Sacramento Zoo

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Photography: #100DayProject Second Update

It’s Day 45 of the #100DayProject and I’m still going strong. Since we are almost at the halfway point, it felt like a good time to reflect on what I’ve learned so far.

  • Storage: I ran out of space on my hard drive. It was inevitable, but I finally had to do something about it. I now have an external hard drive, and I’ve moved several years’ worth of photos onto it, organized into folders by date and subject.
  • Editing: Once I tackled spacing issues, I had to face my inconsistent workflow. I was using multiple programs to edit and save photos with no long-term planning. It’s embarrassing, but I would edit them on my desktop, put them on the blog, and then get rid of the edited versions. Argh. Now, I’m close to having a good working system, which keeps edited photos and the RAW versions.
  • Skills: I’ve taken four classes so far—posing, exposure triangle, light, and senior photography as a business. I’m starting an editing class next week. It’s a lot to learn, and having to take and edit photos daily, along with everything else in my life, is proving to be exhausting.
  • Time: I’m behind on editing. Having to take a week to move things over to the new hard drive and organize all my photos has put me behind. I’m still going to share some of my bigger shoots with you, but some will just be practice.
  • Camera: I’m discovering the limits of having a camera with a Micro Four Thirds (MFT) sensor. Also, learning a lot about how prime lenses work and dreaming now of all the beautiful gear I can someday afford.
  • Career goals: My timeline of taking a year to really figure out if I can do this for a business is proving wise. I’ve had a few freak-out moments, some big missteps, and I’m learning the well of knowledge is pretty deep. 

As I haven’t had time to edit or share any photos for over a week, I thought it would be nice to share some of these with you. My nephew and goddaughter are my models a lot, but you’ll also see my daughter’s friend Layla in here, critters from my yard, items from the Antique Trove, animals at the Sacramento Zoo, and my friend’s fairy backyard.

While I’m falling even more in love with photography, the editing and tech side of photography has me kind of overwhelmed. And I miss writing. I’ve not had time to do any at all, and I’m feeling weird about that.

It’s hard to believe my book is almost a year old. I need to promote it more, maybe throw a party for the anniversary, but then again, I feel like the book did its job. You know? I’m proud of the work I did, but I think when I have more books to market, it will find a greater audience.

All this to say, sorry I’ve been away, and here are some pictures for you to look at. Let me know if you have a favorite and if you see improvement. It’s hard for me to tell if I’m just spinning my wheels or if they are indeed getting better.

Thank you!

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Bonus photo taken of me by my daughter’s friend Layla:

  • If you’re unfamiliar with the #100DayChallenge, it’s simple. You choose any creative project you like and do it every day for 100 days, sharing your process on social media using the hashtag #The100DayProject. This year the dates are Feb. 22-June 2.
  • These were taken with my Olympus E-M1 MarkII, using various lenses and edited with Lightroom Classic.
  • To follow Anna’s progress in the 100 Days. visit Little Bits of Thread
  • See what my friend Angelica’s doing for her 100 Days, visit Journal of a Wayward Writer
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Photography: The Sacramento Zoo Dinosaurs

Yesterday, I went to The Sacramento Zoo to see their new collection of enormous animatronic dinosaurs. While the exhibit was fantastic, I struggled hard with my camera. I chose to bring the wrong lens, forgot my glasses, couldn’t get my settings right for anything, and ended up with a lot of bad photos. I’m talking real stinkers.

I’m sharing the ones I sort of liked, as a marker in my journey. These show what I was trying to do: get more varied shots, focus on depth, and play with colors. You’ll see a lot of purposeful blur and my attempts at creative framing. I’ve got a lot of shoots planned in the future, and I suppose each click, good or bad, is a step in my journey.

Let me know if you have a favorite, and if you’re in Sacramento, the dinosaurs are there until October. I know I’ll be headed back again!

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  • These were taken with my Olympus E-M1 MarkII, using a 40-150mm lens and edited with Lightroom Classic.

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Photography: The Sacramento Zoo


You might not know this, but I raised and bred guinea pigs when I was a kid. At one point I think I had over a dozen in my bedroom (my room also had a pair of breeding doves and some fish). Not to brag or anything, but I made it to showmanship championships in Bakersfield one year. Yeah, I was a big deal with my piggies. Enjoy this very out-of-focus photo of me and my champion Teddy (breed of guinea pig) named Chippy.

I share this to say, when I found out they had baby capybaras at The Sacramento Zoo…I got pretty excited. For those who don’t know, capybaras are part of the Caviidae family and are considered distant relatives of the guinea pig. I got my 6-year-old nephew hyped up and when we saw the five little babies, well, we might have squealed just a bit. Not only are they adorable, but we saw them learning to swim! I think I got him hooked.


Here are my favorite capybara photos, along with some other beautiful Sacramento Zoo animals. Let me know if you have a favorite photo and have a fantastic rest of your week!

#1 *the momma capybara

#2 *one of five cute babies!

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#5 *don’t tell the others, but this little one is my favorite

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#9 *see if you can spot the third baby in the water

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#13 *serious side-eye happening

#14 *love the meerkat lookout

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#16 *isn’t he gorgeous!

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#20 *love the red pandas

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  • Photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW
  • Thank you Vanessa for the awesome face painting! Check her out if you need to hire someone. She’s fantastic.

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Photography: The Sacramento Zoo


Yesterday, taking advantage of the surprisingly cool weather for this time of year, Superman and I went to the Sacramento Zoo. We saw axolotls, a possum who’d gotten into the red panda enclosure, giraffes, baby flamingos, playful meerkats, a snake undergoing a procedure, and a giant rhinoceros.

It was exactly what I needed. Seeing the world through the eyes of a 6-year-old and my camera lens did wonders for me. Please enjoy these photos and let me know if you have a favorite.

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  • These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
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Photography: The Sacramento Zoo

Last week I took my mom and 5-year-old nephew to the Sacramento Zoo. We saw plenty of lovely animals, but the flamingos on their nests stole the show. Let me know if you have a favorite image and I hope you are having a wonderful day.

“When I draw it, I’m going to make my skin see-through and what you’ll see is that all the animals in the zoo of me have broken out of their cages.”—Jandy Nelson

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All photos were taken by me using an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.

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Photography: A Day at the Zoo

I’ve been looking at a lot of photographs and find I’m really drawn to photojournalism. I love when a photographer tells a story through their images, capturing a moment in time or the essence of a person or place. I’d like to work on developing my own style of images.

On the road to improvement, I’ll be dedicating the next few weeks to photographing on a theme. This week, my offering is from a recent visit to the Sacramento Zoo. I had a small child with me, so I didn’t have as much time as I’d have liked to stay in one place and capture multiple images. However, it’s all part of the process and I rather enjoyed myself.

Thank you for your support and have a wonderful week.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
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What to see more?