Snow Moon - First Supermoon of 2020! February 9th 2020 - Yolo County, California

 Another outing with the Olympus camera Test and Wow program.  This time I wanted to see how it held up in low light by shooting the supermoon.  To be honest, the resulting photos were a bit noisy.  But let it also be known that I am hit or miss when it comes to night shots.  lol  But that won't stop me from trying!  

But usually I  do some research and refresh my memory on settings and tips.  But on this trip, I didn't really do that because I didn't even have a tripod available and just kind of decided to head out on the spur of the moment. 

I had one main target.  The Milk Farm sign off Interstate 80 in Dixon. 

This is an historic landmark of sorts which was almost demolished.  But it still stands to this day and most folks probably drive by without even much of a glance. 

The Milk Farm Restaurant - which the sign originally heralded - was built in 1928 and was featured in the famous Saturday Evening Post in 1940 which kind of put Dixon's dairy industry in the spotlight. 

I remember stopping there on church outings back in the 70's & 80's (even though now it seems like that is just a hop, skip, and jump away so it's weird that we always were ready for a rest stop at that point back then!)

And then it closed in 1986, the year my daughter was born, due to serious wind damage.  But residents of Dixon didn't want it destroyed, so the building was dismantled and placed in storage and the sign was left standing!

It has a cow jumping over the moon and I thought it might actually frame the supermoon and look cool!  But!  I needed a lot of things to happen right for the perfect execution.  And it didn't.  haha

But to start, I pulled over at the Yolo Basin Wildlife Area (where surprisingly the gate was open) to see if I could get a photo of the moon over Sacramento with some water.  

Again, no tripod so I shot all semi-longer exposure by putting the camera on the roof of the car.  :-)

I propped it at the right angle by using my fleece jacket.  :)  Luckily the moon was pretty low to the horizon in all of these shots. 

This first one was a closeup of just the moon with the 300mm lens.  It was super, super noisy!  I used DeNoise to try to tone it down with mixed results. 

A slightly less cropped version with less noise. 

I kind of like this one shot between two trees! Noisy, but looks cool. 

And now!!  The famous Milk Farm Sign!

And the story is that I sat here in my car - in some driveway to a farmhouse (which was pretty long so I didn't have anyone wondering about me - or so I thought).  I sat there for quite some time waiting for the moon to rise high enough to get over the sign and HOPEFULLY be in the right spot.  

It was a little bit cold and a little bit scary, but I was just off the freeway so I didn't think a serial killer would get me.  

But!  I think I was even more nervous when California Highway Patrol car pulled up and parked just off the road kitty corner to me.  After about 10 minutes, the car started up and pulled closer to me and the copy put his spotlight on my car.  He walked over and I, slightly embarrassed, explained what I was trying to do. 

He said he was on his lunch break and said he would hang around to make sure I was okay.  I, again slightly embarrassed, told him that I would just leave because I had taken some test shots of the sign illuminated by my car's headlights and it wasn't really bright enough to see the sign.  

He very sweetly offered to put his car spotlight on the sign so we gave it a try. 

It worked!  Kind of!  It was actually even better when the moon was above the sign (which took about 10 more embarrassing minutes) and the sign was not so backlit!  With both my headlights and the spot light this time, the moon DID align how I had hoped and I was able to get a shot that is halfway decent!!

The Moon Jumping Over The Cow Jumping Over The Moon over the Milk Farm!

I used post production in Photoshop to lighten the sign a bit more and bring back some detail in the moon, but having the CHP spotlight on the word "Milk" really helped me achieve my whimsical dream.  :-)  

The very nice CHP officer and I parted ways after I promised to drive safely back home.  He seemed quite amused that I had driven 20 minutes and sat in my car for about 20 minutes to get one crappy photo!  lol  

xoxo

Golden Aztec Deities Brought to Life by Yvette Marie Ramirez - Cosplay Photoshoot

We're back with more fascinating Aztec cosplay from the Golden Aztec Goddess photo shoot featuring Yvette Marie Ramirez.  In our last post Yvette starred as, Mictecacihuatl, Goddess of the Underworld.

Next we have the additional photos where I tried to be creative and incorporate Aztec culture and art inspired by the Aztec Empire with some of my photos.  So here we go...

Painting by Stephanie Guarjardo

Coatlicue is the mother of gods and gave birth to the stars, moon and Huitzilopochtli - god of the Sun and War
Coyolxauhqui is the sister of Huitzilopochtli and goddess of the moon.  She and her brother had a sibling rivalry. 

Chalchiuhtlicue is the goddess of of water on earth and  rules over lakes, streams, and rivers.  
Stay tuned for more Aztec deity cosplay from this amazing shoot and tidbits from this fascinating culture. 


xoxo

Nikon D600

Merry Christmas!! Lights, Camera, Action!

First?  Let's set the theme...

Next, wander along with me to visit one of Sacramento's longest-running places of Christmas joy and peace. 

Sacramento's Elmhurst Neighborhood.  

In a small pocket just off Highway 50 and 59th Street, there is a group of streets where most of the houses have some kind of decoration for the season.  

And in between most of them, the sidewalks themselves are decorated into a fun, colorful walk into Christmas.

You have everything you could possibly want in Christmas decorations...from traditional (ish):

To Disney:

To Alice In Wonderland!

It's really just a joy to walk along under the colorful lights, humming Christmas carols as you stroll through the crisp, cold air. 

Merry Christmas to all!  

xoxo and a Ho Ho Ho!

Nikon D3300

There's a Full Moon a Risin' Over Caples Lake, California!

I had an opportunity to join a group of fellow amateur photographers on a jaunt up into the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains to photograph the full moon rising over gorgeous Caples Lake.  

It was a beautiful drive with lots of wildflower varieties still growing in profusion alongside the highway and bunnies sitting on the side of the road in the late afternoon sunshine.  I took it easy (because bunnies!) and arrived a bit after my cohorts.  

Me being me (loner), I didn't immediately join the group because of course I had to convince myself to be social.  While I was having a difficult conversation with myself, I drove up the road a bit to see the lake for myself. 

There was a lot of snow still on the top of the mountains; the lake itself is at 7,800 feet elevation, so you can imagine how high those mountain tops are!

Looking back West, the sun was just beginning to set and the smoke from a thousand fires (seems like it anyway) cast a beautiful orange glow to the water and the sky. 

I stopped at the little dam to take a shot of our group on the granite outcropping.

Wide view!  Photogs on the left and the moon was due to rise right between Black Butte (really Brown Butte but I didn't name it) on the extreme right of the photo and Elephant's Back which is the humpbacked hill to the left of the butte.  

There was a lot of smoke so we were all a little worried that the moon might not be able to shine through.  But smoke really does make for a beautiful sunset! This is a beautiful "bonzai" tree - better known as a scrub pine - that was growing on the granite where we were standing.  In the background is the small dam. 

Turning back to the lake, the water and Black Butte were looking redder as the sun set. 

Highway 88 is to the right side of the photo.  (And my car was also to the right side as I parked on the shoulder of Highway 88, but I photoshopped my car out!  haha)

Sorry!  Just couldn't stop taking photos of the sunset!!!  But!  The main event was about to happen!  I swung around and got my tripod set up as the bright rim of the moon was seen peaking over the mountainside.  It seemed like it was moving at high speed!

As Luna rose into the sky, it's orange sheen was reflected on the beautiful water.  Because it was still a little bit light out, I was able to capture the detail in both the moon and the mountainside, which I love. 

After a little bit, I moved to a slightly different area which was just above water level and had some cool rocks and trees that I could use to frame my shots. 

By this time, the moon was high and bright enough that in order to get the landscape, the shutter was open too far to capture the detail in the moon.

So I faked it.  haha  But I wanted a moon shot with the landscape without the orange, but in order for that to be (without photoshopping the orange out), I had to wait for the moon to rise.  So this next photo is an awesome composite like most people try to pass off as being a supermoon photo!

And then I took a couple more shots of the faded-to-purple sunset over the dam.  I like to call this one "Blue Lagoon". 

And one more composite, although I had trouble with this one.  :-(  Why can't I replicate something I just did a few days ago!!!!  Waaahhhh!  

Sorry.  

And the last photo I took of the evening before one of the gentleman made sure I got back to my car okay and was not eaten by a bear or mountain lion...  

Look!  A star in the upper right corner!
Star Light
Star Bright...

Such a beautiful and relaxing night with God's glorious creation and some (mostly) nice humans (nice to know chivalry is not completely dead)!

See?  I can socialize a little bit.  

Sometimes. 

xoxo

Nikon D3300