The Fountains in Roseville – Slow Shutter Speed

Posted on May 25, 2022May 25, 2022 by Anne Sandler · 10 Comments

Street Photography?: The Fountains

I love street photography, but I’m finding out that I lack patience and I’m too timid to take some candid shots. If you ask them if you can take their picture, then they pose. Marlene and I went to The Fountains, an outdoor shopping center in Roseville, recently to do street photography. One, the stores were just opening and there weren’t many people. Two, At its best, this center is a leisurely shopping center–not bustling.

Any way, I was able to get some window cleaners on the job.

**Watch out the elk is coming for you!**

This is the fountain in the middle of the shopping center. At a peak shopping time, people usually sit around with their children or cell phones! At prime time, It’s jets propel water synchronized to music. Of course we were too early for that.

I did have some fun with chairs. First are the chairs as the were and second are the chairs with a Photoshop twirl filter. Which do you like better?

I took some other fun photos.

I tried to photograph this guy through a fire enclosure, but he saw me and offered to have me take his picture. Marlene and I talked with him and found out that he has terminal cancer. Marlene offered to take his picture with his cell phone, and he allowed it.

So this was my try at street photography. Not that successful, but I had a good time. Next time we’ll have to go into Sacramento City, on a Sunday so we can park, later in the day, find a busy area and wait for people to walk by. Oh, yes, I’ll find some patience too.

Posted on November 15, 2021 by Anne Sandler · 42 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #174: Shapes and Designs

Just look around you. Wherever you are, open your mind and see the shapes and designs of the objects around you. In this week’s challenge, Patti encourages us to see the shapes and designs around us. Truthfully, I didn’t truly see the possibilities until I started photography. Now I see them everywhere!

For instance at an outing to Ironstone Vineyards a few years ago, we were down in their cellar that they call the Cavern. The round wine barrels stacked and angled down a cavern hallway offers many shapes and designs.

Water lends itself to shapes and designs too. The fountain at the Fountains shopping center offers many shapes and designs. A single burst of water takes its own shape while the entire fountain lets your imagination free. A crystal ball turns our design upside down.

Fairs and carnivals also offer us photographic opportunities for shapes and design. The Ferris wheel was photographed at the Nevada County Fair. Just sitting still we can recognize many shapes like triangles, rectangles and, of course, round. But at night during a carnival, light play turns it into a design bursting with color.

Sunflowers give us various shapes too.

I’ll end with trees. They are beautiful in design with their branches gracefully stretching out. Add some fog and you have a more dramatic scene.

Thank you Patti for helping us find adventure in our archives!

Posted on January 13, 2020 by Anne Sandler · 7 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.

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

Posted on August 27, 2018August 27, 2018 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 October 20, 2016October 20, 2016 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.

Posted on October 3, 2016 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.

Posted on August 13, 2015 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.