COB

Odd Colossal Auburn Statuary

/ Bulldog Travels / 13 Comments

Auburn is another fine Gold Country town near Sacramento, California.  Auburn is known for its mining and mandarins.  But, for those looking for something random and unusual look no farther than Dr. Fox’s Colossal Statues.

One giant Gold Miner can be seen from the freeway welcoming visitors and passersby.  This gold minor embodies the Gold Rush and is the unofficial mascot of the town.

Stranger and slightly more controversial are the naked Amazonian women and their friend in bondage who sit and protect a local auto mechanic’s shop.

I remember driving by these tall muses on my way to a yoga class one day and nearly drove off the road.  One just doesn’t expect to see something like this in the middle of an old fashioned gold country town.  And from what I understand they were quite controversial at one time.

Finding beauty in the mundane at Maple Rock Gardens

/ Bulldog Travels / 23 Comments

My macro lens is attracted to random details trying to make something on the moderately mundane level beautiful by bringing it up close.  Welcome to  Maple Rock Gardens Bamboo garden from up close!  I hope you enjoy your tour.  If you close your eyes and listen to the leaves rustle you might imagine we are in the rain forest together somewhere tropical and warm.  I can hear the ocean, can you?

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Crystal Hermitage Abstracts

/ Bulldog Travels / 10 Comments

In my third and final tulip post I found my macro lens in heaven capturing the tulips at Crystal Hermitage in the mountains outside of Nevada City, California.  I took the liberty of taking some unusual angles of the bright and happy tulips which I hope you enjoy. I have taken a lot of flower photos in my day and I just never get tired of it.  I keep hoping for a better one or another one or a different and new one that takes my breath away.  Thank you readers/followers for giving me a medium to share their fleeting beauty. It memorializes them forever long past their current form.

Happy travels everyone.

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Barn Find Cars

/ Bulldog Travels / 25 Comments

Here is the third and final installment of my Barn Find Car posts.  There were just too many strange/odd ball and interesting photos to keep to just one post.  I have spent a lot of time over the years photographing beautiful and pristine cars without a scratch, issue, dent, or fingerprint.  Throw all of those photos away friends.  Barn finds are where it’s at!  Tell me these photos are not more interesting than a perfectly restored and excessively expensive classic car?!  These cars were part of the landscape some already halfway down in the ground.  Some had trees growing through them. Others had impressive levels of alien lichen growing on them as if we were actually living somewhere wet and cool. The amount of dust and dirt on each of these cars is palpable.  (The smell was extreme. I took one for the team to get some of these photos for you friends.)  Hipsters today spend crazy amounts of money and time trying to mimic the patina on some of these cars.  There might not be much value to most of these cars but they were amazing “models” for my camera.  This was an experience I will never be able to duplicate and I hope you enjoy seeing the results.

Black and White Barn Finds

/ Bulldog Travels / 11 Comments

I’ve mentioned on the blog before that my husband is a huge “car guy.”  I get dragged all over the place to go to car shows and museums.  Alas, I really don’t mind because it typically gives me some good photo opportunities.  This time was a little different…  We attended a local car auction related to an estate that had multiple “barn finds” still on the original property.  Most of these cars were part of the landscape at this point.  Some were very likely parked when I was a kid riding my bike in the 70’s! They were far more interesting to me as pieces of art at this point than useable cars or even parts cars.  As part of Cee’s Black and White Challenge I thought I would take a shot at seeing what some of them looked like in B & W.  I hope you enjoy.  (For those interested in the results of the auction some of these cars went for $50 and some went for thousands…)  For me they are priceless as relics used for my art.