Category: out and about

Last Saturday I was itching to get out and shoot some photos.  It had been a fairly stressful week, as weeks go, and, I felt a drive and some new scenery would be good for both of us. I thought of the little town of Suisun, which, although it is nearby, we hardly ever visit.  I looked online and noticed there was a lighthouse.  Lighthouse? In downtown Suisun? We drove over and and discovered the Suisun Harbor Lighthouse. Built in 2006, it is just 52 feet high- and does not guide ships.  It instead is a beacon leading people to the harbor area of the newly revitalized downtown.

I was drawn to the stripes.  This shot, converted to black and white, is my favorite.

The  cows were out when I walked over to the edge of our development at sunrise.  They stared me down while I photographed the barbed wire fence and eventually moved on. I was concentrating on a shallow depth of field- so you might have to take my word for it that these are indeed cows.

And here is a shot of the same fence- but looking toward the sun.

What a peaceful way to start the day!

I was down by the water the other day right after the sun rose, casting everything in a beautiful hazy, orange glow.

Some Canada geese were flying in- but I wonder if these geese have ever been to Canada- they always seem to be here.

The seagulls were waking up and jockeying for the best seats.

This guy stayed away from the action and calmly surveyed the early morning scene.

The colors make it look like a warm day, but I was freezing and fantasizing about fingerless gloves for my stiff cold hands.

I met my friend Joan in Sonoma today for a casual lunch and some browsing in some of the cute stores.

I only managed to take a few photos (Joan did NOT want to be in the blog. . .), but here are the treetops in the square with threatening clouds in the background. This shot is for my Daily Challenge group; the topic is apotheosis (look THAT up in your Funk and Wagnalls!).  I have no idea if this satisfies the requirement, but I edited the clouds to make them as grandiose as possible.

And here is lunch: butternut squash soup with a half chicken salad sandwich.

And a cute bike-slash-billboard I spotted along the street:

I feel funny say I shopped til I dropped, because our afternoon into evening Christmas shopping expedition wasn’t entirely successful..  We came home with only a very small bag to show for all our efforts.  But, the dropping part is definitely happening right now.

I had my camera with me- my first chance to take a photo today.  So here are a couple shots from Broadway Plaza.

Another Kelby Training seminar today!  This time it was Matt Kloskowski at the Sacramento Convention Center teaching the ins and outs of Lightroom 4.  I have been studying and using this program intensely for the last few months, but still learned some good tips- and had a great time seeing one of my favorite photo-editing teachers in person.  And it was even more fun, because my friend, Carol was there too.

We sat in the FRONT ROW!

Probably the most interesting part of the day was when we arrived and saw this:

Yup, those trees have blue trunks! The trunks have been painted with a supposedly non-harmful paint which will wash off within 6 months (some has evidently washed off already  in this week’s rain)- all to call attention to global deforestation.  Don’t try this at home, kids!

It’s been my intention for awhile to learn to use my iPhone camera in a better way- and to become better acquainted with Instagram.  I joined Instagram a year or so ago and only have ten or so photos in my feed (and only two followers).  I just am not clear on the concept- and the workflow.

So today, I decided that, since I was downtown without a camera, I would use my iPhone to take a shot of the First Street sign (today’s topic is first), post it to Instagram and the blog and be done with it for the day. I think the problem started when I underexposed the photo, making it grainy.  I edited it in Snapseed, exported to Squaready, and then sent it to Instagram.  I didn’t like my crop, so I repeated the process.  But then I couldn’t figure out how to get it from Instagram to my computer.  I e-mailed it, but it just showed me a preview with no way to save it.

I then went back to my iPhone camera roll, re-edited the photo in Snapseed and e-mailed it to myself, saved it, opened it in Lightroom, where it looked so awful that I had to tinker more, eventually turning it into a black and white.  I don’t know if I will re-upload it to Instagram, because there are already two versions of it there- and I don’t know how to delete them.

The process was not quick.

So- if any of you blog readers love Instagram, please let me know why- and how you manage it (especially how you upload it to your blog).

And the deal is, I am having to stop myself from taking another photo for today with my REAL camera- I still may go out later!

These images are from two different times today- early-ish this morning, when the rain was falling and just a few minutes ago, when it started getting dark outside.

Rain on the window:

The color in this photo was already pretty monochrome in the RAW image- so I did a very straightforward black and white conversion, using one of the CM Paparazzi presets- and tweaked the clarity a bit to emphasize the raindrops.  I used this shot for one of the Daily Challenges- pieces.  Raindrops are pieces of rain, aren’t they? Aren’t they???

The second photo I actually planned out last night, when I noticed this Christmas tree as I drove up the hill.  Christmas tree? Isn’t it still November? I am already behind as usual. I thought the lone tree sparkling on the hill above made a nice image for at the top, another challenge.

Armed with a list of undone daily challenges from my Flickr group, we took a drive downtown through the fog to see what would fit the bill.  Today’s challenge was orange– easy with the mass of leaves littering the sidewalks.  I haven’t edited any of those photos yet and may post some later.  But what caught my eye were the boats and cars in the junk boatyard downtown- perfect for the challenge, ravaged by time.

This detail of an old Fageol truck is the one I will use for the challenge.  Not sure what the Christmas lights are all about.

Love these old boats- and have photographed them many times.

My neighbors have beautiful fall color in their front yard; my intention today was to capture some of it as winter is fast approaching.  I did manage to snap a few photos for this layout before my toes totally froze in my Birkenstocks.  I need to get my winter clothes out for our trip, as the temperature at Yellowstone is zero today!

The theme of my challenge group is walls today, so I set out in search of some photoworthy walls.  My husband actually pointed out these shadows of the railing onto the low concrete wall down by the waterfront today- he’s good that way!  I took a few more street photography type shots, but really like the lines of this one, one of the first photos I took.  I’m giving the credit to Lonnie- it was his suggestion!