Quarry Lakes Regional Park

Vacation Photos - 8

More photos at the winery.  I had some fun with my beautiful family.

A little underexposed on the faces; but considering it was a self-portrait ... not bad

Perhaps still a little undersexposed on the faces.  Maybe the sun was in the wrong spot.  I love the love between the girls though.

My baby girl in the California Poppies.  She thought they were great.  She was super cute playing with them.

Vacation Photos - 7

More vacation photos.

This bunch is from our favorite winery.  I love the view from here.  It's so pretty.  Awesome waves crashing on the cliffs.  The whole area is so photogenic.  From sheep that wander around to wine barrels, it's just a fantastic place to take pictures.  It's even better in the winter when it's stormy and the waves are crashing high up on the cliff.

Wish I thought to turn the glass around for this, so you could see the winery name.

You can totally see the reflection of people in the glass.  :)

California Poppy

Was totally captured by this rusty spade without a handle.  I like old, rustic, rusty tools.

Sunday Afternoon Photo Shoot - Cemetery

Taking a short break from vacation photos (yes, I still have more to blog).

I needed to get out of the house and go shoot some photos.  Many months ago, a friend suggested going to a cemetery.  There was one close by that was easy to get to, and since I was short on time, it was the perfect destination.

This cemetery is small.  I would guess roughly 200 people buried here.  It is, however, historic.  It's located next to the city's historic church and museums.  Many of the city's founders are buried here.  I recognized a lto of names as I walked by the headstones.  

I'm not one to venture into cemeteries.  In fact, with the exception of my grandfather's graveside service (and I use that term loosely since it wasn't really a service, just us watching them lower the casket), I've only been in 1 cemetery one time, and it was because my boyfriend's mom thought it would be fun to drive through.  I didn't (and still don't) understand the attraction to spending one's leisure time looking at graves of strangers.  However I had a different mission today.  To look at things through a photographer's eye and capture some unique and eye-catching images.

However, being interested in history, I found myself being as curious about the stories of the people there as I was about getting artsy photos.

While it's not super artsy, I was captured by the dates.  Their birthdays were 1 day apart.  And he died 6 months after her. The romantic in me says he died of a broken heart. But being 78 probably didn't help things any.

I was captured by this spider web and the way it glistened in the sun.  Trying to respect the grave sites, I was unable to get a great angle, but I thought this was pretty good.

Poor little girl.  She was born 4 days before my sister.  And only 19 months when she passed away.  I don't even want to entertain thoughts as to why she died so young.

These were pretty.

This was a large pillar marking the family's site.  One of the 2 middle schools in the city is named for him.

Another big name in the city.  One of the major roads is named after this family.

I was captured by this bench, crumbing and falling over.  The tree behind it.
It was a lot more enthralling than I could capture.

From an artistic perspective, this was difficult to capture because of the drastic lighting differences.  I'm still not sure how to properly meter for shade and sun on the same subject.  But my heart was broken by the size of the grave markers.  This was one family, and the two smallest sites were young children, 4 and 7 I believe.  

Initially I was caught off-guard with the name. It's the same last name as one of Andrew's friends - I wonder if there's any relation.  It's a beautiful headstone.  I love the softness of the bushes around the stone.

Vacation Photos - 5

No trip to the Northern California coast is complete without a jaunt through Redwoods.  I LOVE redwoods.  I am fascinated by them.  I am amazed by their enormity.  I am in awe at their stature.  They have character.  The "speak" to me.  I can't get enough of them.  When walking through the forest I forget that I'm supposed to be taking photos and just stare at them.  Take in all their beauty.  Like the ocean, I could stare mindlessly at redwood trees for hours.  

Looking up; low-angle; sun-burst
Nikon D3100; Focal Length: 18.0mm; Shutter Speed: 1/100s; f/4.5; ISO: 200

Nikon D3100; Focal Length: 70.0mm; shutter speed: 1/15s; f/4.5; ISO: 200

Went to take a close-up of the flowers and there was an insect on them.  It stayed there long enough to get a couple shots.

Flowers; Close-up; Insect
Nikon D3100; Focal Length: 48.0mm; shutter speed: 1/125s; f/5.3; ISO 400

I was captured by the fence construction.  Really simple, but with the moss growing on it, it made for great a photographic subject.

Close-up
Nikon D3100; Focal Length: 40.0mm; Shutter Speed: 1/13s; f/5.3; ISO: 400

There was this cool tree that had obviously been burned some how.  Not sure what happened, because it's the only tree in the area that is dead due to fire, so it must've been something small.  The sun was behind the tree, so I had to work around the sun, and attempted to get fancy sun burst through the holes in the tree.  This was the best one.  I think if I had more time I could definitely get something better, but for a backlit photo of this nature combined with my inexperience, I'm pleased.  Perhaps a lower ISO setting in dealing with the bright sun, then I can decrease my shutter speed so the tree isn't underexposed.

backlighting; sun burst; tree
Nikon D3100; Focal Length 55.0 mm; Shutter Speed: 1/15s; f/5.6; ISO 400

Another low-angle photo showing the massiveness of the trees.  I love the braided look of the bark on this one.

Tree; low-angle
Nikon D3100; Focal Length: 18.0mm; Shutter Speed: 1/8s; f/5.0; ISO: 400

An attempt to get a landscape view of part of the forest, using the path for a leading line, leading out of the forest.

landscape; trees; forest
Nikon D3100; Focal Length: 30.0 mm; Shutter Speed: 1/4s; f/4.0; ISO: 400

Same idea, but showing the height of the trees.

forest; tree; landscape; leading lines
Nikon D3100; Focal Length: 18.0mm; Shutter Speed: 1/10s; f/9.0; ISO: 400

Vacation Photos - 2

One thing we enjoyed a lot while we were on vacation was the ocean and beach.  I'm a sucker for a good ocean view, whether it's from the beach or the cliffside or the road.  I love to watch the waves roll in and crash on the rocks/sand.  I love the color of the ocean.  I love the interaction of the still, unanimated land with the moving water of the ocean.  It's all very cool and amazing to me.  (Can you tell I grew up in a landlocked stated?)

Ahhh ... ocean landscape.  I'm in heaven.  I liked this photo for the small beach, the large cliffs, and the tiny people down below. Not the prettiest beach in the area, nor the prettiest ocean, the view just grabs me.  Landscape photo, wanting to capture the whole story.  Trying to achieve a "beginning, middle and end" in the photo.  I don't have a wide angle lens specifically, but my stock lens zoomed all the way out does OK.

Landscape, Ocean, beach.  Mendocino Headlands
Nikon D3100; Focal Length 18.0 mm; Shutter Speed: 1/50s; f/22.0; ISO 200

I love the small boat in this picture.  It gives the viewer something other than the ocean and hills to look at.  It also shows how massive nature is and how small man (and man-made things) is.

Landscape; Ocean; Beach. Mendocino Headlands
Nikon D3100; Focal Length 18.0 mm; Shutter Speed: 1/50s; f/22.0; ISO 200

I know ... I tend to do these a lot.  They're fun.  Looking at normal "things" in a different sort of way.  

leading lines
Nikon D3100; Focal Length: 18.0mm; Shutter Speed: 1/1250s; f/4.5; ISO 200

Yep ... another one of these.  I had to manually place the flowers on the log to achieve this look.  I tried without the flowers there, but without something close to focus on, the image just didn't jump.  I was very pleased with the outcome of this.

Leading Lines, flowers
Nikon D3100; Focal Length; 40mm; Shutter Speed: 1/2000s; f/5.3; ISO 200

Vacation Photos...

Just returned from a long overdo vacation.  Not only was it great fun and relaxing, but it was a chance for me to practice many of the photography techniques I read about and wanted to try or have been working on.  I took probably close to 1,000 photos, uploaded 200 to my flickr page, and have about 30-40 I want to share.  So I'll do this in phases and in no particular order.

Sleeping Baby; low-light
Nikon D3100; focal length: 52mm; Shutter Speed: 1/3 sec; F-stop: 5.6; ISO 3200

Spiral Staircase from below; low-light
Nikon D3100; Focal Length: 18.0 mm; Shutter Speed: 1/3 s; f/5.0; ISO: 3200

Leading Lines
Nikon D3100; Focal Length: 45.0mm; Shutter Speed: 1/200s; F/7.1; ISO: 100

Flowers
AUTO MODE: Panasonic DMC-FH20; Focal Length: 5.0mm; Shutter Speed: 1/125s; f/3.3; ISO 160

Flowers
Nikon D3100; Focal Length: 42.0 mm; Shutter Speed: 1/500s; f/5.6; ISO: 200

Flowers, hands
NIKON D3100; Focal Length: 40.0mm; Shutter Speed: 1/1000; f/5.6; ISO: 200