California | Deanna's World

Edward and I went on a photo trip at the Effie Yeaw Nature Center. Edward found it online. To get there, you drive though a residential neighborhood near Sacramento, CA. The narrow street suddenly opens up to a large open nature area. It’s a short drive through the middle of a golf course to the nature center. Parking is $5. The building is only open on the weekends, but the nature area is always open. We took some of the trails from the nature center down to the river.

We spent spent a couple of hours on the trails, mostly chasing butterflies. It was windy and the butterflies were moving too fast to get any clear shots of them. The wind didn’t get in the way of taking pictures of the sculptures near the center, though. I used Bot, my 3D printed figurine, as a photography model for a few shots. Then, a squirrel came to eat some grass near us. I got a shot of a squirrel. It was a relaxing trip.

My husband and I went on a photo trip to Salmon Falls Bridge. The wildflowers are in bloom.

My first goal was to model shirt ring that I designed and printed. My husband took this picture of me along the trail. I had been trying to think of things to print with my new 3D printer. I keep ending up with dresses that are too long, so I decided to print a shirt ring to help hold them up. I use to use shirt rings in the 80’s to stylishly make my oversize shirts look more like they fit. I used this image in my last blog post, My Introduction to 3D Printing, to help illustrate my 3D printing work flow.

I printed a cute little toy robot and named it Bot. I thought that it would make a good subject for some photos, so I brought it with us on our hike. Bot’s color is similar to our California soil, so it blended a little too well. Bot still made an adorable little model.

I got a new 12-50mm Olympus lens that can do macro and zoom shots. I tend to take a lot of macros of bugs on these photo trips, especially in the spring. Finding and getting clear shots of insects is challenging because they are so small and fast. I brought the lens on our trip to Daffodil Hill, but there weren’t many bugs out that day. There were more bugs out on the trail this time. I like this lens because I don’t have to switch lenses as often.

Salmon Falls was lovely. The sun was bright and flowers were out. It was another beautiful spring day in California.