Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Textures

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This week’s Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge theme is texture. What a fun theme! Here’s a nice sample of different textures you can find in nature. Make sure you click on each image for a larger view.

I took this first photo yesterday while at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. These very fluffy yellow blooms belong to a very tall tree that was just covered with them.

Cee's fun foto challenge - texture of yellow puffy blooms
Cee’s fun foto challenge – texture of yellow puffy blooms

I took the next photo at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park yesterday also. There have been a lot of baby elephants born there in the past few years. Even at a young age, elephants have quite a wrinkled skin, don’t they?

Cee's fun foto challenge - texture of elephant skin
Cee’s fun foto challenge – texture of elephant skin

Have you ever touched a sea jelly? That’s quite an interesting texture. Very… jelly like!

Cee's fun foto challenge - texture of sea jellies
Cee’s fun foto challenge – texture of sea jellies

How about a sea star? If you’ve ever touched one, you know if it feels as rough as sandpaper. I also love the color patterns on this specific sea star.

Cee's fun foto challenge - texture of a sea star
Cee’s fun foto challenge – texture of a sea star

My last pick for this theme is frost. Have you ever walked on frosted grass and realized how crisp it felt?

Cee's fun foto challenge - texture of frost on grass
Cee’s fun foto challenge – texture of frost on grass

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Distant

Zazzle online shop 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’m participating in the online adventure travel and outdoor photography magazine LetsBeWild.com’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge for bloggers. This week’s Challenge is distant.

I have a 12x optical zoom on the camera I take with me most often. It doesn’t allow me to zoom very far but it’s usually good enough to capture what I can see with the naked eye. For this “distant” theme, I decided to focus on animals that fly (but are sitting still at the time), since they are the ones I mostly have to zoom on to capture on camera. Here are a few recent shots, and a couple of older ones. Remember you can click on each photo for a larger view.

I took the first photo this past weekend at Dos Picos County Park, not far from San Diego, California. This red-tailed hawk was sitting at the top of a tall sycamore tree and being very noisy, so I thought he deserved to have his picture taken. We have a lot of red-tailed hawks around and it’s always a treat to watch the male and female hunt for food for their young together.

Let's be wild weekly photo challenge - distant red tailed hawk
Let’s be wild weekly photo challenge – distant red tailed hawk

I took the next photo last week at the San Diego Zoo. I believe this blue heron is a local freeloader since they water basin was mostly occupied by reptiles – turtles and crocodiles. This big guy was eyeing the little fish swimming in the water and slowly walking towards them for a taste.

Let's be wild weekly photo challenge - distant blue heron
Let’s be wild weekly photo challenge – distant blue heron

This little guy below is a Stellar jay bird. Isn’t he beautiful? I took his photo in Idyllwild, California, where there are a lot of these birds. What’s interesting is, we only live two hours away from Idyllwild and we have regular blue jays here, but no Stellar jay birds.

Let's be wild weekly photo challenge - distant Stellar jay bird
Let’s be wild weekly photo challenge – distant Stellar jay bird

I love this last photo of a blue dragonfly. We have a lot of orange/red dragonflies here and I still have to take a few photos of them, but this is the only blue dragonfly I’ve seen. I feel lucky to have been able to capture it with my camera, since dragonflies can fly for hours without taking a break.

Let's be wild weekly photo challenge - distant blue dragonfly
Let’s be wild weekly photo challenge – distant blue dragonfly

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Macro Monday: ice plant blooms

Zazzle online shop 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.

Today I’m taking part in Macro Monday at Lisa’s Chaos. This will be a short post as it is spring break and I have a full day of fun ahead of me.

Here is a macro of an ice plant bloom I captured a couple of weeks ago. I love the tiny dew drops that are still present on the petals as the ice plant flower slowly opens up in the morning sunlight. You can click on the photo for a larger view.

Macro Monday: Ice plant flower
Macro Monday: Ice plant flower

And for the people who think all point-and-shoot cameras are the same and cell phone cameras can just replace a point-and-shoot, here’s one reason why it’s not really true. I took the photo below the day before the photo above with my cell phone camera. Even though I edited it a lot in Photoshop to correct the lighting, contrast and color values, it still doesn’t compare to the first photo and what I saw in reality. I love that the ice plant flower featured more dew drops that day, but the clarity and bright colors of the first photo beat it hands down.

Macro Monday: Ice plant blooms
Macro Monday: Ice plant blooms

The beauty of the morning dew – Part 3

Zazzle online shop 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’d like to start this post by sharing a great offer. Save 29% on any product you buy today, March 29, 2013, in my photo store or any other store on Zazzle. Just use coupon code FRIDAYSALE4U at checkout.

Here are a few more photos I took of the morning dew a couple of weeks ago. You can view more photos of morning dew here and here.

Morning dew on pink geraniums
Morning dew on pink geraniums

I love how the dew drops catch the light and look like they sparkle all over the petals.

Morning dew on flower petals
Morning dew on flower petals
Morning dew on light pink geraniums
Morning dew on light pink geraniums

Our days and nights are getting warmer so this may be the end of the morning dew until late fall.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Lines

Zazzle online shop 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.

This week’s Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge theme is lines. Nature is full of lines, but they’re not always straight, vertical or horizontal so it can take a little time to spot them in the scene.

Here is a selection of a few photos that display all sorts of lines. Remember you can click on each image for a larger view.

I took this first photo at SeaWorld San Diego. I love the lines formed by the legs of the various flamingos in the shot. By the way, check out the duck that’s walking in front of the flamingo in the water. He thinks he’s one of them but his legs are about two feet too short!

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge: Lines - flamingo legs
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Lines – flamingo legs

I love the lines on this tiger swallowtail butterfly’s wings.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Lines on a tiger swallowtail butterfly
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Lines on a tiger swallowtail butterfly

I love the numerous thin lines the petals form on this bottle brush tree flower. Also take a closer look at the leaves on the left and how they’re outlined with a lighter shade of green.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Lines on a bottle brush tree flower
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Lines on a bottle brush tree flower

The pistils of this yellow lilium start in a straight line but take a vertical turn halfway.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Lines of pistils on a yellow lilium
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Lines of pistils on a yellow lilium

Spider webs are made up of many lines and the morning dew can make them more obvious to the eye. You can see more photos of these spider webs here.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Lines of spider webs
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Lines of spider webs

My last photo for this theme is an ice plant lined up with frost, leaf by leaf. The brown blade of grass in the background also displays lines of frost. This is one of my favorite photos of frost I’ve taken so far. You can see more photos of frost here and here.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Lines of frost on ice plant
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Lines of frost on ice plant

These are just a few photos that highlight lines in nature. I hope you enjoyed them!