Lens Artists Challenge #406: Summer Daze

My goodness it’s triple digits Fahrenheit here in sunny California. Heat waves come and go during the summertime. We are used to it. When it happens, we go to the beach, find a pool, go to a movie or stay indoors. How do you cool off?

Water is one way to distract our children from the temperatures. It could be a beach where people leave important items, a backyard pool, a water feature for children or a boat on the water.

Summer is also time for camping. We camped when my children were very young. We started in a truck and camper and through the years, graduated to a fifth wheel trailer. I mostly enjoyed the campfires and traveling with our friends. The photo on the right, Montezuma Well was from a camping trip to Sedona Arizona with our friends Sandy and Ken.

And, is there anything more fun or hot than County Fairs. I honestly don’t know why they are always held in the summer. There’s usually a concession selling hand held, battery operated fans! Big attractions are Ferris wheels, merry-go-rounds and bands. The first two images are from the Sacramento County Fair. My last image shows a mother dancing with her young child to a band at the Sonora County fair.

Oh, there’s something special about the foods we enjoy during the summer like raspberries and blueberries.

In addition to our rivers, we have a few lakes to enjoy and are available nearby for short photography trips. My dog Molly (who is now in doggy heaven) loved water. There was no keeping her out of this lake as my husband found out.

I’ll leave you with a smile–a field of sunflowers.

Depending on where you live, summer may be super hot, hot, mild or even cool. What do you do during your summer daze?

Thank you Ann-Christine for taking us on great adventures last week, and to all of you for sharing yours. When you reply to this challenge, please remember to link it back to this post and use the Lens-Artists tag. I want to know all about your Summer Daze. Patti is leading the next challenge, so look for her post. In the meantime, stay safe and be resilient.

When the temperature rises: Pottery World

When it’s steaming outside, we go inside to take photographs. Most stores don’t mind. One such store is Pottery World in Rocklin. We look for a store that has an array of subject to photograph, and recently we went to Pottery World.

Here are some examples of what we found.

I like to go in close and sometimes crop even further. I’m looking forward to October when we can stay outside longer! It’s been a hot summer!

Len-Artist Challenge 104: Summer

Heat! That’s the challenge summer brings to the Sacramento area. Due to climate change, our infrequent triple digit weather has become the norm. Add to that, we need to stay away from our rivers and lakes because of social distancing. It’s not my favorite season. But the flowers are blooming and I love macro and close up photography.

So here are some macro/close up floral images for Amy’s summer challenge:

As I’m posting this, they are predicting a high of 98 degrees and right now it’s 92 degrees. My garden will be pruned tomorrow morning! There might be a photography tutorial in my future this afternoon.