It’s just a little past the peak wildflower season here in north-central California, and there are plenty of bright, colorful flowers on which I can test my photography skills. Yesterday I shot several flowers along the road to Fresh Edibles farm in French Camp, California, above, where I was picking up vegetables. I took more than 400 shots; what I believe to be the best 20 or so are in the slideshow below.

The experience provided a great opportunity to practice working with my camera in different lighting situations. Unlike musicians, whom I typically photograph, flowers obviously don’t move around that much, making it easier to take several different shots of the same subject with different settings on my camera.

I regularly practice my photography skills on two subjects: Musicians and flowers. Both are in generous supply, interesting, colorful and are easy for me to find. I’m often photographing musicians for my day job, while flowers are abundant in our landlord’s garden.

As it’s Easter Sunday, I thought it’d be appropriate to share some of the flower photos I’ve shot so far this spring in our garden and yesterday on a trip to Electra Road along the Mokelumne River, where the wildflowers are just beginning to bloom. You can see more of my photos on my photo-a-day page at ianhillmedia.tumblr.com.

The light was somewhat warm on Thursday morning, so I decided to take a few minutes before work and walk down Lafayette Street in downtown Stockton to shoot some photos. I focused on the parking meters, which I always thought were visually interesting – the yellowish rust and red “Time Expired” marker provide a nice contrast with the steel gray of the meter casing.

Like Record photographer Clifford Oto, I was inspired by the clouds that marked the skies around San Joaquin County this week. Unlike Cliff, however, I lack skill with a camera. I’m still learning.

After I left the gym Thursday and Friday morning I spent a few minutes taking test photos of the sky in downtown Stockton as seen looking east on Main Street from Hunter Square. Most of the photos I shot Thursday looked like this.