California's Gold Rush Country by Dave Wyman by Dave...
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  1. Dave Wyman's Gallery
  2. California's Gold Rush CountryCalifornia's Gold Rush Country
  3. There is Still Gold in Gold Rush CountryThere is Still Gold in Gold Rush Country

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There is Still Gold in Gold Rush Country (What a glorious end to the day. I had only to point my camera and depress the shutter. All the elments were there: a beautiful scene, a leading line, a small-enough f/stop to put everything in focus.)
Overlooking Upper Bidwell Park
Chuck Photographs BIg Chico Creek Canyon
Wildflowers in Upper Bidwell Park
Wildflower in Bloom, Upper Bidwell Park (Even at f/8, at this magnification, the background is blurred sufficiently to put emphasis on the flowers.)
Bidwell Park Ranger Shane Romane
Steve at the Honey Run Covered Bridge
Field of Lupines, Table Mountain (Above the Town of Oroville)
Creek and Wildflowers, Oregon City (This is another scene found by one of our participants, Steve Johnson. Colors were saturated in my computer; this was, after all, gold country.)
Oregon City Covered Bridge (Ravi pointed out to me that this position not only made for a nice photograph, but obscured an annoying road sign, too.)
Cherokee - Former Gold Rush Town (For me, the yellow line matches up nicely with the yellow building. My camera's lens was pointed to low minimize the gray, overly bright sky; then, with my photo program, I cloned some of the trees into the background to obscure the portion of sky that was still visible.)
Honey Run Road Covered Bridge
Self Portrait, Sierra Nevada Brewery
My Reflection at the Sierra Nevada Brewery (This is what I saw through the viewfinder of my camera as I pointed the lens toward the window, and focused on one of the curved vats of beer inside the building.)
Wet Rose at Chico State (A large f/stop - f/2 - ensured a blurred background, which put the emphasis foremost on the color of the rose and the drops of water.)
Rose, Chico State Campus (It had been a quite rainy morning, and it was raining still as a couple of us made photographs of the flowers in the Chico State rose garden.)
Bidwell Mansion in the Reflection of Our Van Window
Detail, Wall Lamp Fixture, Bidwell Mansion
Washing Board, Bidwell Mansion
Annie Bidwells Egg Beater
Detail of Table Decoration, Bidwell Mansion
Piano - Bidwell Mansion
Almonds in Jar, Bidwell Mansion
Bidwell Mansion, Reflected in a Puddle of Rain (Having lived in Chico for a while, and having visited the town often over the past several years, I've photographed the signature mansion many times. This time I came up with another way to do it, although I practically had to lay on my belly to do it.)
Leaf and Walkway, Bidwell Mansion State Historic Park
Fireweed at Pulga
Falling-Down Building, Pulga (Another image Richard found.)
Old Building at Pulga
Old Building, Pulga
The Auto and Train Bridges at Pulga, Along the Feather River Canyon (The original photograph, made under cloudy skies, was fairly washed out. I added contrast and pumped up the vibrancy of the colors, and saturated the green a bit. The interesting bridges were enhanced, I think, by the lucky s-curve of the train tracks. I'm not sure why the s-curve is touted as a worthy addition to a photograph; I suppose it helps lead the eye to the main subject or, in this case, subjects.)
At the Handly Ranch, Taylorsville
Girl and her Lamb, Taylorsville
Dandelions and Barn, Taylorsville, California (Using a small aperture, f/22, let me keep the barn in the background in focus enough to know what it was.)
Camera Collection, Taylorsville Museum
Lampshade, Sierra City
Bridge over the Yuba River, Downieville
The Office of the Sixteen to One Mine, Downieville (Richard in reflection as we walked the streets of Downieville. On a Monday morning, we nine photographers were about the only people out and about.)
Motorcyclists in Downieville
Motorcyclist in Downieville
Downieville, California
Cherokee Hydraulic Mining Site
A Monitor (Water Canon) at Malikoff Diggings State Park (Water canons washed a hold in the mountains that was 1,000 feet long, 700 feet wide, and 300 feet deep. Debris clogged the San Francisco Bay and raised the bottom of the Yuba River higher than the cities of Yuba and Marysville, which lie on either side of it in the Sacramento Valley; levees still hold back the water.)
At Malakoff Diggins State Park (Hydraulic mining in the 1870s and early 1880s eroded vast areas of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The most massive was, and is, at Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park. So much mud was washed down the creeks and rivers that it impeded ship traffic in the San Francisco Bay and raised the Yuba River bottom higher than the surrounding cities of Yuba and Marysville, where today levies still hold back the water.)
We Meet New Friends
Richard Explores the Edge of the Yuba River
Edwards Crossing Bridge Over the South Fork of the Yuba River
Unnamed Creek Near Edwards Crossing Bridge (Usually a 6th of a second or longer exposure is enough to capture a sense of movement in the water of a creek.)
Old Gas Pump, Empire Mine
Roofs at trhe Empire Mine
Rivet Covers, Empire Mine (I found Richard Burns, one of our group, photographing the rivet covers, and I copied, probably not as well, his vision.)
Blacksmiths Forge Fire, Empire Mine
Mine Shaft, Empire Mine
Bourne Cottage, Empire Mine
The Bourne Cottage at the Empire MIne
Empire Mine in Reflection
Old Timer in Nevada City (How does a photographer establish a report with a subject when the time to do so is severely limited? In truth, that's not always possible. I'll often use the direct approach. "Hi, hey, you look great. Could I make a photograph of you?" It worked here.)
Union Hotel, Nevada City
Gold Country Mannequin
The Buddha Reflects over Nevada City (A curved shop window compressed the reflected view of Main Street.)
Main Street Hasnt Changed Much Over the Years
Nevada City Reflection (A walk down Main Street offered a wealth of reflections. It was a matter of looking into windows to find them.)
Dawn over Nevada City and Gold Rush County (The low angle of the sun, about 45 degrees from the row of buildings, throws a reflective light over Nevada City. I warmed up the photograph in my computer, giving the image a golden glow.)
Fence Posts, Nevada City (The receding line of repeating shapes and the dark background caught my eye.)
Nevada City Reflection (Reflections are everywhere. We were about to walk Main Street when I noticed the reflection in Steve's glasses of an old house across the street. Steve looks like someone not to be crossed, but it was an act.)
End of the Road (The scene I could see with my eyes didn't look like this. I was able to see, where the road ended at a t-intersection, the hillside, the trees, and the other road. I suppressed all that with some serious underexposure from my camera's meter suggested reading.)
Tempted by an Apple (It was impossible to focus on both the horses and the apple, so I chose the one over the others.)
Reflections on the Edge of the Yuba River
Gold Country Squirrel (I cloned out a twig running from behind the upper right of the squirrel to well past its lower left. The pop-up, fill-in flash on my camera added a catchlight to the creature's eye.)
Bridgeport Bridge Detail
Bridgeport Bridge on the South Fork of the Yuba River
Spillway, Lake Wildwood Reservoir (My more abstract take on the spillway (see the previous photograph for comparison).)
Lake Wildwood Reservoir Spillway (RIchard, one of our participants, thought the spillway was worth a stop. It was.)
Pioneer Cemetery Marker, Rough and Ready
Pioneer Cemetery at Rough and Ready (Near and far elements can sometimes help make a photograph, which is what I think happened here.)
Pioneer Cemetery, Rough and Ready, California (This wasn't a photo that jumped out at a photographer. I knew, though, that using a telephoto would let me move in reasonably close, while also narrowing and enlarging whatever was in the field of view in the background, which in this case included the flowers. I also had to make this photograph from ground level.)
Lupines (F/8 is wide enough an aperture to blur out the background when magnifying an image from reasonably close range with a telephoto lens, as I did here, along the banks of the American River.)
Cowgirls at the Marshall Gold Discovery Park (We had a great time photographing the cowgirls, who drove visitors around the park in a horse-drawn wagon. They were completely relaxed and charming.)
Ken Rockwell at Work Above Gold (or is it Green?) Country (Ken and I will be at it in June on the Central Coast of California, and in Yosemite and the east side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in October.)
In the Wine Cave, Gold Hill Winery (What better wave to light a cave than by candlelight?  I'll take credit for the idea.)
Frog in the Pond at the Gold Hill Winery
Reflections in the Window at the Gold Hill Winery (This is looking into a window, not out of it. I am fascinated with reflections, which I found on this trip in a variety of locations, including here, on the lower deck of the winery. Reflections are everywhere, we just have to look for them.)
On the Deck Overlooking the Gold Hill Winery (The upper deck at the winery offers an expansive view of the vineyards and the surrounding landscape, still green from prolonged rains the past winter that continued into spring.)
View over the Gold Hill Winery (Our first official stop on our first full day was at the delightful and appropriately-named Gold Hill Winery, not far from the historic town of Placerville. We were met by Ken Dacus, who could not have been nicer to us. The winery is in a beautiful setting, in the heart of the Sierra Nevada foothills, just a few miles from the location where John Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill.
Today's gold is apt to be white or red in color, and a liquid rather than a solid. It's found at the vineyards rather than in the gold fields. I can attest to the high value of the Gold Hill Winery's offerings, like the "Meriticious," a terrific Bordeaux blend, part Cabernet Sauvignon and part Merlot, that complimented our picnic lunch. 
As for John Sutter, he hoped to keep Marshall's find quiet, fearing the consequences of a gold rush that could wreck his plans of an agricultural empire. Word did leak out, most famously when Sam Brannan, a San Francisco newspaper publisher, after learaning of the discove)
State Capitol at 10 P.M. (I like my photograph. I think it was impossible, given the equipment and the time I had, to photograph the entire building. On the other hand, see Ken Rockwell's version,   here.   I think he came away with a more interesting image than I did.)
Pier Pilings, Sacramento, California (As in the previous photograph, stepping back from this view would have revealed too much distracting information. I'll cop a plea here: I make the scene much more warm, more golden, than it really was. Why not? This was Gold Rush Country, after all, and Sacramento and the Sacramento River played  important parts in the history of the Gold Rush.)
Delta Queens Paddle Wheel and Sacramentos Tower Bridge (The sky was too bright, and including a larger view of the old boat or the bridge or trying to include a larger view of both the boat and the bridge, wasn't going to work; there would have been too much information. I think I did a fair job of reducing the view to what's essential: color and shape.)
Candle and Candle Holder on Our Dinner Table, Sacramento, California (The candle cast a golden glow over our dinner table, a fitting image on this, the first night of our photography trip.)
Gold is Where You Find It: Upper Bidwell Park, above Chico, California

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