WordPress weekly photo challenge: Home

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.

Sometimes I find it hard to believe that San Diego has been my home for a little over 15 years now. In a way, it feels like it wasn’t that long ago when I drove cross country from Connecticut to California. San Diego has grown on me as my new home over the years. Besides the worrisome wildfires, random earthquakes, and lack of greenery, there’s a lot to like about San Diego and its surroundings. San Diego is my home and here are a few things I enjoy about it. Remember you can click on each image to enjoy a larger view. San Diego is home to the big waves of the Pacific Ocean under a bright blue sky.

Beautiful waves at Coronado Beach, San Diego, California
Beautiful waves at Coronado Beach, San Diego, California

San Diego is home to a large agricultural community, including a lot of citrus (lemons and oranges, mostly).

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Home - oranges in San Diego
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Home – oranges in San Diego

San Diego is home to not just one single season year round, but also Fall and its bold colors.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Home - changing seasons in San Diego
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Home – changing seasons in San Diego

San Diego can even be home to frost in the winter, especially inland. This is as much cold as I can take!

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Home - frost in winter in San Diego
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Home – frost in winter in San Diego

San Diego is home to beautiful sunrises, especially in the winter.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Home - beautiful sunrise in San Diego
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Home – beautiful sunrise in San Diego

San Diego is also home to beautiful sunsets. This one is from Christmas evening 2012.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Home - beautiful sunset in San Diego
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Home – beautiful sunset in San Diego

San Diego is home to hundreds, probably thousands of different species of animals and plants. It’s also home to the most amazing topiary I’ve ever seen (view more topiary at the San Diego Botanic Garden here).

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Home - amazing topiary at the San Diego Botanic Garden
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Home – amazing topiary at the San Diego Botanic Garden

And as of this week, San Diego is home to some beautiful pear blossoms in Balboa Park. You can view more photos of these pear blossoms in a post next week, so I invite you subscribe to this site if you haven’t already.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Home - pear blossoms at San Diego's Balboa Park
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Home – pear blossoms at San Diego’s Balboa Park

I’m happy to call San Diego home.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Illumination

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 WordPress photo challenge is illumination. The first photo that came to mind for this theme is one I took last weekend during our outing at Coronado Beach, in San Diego, California. I found this beautiful chandelier hanging from the ceiling of the large and historical lobby of the Hotel Del Coronado. Gorgeous!

Remember you can click on each photo for a larger view.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Illumination
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Illumination

You can view more of my photos of Coronado Beach from last week here.

When I think of illuminations, I can’t help but remembering the beautiful Christmas lights we saw this past holiday. I posted many Christmas light photos a few weeks ago, but here are a couple of my favorite.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Illumination - Penguin Christmas lights
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Illumination – Penguin Christmas lights
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Illumination - Christmas lights
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Illumination – Christmas lights

Sunday Post: New Year 2013

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 participating in Jakesprinter’s Sunday Post photo challenge. This week’s theme is New Year 2013. I’ll keep this post very simple. Remember you can click on each photo below to see a larger image.

I’m waving 2012 goodbye with this beautiful San Diego sunset photo I took on Christmas evening.

Beautiful Christmas sunset in San Diego
Beautiful Christmas sunset in San Diego

I’m greeting 2013 with this beautiful San Diego winter sunrise that I selected for the month of January in my 2013 photo calendar (for sale on Zazzle).

Beautiful winter sunrise in San Diego
Beautiful winter sunrise in San Diego

Let’s hope the year 2013 features even more beautiful San Diego sunsets like this one:

Pink and gray sunset with clouds in San Diego
Pink and gray sunset with clouds in San Diego

and inspiring sunrises like this one:

Photo of a winter sunrise - clouds on fire
Photo of a winter sunrise – clouds on fire

I’m looking forward to a year full of wonderful photo opportunities, and I wish you a very happy and prosperous new year 2013!

WordPress weekly photo challenge: My 2012 in pictures

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.

It’s been quite an eventful year for me but besides the bad and the ugly, lots of good things have happened, including the launch of this photography website, and the launch of my online Zazzle store to sell photo products.

I took a lot of great photos this year and I displayed some of them on this site. I still have quite a number of photos to go through on my various SD cards but are several of my favorite photos for 2012. You can click on each photo for a larger view and find each photo in individual posts on this site by using the search tool. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

A beautiful Christmas sunset

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.

If you celebrate Christmas, I hope you had a great day yesterday, filled with cheer, family and gifts of love. We had a wonderful time and spend most of the day playing with our new toys. I didn’t have much time playing with my new Bamboo Create drawing tablet but I’m a patient person and I can wait for a quiet moment to try it out.

Later in the day, I did what I know best with my camera though. Seize the opportunity when I see it. I caught a glimpse of the sunset through the windows, grabbed my Canon Powershot G1X, and stepped outside. A couple of weeks ago, I told you about my struggle to capture the beauty of a sunset without ending up with a lot of pixelation on my photos. So this time, I knew I had to grab the right camera to attempt to capture this beautiful sunset truthfully.

Here are the two photos of this beautiful Christmas sunset I’d like to share with you. The pixelation is very limited and the colors are just gorgeous. Just look at this sunset photo and this is what you would have seen standing next to me.

Remember you can click on each photo to see a larger view of these sunsets.

Beautiful Christmas sunset
Beautiful Christmas sunset

I love winter sunsets (and winter sunrises). Besides the potential clouds, which make the sunset a lot more interesting, there’s something about the angle the sunlight shines through that makes the sunset colors bolder. And I love how light the sky is on the horizon, while it gets darker and darker up in the sky, all in one photo.

Colorful winter sunset with clouds
Colorful winter sunset with clouds

I know 2013 hasn’t started yet but I’m already thinking about my 2014 calendar photo choices. Do you think the first photo (in landscape format) should make it to my pile of potential picks?