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I know I said I was taking a break from Blogging but I actually have nothing to do today and since I do have some photos for the Digital Diaries I figured what the heck.

 I decided I wanted to swear off doing portraits of people as they are two nerve-wracking for me and plus I hate posing folks.  Since then I have been asked to do two portrait sessions one of which you see here today and the other coming up in August for a NEWBORN!!!!!!!!!    I told the mother as long as I did not have to get near the child I would be fine as my biggest fears is of dropping the baby or dropping the camera on the baby. 

Anyways today’s session is of a group of young people at the company I work for.  Each year my company recruiters visit colleges and recruit the best of the best.  They then hire them and put them through a grueling three-year program having them work with all our different groups so that they can get an idea of where their talents can be best used. 

 Actually I did have fun with the group as they were game for anything my worst problem was getting them under control; Ah to be young and have that much energy!  So here they are the future  of the world, hope one of them works on discovering a pill to make me see better, hear better, get rid of all my wrinkles, lets me eat as much as I want and still be a size 6 and soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK now really I am taking a break from Blogging unless I take a break from taking a break from blogging.

I have been lazy these last couple of weeks; to many other life things going on lately!   I went back through my files to see if I had anything to post and had forgotten I had gone to Ardenwood Historic Farm in Fremont, California earlier this year and never posted the photos of this wonderful place, egads!

First a bit of history:

George Washington Patterson came west in 1849 to seek his fortune in the goldfields of California. Instead he “struck gold” in the fertile farm fields of southern Alameda County. This farm was originally owned by the George & Clara Patterson family from the 1850s. It was turned over to the City of Fremont in 1978, and the East Bay Regional Park District has operated the property as a fully functioning, turn-of-the-last-century farm since 1985. A visit here is a journey back to the time of the 1850s Patterson Ranch–a prosperous, 19th-century country estate with a beautiful Victorian mansion and elaborate Victorian Gardens. The farm still grows the same kind of produce that was grown in the region in the last 100 years, utilizing agricultural practices from the 1870s to the present, demonstrating the transition from horse-powered to horsepower farming. The interpretive staff and volunteers attired in Victorian clothing guide guests through the Victorian house, demonstrate farm chores, and explain what life was like in the early 1900s. From December to mid-February monarch butterflies overwinter here.

My initial visit was to see the beautiful Monarch Butterflies that come to visit over the winter on their journey down south. We went sometime in early February so many of them were already gone but we did manage to find a flock or two sitting in the trees. They actually made it quite easy to view these beautiful creatures as they had the area blocked off and had a couple of rangers there with these really powerful telescopes. I thought hey I have my telephoto lens so what do I need a telescope for but I am so glad I looked through it as WOW you could see detail on these beauties my 300mm lens could never pick up.

We then took a walk around the farm and visited all the gorgeous farm animals they have and then took a walk over to the home built by the Patterson Family. Unfortunately we did not get a look inside as they have it closed off during this time of the year but the architecture of the home was stunning the detail and care that they took in building and restoring the home really showed. If you would like to know more about the home, check out this link: http://www.fremont.gov/DocumentView.aspx?DID=351. I do intend at some point on going back just to have a tour of the home.

If you have a family this is a great place to bring them. They have ongoing educational programs for the children (and you) and the docents are a wealth of information. You can also purchase the fruits of their labor just inside the gate at certain times of the year. You know their website can probably tell you more than I ever could so here is a link http://www.ebparks.org/parks/ardenwood.

I am going to give myself a blogging summer break, hope you enjoy these photos and see ya when I see ya

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This weeks Canvas to Pixels is based on:

Christies Catalogue 2003 :

Sugar, Salt, and Pepper (1970)

Depicts the ubiquitous condiments that populate every American diner and coffee shop. Pop artists who use cultural signifiers to ironically comment on culture, both high and low, Thiebaud’s work is more concerned with the formal issues of paint. Sugar, Salt, and Pepper has a strong architectonic composition, rigidly anchored in place with a symmetrical alignment and severe horizontal bands of color. The paint is languidly brushed in horizontal strokes across the canvas in his trademark cafe-frosting tones of white, while the racing-stripe colors along the bottom and the crisp high key color highlights bring the entire surface to life.

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This weeks Canvas to Pixels is based on Wayne Thiebaud’s  1988 painting of Mickey Mouse.  I really was not going to do this one as I did not have a Mickey to photograph.  Then the spring cleaning bug hit me and as I was cleaning out the closets and who did I find not only Mickey but Minny too!!!   As you can see my Mickey chose to sit rather than stand, it is hardworking with these Hollywood types but since it is an interpretation we went for it.   MIC(see ya real soon) KEY (why because I loves you) MOUSE

 

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Friday I played hooky from work (meaning took the day off in case my boss is reading this , and since it was a gorgeous day I decided to pay Filoli Gardens a visit.  I have lived in this area for over 30 years and have driven by it so many times but never stopped but since I am still looking for inspiration for the Mallia Gardens I figured today would be as good a day as any.  I thought since it was Friday it would be nice and quiet and I could wander around the gardens at my own pace and take it all in.  Boy was I wrong!!  I got there just before they opened and the parking lot was already full with school children, senior groups and photography classes looking to do the same thing I was.  However since Filoli is located on 624 acres of land it was not too bad and I really did not run into that many people that got in the way of my photography of the gardens and if they did CONTENT AWARE to the rescue, my favorite photoshop feature J

I started my tour out in the gardens and finished up in the house where I met a lovely docent who was eager to give me as much information as she could regarding the gardens.  A tidbit I did find out that might interest anyone visiting Fioli is they have orchards with many a rare tree on them and in September they do a harvest where outsiders can attend and taste the fruits of their harvest.

 Here is a bit of info I learned from the docent:

Filoli was built between 1915 and 1917 for William Bowers Bourn II and his wife Agnes Mood Bourn, owner of one of California’s richest gold mines and president of Spring Valley Water Company, supplying San Francisco’s water. In 1910 they had bought an estate in County Kerry, Ireland, but wanted a country place nearer home. The principal designer, San Francisco architect Willis Polk, used a free Georgian style that incorporated the tiled roofs characteristic of California Polk had previously designed Bourn’s houses in Grass Valley and on Webster Street in San Francisco. Polk’s friend Bruce Porter was commissioned to collaborate with the Bourns in planning the gardens, which were laid out between 1917 and 1922. The horticulturist who designed the plantings and fixed the original color schemes was Isabella Worn; she supervised the garden’s maintenance for 35 years.

Filoli served as one of the Bourns’ residences from 1917 to 1936. The name of the estate is an acronym formed by combining the first two letters from the key words of William Bourn’s credo: “Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life.”

Mr. Bourn’s Spring Valley Water Company owned Crystal Springs Reservoir and the surrounding area. Bourn called the Crystal Springs Reservoirs “Spring Valley Lakes” for his company. The original Spring Valley was between Mason and Taylor Streets, and Washington and Broadway Streets in San Francisco, where the water company started. When the company went south for more water, the Spring Valley name was carried south to.

Following the deaths of William and Agnes Bourn in 1936, the estate was sold the following year to Mr. and Mrs. William P. Roth. Mrs. Roth was Lurline Matson, heir of the Matson Navigation Company. The Roth family built Filoli’s botanic collections of camellias, rhododendrons and azaleas, notably in the woodland garden, and added the serene swimming pool and the screened-in teahouse.  In 1975, Mrs. Roth donated the estate in its entirety to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, with an endowment that meets a third of the operating expenses.

It was a day well spent and interesting to see how the other half lived back then.  As I was walking through the house I could just imagine the residents of the time living out their day to day lives.  A bit of Downton Abbey here on the West Coast, la de da….

I wound up taking over 200 pictures, but don’t  worry I won’t make you look at all 200 I narrowed it down to about 40.  I tell you though pictures do not do it Filoli justice, a trip to Filoli is surely worth the visit if you are in the Bay Area, don’t wait 30 years!

This weeks Canvas to Pixels is based on a series of portraits  dating from the late 1960′s to the early 1990′s.  I am taking a guess her I think this particular painting was done circa 1970′s.  Mr Thiebaud did a series of people just sitting in chairs against blank walls.  This one is of a man with his back to us facing a plain white wall.  Hope you have a great week off to hunt down my next subject……

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This last weekend was a beautiful one here in the Bay Area.  I decided that I needed to get my garden in shape so I could sit and enjoy it for the rest of the summer.  However, when it comes to gardening there is no other way to put this but I suck, I somehow did not inherit the green thumb my mother has, all she has to do is look at a plant and it grows to be a lush and beautiful specimen, maybe I should just have her come over and stare at my plants for a bit.

I wanted a bit of inspiration so I headed down to the Elizabeth Gamble Gardens in Palo Alto, CA.  This is a gorgeous garden kept up by local volunteers and has such a wide variety of plants to view.  If you are plant illiterate they do have the names beside each plant in case you want to run over to the local nursery to purchase one, that is if you can say the name as some of the plants have the longest strangest names.

After our visit John and I went home and began work on creating the Mallia Gardens along with the help of my faithful volunteers, Presley, Cory, Sophie, Cody and Sparky, they are the best diggers and grass eaters (this is done behind my back as they know it is a no no).  The project took most of the weekend mostly because John and I are so senile we kept losing the garden utensils, we looked for ½ an hour for a shovel that was right in front of us, as they say had it been a snake it would have bit me!  By the end of the weekend we were pretty much immobile, but Sven my little massage chair came to the rescue.  Between Sven and a hot bath I was able to actually get to work on Monday on my own accord.

Now that my garden is planted and ready I can’t enjoy it for a while as the bad weather came in late Sunday night, but the up side to that is my plants will get watered.     Hoping for another sunny bright weekend so this time I can pull up a chair, pour myself  a beverage and sit down with a good book lolling away the summer months.

Here are a couple (well more than a couple I got carried away) of photos from my trip to Elizabeth Gamble Gardens, this weekend if the weather holds I will practice taking photos of my own gardens, of course it is no Elizabeth Gamble Garden but it is my little piece of paradise.

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So I caved this week and went out and bought cupcakes to use as my models.  Fortunately John was moving his daughter down to Santa Barbara so I packed up my little models after the shoot and they took a trip down there to be enjoyed.

This is one of Wayne Thiebaud’s many paintings of cupcakes.  I love  this series just one look and you can smell the sugar.  This series was painted circa 1971.  Enjoy folks.

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This past weekend I took a photography class called Postcards of San Francisco.  I had loads of fun and discovered new places to shoot my Non-National Geo pictures and get beautiful shots of my favorite little city.

I somehow talked John into coming with me for this class; altogether there were 14 others, me and 14 other men!  Wonder why women were not interested in doing this as the views and locations were spectacular.  We all piled into this van which from the outside look nice and big but when you got in it was closer than close.   The one advantage is that we all got to know each other really well.

It was a long drive into the San Francisco so of course everyone talked photography during the ride and I found out you can learn a lot during this time as a lot of the guys were so far advanced and knew so much.

Stop #1 –  Alamo Square and the 7 Sisters.  The 7 Sisters are a group of Victorian Homes that once you see them you know them right away these homes are the most famous in San Francisco.  We had bad weather all week and for some reason Saturday turned out gorgeous it was actually sunny and hot.  But because of the heat and sun everyone turned out at the park and it was hard to get a straight shot of the sisters so we really had to work for it.  Thank goodness for “Content Aware” in Photoshop it makes unwanted things disappear in a second, to bad there was not a “Content-Aware” in real life, but that is another subject.

Stop #2 – The Palace of Fine Arts.  Here the shooting was really tough as the sun was at its height and there were so many glares all around I was lucky to get the two pictures I did as everything else I think was trash from that area.  We were only given 10 minutes at this location so we really could not venture far but it is a great location to come back to in the future during the sunset, those beautiful pink tones of the structure will warm up beautifully during this time and if I am really good and do my homework I may time it just in time to see the sun coming through the arches of the building.

Stop #3 –  Baker Beach   This is where you get a splendid shot of the Golden Gate and a couple of nudists to boot!  I did not realize this until I was editing my photographs and saw a naked butt smack dab in the middle of my beautiful photo so “Content-Aware” to the rescue.  Maybe I should have left him in I am sure there are nudists that visit San Francisco that may want that in their postcards what do you think.

Stop # 4 -  We had a bit of a problem with this location.   One of the students asked to be dropped off at the top portion of the parking lot to Baker Beach as he had a previous engagement and someone was picking him up there.  So our instructor dropped him off and rather than going around the roundabout to get out of the parking lot he backed out of the parking lot in an effort to save time.  Just as we reached the gate who greeted us but the lovely California Highway Patrol.  I think the officer was having a bad day as boy was he mad and a bit condescending.  Now this is why I think people get mad with the police rather than speaking to the driver civilly he just yelled even when the driver apologized and agreed that he did do a stupid thing, it wasn’t like we were a bunch of militants we were all over 50 years old and spoke respectfully to him so shouldn’t he have done the same……   He took the driver’s license of the driver and I swear it took him 30 minutes to write up the ticket which made us miss location #4 which was supposed to be Treasure Island and the view of downtown San Francisco.  When the officer came back he had a nicer tone and I am sure that after a they do get tired of telling people the same thing over and over but since he represents the State at least start cordially and then change your tune accordingly to the situation.

Anyway enough said of that, so our new stop #4 was the look out to the Golden Gate Bridge.  We reached here just as the sun was setting and the lights on the bridge were going on it was a spectacular view one that makes your mouth just drop open a definite I will go back here shot.  Just before getting out the teacher told us it would probably be cold and windy up there so dress accordingly so I had my big Nannuck of the North coat on with a hat and gloves I looked like a relative of the Michelin Tire guy.  I barely made it through the doors of the van with all this clothing and then had to haul my you know what up a hill to get to the lookout carrying my camera gear thank goodness there was no fence jumping required as I was so weighed down I don’t know that I could have made it.  At the top was the most gorgeous site and I could have worn my shorts and a tank top Saturday and not been cold instead I had every piece of clothing I own on my body and was sweating like a pig, so attractive.  This was my favorite place to shoot I had never shot night photos and to have my first one be this picture perfect location was awesome I got a zillion photos but don’t worry I won’t bore you with all of the zillions just a few.  I do wish I had a better telephoto with me though as there was one shot I wanted that I could not get exactly as I pictured it but I got close with what I had.

Stop #5 – The Embarcadero   We were off to take a photo of the Trans America building and downtown San Francisco.  Now Pac Bell Park is right down the street from where we were shooting and apparently our SF Giants won their game Saturday night so all these fireworks started going off and gosh darn it wrong lenses again all I had were wide-angle lenses and a bit to far to see the fireworks well using them.  It would have been great to practice shooting fireworks.  Funny thing is one of the guys just broke out his iPhone and he got the best pictures of all!  This location I think is better on weekdays as during the weekend most offices now in order to conserve energy are shutting down their lights I think the best views are during the week and especially during the winter holidays as they doll the building up.

By this time it was 11:30 p.m. so all of us being over 50 and being out way past our bedtime decided to call it a night and head home to our nice comfy beds.  My challenge now is to try to stay up late enough to get my butt out there when the light is perfect and grab shots from those spots again.  It was a fun experience and I learned more than a thing or two about photography.

These are the fruits of my excursion hope you come visit my little city and take some postcard pics of your own.

This week I attempted to interpret one of Wayne Thiebaud’s great Diner Paintings.  I did this one with no food, there are others to come with plenty of  food, Wayne loved those food paintings so I am pacing myself!!

I was able to find a lot of vintage looking diner utensils which now have become a great addition to my kitchen.  I had a bit of a problem with shadows but all in all I am happy with the results of my interpretation.  I could not find the exact date this painting was created but I am thinking circa 1963.  Wayne or any Wayne fans are you out there can you shed some light on when?

Anyways here you go this weeks Canvas to Pixels, have a great week   thanks for stopping by!

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