Month: December 2012

The granite we’ll be installing at Famous Mo’s (I think it’s called gray pearl) made a brief appearance there today when Jeff, our granite guy (Jeff did all the tile and granite work in my house–I am still in awe of how beautiful my house is now) so I took some shots of the granite on the truck while he was inside measuring. I loved the reflections of the trees and sky in the granite and it wasn’t until I downloaded the photos that I realized this shot qualifies for one of my Flickr challenges a few days ago, “pockets.”

Today, I accomplished two things. First, I picked up some eye bolts that I ordered yesterday to hang the speakers at Famous Mo’s. This was an adventure in and of itself. Thank god for Google maps. The staff at the veterinary clinic that I finally entered to seek directions (and yes, I have a Tom Tom app on my iPhone but didn’t think I needed it) were so accommodating and said people stopped there all the time to ask directions to this hardware supply place just off Antelope Road, not too far from my home. And, the second thing I accomplished, late this afternoon, was to take a photograph of the eyebolts installed in the speaker and waiting to be hung. I took this shot because I hadn’t yet posted anything to the Famous Mo’s Facebook Page today and I was desperate to find something to post. As it turned out, I loved the bokeh reflected from the chain laying on top of the speaker behind the eye bolt and I thought it might be blog-worthy. Of course, that reeks of desperation as well, because I hadn’t taken any blog photographs today.

Focal Length 70mm
ISO 320
f/2.80
1/80

These shots are details of the stage lights we mounted today at Famous Mo’s. They change from solid colors to combinations creating variations of colors and pure white for spot lights.

What a glorious day today. I spent it in Santa Rosa visiting with my Mom and my brothers and the sky was clear and the temperture neared 70°. The thing that caught my eye today was the clothespins on the clothesline in the backyard at my Mom’s house with the bright blue sky as a backdrop. Simple, yet very intriguing to me.

Focal Length 58mm
ISO 100
f/8
1/640

It seems to me that just when the usefulness of the US penny has run its course, the US Mint has decided to flood us with newly minted copper-looking pennies, although a penny contains only 2.75% copper. A quick Wikipedia search shows that the penny was modified in 2009 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. I don’t recognize them as pennies; they look more like the fake money used in a board game. The Wikipedia penny information also points out that it costs 2.41 cents to mint a one cent piece and that the loss in profitability due to producing the one cent coin in the United States for the year of 2011 is $60,200,000.

This shot shows some new and old pennies and nickels as well as a few dimes. The newer nickels (just as unrecognizable to me as the new pennies) are out of focus in this shot due to the shallow depth of field that I used.

If you can believe Wikipedia, the Earth’s moon is 4.527 billion years old. When I went out to get the newspaper this morning, the sky was clear and crisp and the waning crescent moon was brilliant and beautiful in the sky and, because I enjoy taking shots of the moon, I went back inside to get my camera. While I was downloading the four shots I took, I checked on today’s Flickr challenge theme. It is “Aged.” At 4.527 billion years, I think the moon qualifies for this challenge.

Until today, I had not photographed Chinese Pistache trees for my blog. This tree’s fall foliage has the most vividly spectacular colors I’ve seen in the Valley. But, while it is still technically fall, the tree is now devoid of leaves so the vibrant oranges and reds are gone but the large clusters of red berries still cling to the branches. This afternoon, I had to make a run to the Post Office and I noticed several Chinese Pistache trees in the parking lot with clusters of berries against the cloudy sky. I was taken with the starkness of the berries against the cloudy background.

Today’s Flickr challenge is “Steps” and it occurred to me that cookbooks have lots of steps. I stacked a few of my favorite cookbooks (that does not necessarily mean I cook from them often) to resemble a spiral staircase to echo the “steps” theme and I tried to remember some of the hints I learned yesterday in my Lightroom class. The one that first came to mind was black and white so I changed the shot to black and white, added a vignette, and made a few other minor tweaks.

Focal Length 58mm
ISO 100
f/2.8
1.6 seconds

Sacramento has a bunch of blue trees. They’re on 13th Street by the Sacramento Convention Center where I attended an Adobe Lightroom Workshop today. I’d forgotten about the blue trees that were painted that color in October in an effort to draw attention to global deforestation so I was delighted to have an opportunity to photograph them. According to everything I’ve read, they were painted with a weak mixture of environmentally safe paint and water, expected to wash off within six months, but Sacramento had more than four inches of rain this past weekend and the colors remain vivid and it’s been almost three months. I wonder how long the blue will last? Still, they’re at once fascinating and shocking to see. I just had time to take a few shots. These are my favorites. And, to answer the question in the title of my blog, yes, I think I am a little blue about these trees. I’m pretty sure they were quite lovely in their natural state and I worry why they’re still so vivid with all the rain we’ve had if it’s supposed to wash off. Here is a link to another “blue” tree that I posted earlier this year. It’s blue comes only from the light.

I think I have a new favorite red blend. A friend brought me a bottle of Gnarly Head Authentic Red today so I opened it when I got home. It lives up to the bottle’s claims: “Bold, sophisticated, with a hint of gnarly.” Love that gnarly!! Its flavors of blackberry, cherry, toasted oak and a kiss of cocoa rival the flavors of my two other current favorite red blends for first place on my red blend list. I wouldn’t mind being stuck in Lodi with a bottle or two of Authentic Red. It’s the real deal!!

Amanita phalloides, AKA the Death Cap Mushroom, grows throughout California from the Sierra foothills to the Channel Islands, usually beneath live oak trees. The Sacramento Bee carried a feature article about the Death Cap Mushroom today because several local people died recently after consuming mushrooms picked in their yard. When I went outside to see what havoc Storm Number 3 may have wreaked on my home and yard, I noticed that there were quite a few mushrooms under my live oak. I have no idea if these are Death Cap mushrooms but they look an awful lot like the photos in the paper today. I know I wouldn’t pick any mushrooms in my yard and eat them. I will photograph them, however. I especially like the cluster in the moss at the base of the live oak.

Focal Length 300mm
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/100

Focal Length 300mm
ISO 200
f/5.6
1/80

The raindrops made some interesting patterns which were accentuated nicely using flash with reduced exposure.

Focal Length 70mm
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/250
Flash Compensation -2.7