Animal Photos – Page 22

Lines and patterns of the paper kite butterfly (Idea Leuconoe)

Butterflies: the paper kite (Idea Leuconoe)

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 had the opportunity to visit the Butterfly Jungle at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park a couple of days ago. It features thousands of exotic butterflies in one single enclosure, about 14 different species of them. I didn’t see all of them during my visit and managed to take photos of just a few. If you’ve ever followed a butterfly for a little while, you know they don’t like to like to sit still for too long. When they do, they often close their wings so you can’t see their beautiful patterns on the inside of their wings.

I have a few photos to share so I thought I’d showcase each type of butterfly in individual posts. I hope you enjoy them.

Remember you can click on the photo below for a larger view.

This is the paper kite butterfly, formally known as the Idea Leuconoe. It’s a rather large butterfly and its beautiful patterns are similar on the inside and outside of its wings. This is the only photo I managed to take where none of his body parts were blurry. Busy guy!

I can’t complain though. He was sitting in a great spot, with lots of bright colors all around him, which makes for a nice picture. What do you think?

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Sea - colorful sea star

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Textures

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

April 3, 2013February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: Animal Photos, Bloom Photos, Flower Photos, Photography, Plant PhotosTags: blooms, Cee's Fun Foto Challenge: Textures, Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge, photography, photos, photos of blooms, texture of elephant skin, texture of frost on grass, texture of jelly fish, texture of powdery blooms, texture of sea jelly, texture of sea star, texture of star fish, yellow fluffy blooms, yellow puffy blooms 16 Comments

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge - Birds of a feather - Blue heron

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Distant

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

text

April 2, 2013February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: Animal Photos, Bird photos, California Photos, PhotographyTags: blue dragonfly, blue heron, dos picos park, idyllwild california, let's be wild weekly photo challenge, Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Distant, nature photography, photography, photos, red tailed hawk, stellar jay bird 4 Comments

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Lines

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

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

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

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

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

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

March 27, 2013February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: Animal Photos, Bloom Photos, California Photos, Flower Photos, Photography, Plant PhotosTags: bottle brush tree flower, Cee's Fun Foto Challenge: Lines, Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge, dew on spider web, flamingo legs, frost on leaves, lilium pistils, nature photography, photography, photos, photos of flowers, tiger swallowtail butterfly, yellow lilium 6 Comments

Let's be wild photo challenge - reflections at the pond

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Reflections

I’m participating in the online adventure travel and photography magazine LetsBeWild.com’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge for bloggers. This week’s Challenge is: Reflections.

Water is a great medium for reflections so it will be featured in every photo below, but maybe not always in the way you expect it to be. Remember you can click on each photo to see it in a larger format.

My favorite photo when it comes to reflection is the first one below. I took it at the San Diego Botanic garden and it features a green heron standing above some very still water, so the reflection is almost identical to the original subject.

Let's be wild photo challenge - reflections of a green heron — Let’s be wild photo challenge – reflections of a green heron

The next photo shows the reflection of the sun rays on the wet sand at Coronado Beach, in San Diego. Can you guess it’s my favorite beach here?

Let's be wild photo challenge - reflections at Coronado Beach, San Diego, California — Let’s be wild photo challenge – reflections at Coronado Beach, San Diego, California

I displayed the next photo in yesterday’s post but I want to share it here too, as I love the reflection of the blades of grass in the large water drop. I can’t help admiring the beautiful little treasures that nature leaves everywhere for us to discover.

Let's be wild photo challenge - reflections in a water drop — Let’s be wild photo challenge – reflections in a water drop

As for the last photo I’ll display for this theme, I took it last weekend at Dos Picos County Park, in Ramona, California. I love the peace and quiet effect of this pond. As you can see, it was a beautiful day.