Death Valley

In spring, we went camping (yes, camping) in Death Valley.  We had an amazing trip.  Death Valley National Park is largest park in the lower 48 states, covering 5,200 sq miles.   We drove nearly 3,000 miles on our trip and did not even see all the major sites in the park.  If you plan on going, unless you have a fully-contained RV, I would recommend staying at the Inn or the Ranch.  I am not sure I'd camp there again.  It was just not what I want when I think camping - trees, kicking back in the campground, sitting out under the stars, etc..  The heat was not too bad but it was so windy we could not set up camp (we were caught in a major dust storm as well) and the campground, like the rest of the valley, is pretty much void of anything but dirt, rocks, and red ants.  That being said, I wouldn't have picked a different spring vacation if I had it to do over.

Badwater Basin, -282 feet.

Devil's Golf Course

Salt Creek - home of the Pup Fish

Picnic table next to Ashford Mill

See them all here.

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Back in the saddle again...

... or something like that. Life sort of got in the way of life in the six months since I blogged last. Spring and summer were amazing . We so much time away from home, I took my first ever photography class (and then another one), did my first real photo assignment for a local magazine, and in between all of those there were amazing photo opportunities every place I looked here at home. Since school started again, my days have been scheduled to the 15-minute. I finally grabbed the reins again and got my schedule back in line and gave Facebook games a swift kick of the closest pier. There are so many pictures to post, I am not sure where to begin. Maybe a greatest hits of the last six months is the best way to start.
Death Valley

My first photography class - Understanding Exposure taught by Bryan Petersen and Chris Hurtt.

My photo assignment for Edible SLO

Memorial Day

My second photography class, Stock Photography taught by Jim Zuckerman.

Summer travel

Beauty at home

Yep, life's been good the last 6 months.

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Painting with Flowers

 


Did I mention I am taking a photography class? I think I did not... well, I am and it is really fun. It is an online class from PPSOP. Last week part of our assignment was making photos where we intentionally move the camera during the exposure. It was so much fun.

One way is to do a little wiggle, jiggle, etc to make a Monet-inspired look like the picture above and these ones:








Another method is turning the camera to make a spinning or spiral effect.








Then there is moving left-right, up-down, or in totally random ways.








Instead of moving the camera, you can change the focal distance using a zoom lens.








You can check out the whole set here.

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Experiment - Reverse 50mm

Oh blog, I did not forget you. It is strange, somehow now that I am not "working" my schedule is even busier than when I was. Maybe I am trying to do all the things I have been wishing I could do when had to work instead. I am not sure but I am having lots of fun. Ok, I miss the paycheck part of my old job, but that is it. Working full-time (though pro bono) for The Mommies Network plus photography have given me a sense of purpose and direction I have not had in years.

On the photography front, I have been learning, challenging myself, and experimenting. Last night I was reading a photography book I just bought, Understanding Close-Up Photography, and the author talks about when he first discovered reverse mounting a lens. He used a 50mm and just held it by hand backwards against the camera. I was thinking, "no way!", so I had to try it.




Who would have thought, a macro lens from my $70 50mm portrait lens?!




The amazing thing to me was not just that this worked, but that these pictures came out as good as they did with me holding the lens, using no tripod, and shooting this inside at night with no flash (and pretty crappy lighting in the room as well).




I did adjust the white balance on all but the yellow flowers since the light in the room has a yellow hue that turned the white to a sort of sepia color.




Now I will have to add reversing ring to my ever growing wish list of camera supplies. This is when that old paycheck would come in handy.

The full set is, as always, on my Flickr account.

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Red Rock Canyon

Just southwest of Las Vegas (you can see the casino's on the strip it is so close) is Red Rock Canyon. It is what I think of when I imagine Nevada. It gets its name from, you guess it, the red in the rocks and mountains. It is the same red that is all over Valley of Fire.






Red Rock Canyon also has cactus.










Tucked away in the canyon is a waterfall and stream. In the area fed by the stream are wonderful trees with green and yellow leaves. In a place where moisture is abundant, a tree is just part of the scenery. In the desert, that same tree is an oasis of green and life.

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Valley of Fire

Just north of Las Vegas is a wonderful state park called Valley of Fire. I had heard my sister talk about it a few times but we never got around to going there until our last trip to visit them. I am kicking myself that we never went sooner, and hoping we will go again.

To say it was amazing would not come close to capturing the feeling as you first are able to see the pink-orange landscape. If I ever wondered what it might be like to stand on Mars, I think I have a good idea now.






The girls had fun climbing around the rocks and inside the caves and holes.







The day ended with a spectacular sunset.

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While they look at Geocache treasure...

... I take pictures. It makes a good cover too. I just do not get that excited over the actual cache part of geocaching. I love that it gets us out to new places we have not been before. Here are some pictures I took of the girls while geocaching in Sacramento.

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Fun with leaves

One thing I have missed since we moved here is Fall leaves. Most of the trees here are pines, firs, and Eucalyptus. Even the trees that do lose their leaves, like our fruit trees, can't really tell what season it is and when to drop their leaves since the weather is so mild. Our poor plum tree still has half of its leaves and January is nearly over.

So, it came as no surprise to me that the girls though raking the leaves at Grandma's house was great fun.









Even playing in the green-waste bin was fun.





You may notice that Autumn is missing from these pictures. She's gotten too that age where she won't let me take her picture. So, no pictures of Autumn in Autumn this year.

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