Uvas Canyon County Park

On Wednesday after work, I met some friends at Uvas Canyon County Park to photograph along the Waterfall Trail. This beautiful, little park was recently chosen as one of the best kept secrets in the Bay Area. It offers hiking, camping and day use facilities, but it's the many waterfalls that are easily accessed along Waterfall Loop Trail that draw people in. Swanson Creek runs year round, but the falls are at their best right after a storm. As you can see from the first photo, these are not Yosemite-sized falls, but they are beautiful and charming none the less. Granuja Falls is the first, and it offers multiple photographic opportunities.

Just by zooming in...

or moving off to the side...

to catch a rainbow, a new photo is created.

Black Rock Falls is off a side trail at the top of the loop. I took a short cut that made me wonder what the hell I had gotten myself into, but was too far along to turn back. The climb would have been much easier to negotiate if I had not been lugging a camera, a bag full of gear, and a tripod.

I took the easy trail back down.

I saved this bottom photo for last because it is my favorite.
I love the color and shine on the rocks
and the smoothed-out flow of water.

It was a good way to spend an afternoon.

BarnStorming 2

This is a continuation of my hunt for barns.

If you really want to know the whole story,
skip down to "Barn Storming 1" and read it first, then come back.

I spied this barn on a backroad in Gilroy. I pulled onto a long drive and stopped because I didn't want to trespass, at least not in my car. I took this shot and then walked up the drive a bit to get a different angle, and low & behold, look what was waiting for me....

WOW! a barn with a horse in the foreground.
This was even better than wildflowers.

A secondary goal on my barn hunting trips was to find a classic wind vane, exactly like this one. I only had to trespass a little bit to move in close.

And right across the road stood this majestic tree
on a green, sloping hill.

My barn storming days are over for now.
You can view all my barn photos on my Flickr Photostream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/suebrazelton/

Barn Storming 1

The Morgan Hill Photography Club picks a theme for each month of the year and we take photographs based on that theme and post them to a Flickr site. The theme for March is "Barns." I have had so much fun searching for the perfect barn in the perfect setting. I first posted photos of this little gem back in November '09 (See "Halloween"). It's on a back road to San Jose that I travel on every day on my way to work. I though the barn was abandoned, but in comparing the photos, it is apparent that someone has been working on it.

I climbed over the fence to get a closer look.
Old barn wood has beautiful texture.

This green barn is in Morgan Hill and I drove by it hundreds of times and never saw it until a friend pointed it out. This one had a fence I chose not to violate, so I had to photograph from the side of the road, which was OK since the gnarly oak trees added so much to the composition.

We can post five theme photos each month, so last weekend I headed to Hollister on a barn searching excursion. There are lots of barns in Morgan Hill and Gilroy, but I wanted to find a classically styled barn nestled into a hillside and surrounded by colorful wildflowers. This is the style I was looking for, but it was on top of a rise with not a flower in sight.
I continued on and came upon this giant structure that has seen better days, but is still in full use.

This barn has not, I think, been used for a very long time. It is being consumed by the surrounding trees and shrubs.

As I photographed this slowly crumbling barn, I wondered about its history. At one time it was needed. It stood straight and its builder looked upon it with pride. How long ago was that and why was it abandoned?

I continued on, still looking for that post card barn in a picturesque setting. This is what I found, another barn that had fallen into disrepair. It wasn't what I was looking for, but I am so glad I stopped to photograph it. From this side, it looks pretty decrepit, but I was in for a treat when I walked past it and saw the other side.

I love how the earth is asserting its authority on this little bit of land. Trees were cut to mill the lumber to build the barn, and now trees are reclaiming their rightful dominance. Earth will always abide.

I was not out on this road alone.
I could feels eyes following my every move.

I never did find my pretty barn in a lovely setting, but I love the barns I found. I may go "barnstorming" again tomorrow. You can view more of my barn photos on my Flickr Photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/suebrazelton/