Featuring travel, adventure, outdoor lifestyles & nature photos.
From the category archives:
Camping at Lake Almanor, near Mount Lassen, Northern California.
Surprise! I did something I thought I’d never do. I jumped on the Flickr bandwagon. I have nearly 100 photos uploaded now and a few sets. Here is my largest and most popular set; Outdoor Lifestyles.
I will be adding many more images here and to our main Photography Website in the coming weeks! Be sure to check back often!
C ya,
~Sherri
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Sunrise on Gold Lake, Sierra County, California.
Have you been following me on Facebook? I seem to be a little more active there lately, than I am on this Blog. If you have, then you would know that Jeff & I just returned from another adventure in Northeastern California.
We 4-wheeled in to the OHV campground at the back side of Gold Lake, one of our favorite off-the-beaten-path locations. Our friend, Jeff, came along too and he had never been 4-wheeling before! I hiked in to the campground with our dog, Cocoa, while spotting for the two Jeff’s. Cocoa thought that was pretty cool!
When we arrived, someone was camped in “our” favorite spot. We were really disappointed at first, but it didn’t take us long to get over it. We found a better spot, one which was always occupied before.
Oh boy, did we luck out. We ended up in a large campsite at the end of the campground. We had room for 5 or 6 tents and our own private beach for the boats! The campground was built with OHV Green Sticker funds and all of the sites had new tables, fire rings and some even had “Bear Boxes.” The outhouse near our camp was a room with a view (no roof). It was great on starlit nights, but not so good when it rained!
During our stay we kayaked, hiked, relaxed, told stories, ate great food, drank great beer and came home with lot’s of new images! 
I’m giving this trip a 10 out of 10! I guess the weather and water could have been a wee bit warmer. But, there are always trade-offs! If the weather was warmer, chances are the sky would have been boring. We would not have had the wonderful light shows we had = less photo opportunities!
Fall Photo Tours & Workshops Coming Soon! I am really excited to announce that I will be leading several half & full day Fall Gold Country Photo Tours & Workshops, scheduled for October & November. Since there will not be much advance notice, they will be offered at a special “2 for 1″ price. More information on this coming soon on this Blog, on Facebook and in our October Newsletter!
As always, thanks for visiting and your comments and questions are greatly welcomed and appreciated!
Happy Trails,
Sherri
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Vicki West cooking Dutch Oven Blackberry Cobbler, Utica Reservoir, Alpine County, CA
Move over summer. Fall is here.
This wraps up my summer series at Utica Reservoir. Our wonderful friend and Professional Chef, Vicki, came all the way out from Colorado to help celebrate my Birthday. What a gal!
She hauled 3 Dutch Ovens with her and all the makings for Beef Brisket and Blackberry Cobbler (minus the Blackberries – we picked those in our neighborhood) for my Birthday dinner Saturday night.
Vicki spent much of the day prepping and cooking. Jeff gladly assisted her during the cooking process. He wants to get into Dutch Oven Cookery too. It was quite amazing to watch and photograph. But, the best part of it all was eating it!
If anyone wants the recipes for the Beef Brisket and/or the Blackberry Cobbler, just leave a comment below. I’m sure I can get them for you, when she returns home to Colorado. She is currently working at a ranch in Wyoming and should be returning home soon!
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View of Utica Reservoir in Alpine County, CA at sunrise, from inside our tent.
Fall has arrived. That said, I will be wrapping up my summer series on Utica Reservoir soon. Then, my focus will be on Fall images.
This photo was shot from inside our tent at 5:30 in the morning. I didn’t feel like messing with the tripod, so I shot this at ISO 3200. My camera (Nikon D300) does very well at the higher ISO’s. I can also reduce the digital noise using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Even so, I couldn’t reduce the noise enough for my liking.
So, what did I do?
I took this image into Photoshop CS3 and applied “Cutout,” one of my favorite artistic filters. It did exactly what I hoped it would. It covered up all the noise and rendered an image that was pleasing to the eye.
I hope you like it!
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Camp Fruit Salad, Utica Reservoir, Alpine County, California.
I’m not a Food Photographer. But, I like to pretend to be one once in awhile.
This photo was taken during our recent camping trip with friends to Utica Reservoir. Putting the salad and arrangement together was a collaboration. I had the Gingham tablecloth. Vicki had the blue enamel bowl. Kim supplied the cloth napkin. We all supplied the ingredients.
It was a lot of fun and I’m happy with the results. I think it will work just fine as a “Camping Stock Photo.”
The Makeover
Photo #1 – To develop this image, I used Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Photo Management Software. To improve my original image (see below), I did the following:
Photo #2 – This is the way the photo looked straight out of the camera.
Camp Fruit Salad, Utica Reservoir, Alpine County, California.
I hope you enjoyed this photo makeover.
Thank you for visiting. If you would like to leave a comment, simply click on the “comments” link (add your message in the box) at the bottom of this post.
Visit our Stock Photo Website for links to photo galleries.
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Fallen Leaf Lake (foreground) and Lake Tahoe, California, taken from the Mount Tallac Trail.
After leaving Blue Lake, we drove south on 395 and headed for Fallen Leaf Campground, in South Lake Tahoe.
Some of our friends joined us there for the last leg of our road trip. While we were there, we hiked the spectacular Mount Tallac Trail.
This photo was taken during our hike. There are so many photos of Lake Tahoe that all look pretty much the same. I wanted to capture a more unique shot of this very popular subject.
Here is another post I wrote about our visit to Lake Tahoe.
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Likely General Store, Modoc County, California
It’s not too likely that you have been to the Likely General Store before. If you have, you will know how fun it is to browse the variety of merchandise they carry.
One of the things I love about little itty-bitty towns is they often have one of these types of stores. They carry the basic food items in case your camping supplies get low. Then, there is the popular blue camping enamel ware, cast iron cookery, arts & crafts and my favorite greeting cards by Leanin’ Tree.
We ran out of supplies while camping at Blue Lake. We could either drive into Likely, or drive a few miles further to the BIG (population under 3,000) town of Alturas. On this particular day, that was a no brainer. We opted to visit the Likely General Store. I so fondly remember stopping here when I was a kid and it hasn’t changed a bit.
Check out the gas sign. This was just this past August. Granted, the fuel prices in Likely run a little higher, due to their location. But, just 3 months later, our prices here in Auburn have dropped to $2.49 per gallon.
Let’s just hope we don’t see gas prices this high again any time soon!
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Blue Lake Sunset, Modoc National Forest, Northeastern California
You never know if and when you will get to return to a place that you have visited. So, if you are passionate about the subject, be sure to take lot’s of photos of it while you are there.
I did return to Blue Lake in California’s Modoc National Forest, but it took me 42 years. Fortunately, there was this spectacular sunset for me to shoot the heck out of.
If I have my way, it won’t be 42 years before my next visit to this Northeastern California jewel!
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Blue Lake sunset, Modoc National Forest, Northeastern California
We packed up our camp at McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park and headed for one of my favorite childhood camping spots, Blue Lake. Here is the post I wrote during our road trip.
The first night we were there, we were rewarded with this beautiful sunset. It helped to take our minds off of what we had witnessed driving in a few hours earlier that day; the devastation from the forest fire which had occured 7 years ago.
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Horr Pond Camp, Ahjumawi Lava Springs State Park, California.
If you are looking for solitude, look no further. This park gets less than 2,000 visitors annually.
Just be sure to BYOB! No, I’m not talking about booze. BYOB stands for “bring your own boat.” That is the only way you will get to experience Ahjumawi.
I’d like to see this photo used on the cover of a Northern California kayaking or camping guidebook.
Note: Be sure to read my other posts on Ahjumawi. I’ve still got a couple more coming too!
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