The Traveling Widower

Tag: sacramento

  • Street Art and Color Wheels

    Traffic signal with a red light and a yellow pedestrian crossing sign under a clear blue sky

    August 10th, 2026

    !!!!Photography Geek warning!!!

    With all the fancy camera equipment I buy, and thousands of images I’ve collected from my recent world wide adventure travels, I still consider myself to be little better than a novice when it comes to photography. Yeah, I do have some technical knowledge gained through learning how to process film and make prints in a darkroom, and I have been to some workshops and a couple of classes, but I never seem to make the jump to the next level where my work places in competition. It was frustrating to spend 12 days in a place like Iceland, and not have anything worth submitting for nature or landscape competition. But, competition is not the only reason I lug all this gear around….I just enjoy photography as a hobby, and the pictures I take on my trips are a feature of my blog, or wind up printed on acrylics to decorate the rapidly filling wallspace in my home. I may have to look for a new place to live with more wall space.  As I’ve said before, I started blogging to tell stories around my photographs, it’s sort of the reverse now. 

    At any rate, I’m rambling once again. I’m still trying to improve my skills in composition, planning, and post-processing by enrolling in classes and workshops – old dogs can learn new tricks. Bark!  I recently attended a workshop focused on color – “A Photographers Guide to Color Theory”. I’ve had some exposure to color theory from my color darkroom days – you had to play around with the color filters on the enlarger, and wind up wasting a lot of expensive paper and chemicals if you did not know the basics. Now of course, you can use Adobe products to do all of that on your computer. I was hoping this course would be a good refresher, and from the description, maybe explain how you can use the myriad of camera settings to improve on the RAW images rather than having to fix things with Adobe. I also hoped to learn about one aspect I knew nothing about – color temperature, or the Kelvin rating. When I attended the astrophotography workshop in Moab Utah this year, someone asked what Kelvin I was shooting at. Huh? I had no clue, or even how to set that. This would be a good place to learn about that.

    Well, the class did exceed my expectations. The instructor covered all the technical aspects of color – why we see colors, how the primary colors are mixed to generate the color wheel, shades/tints/tones, and yes….color temperature. I now know how to change the Kelvin settings on my camera..and why I would want to do that. Beyond the technical aspects of color theory and photography, the instructor spent more time on the relationships of color, color harmony, and how that impacts photo composition, as well as the impact that mix of colors might have on the viewer (or competition judges). Different mixes can tell a different story, and have unique emotional impacts…how a viewer feels when they see these colors. Warm shades versus cool shades can change a person’s mood. Think about all the color cards you go through when you are buying paint for your house. The color mix in an image can tell a story, and set a mood.

    A color wheel featuring segments of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, with labels for each color.

    We put our new found knowledge to practice once the instructor finished her presentation, by taking a tour of the surrounding neighborhood, looking for murals or interesting color combinations on the older buildings.  It was slim picking at first, hence my photo of the traffic signal (which actually illustrates how three analogous hues, yellow, red and blue make for a nice composition), but we found quite a few murals as we wandered through the alleys. This was basically street photography, something I’ve been interested in learning since I pretty much suck at composition beyond wildlife and landscape photography. Jan was great at that – if she saw something interesting, she would just say – “Sam…take a picture of that”.

    So I’m going to expand my photography horizons and take a workshop in October. Jan would have been pleased although I’m pretty sure she would not be thrilled with all the nature stuff I have hanging on the walls now.

    So, here are a few of the images I captured on our walk about, with a comment or two on color composition.

    Colorful geometric pattern created by triangular shapes on a textured wall against a clear blue sky.

    I walk by this building display every time I go to the Viewpoint center, but never stop to take a closer look. It’s really a well designed  creation of repeating geometric shapes, each an analogous mix of hues (all related). It’s a bit painful to look at , sort of like one of those Escher posters. I like it a lot.

    Close-up of a vibrant eye mural painted on a brick wall, featuring intricate details and purple hues.

    This is a close-up of a full wall mural of a women’s face – I like the texture of the bricks, with the different (triadic) mix of soft hues. 

    Colorful mural of a person with glasses on a building, featuring abstract geometric shapes and vibrant colors.

    The instructor did not like the color mix on this – sort of a haphazard mix, which does not tell a story. I liked the composition.

    A mural featuring a stylized skull with diamond-shaped eyes and a mustache, integrated with a classic barber pole design in red, white, and blue, set against a black background.

    I’m not sure I would want to get my hair cut at this barber shop. This reminded me of the skull displays I’ve seen for Dia de los Muertos. Nice color mix though

    A vibrant mural featuring an abstract composition of eyes and facial features, painted in shades of blue and purple, with sunlight shining above.

    I liked this one – a bit creepy, but the monochromatic blend of blues really works to create the creepiness. 

    Close-up of a painted eye on a brick wall, showcasing intricate details and vibrant colors.
    A brown freight train car with colorful graffiti artwork on the side, surrounded by a chain-link fence and greenery in the background.

    There were too many murals to include in this post, so I’ll stop with these two. Another eye closeup, also monochromatic, and then a train passed by, with most of the cars covered in graffiti. I’m not quite sure where you cross the line from graffiti to street art. This one reminded me of the concrete snow sheds in the Donner Pass tunnels.

    Someone in the group mentioned that there is a guide to all the murals in the Sacramento area, www.wideopenwalls.com, and one of the murals had the QR code for the artists page on that Website. The guide includes a detailed map, so I intend to dedicate a morning in the near future, to do some exploring – I have about 2 weeks to kill before I leave for Kodiak Island, so I might as well do something useful since I’ve been completely packed for over a week. Yeah, I’m that kind of person.  

    And now a segue to a completely unrelated topic. Well, maybe a little bit related given the last paragraph. I mentioned somewhere above about how much I enjoy photography as a hobby, regardless of whether I do well in competition. I’ve found that everything involved with even a one day photo shoot – the planning, preparing the gear, and all the post processing, can lift me from the usual doldrums and depression I get when I’m between trips, sitting around by myself with nothing much to do. You can only pack so many times for a trip that’s a month or two out on the horizon. Add in the time spent on writing a blog post for the activity, prepping for a club competition, or looking for some other related activity and I can keep myself quite busy for some of that down time. The past few days have been a good example – the color workshop was an incentive to look for other street photography classes, and has kept me busy doing post processing on images I captured. I’ve also been planning on one last Milky Way shoot which required checking out a few sites up in the Sierra, and then remembering all the camera settings I need for astrophotography (another post coming soon!). I guess this is a form of escapism, but in a good way. I think I’m turning into Max – most everything I do is digital based. Maybe I’ll watch Tron again tonight. But I’m not letting Max’s dog into the house. I’ll never get him out of the pool.

    A golden retriever swimming in a well-lit pool, holding a red toy in its mouth, surrounded by lush greenery and modern landscaping.

    Peace

  • A Rosey Sunday Morning

    A picturesque garden pathway adorned with colorful rose bushes, leading through neatly trimmed hedges and an arched trellis, under a clear sky and palm trees.

    May 4th, 2026

    Earlier this year, I joined a local photography organization, the Viewpoint Photographic Art Center (located in Sacramento), which hosts exhibits for photographers, and also offers workshops and classes for members. A great local organization for photographers. I visit the gallery at least once a month to view the latest exhibits and chat with the docents – gives me something useful to do when I’m home between trips. 

    I signed up for one of the workshops which piqued my interest – a morning photo shoot at one of those relatively unknown gems in Sacramento, the McKinley Park Rose Garden. I used to do some flower photography many years ago, but mostly of alpine flowers when I was hiking in the Rockies. I figured now that photography is my primary hobby and source of amusement, it would be worth getting a little hands-on training once in a while.

    So, (extremely) early Sunday morning, I chugged down my morning coffee, grabbed the Sony A7RV with the Sony 25-105MM lense, also my fancy monopod,  threw another lens in a small backpack, and headed off to the park – only a 20 minute drive. I figured I could survive 3 hours without any extra food.

    The Rose Garden covers a 1.5 acre section of the large park, and has over 1,200 rose bushes, managed and maintained  by volunteers. It is a beautiful place to wander through, and is rented out for weddings and events…but most of the time, it is just open to the public 24X7. Just about all the bushes are bursting with blossoms this time of year, so this was a good day to take some photos. 

    This turned out to be a very small workshop – myself, one other person and the Viewpoint lead. This was also sort of a casual affair with such a small group – the leader gave us some challenges to work on, some ideas on what we should try out, and then set us loose. We checked in every hour to discuss the conditions and things we should look for, and then went off to try them out. It was great. The lighting conditions kept changing, so you could photograph the same target, and then have a completely different look if the sun ducked behind a cloud. There were so many different flower shapes and colors, with lots of dense leaves to provide nice backgrounds to the colorful blooms. A fun time – it was nice shooting in the daylight (as opposed to my astrophotography trip), and seeing the difference you get by changing the depth of field on the same subject.

    I did have one non-flower subject. A bluebird decided to hang around the bushes close to where I was standing, so I switched gears for some bird photography – these came out pretty nice.

    A bluebird perched on green foliage, surrounded by out-of-focus plants in the background.
    A bluebird perched on a branch surrounded by greenery.

    We kept at it for about 2 1/2 hours until we all ran out of steam. I sat and chatted with the docent for a while, and then headed home. I really did not have much in the way of expectations for the results – I was happy with the bluebird images, and had a  lot of fun so it was already a worthwhile endeavor. But when I downloaded the RAW images to Lightroom, I was shocked – there were quite a few really nice images. Not just the settings and focus, but the composition as well. Maybe I’m finally learning something….or maybe it’s just luck. My next planned photo trip is at the end of the month – hopefully I’ll remember some of what I’ve learned the past few weeks. It could happen.

    Close-up of a vibrant yellow-orange rose with pink edges in a garden setting, accompanied by a blurred background rose.
    A close-up view of vibrant red roses with yellow edges, surrounded by lush green foliage.
    A vibrant red rose in full bloom surrounded by lush green leaves, with a smaller rose bud nearby.
    A cluster of vibrant red roses in full bloom, showcasing lush petals against a softly blurred green background.
    Close-up of a vibrant passion flower surrounded by green leaves.
    Close-up of a vibrant red rose with layered petals, showcasing shades of orange and pink against a dark green background.
    A close-up of a vibrant red rose bud with a green unopened bud nearby, set against a blurred green background.
    A vibrant cluster of orange and red roses in a garden, with green foliage in the background.

    If you live in Sacramento area, it’s really worth a visit to the garden – free parking along the street, and the rest of the park is nice for a long walk.