USA

A Plane Trip Between California and Colorado

Published: Fri, Apr 05, 2019
Written by GizellaN
1 Comment
Categories: Blog, Family Trips, Landscape, Lensbaby, Photography, USA
Tags: aerial photography, From the Air, USA

We decided to spend most of Spring Break with grandparents in Colorado. I really like taking images from airplanes, and I got lucky again with a window seat. For the first time I also tried some of my Lensbaby lenses for this aerial photography, and I think I created some very interesting images.  🙂 The one lens I didn’t care for in the air was the Burnside. After a few pictures I switched it out to something else. I liked the Twist 60 and the Sol 45 the most.

Here is a set of images taken between Orange County and Denver, CO. Except for the first four, they are all Lensbaby images. I think the first and last two of this set show a great contrast between where we live now (OC), and where we used to live (CO). The first two images I took moments after we took off, and the last two moments prior to landing. Very different views, aren’t they? (Hover over the slideshow and click the Next arrow to advance the images.)

Just for fun, here are those first and last two images one more time:

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A Walk in Los Angeles – Lensbaby Blog Circle

Published: Sun, Mar 31, 2019
Written by GizellaN
11 Comments
Categories: Architecture, Blog, Lensbaby, Lensbaby Blog Circle, Photography, Photowalk, Sol 45, Twist 60, USA, Velvet 56
Tags: Lensbaby, Lensbaby Blog Circle, Los Angeles, photowalk

Towards the end of March my friend and I took a train trip into Los Angeles, and enjoyed a nice, slowly paced walk in the city for a few hours. Since we were not in a hurry whatsoever, using Lensbaby lenses was a good option. Let me share with you a few pictures of the areas we visited, which included Union Station, the City Hall (great view from the 27th floor!), the Bradbury Building, the Grand Central Market (I only ate there, no pictures), and the Disney Concert Hall. The lenses I used were: Twist 60, Sol 45 and Velvet 56.

Enjoy the brief tour of Los Angeles.

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Winter Rains Bring Spring Flowers to Southern California – Lensbaby Blog Circle

Published: Fri, Mar 01, 2019
Written by GizellaN
14 Comments
Categories: Blog, Burnside 35, Flower Photography, Lensbaby, Lensbaby Blog Circle, Photography, USA, Velvet 56
Tags: Burnside 35, Lensbaby, Orange County, Velvet 56, Wildflowers

Our family moved to Southern California in June of 2012. Since that time we only experienced the wilderness in shades of green decorated with blooming wildflowers once, two years ago. The only time this happens in the spring is when we get enough rain during the winter months. To my delight, it is happening again this spring, after a very wet winter.

I discovered a nearby area two years ago with beautiful California Poppies; last Sunday I visited the same area hoping to find similar poppy fields. I headed to the park early, I was there not long after sunrise; the park was pretty empty, I only saw one person in the parking area. I started hiking, but after a few short minutes I noticed something from the corner of my eyes. I stopped and turned my head to discover that a coyote was standing about 50-60 yards away from me.

After staring at each other for a few seconds I started walking on the path, but kept my eyes on her. She then moved, and I noticed that poor animal was limping. I really felt sorry for her and I knew that she wouldn’t be able to hurt me. She hopped away and I continued my hike to the poppy field.

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A Visit to Whitney Plantation, Wallace, LA – Lensbaby Blog Circle

Published: Thu, Jan 31, 2019
Written by GizellaN
12 Comments
Categories: Blog, Burnside 35, Lensbaby, Lensbaby Blog Circle, Photography, Photowalk, Recommendations, USA
Tags: Burnside 35, Lensbaby, Louisiana, museum, slavery, Whitney Plantation

In January of 2019 my family took a 4 day trip to New Orleans, Louisiana. You can read about the whole trip in my previous blog post. One of the highlights of the trip was visiting a plantation, which is the only one focused on the slaves of Louisiana. I had planned to write about this visit in my Lensbaby Blog Circle post prior to going there, and I decided on using my Burnside 35 lens. This is the Lensbaby lens that I grab for times when I am not by myself, but rather with my family. Since we were part of a large group, and there were areas where I could not have been able to stop and focus with my manual lens, I sometimes grabbed my phone to take additional pictures. I will be showing you images taken both with my Burnside lens and my phone (always noted) in this blog post.

The first owner of the plantation was Ambroise Heidel (at around 1752), whose family immigrated from Germany. They, among many other German immigrants, settled in the first German Coast (St. Charles Parish). The German Coast became a main food supplier to New Orleans. The Hayden Plantation turned into one of the most important sugar plantations in the State, and the owners one of the wealthiest people of the area. None of this could have happened without the extremely hard work of the enslaved African people they “owned” on their plantation.

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Family Trip to New Orleans, Louisiana

Published: Thu, Jan 24, 2019
Written by GizellaN
No comments
Categories: Architecture, Blog, Family Trips, Recommendations, USA
Tags: family trip, French Quarter, Hop On Hop Off, Louisiana, Mardi Gras World, New Orleans, New Orleans School of Cooking, St. Louis Cemetery #1, Ultimate Swamp Tour, Whitney Plantation

Need a destination for a quick family getaway? Try New Orleans, Louisiana.

In January of 2019 my daughter got 2 extra days off of school around MLK Jr. Day, and we decided to take a family trip during the 5-day long weekend. Although we considered going to New York, NY first, luckily we decided to go to New Orleans, LA instead. (The weather in NY was far from pleasant during the weekend.)

In this post I just wanted to share what places we visited (with a 14 year old), in case someone else is looking for great stuff to do there. In future posts I will write about a few of these places in detail.

First of all, after a whole day of searching for places to go to and things to do I decided, that the New Orleans City Pass was not going to work for us. Since this was a family trip and we wanted to enjoy our time in the Crescent City, we did not want to rush from one attraction to the next one all day long. I planned two major things to do every day, and we filled the rest of the time with small walks, etc. I did find many great deals on www.livingsocial.com, and I was able to get discounted tickets for 3 out of 6 places there. If you are interested in the various city passes, this article compares them very well.

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