Posted on by Anne Sandler · 6 Comments

The end and the beginning: The Fountains & About Town

The beginning:

I’m sure you all know that things don’t always turn out as scheduled. For instance, Marlene and I had planned to go to the Sacramento Zoo for the first photo outing of 2020; however, I left my camera case (full of gear) at my kid’s house. I didn’t think my Nikon D3100 and an 18 – 55 mm lens would do well at the zoo. So where to go?

Marlene said that she had three things to take pictures of, but never got to it. This seemed perfect! A short but sweet shoot and all in Sacramento. We just wanted to get out with our cameras. The first on her list was a horse statue, but it had galloped away. Where, we didn’t know. So, on to the next, a bigger than life sized lumber jack statue outside a Lumberjacks restaurant He hadn’t stomped away!

It was overcast, and I tried to get the lumberjack at various angles. Practice! Practice!

Next was the bigger than life size chicken. I tried to get various angles, but it was fenced in. But, it was unusual!

You’ll have to click on the image to see the entire metal sculpture.

The end:

For the last shoot of 2019, Marlene and I decided to tempt the possibility and do some street photography at The Fountains, in Roseville, an outdoor mall featured in this blog many times. I thought on December 26 there would be a lot of bargain shoppers, but I was wrong. One store owner allowed us to take photos of his beautiful inventory, and a lot of it was on sale. Here’s what we found.

  • Look for new stock!
  • Flower Power!
  • Dogs are allowed in some stores.
  • Now, here’s a sale!
  • Window shoppi ng.
  • Inside the store.
  • Art in 3D!
  • A global effect.
  • A beautiful arrangement.
  • Resting by the fire pit.
  • Relaxing while waiting.
  • Heading home with dog and purchases.
  • A Goldendoodle brought a shopper with him.

There you have it. The beginning and the end. A little backwards, but then………

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 2 Comments

An annoying cold in the summer: Catching up

I thought I was over the 2-week cold, but I guess I wasn’t. I’m in my fourth week of it and not feeling really well. Can I continue to complain a bit? The worse part of it is the fog brain that keeps me from posting, etc. I didn’t even realize that I haven’t posted in a long while. Okay, that’s enough complaining.

I’ve been on a few shoots since my trip to San Francisco, and I’ll try to post about two of them here. My Tuesday group visited The Fountains Shopping Center again. It’s always a challenge to come up with something different at a place you’ve photographed many times. So here’s what I came up with:

Another visit was to downtown Sacramento and the third year of the Wide Open Walls Festival. This time we shot on the second and last days of the week’s artistry. On the second day, we found only one artist at work. On the last day, we were treated to two amazing murals: Johnny Cash and Monkeys (which was three-dimensional with metal parts and paint). Here’s some of what we saw:

While shooting our first set of murals, we stopped by William Land Park in Sacramento to photograph the lotus pond:

And, of course, I do enjoy shooting buildings:

That’s it for now. Have to rest. I do hope this cold is over before my next post!

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 2 Comments

But I was just there: The Fountains and farmers’ market

I’ve come a long way with my photographic ability, but it has been difficult at times. Like, what do you do when you’re going back to shoot at a place you recently visited? When my Tuesday group went to The Fountains shopping center in Roseville shortly after I had been there, I brought along my crystal ball–not to see the future, but to see the present differently.

It was a great idea, but very difficult to work. I brought along an old tripod that would hold the base for the ball so I could shoot through it to capture flowers. No matter how high I had the tripod, it wasn’t working like I had visioned. Add the breeze, and you pack away the ball. I did manage to get one shot I truly like. I suppose that made it worth it.

Halloween decorations and steam coming from the fountain also made the trip slightly different. I had some fun with the scarecrow images. You’ll see those in the gallery.

What really made the trip, was the farmers’ market. I love to shoot vegetables. They have such great color and texture. One vendor had a decorative vulture that was motion sensored and a glowing red eye. Fun! Fun!

So, at the end of the outing, I said to David. This wasn’t much of a shoot, but the company was great. I truly had a great time, and learned there is always someting different to shoot in a familiar place especially with great friends.

Help I’m losing my head!
Somebody, please help my brother!
A mom’s exercise class.
My crystal ball capture.
A small flower.
An emerging flower.
Watch out, here come the wolves. This was difficult because of the lighting. Proscessing helped quite a bit.
This woman was dressing mannequins.
Green onions.
Purple cauliflower?
Colorful peppers.
Leafy lettuce.
Pumpkins.
I’m not sure what this type of pumpkin is called, or is it a pumpkin?
Garlic.
Radishes.
The buzzard!

Posted on by Anne Sandler

Shopping and shooting: The Fountains, Roseville

Senario: one week before husband, Richard’s, back surgery; dear friends come to visit from Los Angeles for a couple of days; Richard can’t walk much and is in pain; we stay home first day; second day, just to get out for a while, we, minus Richard, go to The Fountains shopping center and the Romanian Festival, both in Roseville.

Now that you know what’s going on, let me tell you about our friends of at least 40 years. We’ve seen our children grow and marry, our grandchildren reach the age of Bar Mitzvah, and stayed in touch after Richard and I moved from Los Angeles. Life cycle events would bring us down to L.A. more often than bringing these two couples up our way. So, it was a treat to have them stay with us, and it provided a diversion for Richard.

We went to The Fountains because Lois wanted to see the Vera Bradley shop, and Ron’s shutter finger was getting antsy. Shelley and Jim just enjoy walking. So, while Ron and I took pictures, Lois enjoyed signing up for Vera Bradley’s discounts, and Jim and Shellie walked.

Next, I tried to get them to the Romanian Festival, but our way was blockaded by a farmer’s market. We did make it to the Festival, which provided Ron and me another photo opportunity. You’ll see those images in my next post.

For now, come join us at The Fountains. If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ve seen flowers from this unique shopping center before. I also took on the challenge of shooting more than just flowers.

Oh, the end of this senario: Richard’s back surgery went well with just one complication. Now he thinks he can do anything one week after surgery.

This was the first time I’ve seen mist in the fountain.
My favorite color rose.
There are many plant varieties here.
The benches are beautiful.
Another beautiful rose.
Getting close and inside.
One of the many flower beds.
A wanna be or almost be??
I call this “It’s about time!”
I loved the colors of this one.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 5 Comments

Love at the fountains: The Fountains, Roseville CA

I did fall in love at The Fountains–love with the ambiance of this outdoor shopping center and its beautiful flowers, fountains and decorative benches. This center is a great place to take a camera and practice! You just have to keep saying over and over, “I will not shop.” You can say, “I’ll enjoy a cup of coffee, ice cream, candy, cookies, salad, sandwich and more;” but you could easily spend money in the fabulous stores.

Oh, back to practice. See how you can get distracted. I’ve been there twice to practice. The first time, not knowing what to expect, I just had my 18 – 55 mm lens. I was meeting a friend for lunch and arrived early to catch a shot for my 365. The second time was today with my friend Marlene. This time I had my macro lens with me. I was ready to get deep into the flowers; however, there was a heavy breeze. Even the blossoms that seemed to be not moved, were moving when looked through the macro lens. I think given the breeze, I would have been better off with the 18 – 55 mm lens. But, that’s what practice is for.

In this post, I’ll show you some images from both outings. And, yes, I’ll be going back soon. I want to get there early in the morning to get the best light and maybe less breeze. After all, I did fall in love.