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 · 4 Comments

Getting to know you: Practicing with the macro at Ironstone Winery, Murphys California

They say that “Practice makes perfect.” Well, in this case, practice made good! The practice was with the macro at the Ironstone Winery in Murphys. The grounds were full of tulips. daffodils and other flowers I can’t name. They were mostly in wine barrels so they could be changed out at will. My macro and I had a great time.

They also had a lake, beautiful landscaping and an amphitheater that was being remodeled. I came home with so many images, it took quite a while to go through them and edit. In this post, I’ll show you my macro work–since I’m bragging. Hey getting to good is better than where I was! I’m not captioning these images since I can only ID the tulips and daffodils.

In my next post, I’ll show you the grounds not shot with the macro.

If I keep practicing, I just may get to perfect!

Posted on by Anne Sandler

Macro Photography Learn and Share: A Sacramento Photographers event

I didn’t share much, but I did learn. The Sacramento Photographers Facebook group offers a monthly outing or event. This month it was the learn and share. While I’m pretty good at close up photography, I wanted to know more about macro. And, I wanted to learn how to use my old (and I mean old) manual lens for my film camera.

So off I went with what I needed to bring: something to drop into a tank of water, tripod, and a lens more than 50 mm. Opps, I forgot to bring a towel. Everyone was so helpful. Two photographers tried to help me with my macro lens, but were puzzled by it. It’s very different from today’s macro lenses. Here’s what I learned:

* My old (again very old) macro lens is really not that good. I had a difficult time focusing it. And at 28 mm, how macro is it? I’m getting more comfortable with shooting on manual, but this lens offered a bigger challenge. It was also difficult because of the lighting in the studio.

* I have lousy hand to eye coordination; or, should I say hand to ear coordination. We were to drop an object (my choice was a tennis ball) into the fish tank and when we heard it hit the water, we were to press the remote shutter release. I’m posting my best effort!

* I now understand how to trigger an off camera flash. It’s just another piece of gear to buy.

* I truly enjoy field work more than studio stuff.

Now that you know what I learned, here are some of the images captured that evening.

Posted on by Anne Sandler

On the road again: Long Island, New York at Planting Fields Arboretum

When you’ve flown to the east coast what do you do? You start south and work your way north! We’ve been in Long Island visiting family for almost a week now. I’m sure my cousins feel like it’s been more than that since we are staying with them. They are gracious hosts, driving us, feeding us and fitting our needs into their lifestyle.

They took us to the Planting Fields Arboretum on a cloudy day. It seems that last year we brought extreme heat and this year humidity and rain! We did go to there last year, but at 99 degrees (Fahrenheit) it was too hot to stay. I was thrilled that this time we were able to walk most of the grounds of this beautiful arboretum and hear stories of how they’ve enjoyed the grounds for years past. Also, there were three bridal couples having their wedding pictures taken at the park. Yes, I did take some shots of that activity, but in the end deleted them, keeping one showing the bride’s gown in the distance.

On the one sunny day, we went north in search of fall foliage, and I’ll cover that in the next blog. Meanwhile, enjoy these floral images. I’m not going to caption these because I don’t know the names of the flowers. They range from orchards to cactus. I did get a small amount of the autumn colors in the trees.