Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Fall Colors at a vineyard in the Sierra Foothills

On a Sunday afternoon, I found myself with nothing to do. The forecast was calling for the sudden arrival of winter like weather on Monday, with overnight drops in max/min temperatures of at least 10 degrees. This Fall, I hadn't yet taken the time to go leaf peeping anywhere in the Sierras', it appeared this maybe my last chance to do so before the leafs get shed for good. 

I took a short couple hour trip into the wine country in the Sierra foothills. Found a couple of new roads I hadn't yet been on, spotted a few dastardly Deer, and saw a spattering of color in the trees amidst an overabundance of evergreens here in California.

My one and only stop was at a small vineyard/winery, I went into the tasting room to talk to the friendly folks and left a few dollars in the tip jar and got their permission to wander a bit in their vineyard. I wasn't there long, maybe 20-25 minutes or so, I wanted to be home well before the fast approaching dusk. 

I had borrowed a friend's Canon, similar to one (a couple generations newer), that I am looking to purchase to upgrade from my Panasonic. I had some trouble with the Canon, while quickly trying to figure out all the controls and had some trouble getting used to it's viewfinder, so my composition sucked, but the f1.8 lens on that Canon was beyond fantastic. My Panasonic with it's f2.8 lens paled in comparison. I am used to my Panasonic, having had it for a few years now, so the composition maybe better with the Panasonic. I leave it to the reader to figure out which picture is from which camera. 

I wanted to try some experiments comparing the bokeh from the Canon f.18 and the Panasonic's Leica f2.8 lenses. I would focus on something close-by and try to make everything-else fade away, hopefully into some kind of artistic oblivion. Honestly, I didn't have much success in my opinion. More studies are needed! Haha! :-)

Hope you enjoy these few images!