Photowalking territory

Some photographers feel that in order to take really good photos of stuff with a pretty background or find wildlife going about its business in its natural environment, one must travel to far away lands.  There are those who fly to other continents or drive across country in search of the ever elusive perfect photo; the proverbial “money shot.”  I too have fallen prey to this misconception and I admit that I have also traveled far and wide purely for the purpose of capturing images to bring home to my hum drum life back in the city.

Living in California, we are fortunate, blessed, if you will, to have a wide range of subject matter at our fingertips, a plethera of diverse environments and habitats at our disposal, and while some of my favorite, if not best, images have been taken at least a day’s drive away from my Central Valley home, one need only step outside their back door to find nature at its finest.  It’s all around us, and with a little patience, anyone can capture some pretty cool images of this wonderous world that we share.

Over the past several days I have been pestering my wife to take a trip back up to Auburn with me to hike around and take some more photos like our last trip I blogged about a couple of weeks ago.  I had the idea to start a tradition of going on a hike (with the camera, of course) on the day after ThanksGiving to justify, and then work off the over consumption of the holiday.  What I didn’t take into consideration, was that after spending two days preparing for and then hosting the ThanksGiving meal for a house of ten to fifteen people, my wife might be a little less than enthusiastic about embarking on a hike first thing the next morning.  Yes, for those of you saying to yourselves, “what was he thinking?  Obviously, he wasn’t”, I now see the error of my ways.

I have to hand it to my wife, though.  She is a real trouper.  Knowing how important this whole hiking thing after ThanksGiving was to me, she agreed to accompany me on a hike/walk a couple of days later, but a little closer to home.  Which brings me back to the misconception that you have to go far away from home to find nice scenery in which to hike in, walk through or photograph.

This photo was taken in Lodi yesterday and probably no more than a ten minute drive from our home.  Lodi Lake is a park that encompasses a rather large open space area with walking and biking trails that meander along the Cosumnes River, and, of course, a lake.  Not only is the area beautiful, and right in town, it also boasts a broad range of wildlife.  We were lucky enough yesterday to see this family of six deer just strolling through and meer feet away from us, grazing on grass and low tree branches.  Yes, that is the roof of a residential home in the background just beyond the deer.

We even got to see this crazy goose acting like a fool in the middle of the lake.

At the end of the day, we got in a walk to work off our (my) excesses of the holiday meal, got in some nature sights, had my wife at my side, now that she had a couple of days to recoup from all of her hard work preparing the meal and hosting a house full of people.  We also saved a bunch of dough in gas and travel time. 

So, when you’re thinking that geographical globe hopping is the only way to get out and take some pretty cool photos, or just escape the city, stop and take a look around.  You just might not have to travel any futher than your own back yard.