dry creek

June 26, 07
3ish
Gibson Ranch - Dry Creek
very warm, clear, slight breeze

"Creeking" with my brother Joe & my kids - wanted to get "above" and "below" the earth photos for the heaven project. (See http://www.heavenartproject.blogspot.com/)

Plenty of little fish in the creek, and some pretty good sized ones, too - Dee is on a rescue mission with tiny ones who have ended up in a stagnating little branch of the creek that is drying up, catching them & releasing them into the main creek. Surrounding the creek, the grass is all dry and brown - only the grass at the very edge of the water is green, with all the trees hugging it as well, it's a swath of green through the otherwise dry June landscape.

We go wading up the creek, the kids try to catch little fish with fast food cups we find, but the fish are too fast. The water is amazingly warm, even in the parts that go up over our knees and make our long shorts wet half way up our thighs. Gravel gets stuck in my sandals and Phil keeps wanting to take off his flip flops but then finds shards of glass, as if to illustrate why I insist he keep them on.

I find a big bush along the creek edge with white puff ball flowers that have a mild, pleasant scent - bees really like them, too. We hike/wade our way up the creek over fallen trees, through shallows, even find some big "rocks" that seem spongy, that are actually gray clay, with anacharis growing on it. Actually a non-native aquarium plant that can be invasive, I fill a fast food cup full of it to take home and put in my pond.

We wade nearly all the way to where Watt Avenue crosses the creek, then head back down creek again. We begin to see several black phoebes as we head down - I even see one snatch a big bug right out of the air while flying - pretty impressive.

Little fresh water clams are all over the creek - at one point the big rock in my sandal turns out to be as big a clam as any - and I thought I was imagining the rocks in my sandals larger than they could possibly be. On our trip up-creek, we found the top & bottom shell of a good sized turtle who become somebody else's meal; on our way back, I pick up the lower shell & pack it away for it's pretty pattern, to the disgusted amusement of my teenagers - who would know -

June 22, 07

June 22, 07
16th & Broadway, Sacramento
about 10 a.m. - clear, no wind
getting warm already, likely to get pretty hot today
shooting the Tower Theater
sounds of traffic

Wandering around across the street, the brand-new R5 Records store opening behind me. Traffic ebbs and flows like the tide.

In the garden area just in front of the theater and cafe, tiny palms pop up everywhere, volunteers or weeds, depending on your perspective.

A little motion soft - trying to move, not get hit by traffic while shooting. Tower is too centered f0r my taste, too - but I like the foreground context.

Sitting to put it all together in front of the fountain

Second attempt is now focused, tower still centered because I was unwilling to lose the mimosa tree on the right - oh well, all rules get broken sometimes. And I have now graduated from "crazy woman on the side of the road" to "crazy woman in the middle of the road" though I must say I was staying in a little triangle that traffic never flows in (as a consolation to my family members .)

Apparently, though, I still need practice with my road shooting - another shot out of focus.

not many tourists

June 13, 07
back at the Capitol
afternoon - warm
forecast high 100*, standard Sacramento summer
clear blue skies, not so many tourists

Robins peck around in the lawn, unconcerned about our presence; squirrels race from one tree to the next.

California State Capitol plaza fountain

Huge old cypress in front of the capitol - exposing for the dark tree, the capitol becomes a ghost of itself.

We (Deidre is with me today) walk around the back of the capitol building - our one hour parking space keeps our walk short this time.

3 p.m.

We drive the few blocks west to get us closer to the Tower Bridge. It's getting hotter now but the light is hitting nicely on the bridge with a bit of the downtown buildings behind. We stand on the trails along the river, in front of the zigurat in West Sac -

On our way back over the river, we get a nice view of that zigurat in West Sacramento - actually looking back to the spot we just walked on - so we're now on the Tower Bridge looking backwards from the shot I just took -

sacramento, ca

June 1, 07
2 p.m.
State Capitol, Sacramento, Ca
warm, no breeze, a little overcast
school kids play on the capital lawn, tourists wander around taking pictures - guess that would make me a tourist except for the funky old camera -


First shot isn't bad - light print means a dense negative, which is good - not much context for the shot.

A robin looks for goodies in the lawn, squirrels in the shrubs -


Standing on the NE corner across the street - I like this best but can't seem to focus & stand straight!


I take a shot for a couple Asian tourists in front of the fountain, then get a shot for myself -


Try again from farther away, still can't seem to focus (now I AM acting like a tourist) - and I'm out of film which means coming back again - unlike a tourist, that won't be so hard.


Post Script: Due to gross negative negligence, all negatives from this shoot were lost - now I really have to go back to shoot!

under the freeway

May 27, 07
Old Sac, warm
"Freeway Garden"



Checking out what the Jazz Jubilee has to offer for free, which turns out to be precious little. We end up hanging outside a venue under the freeway, listening to the blues band playing at the "Freeway Gardens" venue, too poor to pay the $100+ that it would cost for our family of four - singin' our own blues.

memorial elms

May 25, 07
midday
downtown Sacramento
Memorial Auditorium Elms

part of the newly forming Legacy Trees project



Some of these old elms, in the neighborhood of one hundred years old, have gotten too old and too weak to let stand. For safety's sake they have to come down - posted with notices to the public.



Yesterday James Cooper called me up to tell me about the Legacy Trees project. It started with a 120-year-old tulip tree at Capital Park that another artist friend of his had seen ready to come down. That friend happened to be a wood worker and saw alot of raw material headed for the chipper... Long story short, there is now a sort of group that is recovering the wood of many of Sacramento's legacy trees which are coming to the end of their life cycles.



These elms will be the third set of trees in the project, which I now hope to catch on film before they come down.



These front shots of Memorial Auditorium don't have any posted trees in them, but I couldn't come shoot here without some pure beauty shots.







Lovely elm in front of Sacramento's historic Memorial Auditorium - between traffic to emphasize it's timeless beauty.

late morning

May 17, 07
late morning
North Natomas
along Truxel Road/Natomas Road @ Del Paso Blvd
warm, clear, light breeze
(more of my crazy woman on the side of the road series)



Even over the ebb & flow of the traffic noise, a song bird manages to sing out loud and clear, hidden away in the huge palms.



I've been admiring these palms ever since they were brought in to adorn the intersection in this new part of town. Yet another place that I can say that I remember when it was nothing here but fields.



Of course, many people can say that about North Natomas.



At any rate, I finally have made a trip just to shoot the palms for the Visions of Heaven project. (http://www.heavenartproject.blogspot.com/)



I can just see these huge fan palms in the New Jerusalem, fronds swaying in the gentle breeze.





Later - after school I get Deidre to hold the tulips that I got for Mother's Day up in the air in the backyard. I shoot slides that will become part of a series of Polaroid transfer florals...

michigan bar road

May 9, 07
Midday
Michigan Bar Rd, Sacramento County
sunny, clear, warm
shooting with Wendell Minshew

We've been driving around looking for places to shoot - it's all quite photogenic around here, but we're also looking for somewhere that Wendell can photograph me - we get some portraits in an open rocky area, then hit dirt roads and find places I really love -



here the barbed wire fence has become deeply embedded in the tree - The tree has simply incorporated the wire into itself -


Wendell has me squat down by the wire hugging tree and then I see this shot -

We drive aorund more and find our way back to the same area with dirt roads again...

A little later on Latrobe Road
a little more breezy

signs along the fence proclaim
"Oak Woodland Preserve & Working Ranch
www.sacramentovalleyconservancy.org"



This is such a lovely area, but tough to get just the right shots in midday sun - if only we had the time today to hang out and wait for evening light! Oh well, we'll just have to come back again.


I hug some barbed wire myself to get this shot.


Wendell's trusty 4 wheel drive

As we're heading back, we have to stop for a couple more shots -





(the prints are very high key but negs will be just wonderful)


Post Script
A couple shots Wendell took of me working...



You can see more of Wendell's work at http://www.wendellminshew.com/

May 3

May 3
morning
clear, sunny, high sixties, light breeze

Go up for a flight with Scott, just over to Folsom Lake and back. I took my 35mm and shot the last of my roll of slide film - I'm eager to see what kind of Polaroid transfers the low-level aerial shots will make. I've always loved low level flight. After we come back, a mocking bird becomes quite curious about what might be inside the hangar & would have gotten himself closed inside if we hadn't been watchful of him. As soon as he was out & our hangar was shut, he flew down to the next open hangar to see what was inside there...


Old time zero film creates an overlay of pattern on the image.



the rare transfer actually made the same day it was shot

kaseberg creek

4.24.07
Late afternoon
near Kaseberg Creek & Pleasant Grove Blvd
warm, clear, sunny, no wind



I've been seeing this old fallen tree as I drive through West Roseville to friends' and on errands - so finally today I come out on no errand but photography -



The prints come out hot but I know the negs will be good and strong. Plenty of birds are attracted to the vernal pool here, even in the midst of growing suburbia - red wing black birds, and egret & unknown songbirds - the pool and its surrounds form a sort of nature-oasis for the soul.





After a while in the knee-deep blooming grasses and vetch, my nose begins to itch, even on antihistamines. But thank goodness, without modern medicine I'd be too sick to enjoy this at all.



Dirt paths wind their way along the creek and among the oak woods near the creek - the sunlight hits some spots just so.



dancing tree...