Lake Tahoe series 2
Sorry for the switch-a-roo. I posted the same photo twice. I’m updating this now to show you a couple monochromes I did in the same setting. 🙂
Sunshine on flowers and palm trees
It’s a little cloudy today!! Wass’up? Fortunately, I took some pictures 2 days ago. We were walking to a neighbor’s house when I saw the sun shining on these bougainvillea and ran back to the house for la camera.
The palms looked so nice too. Had to get a shot.
California poppies
Sorry I’ve been so quiet lately. I’ve missed you all! I have been busy. I had to look through some old archives to find a picture and felt the need for some flowers. I took this shot in May.
California poppies are the California state flower. I stated before they are protected, but they aren’t any more than any other flower not on your land, which you aren’t supposed to pick.
I enjoyed how they are growing in among the rocks here, with the spear-shaped leaves of another plant in the background.
Sunflower
I love that people grow these. The couple came out of the house when I was snapping shots. The man was the gardener. He was pleased I was admiring them and explained many gardening details about what he had done to create the beautiful collection. Apparently if you plant too many, they don’t grow as high. He has another crop of starter plants ready to go when this crop dies out.
New York, Manhattan, Warwick, Bellvale and Greenwood Lake
I wasn’t in the city too much, but I did catch this shot of the George Washington Bridge on the way out.
I stayed with friends at Greenwood Lake outside the city. You don’t have to drive that far to be in a country setting. This shot is from Demarest Hill Winery in Warwick New York.
The wine wasn’t to my liking, but they do appear to have good grappa and brandy, which I didn’t try. The scenery was stunning.
However, in the department of recommendations, I suggest The Creamery. Here you will get great views and fantastic ice cream!
To burn off some of the ice cream, we went water skiing, or at least, my friends did. I used the opportunity to play with the Panasonic DMC-ZS40’s auto-focusing motor drive. It’s pretty easy to rack up about 300 photos in an hour that way! I liked that I could zoom in on the skier and then shoot continuously. For action shots you really have to shoot that way to get just the right shot. Here is my favorite of a friend of my friends.
Ochs Orchard in Warwick is a beautiful place to pick up some produce.
Overall, I had a great time with my friends. The meeting I had with Brenda Novak, her agent and one of her editors, Margaret Marbury, was very helpful to me. We had a good time and the conversation helped me sort some things out for myself about genre, direction, blogs, and commercial fiction.
More shots from around the area
I’ve been busy finishing up a manuscript and getting ready for my New York trip. I’ve taken a few shots out the window and one of the sky tonight, but I’ll save those for next time. For now, here are some flowers I passed the other day.
And the shot my friend Jeff took
of me with the new camera.
Hakone Gardens Saratoga
Hakone Gardens in the hills of Saratoga is a lovely heritage site showcasing traditional Japanese tea houses and grounds. I had a lot of fun there today with my friends and the new camera.
Let’s start with the panorama. This was so easy to do. The camera will be great for travel.
There was a wedding rehearsal going on and other visitors, including us, were watching the action. I liked having the people on the bridge for this photo. 
Koi and turtles share the water.
The camera has a creative mode that you can set to dynamic monochrome. Not that many things look better in black and white, I’ve found, but I thought this view up through the pagoda frame was better in black and white. My friend thought it was because of the emphasis monochrome places on shapes.
This is the view from the deck on the large tea house. You can see Hakone Gardens is up the hill a bit.
I liked this little gate. Except for the lock, it seemed to invite you inside. (I made the picture a little smaller so the lock wouldn’t be visible and you could just enjoy the idea.)
One of my friends suggested slowing the shutter down to get the smooth water effect. I never thought it would work without a tripod.
I still like the blue and purple hues produced by the Sony DSL more, but I haven’t set to work on that yet. Little by little I’m trying new things and reading bits of the manuals. The camera is pretty easy to use. I want to explore the advanced features.
San Francisco with the Panasonic DMC-ZS40
I went a little crazy today with the camera in San Francisco. We needed to go up there to get visas to visit Russia. I was happy it was a foggy day because I’ve needed some photos in these conditions for a project.
What follows is a chaotic sampling of San Francisco taken hanging out car windows, shooting through the windshield, or getting the hubs to stop for a moment while I clicked. I think they will give you a bit of a flavor of the city on this quintessential San Francisco day.
Before I get into it though, I have to show this action sequence. After I discovered what the creative dial on the camera can do, I said, “Wow, now I can take each picture on our trip a dozen different ways!” This was my husband’s reaction.
Oh, the travails of being married to a shutterbug. Okay, here are some photos. I deliberately went back to the spot I went last month with the Sony DSLR A300 just so I could try the same shots with the new camera. Here is a shot in Pacific Heights. It’s nothing extraordinary, but I like looking out over the city.
Here is that apartment building I turned into a pen and ink plus painting.
We had lunch on Union Street near the Marina District at Betelnut. I had Chilean sea bass on noodles.
I took this out the car window.
Some shots out the window as we made our way down 19th Avenue out of the city.
Nicci Carrera 