The Traveling Widower

Tag: Street-art

  • Street Art and Color Wheels – A Photography Workshop

    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

  • Return to Donner Tunnels: 6 miles and lots of street art

    Photo from the Donner Pass railroad tunnels

    Friday’s seem to be my peak boredom day for some reason – once again, I wanted to get out of the house. I was considering heading back to the Donner Tunnels to complete the full hike next week, but it was supposed to be a beautiful day, so Donner Pass beckoned once again.

    Other than completing the full six mile round-trip hike, my goal was to focus on photographing the street art. And whatever else seemed interesting. I had lured a friend interested in photography to come along, so off we went in the morning, with camera gear and lots of flashlights (some with new batteries this time). I did forget one important thing – the 250G SD card for my Sony A7. Fortunately, the camera has two cards, and the second was still in the camera. Near disaster for sure.

    The Donner Tunnels are not just the rock tunnels blasted out by the Chinese immigrants hired to build this segment of the Transcontinental Railroad, the trail also includes long segments of very large, concrete snow sheds. Many of these connect directly to the rock tunnels. So when you are hiking this trail, you spend a great deal of time either in very dark, cave-like rock tunnels, or in the dimly lit snow sheds. Flashlites are a must since the trail is covered with large gravel, with occasional larger chunks of rock scattered about. I would not recommend falling on this trail.

    On my first hike, I covered tunnels 6-8, which included the long, dark tunnel at the head of the trail, and one very long snow shed. The remainder of the trail covers tunnels 9-11, which includes another long section of snow shed, and 2 moderate sized rock tunnels attached to snow sheds. All told, it’s about 3 miles from the parking lot to the end of the last tunnel. Nice, easy walking on rough gravel, with pools of water, and dimly lit trip rocks.

    Since this was a photo-hike, I’ll dispense with my usual endless chatter, and just show a bunch of photos (with captions), starting with some of the exterior photos.

    Tunnel Photo’s

    A silhouette of a person walking through a dimly lit tunnel, with water puddles reflecting light from the tunnel's entrance.
    Wet end to #11
    A dirt road leading to a dark tunnel surrounded by tall pine trees and a rocky mountain in the background under a clear blue sky.
    Big gap between 8 & 9
    An interior view of a long, arched tunnel with a gravelly floor, featuring colorful graffiti along the walls.
    A scenic view of a blue lake surrounded by lush green forests and mountains under a clear blue sky.
    Donner Lake, from the end
    A person and a dog standing near the entrance of a graffiti-covered tunnel surrounded by tall trees and rocky mountains in a sunny landscape.
    View from within a dark tunnel looking out at a bright, forested landscape with trees and a clear blue sky.
    Scenic view of a mountainous landscape featuring a bridge spanning across a valley, surrounded by dense evergreen trees under a clear blue sky.
    The long shed
    A dimly lit tunnel with a bright light visible at the far end, illuminating the rocky pathway.
    Wet tunnel…walk to the light

    And now for the street art. There are some amazing murals throughout the tunnels, almost all painted in the snow sheds. There is a lot of graffiti in the tunnels, but most are just scrawls on the dimly lit, rough rock walls. I was amazed at how high up some of the art and graffiti was upon the concrete walls – a very large ladder would have been necessary to reach that high. Some of the murals must have taken a day or two complete – some had a base color painted across large sections of the walls. The artists clearly had a plan, and must have brought a lot of paint and equipment along, not just a few cans of spray paint. It’s a shame that so much of this work has been covered over with graffiti. You can see that on most of the photos below.

    Street Art Photo’s

    A colorful graffiti mural featuring a cartoonish face wearing a party hat, with a speech bubble that says 'Happy Birthday Grandpa Dave! 84' against a vibrant, abstract background.
    A colorful graffiti mural featuring a clown face with a red nose and blue eyes, surrounded by vibrant abstract designs and text.
    A graffiti painting of a cartoonish face on a rocky wall, with blue eyes and a playful expression, surrounded by colorful spray-painted markings.
    Some simple graffiti
    Cartoon character graffiti of a bear with a green hat on a concrete pillar surrounded by rocky textures.
    A vibrant mural featuring stylized graffiti letters in bright colors alongside a character with pink hair and a black hoodie, painted on a concrete wall.
    Colorful graffiti featuring stylized lettering in blue and green against a concrete wall, surrounded by other graffiti and tags.
    A colorful mural featuring graffiti art on a concrete wall with various designs and bright colors.
    Colorful graffiti mural featuring a stylized character wearing a cap and holding spray paint cans, alongside bold lettering that reads 'Sayin'.
    Colorful graffiti art featuring bold lettering in green and purple, with a cartoon character in stripes holding a spray can, set against a dark wall.
    Graffiti artwork featuring a headless figure with a surveillance camera for a head, standing against a colorful wall covered in various graffiti designs.
    Colorful graffiti artwork depicting stylized cartoon characters with exaggerated facial expressions on a concrete wall.
    A colorful graffiti mural featuring a cartoon character with cat-like features, wearing a teal jacket and posed with one hand raised, against a textured background of vibrant colors.
    Vibrant graffiti art featuring swirling patterns and bright colors on a concrete wall, with several square cutouts along the bottom.
    A colorful graffiti mural featuring a cartoon eagle wearing a tank top with 'AOR,' and American flag-themed shorts, holding a beer and a heart-shaped speech bubble.
    Colorful graffiti covering a concrete wall, featuring various tags and artistic designs with the words 'Romer' and 'Hastu' prominently displayed.
    Example of over-painting
    Colorful graffiti art featuring the stylized text 'BISAK' with star motifs and bold outlines on a textured wall.
    A vibrant graffiti mural featuring stylized lettering in blue and green tones, set against a gray wall with scattered gravel below.
    A wall covered in vibrant graffiti art featuring a stylized portrait of a woman against a backdrop of colorful tags and designs.

    Most hikers turn back after emerging from the last snow shed – after 3 miles of walking on that rough gravel trail. staring at the ground in front of your feet in the dark to avoid tripping on rocks, and going blind going in and out of dark tunnels to bright sunlight, I had little enthusiasm for wandering down a dusty trail or hiking up higher. I was hoping there would be a couple of big rocks to sit on while taking in the view of Donner Lake, but there was not place to rest other than going back into the tunnel entrance. You’d think someone would have built a few benches! At least there was a path heading into some trees if you needed a bio break. 

    Walking back 3 miles through all the tunnels and sheds was not quite as exciting as exploring them on the way out. I had ditched the GoPro (into my pack) and did not make too many photo stops. I began to fantasize on finding a Dairy Queen close by to where we were parked. I had to settle for an It’s-it from a peculiar grocery store in Soda Springs on the way back to I-80. That hit the spot. 

    Hiking Past Tunnel 11

    FYI – The old railroad grade does continue on for miles, and eventually joins up with the active railroad line which runs through some of the old snow sheds and remaining tunnels (12-15). If you look on Google Maps/Earth, you can find tunnels 1-5 on the active rail line. I would not recommend walking through any of those. Aside from the fact that it is probably illegal, it’s scaring as hell if you are inside and the train goes by. I’ve had the experience in my rock climbing days in Colorado….trust me. Don’t do it.

    One other interesting point about this trail, noted by my friend, was the almost complete lack of trash along the entire three miles. I think I saw maybe two bottles the entire way. Either some group is coming by every now and then to pick up trash, or this hike seems to attract eco-friendly visitors. I even witnessed someone picking up and bagging their dogs poop. Amazing.

    References

    There are lots of YouTube videos and Web sites with information about the hike, including AllTrails. This is a good starting point https://tahoetrailguide.com/hiking-the-historic-donner-pass-train-tunnels-in-truckee-ca/