Category: Outdoor

As summer warms up, manzanita bushes in Northern California start shedding their bark. Having grown up in the middle of these bushes, I pretty much ignored what was right in front of me until I started taking pictures and the ordinary became extraordinary through the lens. Last week as I drove up my in-laws driveway I noticed the bark peeling off the bushes and thought “How cool”. Something I grew up with became the focus of my shooting. For this shot, I converted to Black and White in Picasa and adjusted the brightness and contrast quite a bit. It’s hosted on Zooomr. Most of the year the bark is a deep red color, almost burgandy. In the summer it peels off to expose fresh green bark. I have an alternate shot that shows the colors.

As I wrote this post I started remembering scenes from my childhood. I clearly remember peeling the bark of the bushes during the summer and trying to see how big of a piece I could get. I spent many hours every day in the summertime amongst the manzanita bushes on our property. They made excellent forts. At my grandparents house in the Sierra Nevada foothills the manzanita bushes were much bigger and provided a canopy for taking walks in the summer. More on Manzanita bushes can be found on Wikipedia.

Indian Springs Resort in Calistoga, CA has easily a hundred palm trees on the grounds. Most of them are young, but quite a few have been there for decades and tower above you in the sky. The sky in Calistoga is also the perfect shade of blue, and on this day had fascinating clouds in the upper atmosphere that kept changing. I spent a little time walking around in the 90+ degree heat taking photos. The palm trees drew me in the second I saw them against the sky. The clouds happened to form the perfect background for the trees.

Even though the color of the sky was perfect, I liked the shot better in black and white. Here’s the color version.

Both are on Zooomr with Geotags.

Last weekend we went up to visit our parents for Father’s Day. I’ve taken a lot of shots at my in-laws, but not many at my parents house. This one is at my parents house. My dad has a large garden that he and my Grandma take care of. This year they haven’t planted a lot, mostly flowers, because my dad is working this summer and water conservation is critical in their area.

This chair sits at the edge of the garden, in the shade of a large manzanita bush. The chair has been around probably longer than I’ve been alive. It was originally a poolside chair at a trailer park my grandparents owned many years ago. I’m sure it was sitting by the pool there when I was born. My grandparents eventually sold the park to their children, who eventually sold it to someone else. Along the way the poolside furniture was updated, and the old chairs made their way to various family members homes. Unfortunately I was too young at the time to have need of the chairs, I was probably in high school or college, so I didn’t get one. I wish I had, they’ve come back in style and I see them at antique stores for outrageous prices. They certainly hold up better than the chairs you can buy today, and are more comfortable.

The chair, for me, brings back memories of warm summer days by the pool. It wasn’t a fabulous pool. It was old, even 30 years ago, and had a lot of cars driving just outside the fences, but as a young child it was heaven on a hot day. I learned to swim at that pool and spent many summer days there when I was young. It’s nice to have a reminder of those days long gone by.

This is on Zooomr, along with a couple of other shots from the same day.

Last week our family went up to Paradise Ridge Winery in Santa Rosa so my wife could scope the place out. She’s doing the flowers for a wedding there next week and wanted to be sure she planned adequately. Anyway, it’s a pretty cool place that I didn’t really know existed before she got this job. It’s up on a hill overlooking the southern Russian River valley and has great views. I imagine the sunsets from up there are pretty spectacular. The wedding next week is in the evening, so maybe I’ll get some shots while I help my wife.

This shot is an oak tree in the middle of a deck at the entrance to the tasting building. The tree is pretty spectacular – large, old, and majestic, the kind of tree you almost hate to photograph because you can’t do it justice. I figured my best shot at a decent photo was to make it a little abstract. The thumbnail above doesn’t really do it justice, check out the large version on Zooomr.

The winery is small with simple, but elegant grounds and decor. It fits in with the surrounding hills and doesn’t try to be overly pretentious. It was laid back and classy at the same time. The winery also has a very cool outdoor sculpture gallery. We walked through and the kids just loved it. Lots of great sculptures in a variety of mediums and from many artists. The best part
is that it is free to walk around. The sculptures are spread out in an grove of oak trees on a hillside, so the surroundings are quiet and peaceful. If you’re in Santa Rosa, take an hour and visit. It’s worth the small effort.

I have a few more shots from the winery and sculpture garden on Zooomr. I’m going to blog at least one of them in the next day or so. You can view this shot with a geotag on Zooomr as well.

Off to a completely unrelated topic, Zooomr Mark III is shaping up to be awesome. The Zipline and new Discover page are both cool new features. I’ve run into some bugs, but I’m sure Kristopher will work them out soon enough. I’ve run into problems trying to GeoTag more than one image at a time and some of my old images are smaller than the size I uploaded, but since the Markk III upgrade I’ve spent a lot time finding many amazing photos. Zooomr is fabulous, and the community is incredible. If you don’t have an account, join. Now.