Ravenswood Historic Site - Livermore, CA (Cellphone Photos)

On the 22nd December 2024, I visited Ravenswood Historic Site in Livermore, CA. The site is operated by Livermore's Parks & Recreation Department and is open for tours on the 2nd and 4th Sundays each month. The site is also rented out for weddings, parties, and events. I took the tour and took some photos with my cellphone. I hope you enjoy viewing my photos!

Ravenswood was once a summer home and country estate of Christopher A. Buckley. Christopher Buckley was born in 1845 in New York, and moved to San Francisco in 1862. He was a powerful in politics in San Francisco, and was also known as the "Blind Boss" due to a disease which slowly took his vision away. After the Great San Francisco earthquake in 1906 he moved to Ravenswood full time due to his San Francisco house burning down. The country estate was used as a home and as a winery by Mr. Buckley. Later the property was sold to the German Catholic order, and then later on was donated to the City of Livermore. 

The tour guide told us at one point the Livermore Fire Department wanted to use the dilapidated house as a practice house for putting out a fire, but someone locally spoke up about it and started publishing stories and the history of the place. It ended up being preserved and restored, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Message from the Photographer: I normally post cellphone photos on the same day they are taken, but unfortunately long COVID and chronic fatigue syndrome left me bedridden for the past 2 days due to an energy crash.

A scenery photo of the historic house, palm trees, and clouds.

A scenery photo of the historic vineyard, mountains, and clouds.

A photo of the chandelier in the historic home.

A photo of a desk in the historic home.

A photo of a bookshelf, pictures, stereoscopes, figurines, chairs, and other stuff in the historic home.

A photo of a stereoscope in the historic house.

A photo of pictures, paintings, and chairs in the historic house.

A photo of the living room in the historic house.

A photo of the living room with a fire place, Christmas tree, and other stuff in the historic house.

A photo of a sewing machine in the historic house.

A photo of vintage dresses in a bedroom of the historic house.

A photo from the bathroom in the historic house.

A photo of the bathroom in the historic house.

A photo of the powder room in the historic house.

A photo of a bed in the bedroom of the historic house.

A photo of a 2 chairs and a wardrobe in the historic house.

A photo of chairs and a Christmas tree in the historic house.

A scenery photo of the historic house, palm trees, and clouds.

A scenery photo of a water fountain, palm trees, the historic house (left), the historic vineyard (right).

A photo of a Penny Farthing Bike and other stuff at Carriage House.

A photo from Carriage House.

A photo of a gazebo, trees, the historic house, and clouds.

A photo of a gazebo (left), Carriage House (right), trees, and clouds.

A scenery photo of the historic house, trees, and clouds.

This is all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing the photos! Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Clouds & Trees - Pleasanton, CA (5/10/2014)

The clouds here in Pleasanton, CA have been looking very beautiful lately. Here are some cloud and tree photos I shot on 5-10-2014. I hope you enjoy viewing these photos!

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best Pleasanton, CA for 2013 and 2014, use this link. To see all of my 2014 Pleasanton, CA photos, use this link.

 First off, some photos of clouds.

More clouds. 

Photos of trees and clouds.  

 A giant palm tree.

More clouds.  

More palm trees.  

More clouds. 

These are all the photos for today. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

King Tide at Half Moon Bay (Part 2)

Several times a year, Half Moon Bay in California has it's mega low tide day. During the mega low tide, the ocean will retreats for a few miles, and land that is usually 5-10 feet under water becomes exposed. On 11-27-2011, it was one of the days. In following days, I will be showing you photos I've taken. Please come back and look!

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Today I got some landscape photos and pictures of the organisms that live in the tide pools. :) I got more coming in the following days. The exposure was adjusted in Photoshop on a few of the photos. Mainly because I got the ISO setting wrong. The day before I tried to take a picture in almost no low light, so ended up over-exposing some of the first few photos I took at Half Moon Bay. You will see that photo I took in the dark on a future post. :) I was driving on a mountain road at night, and saw 2 deers on the side of the road. Stopped to take a picture. It actually turned out well! Make sure you check back! So anyways, let's continue on to the Half Moon Bay photos.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best photos from this event, use this link. To see all of the photos from this event, use this link.

A landscape shot of the pier at Half Moo Bay. Anyways, this was the photo I was talking about, over exposure. I had several more, but I got too lazy to touch up. Mainly because the JPEG's I took was "locked" unlike RAW.

Photography Tip: Like I said above, when in doubt, take in RAW or auto. On professional DSLRs you will usually have a RAW button that temporarily turns on RAW mode for the next picture. RAW will up the photo size by like 2-4 times, but it records the CMOS's data with minimal processing. RAW is sometimes called the "digital negative", because that is pretty much what it is. When your camera converts the photo you took to JPEG, a lot of things are locked like white balance and exposure. In RAW, you can always go back and use a software like Photoshop to correct some things that you didn't get right at the time the picture was taken. So when in doubt, shoot in RAW or auto! RAW can be converted to JPEG later on a computer. Anyways, the sunset pictures I took (I will be posting them at the end) were took in RAW, adjusted then converted to JPEG. They are really wonderful and beautiful! Make sure you check back.

A boy showing me this eel he caught. Nice!

Anemones like this was everywhere. I'm guessing these are anemones... Anyone wanna confirm? Post a comment for me. Please. ROFL

More anemones. They were everywhere!

Landscape shot. See the kelp? That is usually underwater. 

Lot's of sea snails. I wonder if they are edible.

Sea anemone and sea snails.

Generally anemones on the west coast can be touched because they don't have long enough or strong enough stingers to puncture human skin, but they are poisonous to fish and other small ocean organisms. Some more tropical anemones elsewhere can really hurt you! Don't touch those! 

Another picture of an anemone.

This whole area is usually underwater. What an experience! 

Another sea anemone. There were lot's of them.

This kelp palm tree looking thingy. HAHA They were pretty far from the beach itself. Not normally visible. 

I will be posting up more picture tomorrow! So please check back! There will be more landscape pictures and pictures of the organisms in the tide pools including star fishes, anemones, and mussels. At the end, I will also be posting the beautiful sunset pictures I took. Make sure you check back! Bookmark me and spread the blog post with your friends!

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