Alameda Farmscape

I was surprised to see such a large patch of wild mustard still blooming in front of this farm in Alameda County earlier this week.  It made for a cheery late-spring look with the nice shade of blue and high clouds. 

I Brake for Red Barns

Especially in weather like this!  These two are on a ranch between Livermore and Mt. Diablo.  The variety of green in the grass here is a good example of how the fields were looking earlier this week.

Collier Canyon

This photo was taken on my earlier trip, before the hills started changing color. I've been meaning to post it, and today seems like a good day because it shows how quickly the color has changed and it's a nice contrast next to the "Color Change" photo from yesterday.  Today's photo was taken April 2nd.  Yesterday's was taken April 15.  I like this scene a lot; hills don't get much more rolling than these.  I could practically graph a sine function on it! 

Change of Color

It was back out to Alameda and Contra Costa Counties yesterday. I'm surprised by how quickly the hills are changing out here, especially the south-facing slopes.  I do have some photos I'll be posting that are still very green, but we're in the process of changing from our green season to the brown that we'll have until next winter.  This in between color is pretty, I think.  I did use my polarizer on this shot, which gives the pretty blue.  I was playing around with converting this shot to black and white, but there's an ugly film that shows up in the sky which I'm sure is from my polarizer.  I'm hoping the filter just needed a cleaning, but I'm worried that it's a problem with the polarizer.  It seemed to be working fine yesterday, but sometimes I feel like it can give a color cast to my photos and not polarize all that much compared to the polarizer I have for my smaller lens.  I'll have to research this.  Maybe I need a new filter.  In this shot I liked those two little clouds for eyes.  And the fence line makes a wry smile.  Just the kind of animated scene I like.

A Crayola Day

How 'bout this for a little red barn, oh so green hills, and cartoon sky?   It's a scene from my elementary school art days, straight out of a Crayola 8-pack!  One thing I've learned in my few years here is that if we get a good spring rain, it totally clears the air, and the next day we've got wonderful clouds and crystal clear visibility.  I've become a weather-watcher, and I'll drop anything for a photo shoot on a day like this!  We should get another rain Thursday or Friday, so I will have to head out again after that.  This is the far side of the delta, in Alameda County, and I saw a lot of barns this shape.  They seem to be cow barns, and usually way out in the hills like this.  This one definitely had the most activity in terms of vehicles and things. Looking at in now, with all those funny little vehicles, it looks like a scene from the countryside on a small scale model train track.