Landscape Images

Taking my new Fuji xt4 out!

The story of my new purchase. It started about a year ago when my friend asked if I was interested in parting with my Nikon D7100. A perfectly good, solid camera I have been using for many years. Well along came my mirrorless Fuji x100f. Fun camera and great for grab n go, street photography. This led me to reconsider my Olympus mirrorless that I did not find any happiness with. So KEH (company buys used cameras) came along and purchased all my used Olympus stuff. I replaced it with my Fuji xt2 and some lenses. I found my system. Oh, so back to the Nikon. Well, I still used it, but not as much. I hate to have a camera sit unused. So I sold the camera to a friend of a friend. Now I had a lot of additional lenses I have collected over the years, and along came KEH again. This time buying all the rest of my Nikon gear. I now had credit at my favorite camera store, Action Camera in Roseville. And I let it sit since I did not really need anything. CoVid strikes, and I have too much credit at a small retail establishment. Fuji just put out the xt4 so I decided to use my credit and order this new camera.

Meanwhile, my friend Anne purchased a Fuji xt3, and she wanted to try out her new x100-400mm telephoto lens. To be a real birder you need a long lens, big muscles, money, and lots of patience. I lack big muscles so I shy away from a lens I am not willing to or have the ability to hold. But I can’t say my interest wasn’t piqued just a bit. Especially. if my friends were going to be out shooting birds, peacefully. My longest lens x55-200 wasn’t going to be long enough for birds,, but since we would primarily be in a car I also took my wide-angle lens and my macro lens. My Subi Blue needed a wash so I offered to drive.

The Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area is located along the causeway on Interstate 80 between Sacramento and Davis. Nice and close to home. In natural settings, you never know what you will find. But anytime I get away with my camera in hand is a good day. There are some impressive upgrades to this camera, but I just set up the basics this time out.

President Clinton designated this floodplain in 1997 as a wetlands to be restored. It serves as a flyway and home for many birds.

3,700 of the 16.000 acres have been transformed into a wetlands.
The summertime dirt road is easy to navigate.
Restored wetlands demonstrates “leading lines”

I was interested in capturing landscapes, Anne had her long lens and her focus was birds.

Caught this Great Egret busy preening!

Quietly got out of the car and hunted flowers and insects.

Pay close attention to all signs!
These reeds caught my eye.
25 square miles just off Interstate 80. Peaceful!

My Fuji xt4 performed well in the field. The feel of this shutter is amazing. Hard to describe but it is different is a wonderful way! I was happy to capture these images to remind me that nature is not too far away!

P.S. My friend decided that she would return her long xf 100-400mm lens, and get the xf 80mm f2.8 Macro that I just love. So I will also save myself some money.

The Misadventures of Subi Blue / Thanks Costco

Last week my husband and I made the trip south to visit my family for the High Holidays. In preparation for the 8 hour trip, and the upcoming rainy season we bought 4 new tires for my Subaru Outback. This two year old car has about 32,000 miles and I guess the tires wear out quicker in the hot Sacramento sun.

Trip down was uneventful, but lengthy. We usually stop a Pea Soup Andersen’s and we almost missed it. Needed to be on I-5 and not 99S.

Pea Soup Andersen’s

Traveling through Los Angeles and into Orange County the traffic is unbelievable. Looking at all the single drivers I can’t imagine commuting daily to work. Listening to the traffic every 10 minutes there didn’t appear to be any freeway that way flowing. Accidents, cars on fire, people being airlifted, and more accidents. Lots of distracted drivers in the bumper-to-bumper parking lot. I just didn’t want to be one of them, and we weren’t. Yah!

This trip was planned as a time with family. Visiting with Ed and Leti in Laguna Nigel, we met up with my niece and nephew for dinner in Long Beach. On the way we stopped in Winchester at the Art Supply Warehouse. Leti takes art classes and wanted to get some supplies since we were close by. I have been looking all over for turquoise fountain pen ink for my Parker pen. And there it was.

Mural outside of Art Supply Warehouse

My nephew works for Swift, a subscription computer ap for cycling. Interesting tour of the inner workings of this business. Wonderful view of the city from high above Long Beach.

Arrived as sun was setting.
Amazing view of Long Beach

The star of the evening was meeting my very cute great niece Sidney. See for yourself.

Sidney kept removing her bow. Mom put it back on.

The next day our tour guide, Ed took us to Laguna Beach. Enjoyed the nice weather, and I got some photo time.

Love the sound of waves crashing.
Plein Air artist
Artistic bench. We did lock eyes!
The letter M
Selfie
Cacti and Bouganvilla contrasted
World Trade Center Memorial

Dinner was served at a Persian restaurant Darya. Great meal, and a delayed birthday cake surprise! Belly dancer entertained us tonight. Sorry, I couldn’t figure out how to import a short video clip. So I used Luminar to enhance this photo.

Fantastic belly dancer

Dinner preparation started, and continued for the next two days. The only boxed ingredients was my wide noodles, otherwise recipes were created from scratch. I made Apple Lochen Kugel, and Leti cooked, and cooked, and cooked. Traditions between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews are quite different. Plenty of discussion about gefilte fish.

Giving us the fish eye. There is areason we needed the eye of the fish and no tail.

I guess, it may an aquired taste. I’m not fussy so everything was delicious.

Ok. So did I start this blog with Subi Blue and Costco? Took off at 8:45 am to miss the main commuter traffic into LA. But as soon as we got to Grapevine a light came on to let us know there was a problem with the tires. Our new tires. Found a gas station, checked the air and put in some. Light goes out, great. Light comes back on in about 45 minutes (about 60 miles later). Find another gas station, and more air in tire. Now we decide to look for a Costco. Using my iPhone directions we head to Hanford, Ca. Driving down roads in the middle of no where we drive about two hours. Passing places and towns, agriculture and desert sand. Of course we still needed to stop to replace lost air. Corcoran, Ca. has a gas station and we continue.

Subi Blue in Corcoran, Ca.

Arrive in Hanford. Plenty of cows, but we are not stopping for pictures. Mooo! Looking for East Lacey Blvd, and arrive at the destination according to my phone and it is a field. Can’t find Costco. Air is now leeking out faster. We stop at Wyndam in Visalia and get directions to Costco in Visalia. Guess we blew past Hanford!

Now is desperate need of air, we stop at another gas station, but the air pump is out of order. More directions, and finally arrive at Costco in another 15 minutes. Worried we might be driving on the wheel. Luckily there was one tire left in our size. Two hour delay where we dined on the usual Costco hot dog meal. With sourkraut. Thanks Anne. Replaced with same type tire at no charge, (road hazard warranty!), gassed up and we were ready to go. Thanks Costco and Ernie R. for getting us on the road so quickly.

Arrived home at 10:45 pm.

I haven’t left my house since Monday. So glad to be home.

Napa Road Trip minus the wine

My friend’s road would be slurried, she wanted a landscape of a vineyard, and I went along to capture some new images. No formal destination and no time constraints. Armed with ice coffee, plenty of water and music for the road.

Early morning departure means little sleep for me. My sleep cycle has really flipped this summer. Even if I try to get to bed early, I fall asleep around 3:30 am. This also seems to happen if I am going somewhere the next day. Need to start making a switch, and wake up early before the temperature rises.

Silverado Trail is our first stop. Vineyards on both sides of the road, but the fields planted along the mountainsides are not as mature and lush.

Grapes ripening on the vine
My imagination goes wild with the bark of the vine. Peeking animals.

I see a cute sign post with a donkey, and then I spot donkeys. I approach animals carefully, but one donkey was particularly friendly. Almost called her such a good puppy. A natural mistake given my situation.

I first spotted this cute garden art. Then OMG donkeys.
Ready to say hello
Just so sweet. Came right over for some love.
Pregnant donkey (called Jenny). Gestation takes a long time. 11-14 Months! I wonder how long this Jenny has to wait?
Good bye my donkey friend.

Facebook has been reminding me that nine years ago Liberty came into my life. Having her, missing her, and needing another dog is a tribute to my Libby.

We brought my Libby Love home 9 years ago.

David would want to have another English Lab, but I am open to looking at another breed. Looking for a medium sized dog. I would like to be able to lift the dog up, be easily trainable and have a good personality. Thought about a cocker spaniel, or Logatto Romagnolo.

I decided to go with an Australian Labradoodle. The DNA includes Labrador retriever, Poodle, and Cocker Spaniel. This is multigenerational hybrid that was essentially developed to provide canine assistance to those who are allergic to dog hair. Since poodles improve the chances for this characteristic, and the Labrador retriever has a proven track record for training the hope is for the best of both. The Labradoodle comes in three sizes, and so this satisfies my need for a more portable dog. Having less hair to sweep up is a bonus! Though I will need to become informed about the grooming. My Libby was a wash & wear dog.

My I have gotten off track. Back to my road trip. Remembering past trips our destination was the CIA – Culinary Institue of America. First stop was the CIA at Copia. I was pleasantly surprised to come across a photographic homage to Julia Child by her husband Paul. Such a wonderful collection of black & white photographs. Well worth taking time out to visit if you are interested in photography!

A Toast!

The space at the CIA was amazing. The light, design, and architecture captured my imagination.

I will certainly schedule another visit and spend time exploring the outside when the temperature is below 100 degrees.

Interesting staircase. Another place to explore next time.
Beautiful glass sculpture
Love the lighting here
Replica of sculpture that rests on top of building.
Serene setting.
These real spices fill the space with wonderful aromas. Makes you hungry!
Grand space

I didn’t spend too much time outside but the outside had much to see.

Outside seating under a pergola. Live music venue at Grove

Fork sculpture made out of forks. But where is the spoon it ran away with?

Went next door to the Oxbow Public Market. Another place I need to come back to for some great people watching with my Fuji x100f. Put myself in a street photography mind set. Ate an interesting gourmet oven baked Mushroom pizza with ricotta cheese sauce. No pictures, just good food!

Last place on our road trip was the Greystone Cellers. This is home to the CIA School. Interesting history. The building was impressive, but the view overlooking the vineyard was difficult to capture. Trees blocked the view. How rude! And then there is the parking lot to contend with. Not to mention the heat.

Massive doorway leads into Greystone Cellers
Impressive main entrance.

Cakes decorated by the students attending the CIA at Greystone. Reminds me of when my daughter decorated cakes in high school in ROP Bakery Academy. Being the good mom I sampled each creation. Made with lard and not buttercream the taste did not match up with the beautiful design.

Among the many collections I was drawn to this clown bottle opener.
Ironic that this truck advertising Vodka was parked next to the vineyard.
Not sure what kind of flower this is. Pretty in Pink.

So ends a day in Napa Valley. No wine was consumed. Any blurriness in the photographs are due to photographer error and not the vino!

Art & Ag in Yolo County

Subi Blue, my 2017 Subaru Outback, headed to Woodland on Thursday to a working farm for a morning of photography with friends. Headed out early to hopefully get better light and beat the summer heat.

Camera gear stowed, directions printed, and Jeanne and Laura safely fastened we headed to Fong Farm. Upon arrival Nancy greeted us with a map of this farm. I was told that the Farm gave us unlimited access, but be sure to park on the side of the road. The barn and metal shop provided many photo opportunities.

Time stops for no one!
Shapes and textures abound.
Parts from days gone by
Bolts of some kind
All eyes are on you!

Driving down dusty roads past a tomato field my Subi Blue gathered a fine coating of silty dust.

Barn surrounded by field of tomatoes 🍅.

At some Art & Ag events some information is shared about the workings of the farm. Here our map was our only guide. I wondered how these tomato field was harvested.

Three dogs greeted my car as we rounded the bend. I will give the a treat, and a “Good dogs” for doing the job of watch dog. Came right up I front of the car and tried very hard from discouraging me from driving down the dusty road. Sorry no phot opportunity here. No dogs were hurt, and eventually they trotted home.

Next we passed a field of yellow and orange thistles. Being a city girl I couldn’t imagine why a farmer would plant so many thistles. They are interesting flowers to photograph, but a bouquet of thistles?

Then we checked the map, and discovered we were looking at a field of safflowers. Ok, armed with no knowledge, I am guessing safflower oil?

Safflower field as far as the eye can see

Plein Air artists also enjoy the Yolo County Art & Ag events.

Painting a willow tree along the canal
My artist perspective. Safflower field in the background. Sutter Buttes in the distance.

That ended the tour of the Fong Farm. We went in search for a field of Sunflowers. I had already visited a field earlier in the month, but now I had my new Fujifilm xf 80 macro lens with me.

My best bee capture
One resilient sunflower standing up to time
Shadows captured in the backlit flower
Not ready for prime time
My best side please
Take time to see another point of view
Think about the BEES! Where would we be?
Bowing down. Countdown till the sunflower season ends.

Denny’s for lunch and then home.

One last stop for my Subi Brown. Bob’s Car Wash. Needed to get a full wash including undercarriage. After such a day I am glad that I put off going to the farm with a clean car. Wow!