West Sacramento – Slow Shutter Speed

Posted on May 28, 2022 by Anne Sandler · 33 Comments

Lens-Artists Challenge #201: Three of a Kind

Today, Ann-Christine challenges us to create a post that has” three separate images that are somehow related.” She also explains that, “There is a special word for this art of three – triptych.” Yes, we learn something new every day.

Now, I don’t usually go on a photo outing with the thought of creating a series of three images that are related to each other, and I thought this would be a daunting challenge. How surprised I was to find, while going through my archives, that I do take a series when there is something interesting. So here are my “triptych” trios.

A ride at the Nevada County Fair. This is a kids ride of cars that starts off slowly and then increases to a rapid spin. Picture one is stationary, two is starting the spin, and three is at maximum.

Sculptured abstract. You’ve seen part of this next trio in our recent “Light and Shadow” challenge. I posted the sculpture and its shadow, but today I’ll add an abstract taken when I got really close with a long lens. This was taken in West Sacramento.

Trains. Now on to the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento. This is always a fun place to take a camera. This old train was sitting on mirrored glass. The mirrors were also overhead and to the side. What fun I had. These are not the only images of this fantastic opportunity I took that morning. First is the train reflected on the glass. Second is the side of the train reflected on the glass above. Last is the top of the train in reflection.

Yard art. For my last trio, I’m taking you to the Antique Trove in Roseville. We go there when we need to be indoors because of rain or heat. It was rainy, but the back part (yard) was open. I saw cute owl sculptures.

I believe if I kept going through my archives, I’d find more trios. I think we instinctively take photos this way.

Thank you Ann-Christine for a fun challenge, teaching us a new word and helping me find more insight into how I photograph.

And thanks to Amy and her “Every little thing” challenge. She reminded me that small joys can overcome large burdens. Next week Sofia will present her challenge on Minimalism/Maximalism–Single or Flamboyant, Plain or ”More Is More”? Intrigued? Look for her post.

Remember, to link your post to Ann-Christine’s and use the Lens-Artists tag.

If you would like to participate weekly in our Lens-Artists Challenge, just click this link and join us: https://photobyjohnbo.wordpress.com/about-lens-artists/

Posted on May 7, 2022May 7, 2022 by Anne Sandler · 43 Comments

Lens-Artists Challenge #198: Light and Shadow

“In layman’s terms, photography is quite simply the process of capturing light with a camera to create an image.”… PhotographyTalk.com

When you read the above quote, you realize that Patti’s challenge of Light and Shadow goes to the essence of what we do as photographers. We can’t take a picture without light or the absence of it, shadow.

In fact, in black and white photography you absolutely need the contrast between light and shadow. The image below is Waterton Lake in Waterton Lake National Park, Canada. The success of it in black and white relies on the light, shadows and contrast.

Next we have a sculpture at the River Walk in West Sacramento. On the left see it as it really is, and on the right see the shadow it casts.

Light can also add character to a subject. The way the light hits this old wheel adds to its texture and age and adds shadows.

This aging sculpture in the Sacramento Historic City Cemetery is back lit. The sun almost adds a halo effect.

Just changing your perspective changes the image. The feeling of this iconic sculpture in Roseville taken in bright sunlight changes when taken from a different side and in the shade.

And, finally, what do we do when there is no light? We use artificial light. The Tower theater’s sign is shining bright in neon in Downtown Roseville, and a Christmas display lights up this fake house front, putting the people in shadow.

How we use light and shadow creates our own personal photography style.

Thank you Patti for this fun post and bringing us back to the basics of photography. When you post your reply, remember to link to Patti’s post and tag Lens-Artists. Next week’s challenge will be presented by Ann-Christine through her Leya site. So stay tuned!

If you would like to participate weekly in our Lens-Artists Challenge, just click this link and join us: https://photobyjohnbo.wordpress.com/about-lens-artists/

Posted on October 25, 2021October 25, 2021 by Anne Sandler · 28 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #171: Weird and Wonderful

If you think about it, life itself is weird and wonderful. Ann-Christine asks us, in this week’s challenge, to find images in our archives or take our cameras out to find things that fit the weird and wonderful description. I’ve chosen to delve into my archives.

Buildings. I’ve found a few that are both weird and wonderful. There’s Drake’s Barn that serves food and drinks and hosts events. I took this photo shortly after it was built and the grounds were not ready for events. The The Ziggurat (the Pyramid Building) is an office building.

The the Manetti Shrem Museum in Davis is a beautiful and different building. I think the architecture is a work of art. Inside art exhibits are ongoing and outside are sculptures.

Hatcheries The Nimbus Fish Hatchery was a new experience for me. Yearly the Chinook salmon and steelhead swim upstream in the American River to lay eggs. The salmon that make it then die. Not that many make it. The hatchery catches and kills the salmon, removing their eggs and hatches them for release back into the river. This way more salmon are reproduced.

Fungi. I’ll close with mushrooms. They take many shapes and have many colors. These wild fungi are definitely weird and wonderful to photograph.

I’m not sure these images fit Ann-Christine’s challenge, but it was fun, weird and wonderful!

Posted on September 11, 2021 by Anne Sandler · 19 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #165: Going Wide

Sofia had us looking up and down. Now, Patti has us looking all around. She is challenging us to go wide, opening up our vistas.

Being lazy and not liking to change lenses in the field, I shoot my wide angles with 18 mm + lens. I do have a 10 to 20 mm lens for my Nikon, but seldom used it. When I bought my Fujifilm, I didn’t purchase an ultra wide lens. For today’s challenge, I’m going back to 2018 for some different kind of wide angle shots. These were mostly shot with my Nikon D7100 and 18 – 200 mm lens.

Let’s start with a 9/11 Flag Tribute which is more than appropriate today. This is arranged in West Sacramento on a vacant lot each year. I’m going back today to experience this once again.

The Grand Canyon (South Rim) screams for a wide angle shot. But not all wide angle shots are taken outdoors. Here I have the beautiful canyon and also the amazing Desert View Watch Tower (Which would have been perfect for the looking up/down challenge!). All were taken at 18 mm.

Each year Sacramento hosts the Wide Open Walls festival where artists from all over the world are invited to paint murals on buildings. The Johnny Cash mural was shot at 27 mm, and the monkey was shot at 18 mm (both) in a vertical format.

I’ll close with landscapes of Downieville a small resort town north of Sacramento. When we arrived, the weather turned on us and looked like rain. We’d sure welcome it now! I do love clouds and sometimes feature them in the landscape image. These were taken at 17 mm so I must have used my 17-70 mm 2.8 lens.

Today, when I go visit the 911 Flag Tribute, I’ll be using my 18-55 mm lens and get more wide angle images! Thanks for this challenge Patti!

Posted on August 18, 2021 by Anne Sandler · 12 Comments

When the heat turns up: IKEA

I’m just going to be blunt–It’s been a lousy summer here in Sacramento California. Our triple digit days outnumber our double digit days. And, then there are the fires that are raging in our forests. Our homes in the Sacramento Valley are not in danger, so I won’t complain about the smoke that blows in from the fires. All this means we take our cameras inside. One of our favorite places is IKEA.

We visited the IKEA store in West Sacramento on a recent Sunday and had a great time. Yes there were more shoppers than during the week but the place had a different vibe. I was looking to photograph something different than I had in the past. Fortunately displays had changed.

All the pictures below were shot with my macro lens which was the only one I brought in with me. I like the challenge of photographing with just one lens. This lens is an 80 mm so I got up close to take pictures of just a part of my subject.

Here are some of the images. Can you tell what they were?

After taking photos, we dined in the IKEA café. The food is great and the prices reasonable. My choice was a smoked salmon, potato salad and green salad plate. Yum! I guess I should have taken a picture of it!

Posted on July 14, 2021 by Anne Sandler · 17 Comments

The heat is on: The sunflowers are smiling!

Heat and drought! Not a good combination. We are in the midst of wildfire season here in the west, and Northern California is getting its share. But what makes us smile are the sunflowers. Yes, it’s also sunflower season here.

In the middle of June, the wonderful Yolo Arts & Ag Project brought us to the Elkhorn Basin Ranch in West Sacramento. It was going to be a hot day, so we got there early. Artists and photographers were lined up to sketch, paint and photograph the cheerful sunflowers.

Now these sunflowers were grown mainly for seed to ship overseas, and to my surprise, they were not super tall. I’m short and I always have a difficult time to photograph fields even with my three-step ladder. I was in photo heaven. Also the farm manager allowed us to walk into the field a little bit.

So, here are some of my images from that morning.

An artist stops to smile for the camera.

Before we reached our destination, we did stop to take images of this orchard.

The Elkhorn Basin Ranch is owned by the Yolo Land Trust and leased to Don Beeman and Garcia Farms.

Posted on March 28, 2021 by Anne Sandler · 21 Comments

Lens-Artists Challenge #141: Geometry

I cringed when I saw the word geometry in Patti’s challenge post. All I could think of was math; my worst subject in school. But, shapes I understand. We look for them as we do our photography. They help make our images interesting. Many give our pictures depth and help them look three dimensional.

Here’s what I found while looking through my archives.

One of my favorite buildings, the CALSTRS building in West Sacramento has many angles, lines and shapes.

And here are a couple from Fort Point in San Francisco: stairs and a shape within a shape within a shape (actually a hallway).

There are lots of triangles and other shapes at the top of the transformers at the Folsom Historic Powerhouse and in the stairs at the Great Bear Vineyard.

And the flowing structural lines at the Manetti Shrem Museum at UC Davis and The Barn in West Sacramento.

Last, a simple store entrance gives us rectangles, squares, triangles and circles. Taken in Sutter Creek.

Posted on December 14, 2018 by Anne Sandler · 4 Comments

This and that: Sacramento Zoo, sunset and roses

December is almost gone and I haven’t posted! But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been shooting. On Dec 1st., Laura, Marlene and I went to Kauai, Hawaii for a week. This was my first dedicated photography vacation. I’ll tell you all about it when I finish editing the images.

I had a cold before I left and have been busy since I’ve been back. So, this post is a catch up on an outing to the zoo, a West Sacramento sunset and my very own rose garden.

I wanted to visit the Sacramento Zoo to see Coconut the new snow leopard cub and the new meerkats. I was fortunate to see Coconut out with his mom, Misha. Dad, Blizzard was out on his own for a while. Coconut is a bit mischevious as are all kids, and mom takes it in stride.

The meerkats are much smaller than I expected. After all, I had only seen them in the Lion King! Also, they were behind glass which made it more difficult to photograph them.

I also went by the Red Panda enclosure, hoping to catch one of them awake and moving around. Well, one had an eye open!

From daytime to an evening sunset at the Deep Water Channel in West Sacramento. We were lucky enough to catch a decent sunset without going too far. The roses?? I have a small rose garden in my yard, and they were beautiful one morning.

Have a look!

A meerkat resting.

Standing up.

Looking in another direction.

Coconut playing.

Coconut posing.

Misha and Coconut.

Pretty Misha.

Blizzard.

A Wolf Guenon.

Baby Wolf Guenon feeding.

The pelicans–one of my favorites.

Sunset.

My rose garden.

Somehow the pink roses were pretty that morning.

Posted on December 19, 2017 by Anne Sandler · 2 Comments

Looking forward: The Barn and River Walk, West Sacramento

I always prefer to look forward rather than back. If you don’t, the “what if” will get you. What if I did this differently, what if I went there, what if I carried a monopod and heavy long lens! That was today’s dilemma. We went back to Mather Lake and I took two lenses, one fixed and heavy and the other a zoom that needs sunlight to perform well.

We started out in sunshine and quickly ended up with cloud cover. It was, again, a difficult shoot. But, no what if’s. I made a choice and did my best with it. Of course, you’ll have to wait to see the images since I haven’t edited them.

Today you’ll see images of the Barn and the River Walk in West Sacramento. Again, what if I had known that the landscaping wasn’t finished and they would be working there the day we went out. The Barn, an event venue, has been open for a year and has had events there. But, we had a great time shooting this unusual building. It’s an outdoor venue–again, how could they have events there without landscaping?? There will be a place to buy food and beverages during spring and summer months.

After taking pictures of the Barn, we walked over to the River Walk, along the Sacramento River which was quiet in the waning days of Autumn. What if I had called to find out if the building was totally ready for a camera group to come and explore? What if! (The first eight photos are of the Barn and the rest are of the River Walk. No captions.)

Posted on February 25, 2017February 25, 2017 by Anne Sandler · 4 Comments

Color and Texture Challenge: IKEA

It’s either raining, cloudy, sunny–right now in California, we never know days in advance what the weather will bring. This makes planning a weekly photography outing difficult. We were running out of indoor venues and virtual meetings were also scheduled. We needed something different. We needed to shoot at IKEA! I called them and got the okay for my Camera Totin’ Tuesday group to shoot at their West Sacramento store.

What fun we had. If you’ve been to an IKEA store, you know they are large and set up like a maze. We met at 10 a.m. and decided to meet up again at noon in their cafe for lunch. Jim and I hung out together. I learned more about metering light from him. He’s great about sharing information.

At lunch everyone was talking about how much fun they had. For me, it was more enjoyable to see their posts. It’s amazing how imagination can be different from photographer to photographer. Even if they took the same shot, the processing was diverse, giving the image a unique look.

I know with Spring coming, we’ll be going to various outside shoots; but, maybe there will be an opportunity to go back to IKEA. After all, it does get sunny and hot here in the summer!

Here are some of the color shots. Black and white will be posted next.