California

What’s Up at SMP?

by Sherri on September 2, 2009

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Sierra Sunrise over Utica Reservoir, Alpine County, California.

Sierra Sunrise over Utica Reservoir, Alpine County, California. This was also taken during our recent camping trip. We've been really busy working on a major Website project and I haven't had a chance to post for a few days. Today, I decided I had to post something no matter what. Here is an overview of what we are working on:
  1. We are adding a collection of new images to our on-line galleries.
  2. Some of our images are getting moved to our new archive, but they will still be available for purchasing as prints and for licensing.
  3. We are preparing to offer a few new services. I'll keep those a secret for now.
  4. We will be rescanning some of our slides.
  5. And more...
We hope to have the things mentioned above completed in 3-4 more weeks. After that, we will be concentrating on adding hundreds of new images to our galleries and archive. In the meantime, I hope to get back to posting on this blog a bit more often than I have been! 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. You can also sign up for a "free" subscription to this Blog. Just look in the upper right hand side of the Blog under "Subscribe to Sherri's Blog." Then, either click on the orange button, or enter your email address and click on "subscribe." Visit our Stock Photo Website for links to photo galleries.

Morning Paddle on Utica Reservoir

by Sherri on August 26, 2009

Morning paddle on Utica Reservoir, Alpine County, California.

Morning paddle on Utica Reservoir, Alpine County, California.

Jeff and I have kayaked and canoed on a lot of beautiful lakes and reservoirs in Northern California. If I had to choose the top 5 best places we have ever paddled, Utica Reservoir would definitely be one of them! 5 reasons why it is in the top 5.
  1. The water is warm, clear and has a sandy bottom.
  2. There are many islands to paddle to and camp on.
  3. The water is calm most of the time.
  4. The scenery is beautiful in every direction.
  5. It's not too big or too small. It's the perfect paddle lake!
You can read more about Utica Reservoir here. I have many more images to share from our recent trip. I will be spacing them out a bit, as we are in the middle of some very BIG Website projects. For that reason, I will also be spending less time on Twitter and Facebook, until those projects are a little further along. 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. You can also sign up for a "free" subscription to this Blog. Just look in the upper right hand side of the Blog under "Subscribe to Sherri's Blog." Then, either click on the orange button, or enter your email address and click on "subscribe." Visit our Stock Photo Website for links to photo galleries.

Top 10 Lightroom Tweets of the Week

by Sherri on August 21, 2009

Man kayaking on Utica Reservoir, Alpine County, California.

Man kayaking on Utica Reservoir, Alpine County, California.

This photo was captured as Jeff, Kim and I were heading for the Lily Pond that Jeff had discovered earlier that day. We were starting to get a little nervous, as thunder bumpers were rolling in. The last place we wanted to be during a storm is in a boat on the lake! Fortunately, the threatening looking sky rolled out of there about as fast as it rolled in. We were happy little kayakers once again! [click to continue…]

Vertical or Horizontal?

by Sherri on August 18, 2009

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Goose silhouette, Utica Reservoir, Alpine County, California.

Goose silhouette, Utica Reservoir, Alpine County, California. When you have a really good subject in front of you like this Goose, it's always a good idea to shoot more than one photo of it. Try shooting your subject in both formats (vertical & horizontal) at the minimum. Here is the horizontal photo of this Goose, that I posted last week. Which one do you prefer? 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. You can also sign up for a "free" subscription to this Blog. Just look in the upper right hand side of the Blog under "Subscribe to Sherri's Blog." Then, either click on the orange button, or enter your email address and click on "subscribe." Visit our Stock Photo Website for links to photo galleries.

Best of the Best Lightroom Tweets of the Week

by Sherri on August 14, 2009

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Sunset at Utica Reservoir, Alpine County, California.

You can just about count on a great sunset and sunrise at Utica Reservoir. When we first visited this mind blowing place 26 years ago, our experience was no different. You can read all my posts about Utica Reservoir here. This week I have a surprise for YOU! I went through all of my past "Lightroom Tweets of the Week" and handpicked some of the ones that have been most helpful to me up until now. Which ones have been the most helpful to you? Please let me and the other readers of this blog know your answers, by leaving a comment in the comments section below. Many thanks! Here are the "Best of the Best Lightroom Tweets of the Week!"
  1. @LightroomQueen Use LR for contact sheets, verses PS for more control. It also saves as it goes. Add your ID plate 2 personalise.
  2. @ dianeschuller Scott Kelby's book http://tinyurl.com/nmzwtu is a must have to get the most out of Lightroom.
  3. @ephotopros Lightroom 2 Twip: Experiment on a virtual copy, not the original. CTRL/Command ' to make a virtual copy.
  4. @MattKloskowski on Lightroom Killer Tips - Don’t forget about History > http://twurl.nl/k2x2nx.
  5. @xequals if you haven't been playing with the Luminance sliders in Lightroom you're missing out! http://x-equals.com/blog/?p...
  6. @RichLeighton Lightroom Keyboard Shortcut Quick Reference http://bit.ly/BORl2.
  7. @gmwils Watching Terry White's Lightroom workflow video: http://bit.ly/pt6hz.
  8. @ashumittal Creating a Triptych in Lightroom http://bit.ly/1Tjc8.
  9. @MattKloskowski Posted another Before/After Lightroom & Photoshop tutorial on my blog. Check it out http://tiny.pl/3k6d.
  10. @pixum Add a light Source in Lightroom in 5 Easy Steps. http://bit.ly/77jkl
In case you missed my previous "Top 10 Tweets of the Week" posts, you can view them all by clicking on the Top 10 Tweets of the Week category on the sidebar of this Photo Blog. You can retweet (RT) this post, by clicking on the lime green retweet button at the bottom of this post. It will take you directly to Twitter. If you don't know about the importance of retweeting, please refer to this post by Jim Goldstein. 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. You can also sign up for a "free" subscription to this Blog. Just look in the upper right hand side of the Blog under "Subscribe to Sherri's Blog." Then, either click on the orange button, or enter your email address and click on "subscribe." Visit our Stock Photo Website for links to photo galleries.

Family Kayaking on Utica Reservoir

by Sherri on August 12, 2009

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Couple and their dog kayaking on Utica Reservoir, Alpine County, California.

This is a very typical scene at Utica Reservoir. If you are into kayaking or canoeing and you have a dog or two, then Utica Reservoir is for YOU! We fit right in here. We have a dog and we love to kayak and canoe. I've never seen so many people paddling with their dogs as I did here. It was really fun to witness! More photos of our adventure to Utica Reservoir to come! 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. You can also sign up for a "free" subscription to this Blog. Just look in the upper right hand side of the Blog under "Subscribe to Sherri's Blog." Then, either click on the orange button, or enter your email address and click on "subscribe." Visit our Stock Photo Website for links to photo galleries.

Sunrise at Utica Reservoir

by Sherri on August 10, 2009

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Sunrise at Utica Reservoir, Alpine County, California.

This photo was taken the first morning during our camping trip to Utica Reservoir. Typically, I like to include people in my photographs, but I had to bag that idea for this photo. I was the only one up! More photos of our adventure to this magical place to come! 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. You can also sign up for a "free" subscription to this Blog. Just look in the upper right hand side of the Blog under "Subscribe to Sherri's Blog." Then, either click on the orange button, or enter your email address and click on "subscribe." Visit our Stock Photo Website for links to photo galleries.

Top 10 Lightroom Tweets of the Week

by Sherri on August 7, 2009

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Silhouette of a Goose at Utica Reservoir, Alpine County, California.

Silhouette of a Goose at Utica Reservoir, Alpine County, California. This photo was taken soon after we landed at Utica Reservoir, during our recent camping trip. After Jeff and I and our friends Jeff and Kim decided on a campsite, Kim and I wandered down to the lake to scout out photo opportunities. We had to run back to camp to grab our cameras. The conditions couldn't have been any better. The lighting was perfect. A gaggle of Geese flew in to greet us. Beautiful clouds surrounded us. Everything lined up perfectly! We photographed the heck out of those Geese. The photo shown here is one of my favorites from the ones I captured. [click to continue…]

Back to Reality

by Sherri on August 5, 2009

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Canoeing on Utica Reservoir, Alpine County, California.

We are back. We just spent 6 days at Utica Reservoir and it is just as wonderful as it was 26 years ago! This photo is one of many I will be sharing during the coming weeks. We came back with hundreds of fresh images and we covered just about everything on our shoot list. It was one of the most successful photographic adventures to date. Things are quite piled up around here everywhere you look. I sure hope we don't have any drop-in company any time soon. It looks like a tornado touched down in our house. That said, I'm not quite sure when the next post will be. But, hopefully it will be worth the wait. Be back soon. 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. You can also sign up for a "free" subscription to this Blog. Just look in the upper right hand side of the Blog under "Subscribe to Sherri's Blog." Then, either click on the orange button, or enter your email address and click on "subscribe." Visit our Stock Photo Website for links to photo galleries.

What’s New & Our Travel Plans

by Sherri on July 27, 2009

Photo-Collage

The images in this collage are some of our favorite images, that have appeared on this blog during the last year.

What's New We have been really busy lately, accomplishing a few projects and getting a start on other projects before taking off for a few days. You may have noticed, this Photo Blog has a new look. We are now using a new theme called Thesis. It isn't free, but it is money well spent. It makes blogging so much more simplified and you can customize it to suit your own needs. You can get Thesis here. We are also in the process of developing a large collection of new active baby boomer images. We hope to have them in our galleries soon after returning from our trip. After our return, we will also be making a few changes to our Website. Before I forget, there is one other thing that I want to mention. I have started a new group on Facebook called "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom." If you currently use Lightroom or are planning to use it, this group might be of interest to you. To join, click on this Adobe Photoshop Lightroom link. Our Travel Plans We will be heading out on Wednesday 7/29 for a few days. We will be camping in Alpine County, California. Other counties we will be traveling through are: Placer, El Dorado, Amador, Calaveras and Tuolumne. We are leaving the computer behind. My eyes need a break from the screen BIG time! I'm sure some of you can relate to this. We will also be without Internet Service. That will give us more time for photographing and adventure! Following is a partial list of subjects we plan on shooting during our visit to Alpine County. Photo Shoot List
  1. Kayaking
  2. Canoeing
  3. Hiking
  4. Camping
  5. Baby Boomers
  6. Cooking (Dutch Oven)
  7. Fishing
  8. Relaxing
  9. Nature
  10. Landscapes
  11. Gold Rush Towns along Highway 49
Note: My next post will be on August 4th or 5th! 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. You can also sign up for a "free" subscription to this Blog. Just look in the upper right hand side of the Blog under "Subscribe to Sherri's Blog." Then, either click on the orange button, or enter your email address and click on "subscribe." Visit our Stock Photo Website for links to photo galleries.