February 22, 2009- Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve

This field trip is getting blogged about a bit late, unfortunately (hence the February date with a April posting, haha). I originally was not sure I liked the pictures from this trip enough to post them, but the more I look at them, the more I like them.

This trip started out as a "getting-to-know-my-new-camera" trip. I had just bought my new Canon Rebel XSi and had no idea on how to start using it! Luckily, my friend Chris is experienced with using DSLR cameras, and offered to give me a lesson. I suggested we go to Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve, which is a wonderful reserve near Murrieta, California.

Waking up that morning, I was both happy and disappointed to see a cloudy gray sky. Happy because a long hike under an overcast sky is always fun, but disappointed because taking pictures with an overcast sky is NEVER fun. I guess there are some advantages, but personally, I like working with a lot of light.

We arrived at the reserver ready for our hike. At first I was hesitant to stop and start taking pictures, mainly because with an overcast sky, I wanted to wait until the Sun was a bit higher in the sky. After about an hour, I decided it was time to pull out my camera. At this point we had hiked long enough to be on the top of a hill in the middle of the reserve, surrounded by open, rolling, hills, green from the previous weeks' rain.

I love photographing trees and paths, for some reason. So I took advantage of some of the beautiful trees and trails that surrounded us.

We continued on our hike, this time with my camera out and ready to go. After about another 45 minutes of hiking, we arrived at an open area of rolling hills towards the eastern side of the reserve. Here, I found some extremely interesting decaying tree trunks. The one that stood out the most to me reminded me of a person holding his hands out in praise. I took a few different images of this tree trunk, at different angles and perspectives, but out of all the pictures I took, I liked this one the best:

Continuing on our hike, we finally reached our main destination: the old adobe structures used as bunkhouses for cowboys during the late 1800s. These structures are also shaded by a 400 year old live oak tree. Walking around the house, it was obvious how popular the area was for woodpeckers. I do not think there was a minute there where I did not hear the pecking of these birds!

After spending half an hour around the structures, we decided it was time to get going. I had to get home to work on homework, and Chris had to get to work.

On our way back, we took a different route, so I was able to get some more landscape photos. I definitely want to go back again and get more pictures though. Hopefully, it will be a lot sunnier next time.