California Photos

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Winter - texture of frost on grass

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Surprise – Frost in San Diego

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.

After six days of almost continuous rain, the clouds finally went away yesterday. We woke up to beautiful blue skies and… freezing temperatures. Upper 20s to low 30s overnight, 65 degrees during the day. A huge range of temperatures that make it hard for my body to adjust throughout the day.

The surprise here has been the FROST. Lots of it! You see people scraping their car windshields in the morning. Sensitive plants have succumbed to frost. Bye bye my beautiful basil that kept on growing. Bye bye my zucchini that I wanted to pick next week.

But you know what I like best about frost? It’s beautiful! I noticed plenty of frost at my son’s school when I dropped him off yesterday so this morning, I grabbed my camera and managed to take these pictures. Remember you can click on any image below for a larger view. Let me know what you think!

I love how the frost flakes look like sprinkled sugar on this stem of grass!

Another thing I love about frost is how it reflects the sunlight so softly.

This photo gives a whole new meaning to ice plants, don’t you think?

Even though I don’t like to be cold, I’m looking forward to more frosty mornings so I can take more pictures of frost.

December 21, 2012February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: California Photos, Photography, Photos of San Diego, Plant PhotosTags: California pictures, Frost flakes, Frost flakes on grass, frost in San Diego, frost on ice plants, frosted leaves, frosty leaves, photography, photos, San Diego, Wordpress weekly photo challenge, Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Surprise 13 Comments

And the winner of my 2013 photo calendar is…

A couple of weeks ago, I launched a simple contest, offering my 2013 photo calendar to the winner.

I want to thank everyone who took part of my contest and helped me increase the number of Likes on my Facebook page, as well as shared the page with others.

Today is the big day… so without further delay, I’d like to announce the winner of my 2013 photo calendar.

Congratulations to Kaylee Lindsley from San Diego, California!

Here’s the funny thing. Although Kaylee and I live in the same city, we don’t know each other. Or at least, I don’t believe we do. There’s a few millions of us living here, so it’s understandable.

Kaylee, I’ll be announcing this on Facebook and asking you to contact me there. Congratulations, again!

Now remember, even if you didn’t win today, it doesn’t seem you won’t have the opportunity to win in the future. As I take more photos and create more photo products on my Zazzle store, there may be opportunities for giveaways. So stay tuned, follow this blog through WordPress, or like my Facebook page to keep in touch. Thank you!

December 20, 2012February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: California Photos, Photography, Photos of San DiegoTags: 2013 photo calendar, 2013 photo calendar contest, calendar contest, calendar contest winner, California pictures, photography, photos, San Diego 2 Comments

Photo of colorful California wildflowers

Bright and colorful wildflowers to warm you up on this cold December day

If you haven’t participated in my contest to win a free copy of my 2013 photo calendar yet, today is the last day, so hurry and let your friends know about it too!

I don’t know how cold it is where you live, but here in inland San Diego County, it’s freezing! And no, I’m not exaggerating, it actually froze last night when the outside temperature got below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Let’s just hope the cold weather doesn’t stay for too long, since it can do a lot of damage to the local avocado and citrus crops.

If it’s cold where you are, I have a few photos that will hopefully warm you up bit. I took them last spring, when the warm sun laid its gentle rays on thousands of bright and colorful California wildflowers at a local park. Remember you can click on each photo for a larger view.

I used the first photo of wildflowers in my 2013 photo calendar, as it represents Southern California in the early spring perfectly.

California wildflowers - poppies — California wildflowers – poppies

Here’s a similar style of photo, but showing a different type of flowers.

Here’s another photo of the light pink wildflowers. I believe they are called Hungarian breadseed poppies. They’re very pretty with their delicate shades of pink!

Hungarian breadseed poppies - light pink poppies — Hungarian breadseed poppies – light pink poppies

Finally, here’s an assortment of colors for you: light pink, purple, orange and red. Somebody had fun throwing these seeds all over.

I hope you feel warmer inside, if not on the outside!

Pink, purple and red California wildflowers

December 19, 2012February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: Bloom Photos, California Photos, Flower PhotosTags: 2013 calendar contest, 2013 photo calendar, California flowers, California pictures, California poppies, california wildflowers, Hungarian breadseed poppies, Hungarian breadseed poppy, photography, photos, photos of blooms, photos of flowers, San Diego 13 Comments

A Word A Week Challenge – Orange flower with fuzzy petals

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Delicate

Remember you have only two days left to enter my contest to win a free copy of my 2013 photo calendar!

There’s nothing more delicate than life. Life of a person, life of an animal, life of a plant. Life comes and goes, sometimes unexpectedly. It’s been a tragic week for America, especially so close to Christmas. Children are the most delicate kind of human beings, and yet they can be so resilient.

I’ll stick to photos of nature today to illustrate the WordPress weekly photo challenge theme, delicate. Make sure you click on each image if you’d like to see a larger version of it.

I recently took photos of raindrops on spider webs on two separate occasions. One-finger touch and both the spider web and the raindrops can be gone. You can view more of these spider webs here.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Delicate raindrops on spider webs

And you can view more of the spider webs below here and here.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Delicate raindrops on spider webs over river rocks

And here are a few photos of flowers, which are a very delicate part of nature. I have no idea what this flower is called but I love the fuzziness all over its petals.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Delicate, fuzzy petals of a tropical flower

The flower below might be a hibiscus but I’m not sure (I’m terrible at flower names). I just love the pollen on top of the stigma, and the delicate petals and their delicate color.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Delicate petals of a hibiscus

December 16, 2012February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: Bloom Photos, California Photos, Flower Photos, Photography, Photos of San Diego, Rock photosTags: California pictures, fuzzy petals, hibiscus photo, photography, photos, photos of blooms, photos of flowers, rain drops on spider webs, raindrops on spider webs, Wordpress weekly photo challenge, WordPress weekly photo challenge: Delicate 13 Comments

The challenges of photographing a great sunset

I love watching sunrises and sunsets – the moments when the sun greets us and waves us goodbye every day. I think most sunrises and sunsets look prettier when you add a few clouds to the sky. The clouds make the light reflect its many shades of color rather than come out as a mostly monochrome event.

Here’s my challenge when it comes to photographing a beautiful sunrise or sunset: my camera. My Canon Powershot SX130 does a wonderful job in broad daylight situations, but as soon as I try taking photos in low light, it seems to give up on me. The camera sensor’s quality is not good enough to handle the job in many situations. And forget about using a flash when you try to take a photo of the whole sky.

This is the photo of a gorgeous sunset I captured last November, a little over a year ago. I love the many colors of the sky, the shapes of the clouds as if they were writing secret messages in the sky, but the slight pixelation in the dark areas drives me nuts. It’s good enough to look at on a computer screen, but not good enough for print.

I hope to have solved this problem with my new Canon Powershot G1X, which is supposed to have a much more sensitive camera sensor to handle low light situations better. Now, I just have to wait for a beautiful sunset opportunity to occur to try it out and compare.

Do you have a hard time taking nice pictures of sunsets and low light situations, or does your camera do a great job?