Posted on by Anne Sandler · 44 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #311: What’s in a Garden

When I started photography, the first thing I wanted to learn was how to get that soft background behind a flower. I didn’t know the term for that was macro photography and that soft background was bokeh. This led me to truly appreciate floral beauty and the gardeners who create that beauty. Ann-Christine’s challenge this week is on gardens.

I do appreciate the wonderful volunteers who work hours to keep our public gardens looking gorgeous for us to enjoy. One of those gardens is the WPA Rock Garden in Land Park, Sacramento. It’s a small one acre hillside garden comprised of a series of rock-lined beds and meandering paths. The garden was established in 1940 through the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. 

Aside from one paid employee, the garden is taken care of by volunteers who do a fantastic job. Whenever I see a volunteer, I always thank them for making this possible for me to photograph.

Here are some photos I took on a recent visit this month.

Situated in Land Park and near the pond, the garden gets a lot of park visitors who are curious and just enjoy both the park, pond and garden. It’s a wonderful place to relax.

There are many gardens in Sacramento for us to photograph and I appreciate this opportunity to show you The Rock Garden. Thank you Ann-Christine. When you post your response , please be sure to place a link to Ann-Christine’s post and use the Lens-Artists tag. Last week we zigged and zagged. What a fun challenge from Patti. Next week Sofia will present her challenge so be sure to look for her post.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 36 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #261: Work in Progress

Aren’t we all a work in progress? Each day brings changes and new challenges. We work through them and we progress. This week Ann Christine asks us to show works in progress through our photos.

As I progress through my own photographic ability, I’ve learned that the things we photograph are also progressing. Some works in progress repeat year after year. For instance, the salmon swim upstream in the American River to lay their eggs. The Nimbus Fish Hatchery, raises Chinook salmon and steelhead for release to the American River. The salmon run occurs in fall, with hatchery operations taking place from the beginning of November through mid-December. The steelhead trout run occurs in winter, with hatchery operations taking place from January through February. In this series of images, the salmon are being diverted into the hatchery.

In addition to man helping nature, nature can handle things on her own. For instance, the London Bridge along the Great Ocean Road in Australia was once connected. However in January 1990 the middle collapsed and left the arch separated from the rest. Nature has a way of showing us that her force is a work in progress. Now the separated arch is called the London Arch.

Next is the WPA Rock Garden. I admire the dedication of the wonderful volunteers who keep this garden beautiful so we can all enjoy the flowers and small creatures. It is definitely a work in progress.

Last is the pride of work and ownership. Valley Oak Mill California, mills wool into yarn. Customers bring in their raw products and take home yarn. I visited this business as part of the Yolo Art & Ag project a few years ago and was impressed with the owner’s pride in her work. Her business is definitely progressing.

For me, I don’t want to stop progressing and working. I look forward to learning new things and meeting new people. As Ann Christine quoted Mark Twain in her post, Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection. 

Thank you to all our July guest hosts, especially Janet who encouraged us to not overlook anything. You all gave such creative responses to her challenge. And thank you Ann Christine to encouraging us to think about various works in progress. Please remember to link to her original post and use the Lens-Artists tag when you respond. Next week Amy will be providing our challenge, so be sure to look for her post.

If you would like to participate weekly in our Lens-Artists Challenge, click here for more info. 

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 16 Comments

A promise delayed: The WPA Rock Garden

I’m keeping my promise made in my post on May 24, It’s All Happening at the Zoo. Today I’m showing you images of flowers taken at the WPA Rock Garden in William Land Park across the road from the Sacramento Zoo.

What’s a rock garden? Wikipedia has a full history and description for you here. Our small WPA Rock Garden was built by the WPA in 1940. The WPA was an employment and infrastructure program created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 during the Great Depression. In 1988 Daisy Mah, a park employee, put her vision for the current garden into fruition. Its paths wind in, out and around, and is maintained by a group of volunteers.

We enjoy walking through the garden looking for small gems. Marlene was with me and is good at finding insects, but none were found that morning. But there were many beautiful floral delights. Here are some of them.

This was a great way to end a visit to the zoo. We’ll be back!

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 18 Comments

It’s all happening at the Zoo

Oh my, we were late in getting to the Sacramento Zoo and the small parking lot in William Land Park was almost full. And, the big yellow school busses were dropping off school aged kids. It was going to be a tough day of photography! I’m guessing the big cats already enjoyed their bones, because the ones that were in their enclosure were just about to nap.

One cheetah had begun to rest when the other one came over and this happened.

When we got to the giraffe enclosure, Cheyenne, the new young giraffe was out in the yard. What a treat!

Older giraffe eating.

All in all, it was a pretty good morning at the zoo after all. Next we went to the WPA Rock Garden, and I’ll show you that in my next post.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 19 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #175: Follow Your Bliss

Bliss is what we all chase. It’s that something that relaxes, yet drives us to accomplish. It’s what we enjoy as a participant or spectator. This week, Lindy Low LeCoq encourages us to “show us your sense of wonder and excitement. Whether it be one activity that is your passion, or many different interests you follow, this is a wide-open opportunity to showcase how you “follow your bliss.”

One thing that comes to mind for me is music. I can’t sing, follow the beat or play an instrument. But music sooths my soul. I listen to both words and melody. One place I used to totally enjoy was the Sacrament Music Festival. Richard and I would work it every year, and the music was fantastic. Our favorites were Tom Rigney and Flambeau, who would play anything from zydeco to rock and roll, and Dave Bennett, whose clarinet rivaled Benny Goodman’s and his piano playing was as close to Jerry Lee Lewis as you could get. I’m sad that they discontinued it.

Even as I was enjoying music, I was also following my bliss for photography. When the pandemic and lockdown hit, photography was my outlet. Richard and I went for rides for the first few months of lockdown, going in search of snow and the California Poppy.

Soon my photo buddies formed a photo pod and went out once a week. One outing was to the WPA Rock Garden in William Land Park.

Another was to the California State World Peace Capitol Rose Garden in Sacramento.

And of course there are my friends who share in my love for photography. I’m dedicating this post to my friend Jean Armstrong who passed away this month after a short fight with brain cancer. She and I enjoyed going on day outings and, because she drove, we’d end up finding some sort of water. She loved the lakes and ocean. Here are two from our last outing together in January this year. We went to Port Costa (near the bay of course).

Thank you Lindy for reminding me to continue to follow my bliss. It’s so important especially now.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 24 Comments

Lens-Artist Challenge #132: A quiet moment

This is my first Post for the Lens-Artist group. Please let me know if I’m doing it wrong!! Seriously, tell me. Patti sent out a challenge of A Quiet Moment. Photography is how I relax, whether it’s at a busy festival or a relaxing drive to who knows where.

Here are a few of my captures during quiet moments. I love going to wildlife areas. In January, my friend and I went to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, drove the route a couple of times. On the way, I got this shot of the Sutter Buttes, a small mountain range.

We ended up at Gray Lodge Wildlife Area for this amazing sunset.

In February we ventured out to capture almond blossoms in Capay Valley.

In April I went out in search of the wonderful California Poppy. I found a hillside near Jackson.

May brought me to the WPA Rock Garden. I love that place. If there’s no breeze, it’s excellent for macro work.

So, these are some of my outings that provided me with quiet moments! Thanks for allowing to post in this group.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 6 Comments

Wearing suspenders and a belt: WPA Rock Garden

I love macro photography! I love the WPA Rock Garden in Land Park, Sacramento! But, do I love making mistakes? Not really, but I love learning from them.

The Rock Garden is an excellent place for macro photography so I brought my D7100 and macro lens. I also wanted to see how well the Fujifilm XT3 and its 55 – 200 mm lens would do close ups. My Nikon and 18 – 200 lens does close up photography beautifully.

First, I found out that my Fuji, like my Nikon, puts itself in various modes without telling me. It put itself in a different focus mode, making it difficult to focus. One mistake solved and learned from. Watch those fingers!

I saw macro opportunities and started shooting with my D7100 and macro lens. Best to do it while the breeze is down. Here’s the result:

Still wanting to use the Fuji, I wandered over to the small Land Park lake and saw lotus buds and leaves in the water. Yes! we would soon have flowers to capture in our cameras. Here’s where the second mistake occurred. I was having a difficult time shooting on manual with the Fuji and didn’t realize until I got home, loaded my pictures into the computer, and saw them on my monitor, that the images were super noisy. Looking at the data, I saw that some of them were shot at 12,000 ISO in sunlight! Did I mistake the ISO ring for the shutter ring? What did I do wrong? This was to be solved during my next Fuji outing! Here are some images shot with the Fuji:

Yesterday, I took pictures of a couple, Carol and Paul, I wrote about in for our community newsletter. I photographed them with the Fuji and the 18 -55 mm lens. They were beautiful. The shots and the couple!

So, lessons were learned. And, practice makes perfect as you’ll see in my next post.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 16 Comments

Happy Birthday to me! WPA Rock Garden, Sacramento

I remember my Mom was excited to reach her 65th birthday because she thought she’d not make it. I don’t know why, but when that day came, I made her a nice party. She lived to make it to her 87th birthday. So here I am doing this post on my 76th birthday.

It’s fitting that this is on the WPA Rock Garden, in Sacramento, because I do love shooting macro. And, I’m happy that I can still bend down and get up to take a picture of a tiny flower or bug. However, age does have its restrictions like no more hiking up mountains, etc. Carrying heavy equipment is difficult too. I often say that I started photography 20 years too late!

I got my first camera, Nikon d3100, in June of 2012, didn’t know what ISO was, didn’t understand the exposure triangle and shot on auto and JPEG for a while. This journey has been fantastic. I’ve learned a great deal and my photography has progressed.

I recently looked through the photo book I made about our cross-country trip in 2013. After looking at the photos, I told Richard we needed to go again because I can take better pictures now! He refused!! However, they are good enough to jog a memory.

So here I am, 76 and loving it. My chosen hobby fills my soul and writing for my community’s monthly newsletter keeps me in touch with my original passion.

Enjoy the macros and close up images from the Rock Garden.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 6 Comments

Comfort food needed: Sacramento Zoo & WPA Rock Garden

I’m still not moved. I’m still frustrated. I need comfort food. I went to the Sacramento Zoo. I love that place and haven’t been there since January. You never know what the animals will be doing.

One of the snow leopards was pacing in the enclosure, the mighty lions were asleep on top of their new platforms, the wood ducks were hiding, the new flamingo babies were finally placed with the grown ups, the orangutans were hiding, the wolf guenon exhibit and tiger exhibits were closed, the red river hog babies are almost full grown and the wallabies were finally letting me take good pictures. A gal can miss a lot in a few months!

Yes, the animals put me in a better mood, so did one young lady destined for stardom. I took her picture with her mom’s permission.

After the zoo, we went to shoot at the WPA Rock Garden for a few minutes. It was great to get out with my camera and away from the move.

A crested screamer sitting on her nest.
I don’t know what kind of duck this is, but it posed nicely!
Baby flamingo in the large enclosure.
Baby showing off.
Oh my, shedding his beak–normal, but not happy.
Baby blowing bubbles.
Red Panda got up from his nap, but briefly.
The Wallaby.
Eye on the Snow Leopard.
It was a difficult morning for this tiger.
This young girl had it all together!
Now at the WPA Rock Garden.
The sun was high in the sky.
Made shooting a little difficult.
But, you work with what you have.

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 2 Comments

Finally got it!: WPA Rock Garden, Sacramento

I am tenacious and never give up. I went back to the WPA Rock Garden in William Land Park, Sacramento with my macro lens for more practice. Finally, I now understand my lens and how to shoot macro.

This was my second time shooting there, and there were new flowers and small critters to find. The first time, I learned that I needed a higher ISO to get a faster shutter speed to capture the close up detail. This time I learned that I also needed to narrow my aperture (use a higher F stop) to get less of a shallow depth of field.

Now I’m ready to go back just to enjoy the shoot. Tenacity is a great trait, but offers little relaxation.

I also experimented with what else I could shoot with my 105 Macro Lens. Enjoy the pictures! (Captions not necessary!)