September 15

Ok, so I have a lot to say about this one.  When I first moved here last year I was really confounded by the summer sky.  I've said it's like the movie, Groundhog's Day.  Everyday the same flat blue cloudless sky.  And from a photographer's perspective this is difficult.  Clouds help a photo.  So I found myself cutting the sky out of the photo all the time, which bothered me.  Then I noticed some artists in Sacramento who paint scenes around here and they leave a large part of their canvas flat blue.  I thought it was a really strong use of negative space.  Plus this is actually how it looks around here. So making a strong photo that shows the sky was on my photo bucket list this summer.  Enter the hot air balloons.  So far this year they've been blowing towards Vacaville, but today they came my way.  And I took A LOT of photos.  I chose this one because it's got the most sky, and the sky color came out really nice.  f/11 at 1/800, ISO400, 112mm.

September 14

Cross country meets are definitely exposing me to all the regional parks in the area.  Today I was at Elk Grove Regional Park watching a meet.  There's a huge man-made lake in the park, and the center looks like a tropical island.  You can almost imagine a castaway sitting under one of the palm trees waiting for a ship to pass by for rescue.  This dad and son were cooling off in the shade, and I thought it made a strong picture.  f/3.5 at 1/1600, ISO100, 185mm.

This abstract was made at the same park.  I love this photo too and can't decide which one to use.  Probably because a water abstract is something I've been working on for quite a while and this is the best I've gotten.  My one regret with it is that I didn't use a higher aperture so it's clearer at the edges.  The scene is actually a reflection of a bridge (white picket fence style).  The ripples are made by ducks this time.   f/5 at 1/1250, ISO400, 200mm.

September 13

I know that huge flocks of geese fly around the West Davis Pond every morning, and land with a ruckus at around 9:15.  What I can't seem to do is properly time the dog walk so I'm already at the pond for the landing.  Another near miss today.  It's a fault of mine, but I'm not a patient photographer.  I don't want to wait around for half and hour for the geese to come in, so they really have to land while I'm walking past. Maybe I'll catch this in the near future, but I'm posting it today anyway because I like this composition.  f/4.5 at /1000, ISO400, 200mm.

September 12

Yesterday I noticed the first passionflower of the season blooming on a vine along my walking route with Clover.  So today I went back with my macro filter intending to make a flower photo.  I was happy that these bees had noticed the flower too.  They are interesting bees.  First they're the size of big black jelly beans.  Also you can hear them buzzing about 15 feet away.  They're not that fast either.  Probably because they're so big.   I've never seen one of these bees caked in yellow pollen like this.  Usually they're just plain black, like the bee in the background.  I think the pollen adds a lot of color to the photo.  f/5 at 1/800, ISO400, 26mm.

September 11

This just seemed like a nice photo for today.  This was actually taken from the Starbucks across the street.  Bill and I were hanging out in the cushy chairs when I noticed the flag glowing in the morning sun on this happy little house. One of the main things I remember about the days just after 9-11 was all the flags flying on houses and cars.  f/2.8 at 1/200, ISO100, 200mm.

Septmeber 10

I think at first glance this photo looks like an impressionist painting of an Italian villa.  On closer inspection it has the look of a generic office building around here, albeit a dreamy version.  I rotated this photo 180 degrees; we parked right near this pond for today's cross country meet at Granite Regional Park.  The pond was very calm, with geese swimming around the edges and making just the tiniest ripples.  I kind of wish I had some other reflection to work with, but the building was here, and that was that.  f/5 at 1/400, ISO100, 92mm.

September 9

 Eric and I had a fun trip exploring the shops and restaurants in San Francisco's Chinatown today.   I struggled with photos though.  Maybe because it's such a visually overwhelming place?  Maybe because we weren't there long enough?  Not sure.  One of the things I found my eye drawn to were the lanterns and flags strung across the streets.  This photo is looking up at strings of these colorful lanterns on the store front of a shop called Peking Bazaar on Grant Ave.  f/8 at 1/500, ISO400, 50mm.

September 8

Not bad for a day's harvest from my tiny garden!  Tomatoes, tomatoes, and more tomatoes.  Plus a few pepperoncini.  Maybe it looks a little small in my new harvest basket, which is ambitiously sized for the day when I have a big garden.  Still it makes for a pretty harvest, I think!   At first I wasn't sure I liked the lighting variation on the basket.  This photo was made about 10am this morning in a shady spot in my backyard, and I couldn't get the lighting even.  Looking at in now, I like it more.  Especially the part on the left where the light shows through the weave.   f/5.6 at 1/30, ISO400, 17mm

September 7

So if I don't love this photo, at least I love this little horse!  She has the coolest coat and hair-do! (Mane-do?)  Like she's channeling her inner zebra.  The thing is, I drive this road all the time, and I never noticed her before.  I'm usually looking to the west side of the road for sunset photos, and she's on the east.  Today I went out early to my farm stand for tomatoes, and her mane was just glowing in the early morning light.  The hallelujah chorus might have been playing in the background too.  Of course when I came back up the road she was out of the sun.  She's very friendly and came right up to me, but there's a metal fence so I need to photograph her from a distance or else photograph her through the fence, which I don't want to do.  I know I'm always talking about going back for a photo, but I really am going back for this one.  If I'm lucky, she'll be radiantly glowing on the blog soon!  f/2.8 at 1/320, ISO100, 120mm.

September 6

There were three or four scrub jays staking out territory in the trees in front of the co-op today.  They like the seeds, which are visible behind the bird's tail.  This one posed and paused long enough for me to photograph.  I like the partridge in a pear tree look.  I don't like the trunk along the left frame, but if I try to crop it I either lose the tail or the upper branch, so I think it has more balance uncropped.
f/7.1 at 1/125, ISO100, 200mm

September 5

We picnicked tonight at Lagoon Valley Regional Park.  I was figuring on taking a much more "valley oak" type of photo, but I made the mistake of sitting with my back to the sun as we ate.  So all of a sudden I realized that the sun was going down and my camera was in the car!  Luckily there are hundreds of geese swimming around here.  Usually in big groups like this too.  So I ended up with an m.c.escher type photo instead.  Since this is an after sunset photo, I'm thinking maybe I should have overexposed a bit more to make the "white" parts a little whiter.  This is not a black and white photo...that's just how the light was.  Pretty flat actually.  Thank goodness for the pretty patterns on the water and that nice geese formation!  f/5.6, 1/400, ISO400, 105mm.

September 4

A fun trip today to see Chalk It Up! at Freemont Park in Sacramento.  Artists are chalking up the sidewalks for three days over Labor Day Weekend, raising money for local children's art education.  Very cool art work all around the block, so it was hard to chose a photo.  I liked that the artist was working here, and that you could see the photo he's recreating with his chalk too.  f/8 at 1/1000, ISO400, 55mm.

September 3

So I'm officially a cross country mom!  Today was the first meet at Lagoon Valley.  One thing I can tell I'm going to like about cross country is the pretty locations where they race!  This photo was taken near the start.  After this the course wound through two hills, like the ones in the background.  f/5.6 at 1/1600, ISO400, 105mm.

September 2

This blossom was a bright spot on the pavement during my walk with Clover this morning.  It came off the tree that was overhead, but I'm not sure what kind of tree.  I'll have to look up next time!  Also at first I was thinking that if I waited a minute the blossom would be completely in the sun, but then I realized that it was actually moving into the shadow and I'd better hurry and photograph.  Sitting at the computer now I'm wondering why it didn't occur to me to just move it over an inch or two!  f/3.5 at 1/1600, ISO400, 200mm.

September 1

I spent midday in downtown Sacramento today.  Not a likely photo time for me, but the office building reflections caught my eye.  They warped like fun house mirrors as I moved.  And the reflected light came out really bright and strong, so I think it turned out to be a good time to do this photo.  I love how the imperfections in the glass turn the reflected building into a Picasso version of itself.  f/5 at 1/800, ISO400, 145mm.