The Quercus Lobata:

In 1941, my Dad bought a red filter for his 35 mm camera. He had been taking black and white photos for a couple of years. He had been told that the filter would be good for landscapes and clouds, accentuating the contrast. One afternoon, he took a series of photos of the landscape just north of Davis - along the county road that would become Covell Boulevard and near the intersection with Pole Line Road. The photographs show the typical agricultural landscape of Yolo County - great flat expanses of plowed loam, interspersed with stately valley oaks and scattered farm houses and their barns. These pictures have resonated with me for years since I discovered them in the 1970s. There is just something so beautiful about the land, the trees and farms, and I still depend on seeing such views every day as I return from work in Sacramento. One of the views looks east toward the Sierra Nevada, banked with high cumulus clouds, a backdrop for a farmhouse, barn, a graceful drainage ditch and a lonely windmill. Another picture looks west and captures a farm that is still in existence just north of Covell across from the Nugget Market. The last and most indelible picture is of a great Valley Oak, an older tree with some loss of branches, but still strong and wildly throwing its arms to the sky. I have thanked my father many times for these photographs and have copies in my office at work. They are a touchstone that connects me to the landscape and to my Dad.