Happy new year! I took a long, and productive break from blogging and, to some extent, from social media. I hope you all had a great end of 2021.
This will be a relatively long post. No one is going to read it entirely, I know. Feel free to jump to the sections that interest you, or simply look at the photographs near the end.
During December, 2021, I got busy with the following:
CHANGES TO THE WEBSITE
I decided to move my website entirely to Artspan, leaving on WordPress only this blog. The site is now integrated with the blog in the menus.
During the process of populating my new site, I have only included my recent work in series centered on botanicals, but I might expand my repertoire later. Narrowing down is helpful if you want to be found by search engines.
NEW FORMAT FOR THIS BLOG
Most of my last years’ posts were attempts to glorify my own photography. I have planned a few changes that hopefully will introduce some variety. In future posts, I will also write a little about photography books and websites and the work of other photographers that have inspired me. I will also try to incorporate very brief tutorials in Photoshop, showing how I obtain certain “especial” effects in my own work.
BOTANICAL PORTFOLIO uploaded to GEO GALLERIES
I uploaded a selected sample of my B&W botanical photography portfolio to my Finerworks’ permanent inventory. FinerWorks is a large print-on-demand company that, among other things, can be used to fulfill and drop ship orders from sites like Etsy, Shopify and SquareSpace. I am planning on using that inventory to fulfill print orders. And since Finerworks allows users to sell prints directly through their (relatively new) Geo Galleries, I decided to try it out. If you are curious to see how Geo Galleries looks like, click here.
PLACES I have been
On the 11th and 12th of November, 2021, my friend Beth and I went to Santa Cruz, CA. Since we both have day jobs and commitments that prevent us from travelling on the fly, we ended up there on two sunny days. Ugh! Photography was very challenging on the first day, when we visited the Natural Bridges State Park, to see the monarch butterfly migration.
After that, we headed to the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum, for botanicals.
We then went photograph the sunset at the Wilder Ranch State Park:
The next day, Beth and I decided to go for forest photography at the Felton and Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. That paid off a little better, since most of the trail is in the shade, inside the forest. I had fun photographing the many different places the Big Leaf Maple lands after it falls from the tree.
On the last week of November, I visited the Quarry Hills Botanical Gardens in Sonoma, near Glen Ellen, CA. That garden is dedicated to Oriental flora, and there are always interesting new subjects to photograph there, plants I don’t regularly see in the Sacramento area. I was after the seedpod of an Oriental species of Magnolia (featured photograph), which I found, along with a few other curiosities.
December was a very calm month in photography. The weather was promising for landscape, but the gasoline is expensive, and preparations for Christmas involve spending money. I did take photographs at home though, for my new photo series, tulip curves (more on that later).
I am looking forward to a new year of blogging, and I hope that I will be able to write blog posts that are informative, engaging and fun. Have a great 2022!
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It is all about the light 
The five pictures you displayed here all came out well. The color of the backlit monarch butterfly harmonizes with the lit-up florets of the flower head it was on. That’s an attractively subdued sunset with cliffs and ocean. And what’s not to like about the yellow maple leaf clinging to the dark bark with complements of green lichen?
Happy 2022, and good luck with your new photo endeavors, both creatively and commercially.
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Thank you. Happy new year! I wish I could travel more for photos but gasoline is over the roof and lodging skyrocketed! And it’s the winter. Go figure.
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That gives you a clue about what gas and lodging might cost by late spring, when a lot more people will be traveling and staying in hotels.
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Day hikes close to me that will be my fate.
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Your title is a reminder that andar in Portuguese is a regular verb, whereas in Spanish it’s one of only three (I think) -ar verbs with an irregular past tense: anduve instead of the expected *andé.
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I did not know about the verb in Spanish.
“ Por onde andei” is a song that became popular in the 90s, by Nando Reis- Brazilians my generation will instantly recognize the reference, although I doubt any reads this blog.
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I confess to not knowing that song.
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No reason why you would.
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Great photos. Looking forward to seeing what you do in twenty twenty two (little poem there 🙂
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Lol. Thanks.
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After many years of writing at The Task at Hand, I decided to begin my second blog, Laniappe, From what you’ve written here, you’ve tackled more than I did, but when I changed themes and set up both of my blogs to coordinate with one another, it took more time and thought than I’d imagined. So, it makes sense to me that you’d be a little less active here while making so many changes.
Like you, I’m facing certain increased costs this year — rent, insurance, gas — that will put serious limitations on how far or how often I can travel. That’s one reason I’m looking forward to spring and summer. I don’t like to drive at night now, especially on unfamiliar or heavily traveled roads, so more hours of daylight will mean more relaxed day trips.
I’m looking forward to seeing how you develop your blog and other sites; I expect I’ll enjoy them as much as I have in the past. Here’s to a happier and less complicated 2022!
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Let’s only hope that the gasoline prices will not go up travel season. Historically they have a tendency to go up in the summer… thanks for stopping by.
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