Apple Hill - Fall 2012

I took a trip up to Apple Hill in Coloma, CA with my daughter Lexi and her boyfriend Justin on Sunday. If you haven't been to Apple Hill let me give you a few tips. Weekends are a great time to tour the farms because there are more crafts booths to look at, but you will find yourself waiting in traffic a lot of the time. I recommend being up  the hill by 9:00am and going to High Hill Ranch first, you can get there by taking Carson Road off of Highway 50 (this exit is less than 1/2 mile from the ranch).  High Hill Ranch has everything you need and if that is your only stop, you won't leave feeling you missed out on the "Apple Hill" experience. High Hill Ranch has pony rides, fishing, hay rides, pumpkins, crafts,cider, pies, apples... I am sure I have left a few things out.

There were so many tourists, so rather than trying to set up a good shot without a lot of people getting in my way, I decided to take some close up pictures that represent some of the things I enjoyed seeing that day (I would post some of  Lexi and Justin but I promised I wouldn't).  I would like to point out that the picture shot though the pine branches is not a black and white photo, it just happened to turn out this way due to the time of day and the lack of sunlight due to clouds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Highway 88 fall colors October 2012

This is my second year attempting to capture fall colors, last year was on the East Coast.

The fall color reports you find on Google are very accurate, so I knew heading out that the colors would not be vibrant, but this was my only opportunity to spend a day photographing so I headed out with my friend Earlene.

We met up at 7:00am in Placerville, on Highway 50 and headed east to Highway 89 south, Luther Pass towards Highway 88, Carson Pass Highway... destination Hope Valley. Nothing significant to photograph on the way. We turned west on Highway 88 to Hope Valley. It was important for us to get to Hope Valley early enough to ensure the lighting was good. Weather reports yesterday said it would be cloudy, but luckily it was a beautiful sunny day.

We saw the "barn" that everyone photographs but didn't stop. We decided to go a mile past the "barn" for our first stop.

 

We continued up Highway 88 and saw a dirt road and decided to do a little off roading. This was a fun stop. There were a lot of aspen trees in the location. Notice the two close up photos of the aspens. When I was taking this picture I didn't notice the names carved on the left tree. I thought I would try my hand at retouching on this picture. The second picture is the edited photo, removing the names Paul and Hillary.

 

As we continue up Highway 88 we noticed a barn so we made one of the many u-turns we would take today to go back and photograph.  As we gather our bags, tripods and cameras to walk through a fenced area, we found not only a barn but a cabin and an outbuilding. The ground was very wet, it was very marshy. Good thing I brought extra socks and shoes because to get these photos my shoes got wet.

Our next stop up Highway 88 was Caples Lake. I was hoping I could capture reflections of color in the lake. With the limited color on the trees today I was fortunate to get a couple of pictures with the effect I was looking for. By this time the sun was overhead (almost direct sunlight) on the two pictures with trees but the sun was behind me for the picture of the hillside.

 

 

One more u-turn to stop at this vista point to take in the beauty of this valley. (Note to self... document the names of the vista points or look outs where I stop.)

The last stop before heading back to Placerville was Silver Lake. As you can see by the picture the lake was very low and mirkly along the shoreline.



We took the Mormon Emigrant Trail back to Highway 50. This is a beautiful drive, sorry I didn't take any pictures, Earlene and I spent most of the time talking and enjoying the fresh air and scenery.

We stopped at the Apple Cafe just outside of Placerville right on Highway 50 for lunch and enjoyed their outdoor patio.  A great place to eat and relax enjoying the view. This cafe is very crowded during this time of year because of the tourists heading up to Apple Hill.

 

Ok time for lessons learned and things worth noting.

1. TIMING:
I think we did a great job timing the trip with the sun. It is very important to spend the time to plan your day in advance to make sure you don't miss out on the correct lighting.

2. LENSES:
I primarily used two lenses on this trip, my Nikon 50mm and my Sigma 150x500mm. I really need to get another camera body so I can keep a lens on each and better utilize the appropriate lens for the location.  After reviewing my pictures (too late to do anything about it now) I realized I should have used one additional lens this day, my Nikon 55x300mm.

 

 

 

 

A beautiful fall day at Lake Tahoe

Bill, Bill Sr. and I had a fantastic day at Lake Tahoe. Our first stop was Emerald Bay where I was lucky enough to have perfect lighting to capture the below picture. I used my Sigma 150-500mm lens. We took a left and headed six miles to end at Barker Pass Pacific Trailhead. I changed to my Nikon 55-300mm lens. I haven't used this lens much, but found it to be a very handy lens.  I got a great picture of this lone pine tree and another of a few pine cones.

We stopped for lunch at Sunnyside and had some great food and conversation. The weather was perfect, around 68, so we took a walk over to the docks and I set up the tripod to take a family photo. I ended up leaving the Nikon 55-300 lens on for this picture and the rest of the pictures taken at the lake.

Our last stop was at "Fanny Bridge". Fanny Bridge received its name from the profusion of posteriors that can be seen from the road as gawkers lean over to stare into the clear waters below.  Bill Sr. and I were pretty surprised to see how it had changed since the last time either of us were there. Since there were no fish at this time of year to photograph I took a few pictures of some gulls and ducks. The picture of the gull is a stop action photo. I still need to practice taking action shots. What I wanted to do was to have the bird soaring, not looking like it is in the picture... stopped...

Uh oh... starting to like editing

Yesterday I needed to take a look at my camera to see what I needed to do to correct all of the setting adjustments I made the other day.

It was back to basics; I pulled out my Nikon D5100 manual and the training DVD and figured out what I need to do. I was really glad I took the time to do this because I was able to understand what the DVD trainer was saying this time around. The first time I viewed the DVD I had just opened the box, so I really didn't understand what was being taught. I also realized how far I have come as a "photographer" in the last six months.

While flipping around the manual I stumbled on a feature the camera had for editing.  The two pictures posted are the same, one as taken and the other is edited using the "Retouch Menu, Selective Color".  I think this is going to be a fun tool to use.

This picture was taken on White Rock Road, the tree caught my eye because it looks like it had fallen over and died, and a new tree was growing off one of the remaining branches.