigorates my spirit. That’s why I bring at least one camera with me everywhere. Sometimes I get down to my point and shoot or even to my cell phone! This past weekend I went to San Jose to celebrate my two friends birthdays with them and their close friends. They are the same age and one week apart.

Of course, the camera came with me, and I had a purpose in mind–practice my macro skills. My friends live in a modular home park and there are flowers abundant. Perfect conditions for macro practice except for the breeze that creates movement in all the park’s plants. But, I persisted anyway. With camera and macro lens, I went out to find success. I hope you enjoy my efforts. I do think I’m getting better at it. Oh, all these images were handheld.

The second morning I took my camera and 18 – 55 mm lens to Vasona Lake County Park in Los Gatos. I didn’t have too much time because we had a celebration to go to. This was a pretty setting with family setting up picnics, walkers and dogs, fisherman, boaters, geese and other photographers–imagine that!

So, here’s a glimpse of my playtime.

Posted on by Anne Sandler

Deja vu: Mossy trees and mustard, Lake San Antonio, Monterey County, California, part 3

Mustard! It’s yellow just like the condiment, but you don’t spread it on sandwiches or hot dogs. You just look at its beauty and admire it. I’m amazed at how wildflowers can make a hillside or valley look stunning. You’ll see mustard in this post; the last of our visit to Lake San Antonio.

It was sad to see Lake Nacimiento and San Antonio so low in water capacity. We used to camp there with our children when we had a boat. We saw Nacimiento from Lakeside Rd and drove down to San Antonio. The California drought is becoming very noticeable now. We are beginning strict water rationing, which I think should have been done sooner.

Right now there are thunder storms north of us and it may be snowing in the Sierras. But, that won’t be enough to get us through the hot summer. I know the east coast has had enough rain and snow. Funny how Mother Nature is!

So, let’s get on with the serving of mustard–no hot dogs on the side!