First Night, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

I finally got out with the new 2 million candle power spot and had my first attempt at light painting (ala Dave Black style). Considering it was the first try I wasn’t totally disappointed but I did learn a bit. First of all it doesn’t get totally dark till very late at this time of year. Second, the barn I found for my first subject had these 2 trees right in front from the angle I tried and it would have worked better with a different camera position.
My grandson Andrew came along and we had a pretty good time. We’ll definitely be doing it again.

Mr G, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

Sometimes titles just roll off the tongue and sometimes I just can’t come up with one that works. Should be obvious which this is. The Canadian Geese are always a pleasure to see since they don’t go running away too fast and they don’t try to bite your back side when you aren’t looking.

Shoot the Shooter – Again!, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

It’s been awhile since I’ve added one to my Shoot the Shooter set on Flickr. But this guy was too classic to pass up. He was pretty much of like mind walking around the park on Sunday and looking for cool stuff to shoot.

Crazy Orange, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

When I saw this on Blackberry leaves at the river last week-end I thought it looked pretty cool. Then when I got ready to post this image I did a little search and found out that it is anything but cool. Seems like it’s a plant disease that is hard to get rid of and leaves the plants unable to bear fruit or at least severely compromised. Hope this is not a sign of things to come on the Sacramento River. Here is a link to a University of California article: http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=4660.

In the Summertime, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

Earlier this year while visiting Turtle Bay Museum I saw a display on the Big Swim Festival they used to have on the Sacramento River in the summer. The pictures they showed were of swim races, water dancers and grandstand seating with large crowds of people. This was in the early 1900′s and it looked like the whole town came to see. It makes sense since Redding is often over 100 degrees in the summer and in those days there was no such thing as air-conditioning. I found this under the Diestelhorst Bridge and I have a feeling that it’s been there over 100 years. Just a thought and hopefully someone will let me know the real story here.

Music in the Park, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

Riding for music in the park. It was a nice week-end at the park with lots going on.

Buzzing Around, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

Just a big old Bumble Bee flying around some Blackberry bushes at the river today. It’s good to see some bees are left to do some work. It’s scary thinking about the shortage worldwide.

Blowing in the Wind, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

The day of the Vaisakhi Festival was quite colorful and as is obvious, quite windy. I saw last week on the news that for 2013, in regards to days of wind over 15mph, we had 15 days in February and 16 days in March. These seem somewhat normal for the time of year. But, in April we have 25 days of wind over the 15mph. Guess it wasn’t just my imagination that it’s been windy.

Whack and Crack, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

During the demo of the Punjab Marshall Arts this is probably my favorite part. The head of the group (the master) is blindfolded and coconuts are placed on the heads of some of his teammates. He then goes around and whacks that bat he is holding and cracks open the coconuts.
His people are very trusting (usually).

Best Homemade Mailbox, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

Yes, this is the best homemade mailbox seen this week. Well, maybe ever. It was such a great job that we couldn’t resist adding it to our Scanvenger Hunt submission.