Yolo Bypass

I was surprised by how much water there was in the Yolo Bypass area when I drove the auto tour there last weekend.  They must have gotten some rain when we got snow last week.   All the fields were flooded there, and so many of them were full of birds; it looked like snow geese but I couldn't be sure.  The birds are very good at staying in the fields not accessible through the auto tour!  Still there was plenty so see and photograph.  I liked this reflected plant life, especially the thicker plants, which reminded me of notes hanging on a musical score.

Sky Writing

It's been along time since I've driven through the Yolo Basin area with my camera.  I was thinking about working on the teasel photo concept, and this wildlife area seemed like a good location to find weeds, but there was absolutely no teasel to be found.  The water level was high though, and so I played around with the sky reflection and reeds. 

Under the Causeway

Day 10 in black and white.  Technically this is the Yolo Bypass of the Sacramento River, but in the summer months it's really just a little pond under the causeway.  I decided to try a photo here as I passed overhead on my way home from Sacramento.  In addition to the echo of all the traffic, I could here a lot of different birds under here, but this egret was the only one I saw.  I followed him from one column to another as he hunted.  I'm sure he probably helps the photo, but the thing I most notice is the dark arrow shape he's standing in.  I mentioned in a previous post that I have several options in converting an image to black and white.  This time I picked urban landscape, because it made that arrow shape the darkest.  The shape is mainly coming from the reflection of the rusty brown underside of the bridge.  I think urban landscape must give the most contrast to red tones.  And the lighting count so far:  back lighting 8, side lighting 2

January 16

I drove through the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Refuge on my way back from Sacramento just before sunset today.  I decided to try photographing the bridge supports, since the water is high right now.  It's been really dry this winter, so they're pumping water in here, although I'm not sure why this is.  I'm not complaining though; the light was nice and the water was calm.

October 21, 2010

Well this was either my third or fourth attempt at photographing rice at the Yolo Bypass, and opting for another photo instead.  That is rice in the background, but as for a closeup I have no idea how to compose that shot.  I think this field will be harvested very soon.  I did see harvesters out in the vacinity, and this field has been drained and dried for several weeks now.  So it was the dried mud that ended up being the most interesting, especially all the tracks.  I tried focusing on the track in the foreground, I think it's probably raccoon.  This is my f/5 shot, but I ended up going with it because the composition was better than the higher aperture attempts.  I wish I had this composition with f/22. I also don't really like the darkness of the shot.  The sun was still pretty low, and if I photographed the patches in the light the contrast was way too harsh.  I probably should have switched to manual here and overexposed a little.  Or bracketed.   I alwasy forget about that setting.
f/5, 1/60, 18mm