I'm a freelance writer, artist and photographer. I write mostly for business, not enough for pleasure, and I take a lot of pictures of the world around me.
If you enjoy my photos and would like to purchase some, I want to thank you! Simply visit my Zazzle online shop and browse the product offerings. If there’s a photo you would like to purchase but don’t see it in my shop, please contact me by using the Contact form at the bottom of my home page and let me know which photos you are interested in purchasing, and in what format / medium.
When taking photos, light is your best friend. It can also be your best enemy. Capturing the light the right way can make for a good or a not so good picture. I love using sunlight as much as I can to compose my photos, for example with this lemon.
Travel theme: Light shining on a lemon
There’s the light of the morning sun.
Travel theme: Light on the rising sun
And the light of the setting sun.
Travel theme: Light of the setting sun
Of course, light isn’t always natural, and we’re surrounded by plenty of artificial light. Here’s plenty of light from this glass chandelier in the lobby of the Hotel Del Coronado in Coronado, California.
Travel theme: Light of a chandelier
And then, there’s the moon. Of course, the moon doesn’t produce light but only reflects it, and a full moon can reflect a lot of light!
Travel theme: Light – full moon
And is there any happier light than the one created by Christmas lights?
If you enjoy my photos and would like to purchase some, I want to thank you! Simply visit my Zazzle online shop and browse the product offerings. If there’s a photo you would like to purchase but don’t see it in my shop, please contact me by using the Contact form at the bottom of my home page and let me know which photos you are interested in purchasing, and in what format / medium.
I’ll start with a couple of photos I took yesterday of my neighbor’s house, right under their roof. We have tons of swallows (swifts if you don’t live in the U.S.) in San Diego and it’s nesting season right now. This swallow couple started building their mud nest just this week and they’ve been busy finishing it up to lay their eggs.
Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Birds of a feather – swallows in their nest
Here’s another shot of just one of the parents. I can’t wait to see little chicks in there. I love watching the swallows hunting for insects every evening. It’s amazing to see so many of them moving so fast through in the air without flying into one another.
Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Birds of a feather – a swallow’s nest
Talking about nests, here’s a dove sitting on its eggs. We have tons of mourning doves here too. I love listening to their soft cooing in the quiet of the morning.
Mourning dove sitting on its nest and eggs
Here’s a West African crane taking a nap. What a cool hairdo!
Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Birds of a feather – West African crane
I can’t help but laugh when I look at the next photo, where the duck is acting like he’s a flamingo, although his legs are about two feet too short. I guess he’s the real ugly duckling.
Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Birds of a feather – Flamingo and duck
This great blue heron below was a freeloader at the San Diego Zoo, eyeing the small fish in the crocodile pond. I wonder if the crocodiles were eyeing him too…
Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Birds of a feather – Blue heron
Talking about herons, my last photo is of a green heron, which is a lot smaller than the great blue heron. A good looking little guy I should add.
Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Birds of a feather – Green heron
If you enjoy my photos and would like to purchase some, I want to thank you! Simply visit my Zazzle online shop and browse the product offerings. If there’s a photo you would like to purchase but don’t see it in my shop, please contact me by using the Contact form at the bottom of my home page and let me know which photos you are interested in purchasing, and in what format / medium.
Once you take a trail at the back of Dos Picos County Park and pass the enchanted stone steps I showcased last week, you find yourself walking on a path bordered with many Ramona lilacs. If you hike in the spring, when the lilacs are in bloom, this is what you get to see as you follow the trail:
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Trail in Dos Picos County Park
And it only gets better as you walk along. Here’s a blast of green, purple and bright blue! I know, I still owe you a few close-ups of the Ramona lilacs, but at least you can see what the lilac trees look like full size. Aren’t they pretty?
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Trail bordered by Ramona lilacs
Another favorite spot where we enjoy hiking in Louis Stelzer County Park. On the day I took the photos below, the sky was completely gray but everything on the ground looked very green. In a couple of months, most of it will turn to yellow or brown, and the green probably won’t return until next January.
Here’s the trail that follows the side of the hill. This trail is fun to walk on a cloudy day, but I avoid it like the plague in the heat of summer since there’s no shade.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Trail at Louis Stelzer County Park
Fortunately, this park offers a lot of wooded areas by the small creek. This is a great trail to walk on any day of the year. This is as green as it gets in San Diego.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Green trail at Louis Stelzer County Park
Like many parks in San Diego County, this park is full of coast live oak trees, which tend to feature many thick, often contorted branches. Look how this large tree branch curves over the trail to create an arch.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Trail with coast live oak trees
To me, there’s nothing more pleasant than walking down a shaded trail to make me feel in unison with nature. What about you?
If you enjoy my photos and would like to purchase some, I want to thank you! Simply visit my Zazzle online shop and browse the product offerings. If there’s a photo you would like to purchase but don’t see it in my shop, please contact me by using the Contact form at the bottom of my home page and let me know which photos you are interested in purchasing, and in what format / medium.
I know I promised you some photos of the beautiful Ramona lilacs I spotted a couple of weeks ago during a hike and I’m still working on these photos. But today I’d like to share something quite special because this is a first for me: my first photo of an orange dragonfly. Remember you can click on the photos below for a larger view.
Last year I posted my first (and only) photo of a blue dragonfly. I felt it was beginner’s luck and now I know it really was. Have you ever watched dragonflies? They never stop flying, literally. They only stop for a minute at a time, and that’s for a total of a few hours a day. So if you see one stop by next to you, enjoy it while it lasts.
Dragonflies are different from damselflies, which are a lot smaller. We had one of them enter our home last week and it landed on the window blinds, longing to go back out. I helped it find its freedom back. Phew!
Blue damselfly
These damselflies are everywhere right now, and they’re quite people friendly. Dragonflies are harder to spot. So when I saw a large orange dragonfly fly over my head while walking through the San Diego Botanic Garden, I had my fingers crossed. After circling a few times, the dragonfly landed on a brush twig and it didn’t take me long to realize what it was doing. It was surveying its next lunch, a bunch of bees snacking on the nectar of a bush in bloom.
I had to figure out how to take a picture of a fleeting dragonfly while being surrounded by busy bees. And guess what? I got my one shot. And guess what else? It was my only shot, because the dragonfly didn’t like me ruining its cover and it flew away.
Lucky me, the shot was perfectly in focus. This is what I got:
Orange dragonfly
Now I’m thinking of cropping this photo a bit but I’m not sure which way will look best so I’m asking for your honest opinion.
Here’s crop option #1, with a similar composition as the first photo, but zoomed in. The dragonfly is in the bottom right corner.
Zoom of an orange dragonfly
Here’s crop option #2, where the dragonfly is more in the top right corner. I tend to favor this one shot.
Close-up of an orange dragonfly
Here’s crop option #3, where the dragonfly is centered in the middle of the photo, towards the top.
Macro of an orange dragonfly
And here’s crop option #4, in a vertical format, making the stick stand out more. This is more zoomed in on the dragonfly so you can see its details better but of course the photo files ends up being a little smaller since it’s cropped quite a lot from the original file.
Orange dragonfly resting on a stick
Which cropping option do you like best? Or do you like the original photo best? Thanks for helping me out!
If you enjoy my photos and would like to purchase some, I want to thank you! Simply visit my Zazzle online shop and browse the product offerings. If there’s a photo you would like to purchase but don’t see it in my shop, please contact me by using the Contact form at the bottom of my home page and let me know which photos you are interested in purchasing, and in what format / medium.
Happy Earth Day! Save 22% on most products in my online Zazzle store today only by entering coupon code 22EARTHDAY13 at checkout. See a photo you like on my website but not in my store? But ask me what product you’d like to purchase and I’ll create it for you.
Today I’m taking part in Macro Monday at Lisa’s Chaos. Remember you can click on each image to see it in a larger format.
While recently hiking at a local county park in San Diego, I found these tiny purple wildflowers bordering the trail on the hillside.
Macro Monday: Small purple wildflowers
Each cluster of these purple flowers was no bigger than the size of my thumbprint.
Macro Monday: Tiny purple wildflowers
After photographing the first two clusters, I thought I had enough, until I found the next set of wildflowers and saw several tiny bugs keeping busy inside the flowers. I felt I had been transported into Miniature Land for a minute.
Macro Monday: Tiny bugs in small purple wildflowers
If you enjoy my photos and would like to purchase some, I want to thank you! Simply visit my Zazzle online shop and browse the product offerings. If there’s a photo you would like to purchase but don’t see it in my shop, please contact me by using the Contact form at the bottom of my home page and let me know which photos you are interested in purchasing, and in what format / medium.
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