Blogging Broker

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Awhile back I posted the first portrait I took. Tonight I completed my first digital collage. I assembled the images I captured when I visited the Review (subject of a former blog) but for those who dont know, the Review is a coffee house in Fresno’s Tower District. Here it is:

Please remember that all my images are copyrighted and not to be used without my express written permission.

Share This

We have a beautiful cactus in the backyard that blooms in the morning so today I decided to take a crack at time interval exposures to capture the bloom.  I set the camera to take pictures every 2 minutes but as it turned out I think I should have taken them 30 seconds to a minute apart because entire time it took to bloom only took 43 frames with is roughly an hour and half. Here it is:

Share This

Well they wont be secret spots for long because I am going to share them with you.

If you like to camp and if you like to get out in the early spring when the poppies are in bloom and hills are alive with color and if you enjoy relative seclusion and privacy (but still want a campground with a commode), I have a few spots to share with you that I KNOW are underutilized at this time of year. (How do I know they are underutilized? I visited each of them the other day and there wasn’t a single camper at any of these three campgrounds.) They are all in the Sequoia National Forest about a hour and forty five minutes drive from central Fresno. These campgrounds are:
(click the pic to enlarge)

——–Camp 4 ————– Green Cabin Flat——and Mill Flat.

These are located on the Kings River above Pine Flat Reservoir

and as you can see here all of the campgrounds are at low elevation.

These campgrounds have tables and fire pits

and toilets,

no running water, are most suited towards using a tent but I have taken a small trailer back there. Best of all: NO RESERVATIONS REQUIRED AND NO FEES.

In the early spring these low elevation campgrounds are ideal because its much colder at the higher elevations. This is really the ideal time of year for low elevation camping. The poppies and wildflowers are in bloom and the hills are brilliant green from the rains. Take advantage of these now and then in the summer you can go to the higher elevations sites.

HOW TO GET THERE

Easy. Go East on Belmont Ave. Belmont Ave will turn into Trimmer Springs Road. You will know when you’re there because you’ll be on the Kings River and there is a little general store off to the right: Doyles. That is where you’re going to want to get your bait if you plan on fishing. Of course, if you’re a hard core fisherman going up that way you’ll have flies - so no need for bait. Now all you do is follow Trimmer Springs Road all the way around Pine Flat Lake. It’s approx 30 miles and its all well paved. You will cross a couple bridges and then you’ll come to this STEEL BRIDGE.

Do NOT cross the bridge.

From this bride on up the river is a habitat for wild trout. The limit is two and you have to use a barbless hook. Of course catch and release is encouraged. These wild trout are NOT easy to catch nor are they as abundant as the man-fed, stocked trout on the lower river. Translation: this is a fly fisherman’s paradise! There is some info just to the right of the bridge about the area. You cant miss it. Here is a picture of it.

Now just to the south of the bridge (right of these signs) is a U.S Forest Service Road that runs along the south side of the Kings River. You can’t miss it either. Here is a picture of it - note that it has the sign telling you the distance to each of the campsites mentioned above.

In case you can’t read it - its 2 miles to Camp 4, 2 1/2 miles to Green Cabin Flat, and 3 Miles to Mill Flat Campground. Last year the Forest Service re-graveled the road so its fairly decent and you can go back there with two wheel drive without any problem. I should mention that Camp 4 1/2 cabin is also on that sign and its only a mile down the road and is also a great place to camp. This site has a place for horses and we met some folks who brought their horses with them to camp so they could ride them. How cool is that? The cabins used to be for Forest Service rangers but are no longer used by the Forest Service so if you call them you can rent them and they have all the amenities. I was up there the other day and it didn’t look like anyone was taking advantage of them

I hope you enjoyed this little photo tour.

© Randy “Lazarus” McAtee

Share This

Yesterday I went fishing with my oldest son. Our destination was  Mill Flat Creek which is to small tributary to the upper Kings River above pine flat reservoir. Here are some pictures I was able to get. While the pictures are pretty nice they don’t really tell half the story. In some places the hills they were so bright we practically needed sunglasses to look at them!

Share This

WHO NEEDS A MOVIE?

Well, I’m not saying you NEED a movie but if you list your home with Lazarus Realty and would like a movie I can forward the pictures I take of your home to Fred and Sharon and they will put together a movie for you. There is of course an additional cost, which happens to be whatever Fred and Sharon charge, but it could be well worth the cost!

Ok - for those who dont know me - this is tongue-in-cheek. Buy hey, I WILL do it if you want. I’ll bury a statue of St. Joseph if you think it will help!

Share This

As promised I have the photos ready from our drive of the Blossom Trail the other day. As you can see from the pics the drive is pure camera candy. speaking of candy, on the south end of the trail we passed some signs that said dried fruit, nuts, CHOCOLATE, and we were thinking to stop but before we knew it we had passed the place. We drove on about a 1/4 mile and I decided to turn around and go back. I told my wife they may not have the fruit or nuts yet — BUT THEY GOTTA HAVE THE CHOCOLATE. So we pulled into Luke’s Almond Acres (11281 S Lac Jac Reedley) and where we were cordially greeted by the staff and proprietors, shown around the farm, offered fruits and chocolates to taste and bottle water too! You will see a few pictures of the place towards the end of the slide show. The stop happened to be one of the highlights of the trip and I look forward to stopping in again.

You will also see a pic of our FJ Cruiser in the parking lot next to a Taco Bell in Reedley — NOTE the huge blossoms on the trees in the parking lot. THERE ARE BLOSSOMS EVERYWHERE IN FRESNO RIGHT NOW!

© Randy “Lazarus” McAtee
Broker - Lazarus Realty

Share This

Today my wife and I planned to do the Blossom Trail. We scheduled to leave at around 9:00 am figuring we would spend about 3 hours on the road and I would get some shooting in. Well, we left at 10:00 a.m. and returned home at around 4:47 p.m.— nearly 7 hours later!

I think this was actually the first time my wife and I drove the trail alone, without our kids. It really was nice, and if you’re thinking of driving the trail you better not wait too long because for the most part its in FULL BLOOM. I will be blogging more about the trail later and have a slide show of the pics I took.

For now, here’s a preview:

Share This

I have a link to this picture at its full size so please click on the picture and it will take you to another page with the same picture THEN click on that picture to see it full size.  How about that bug?

Share This

The old Fresno Water Tower at the corner of Fresno and O Street is probably the city’s most famous icon. I read a comment on the internet by someone claiming it to be the second most popular subject for photographers in all of Central California, with Yosemite’s Halfdome holding the number one spot. In both pictures the sun is directly behind the Tower.

Below is a Man’s Eye View of the Tower with birds hovering above.

Share This

I wouldn’t have even bothered to go except I thought I might be able to get a few good shots. The weather was horrible, it was overcast and drizzling: COLD. I almost didn’t stay. I read about an event beginning at Fruit and Olive in the Tower District yesterday in the Fresno Bee, but I forgot it was a Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras in Fresno on Superbowl Sunday? Apparently someone made a scheduling error. I haven’t been to a Fresno Mardi Gras before so I dont know what the turnout is usually like but today’s attendance looked scant to me. Bottom line: the words Fresno and Mardi Gras shouldn’t even be used in the same sentence. IT WAS HOKEY!

BUT…

…It was in the Tower District - SO IT WAS COLORFUL!

Share This