Rush Ranch and Topaz filters

I like to visit mundane places for photography. Think about it. It is great to go to the Mono Lake, the Yosemite National Park, or near San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge to take a shot, but when you are there and you feel pressed to stop and shoot from every postcard view, you know that many people before you have already taken that photo, and that probably there are much better photos of that place out there on the internet.

This weekend I joined a Meetup group to go explore and photograph a virtually unheard of place by most photographers, Rush Ranch. I did not know what to expect. The day started out with clouds, and on my way there a few drops feel from the sky. This is really unusual around here in the middle of October, and I knew it was going to be a lucky photography day.

The ranch is about 2 miles south on CA-12 off I-80, and on the way to Grizzly Island. CA-12 is narrow and wavy on that stretch.

The ranch is small, and the central portion of it has a barn, some animals, a small visitors' center, and an old farm equipment graveyard, besides a blacksmith shop and a native plants' garden. Beyond that, some trails on the grass, towards the rolling hills.

I had only one lens with me, my 35mm prime. I figured that it would be sufficient for most shots and that I could hand hold it in that overcast day without having to use a very fast shutter speed. I started out in the graveyard, where I took some shots of an old Chevrolet. The one below includes the wind mill, and since it was taken with a relatively small aperture (7.1), everything beyond the car is a little out of focus, but still has enough detail. There is a little lens distortion in the image, because I shot pointing the camera up and was I using a wide angle lens. 

The photo below was minimally processed from raw and then I applied Topaz' detail filter HDR I. 

Nikon D3100

35.0 mm f/1.8, ISO 100 f/7.1. 1/320 sec

I was a little taken aback when I arrived home and noticed an unusual amount of fringing in some photos of the Chevrolet. I am not sure what caused it, since I was shooting around f/8 and the 35 mm prime is usually free of fringing. I had not noticed it at first, but using the Topaz filters brought the fringing up very clearly and I started noticing it more. The photo below had virtually none, luckily.

After taking pictures around the graveyard we went on a short trail toward a view and encountered some interesting characters … It has been many years since I last saw an appaloosa horse. The two photos below have also been post-processed with Topaz filters.

Nikon D3100
35.0 mm f/1.8 ISO 100, f/6.3, 1/500 sec

Nikon D3100
35.0 mm f/1.8 ISO 100, f/6.3, 1/500 sec

I am generally satisfied with the results, and since this place is not too far from my house, I will make a point to go there more often.