Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Sunrise

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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 Sunrise.

I LOVE sunrises. Don’t get me wrong, I love sunsets too, as they can bring a beautiful ending to a beautiful day. But there’s something really special about sunrises. No matter what happened the day before – good or bad – a sunrise says you have the opportunity to start fresh every single day. Pretty sunrises and sunsets are a challenge in San Diego, because they look a lot better with some clouds in the sky to help reflect the light. And San Diego doesn’t have that many clouds overall.

Here are some of my favorite sunrises I’ve been able to capture in the past year or so. You’ll notice the range of colors is quite broad, so you never know what the next sunrise will look like. Remember you can click on each image to see the photo in a larger format.

This photo below represents what a typical winter sunrise looks like in San Diego. Not too many clouds, and a mostly orange sky. I like it a lot.

Let's Be Wild Photo Challenge - Sunrise in the winter in San Diego
Let’s Be Wild Photo Challenge – Sunrise in the winter in San Diego

I love this sunrise for a simple reason: its delicate colors. It doesn’t scream good morning, but rather whispers, hello, sunshine!

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Sunrise in San Diego
Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Sunrise in San Diego

Not all sunrises are pink, orange or red. Some of them are mostly yellow and gray, like the one below. The sun tried very hard piercing through the clouds that day (and it worked).

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Yellow sunrise with clouds
Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Yellow sunrise with clouds

In this next picture, the clouds looked like they were on fire that morning.

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Sunrise with clouds on fire
Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Sunrise with clouds on fire

Some winter sunrises in San Diego can be very colorful, and very inspiring. You know your day is starting well if you can spot one of these.

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Winter sunrise in San Diego
Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Winter sunrise in San Diego

Do you spend time enjoying the sunrises where you live?

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Forward

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.

The new WordPress weekly photo challenge theme is forward. I’m always looking forward to the next best photo opportunity, so I can display it here and on my online store. I’m so behind on uploading new photos to my store, and I’m looking forward to working on it over the next week or so. There are lots of good photos to add, that’s for sure.

Remember you can click on any of the photos below to see it in a larger format.

I’m always looking forward to exploring new hiking paths, and there are a lot of them in San Diego. Here’s one path in Mission Trails park I haven’t tried all the way yet.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Forward the hiking path
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Forward the hiking path

Today, I’m looking forward to enjoying the cloudless blue sky, after three days of gray clouds, rain and hail.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Forward to a blue sky
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Forward to a blue sky

I’m also looking forward to the raindrops helping my rose bush grow new rose buds for the spring.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Forward to new rose buds
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Forward to new rose buds

Finally I’m looking forward to new strawberries this summer. That is, if I can get to them because the slugs and pill bugs do…

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Forward to strawberries
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Forward to strawberries

Lots of things to look forward to! What are you looking forward to on your end?

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Black and White or Sepia Tones

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 black and white or sepia tones. Now that’s quite a challenge for me because I shoot all my photos in color and I pick my subjects because of their specific colors and tones. I’m not an Ansel Adams fan either. I think Mother Nature spent a lot of time assigning colors to each of her small parts, so I often feel the lack of colors on some photos doesn’t give nature enough credit for the great job she did.

I had to dig through all of my photos and find a few that I thought would look good in black and white. I have no idea if I pulled it off, so you’ll have to let me know what you think.

Remember you can click on each photo below to see a larger version of it.

This is a small stream in Mission Trails Regional Park in San Diego, California. I still have to do a post on the several photos I captured that day. I think water may be something that looks OK in black and white, especially when it flows fast.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Black and white water stream
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Black and white water stream

I tried to use a photo of rain clouds and make it black and white for this exercise. Here is the original post of these creepy crawly clouds over the San Diego hills.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Black and white creeping, crawling rain clouds
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Black and white creeping, crawling rain clouds

This next photo is a sunrise where the sun tried very hard to pierce through the clouds. It  created an orange yellow glow mixing with the gray clouds that was just gorgeous. I’m not too crazy about the lack of color of this photo, knowing how beautiful the colors of the original sunrise were.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Black and white cloudy sunrise
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Black and white cloudy sunrise

I found the tree below at Balboa Park. I love all the giant thorns poking out of its trunk and I think the black and white format doesn’t take anything away from the original.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Black and white, very pointy tree trunk
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Black and white, very pointy tree trunk

This is my former neighbors’ cat. She’s dark gray with bright green eyes. I think most animals and people can look beautiful on black and white photos. Isn’t she a cutie? I want to caption this photo “the great horned owl cat”.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Black and white, beautiful cat
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Black and white, beautiful cat

I took this last photo at the San Diego Zoo. These are two brother bears – grizzly bears – enjoying some cuddling and hugging time. I used the color photo to participate in the Project 365 -2013 on Facebook and I hope to feature it in an upcoming post. The white at the bottom is actually snow the zoo keepers made for the bears that day.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Black and white grizzly bears at the San Diego Zoo
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Black and white grizzly bears at the San Diego Zoo

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Green

Let's be Wild Audience Award 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.

February 14, 2013 update: I just found out I won the Let’s be Wild Audience Award for this photo challenge on Green! I want to thank everyone for their kind comments on my photos. This is the first time I’ve been recognized for my photo work, so this is a big deal for me. 🙂

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: Green.

You can click on the photos below for a larger view.

Green isn’t something you see a lot of in San Diego. The outdoor scenery is gray, brown and yellow most of the year. Still, you can be lucky and capture some green on camera, like that spring day when I stumbled upon this patch of surreal green at Dos Picos County Park. You can view more photos of Dos Picos County Park here, and here.

Let's Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green grass
Let’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green grass

Green is the color of grass, even when it’s covered with dew and spiderwebs from grass spiders. You can view more photos of these spiderwebs with dew in this post.

Let's Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green grass covered with spider webs
Let’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green grass covered with spider webs

I love the bold green on the plants below, even when covered with winter frost. You can view more photos of plants covered in frost here, here and here.

Let's Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green plants covered with frost
Let’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green plants covered with frost

Even the rain can’t wash out the green of this tree branch. You can view more photos of raindrops on these tree branches here and here.

Let's Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green branches and raindrops
Let’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green branches and raindrops

There’s plenty of green at the San Diego Botanic Garden, including on this beautiful topiary of a dancing couple. You can see more amazing topiary in this post.

Let's Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green topiary at the San Diego Botanic Garden
Let’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green topiary at the San Diego Botanic Garden

How green is it where you live right now?

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.