Inspired by Now

Published: Mon, Jul 01, 2019

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Categories: Blog, Family Trips, Lensbaby, Lensbaby Blog Circle, Photography, Photowalk, Twist 60, USA

Welcome to my July 1st Lensbaby Blog Circle post, in which I’d like to invite you to take a short walk with me in San Antonio, Texas. My family was taking a five-day vacation in Austin and San Antonio, and I grabbed my Lensbaby Twist 60 to capture some great moments while walking on the famous San Antonio River Walk (Paseo del Rio), which is the largest urban ecosystem in the United States. The whole walk is 15 miles long, but we mainly just visited the downtown area. You can walk by the river, enjoy a lunch or dinner in one of the many restaurants, visit small gift shops, or take a guided tour on an electric barge. We walked around the downtown area twice; once in late afternoon then after sunset. The vibe was different, but we noticed that even at night the area is very family friendly.

I really enjoyed capturing the colorful barges, and I even took pictures of people, which is very unusual for me. We saw pretty flowers, some wildlife, and at night we walked up to San Fernando Cathedral where we watched a laser light show projected to the cathedral’s wall for a few minutes. Without further ado, enjoy a brief tour of the San Antonio River Walk.

Published: Mon, Jun 17, 2019

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Categories: Blog, Flower Photography, Lensbaby, Photography, Sol 45, Twist 60, Velvet 56

In the past few weeks I haven’t used my Lensbaby lenses as much, because I attended nature programs in groups, where an automatic lens was more useful. If I wanted to take pictures while hiking, I had to do it fast and not hold up the group.

Last week I spent a brief time at a pretty place in San Clemente, California. Casa Romantica is a beautiful venue for weddings and parties, and it is open to the public when no events are going on.

I walked around the garden three times, using a different lens each time while approaching the same subjects. I used the Sol 45, the Twist 60 and the Velvet 56. After comparing the images I chose the ones to post that I liked the most. One subject worked very well with all three lenses, I’ll save that for last. A few subjects didn’t work for me at all. So here are the winners:

The only image of the view from the gardens I liked was taken with the Twist 60. It was a dark, overcast day, but this is the lens I would use again for this view on a sunny day.

Published: Sat, Jun 15, 2019

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Categories: Blog, Flower Photography, Irvine Ranch Conservancy, Landscape, Photography, USA

A couple of months ago I signed up for a 6 hour long truck tour in the mountains right behind us. It’s an area that is not open to the public, but the Irvine Ranch Conservancy organizes programs there that you can attend. I was very excited about this truck tour, but unfortunately it had to be cancelled due to rainy weather. Luckily, I was able to sign up for a different day for a 4-hour long tour on June 8th.

The group met Donna, our driver, and the other 4 volunteers at the Augustine Staging area, where we started our trip on this truck:

Published: Fri, Jun 14, 2019

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Categories: Blog, Photography, USA

In the past week I attended 5 programs organized on Irvine Ranch Natural Landmarks. I will post about the first four in a day or two; today I am only writing about today’s program. I joined a lovely group of volunteers and visitors in the morning to look for birds that live in the canyon. This was my first birding experience, and although we didn’t see a lot of birds during the short hike, it was a very pleasant experience.

I do not own any lenses that are ideal for bird photography, but I still wanted to take a few images. I’ll share them with you despite of not being great pictures. But they are wonderful memories of today’s hike. Here they go:

2 Ravens perching on a dead branch

Published: Fri, Jun 07, 2019

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Categories: Blog, Photography, Photowalk, USA

Southern California is experiencing the annual June Gloom. It’s a cloudy, overcast condition which is supposed to keep the temperatures down. But the temperatures this year have been down already; we are experiencing a very cool (but not cold!) spring. And the June Gloom is UGLY! 🙂 I remember moving to SoCal seven years ago on June 2nd, and for the first few weeks all I saw were the grey, sad looking mornings. I didn’t know about June Gloom back then, and I questioned if we really wanted to live in such a grey looking place. But I know now, that it passes.

Anyway, I still don’t like the look of it. So, when yesterday I drove down to the ocean for the second time this week, and I found the same grey conditions as before, I almost turned back home. I should not have expected anything better, but I did, and this made me cranky. I took my iPhone out and snapped a few pictures.