WordPress weekly photo challenge: Horizon

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 the WordPress weekly photo challenge and this week’s theme is “horizon”. You can click on the photos below for a larger view.

If you like what you see, feel free to subscribe and receive nature photography updates a few times a week.

Here’s the horizon at Coronado Beach, hidden between the dune grasses.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: horizon at Coronado Beach
WordPress weekly photo challenge: horizon at Coronado Beach

I enjoyed taking this photo of pink grasses as they shoot across the horizon in the foreground.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: horizon with pink grasses in the foreground
WordPress weekly photo challenge: horizon with pink grasses in the foreground

Here’s the horizon on top of the mountains in Idyllwild, California. On that clear day, you could see up to 100 miles away.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: horizon at Idyllwild Park, California
WordPress weekly photo challenge: horizon at Idyllwild Park, California

How about this moon going up the horizon in the daylight?

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: moon at the horizon
WordPress weekly photo challenge: moon at the horizon

I love the beauty of the horizon at sunrise.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: horizon at sunrise
WordPress weekly photo challenge: horizon at sunrise

And at sunset.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: horizon at sunset
WordPress weekly photo challenge: horizon at sunset

Help me pick photos for my 2014 water theme calendar… and maybe win a calendar?

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 want to thank everyone who gave me such positive feedback on my post earlier this week regarding themes for my 2014 photo calendars. Today, I’d like to showcase a selection of water theme photos and ask you to choose which ones should make it into the calendar. It might be easier to tell me which ones you’d really want to see, and which ones I should definitely keep. Just give me your honest feedback and help me make great choices.

Now, here’s the catch. Everyone who comments on one of my 2014 photo calendar related posts will be entered in a drawing to win one of my calendars (you can pick your favorite theme). The only requirement I have for the winner is to be located within the U.S., mostly because the calendar will contain U.S. holidays and it will be more helpful to that person. For every calendar post that you comment on, you will earn one drawing entry (one entry per blog post, not per comment). I’m planning to give away one calendar to a lucky winner, and possibly another one to the person who comes in second, depending on the number of participants.

Sell me which photos I should include, or not, in this water theme 2014 photo calendar. You can click on any photo below to open the slideshow and view everything in a larger format. Please include your comments into the post comment section directly, not on individual photos, to make it easier for everyone to see your feedback. I know some of the photos are in portrait instead of landscape format, but I’d go back to the original and crop it the right way if it’s a favorite.

Are you ready? Go!

Travel theme: Hidden

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 Where’s My Backpack’s Travel Theme photo challenge. This week’s theme is “hidden”. Remember you can click on each photo for a larger view. If you like what you see, feel free to subscribe and receive nature photography updates a few times a week.

Sometimes when I photograph a specific subject in nature, I find something hidden inside or around it. For example, I found this lovely green junebug beetle when I was photographing rose blooms.

Travel theme: Hidden green junebug beetle
Travel theme: Hidden green junebug beetle

I also found this little ladybug crawling on the bottom part of a leaf when I was looking for monarch caterpillars in a large milkweed plant.

Travel theme: Hidden red ladybug
Travel theme: Hidden red ladybug

I did find the monarch caterpillars eventually, after looking at the milkweed tree for about 10 minutes. They blend in pretty well in the green and yellow leaves.

Travel theme: Hidden monarch caterpillar
Travel theme: Hidden monarch caterpillar

I found this cute little crab hiding in the sand at low tide. I bet he couldn’t wait for the tide to come back up.

Travel theme: Hidden crab in the sand
Travel theme: Hidden crab in the sand

On my last picture for this theme, my subject is quite hidden. Do you see the leafy sea dragon made out of tree branches and leaves in the tree? It looked like it was trying very hard to take off in the sky.

Travel theme: Hidden leafy sea dragon in a tree
Travel theme: Hidden leafy sea dragon in a tree

WordPress weekly photo challenge: an unusual POV

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 the WordPress weekly photo challenge and this week’s theme is “an unusual POV (point of view)”. You can click on the photos below for a larger view. If you like what you see, feel free to subscribe and receive nature photography updates a few times a week.

I think I tend to notice things around me that most people will walk by, and that’s what I like to photograph. Like this pine tree bark from up close, which looks a lot like a topographic map.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: an unusual POV - Patterns and colors on pine tree bark
WordPress weekly photo challenge: an unusual POV – Patterns and colors on pine tree bark

Or this manzanita tree bark peeling off.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: an unusual POV - manzanita tree bark peeling off
WordPress weekly photo challenge: an unusual POV – manzanita tree bark peeling off

Have you ever seen the spider webs that grass spiders make? When they get wet with the morning dew, they look very cool from up close.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: an unusual POV - grass spider webs
WordPress weekly photo challenge: an unusual POV – grass spider webs

I like using the sky as a background and this gray but very bright sky was perfect to make this orange rose stand out and glow.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: an unusual POV - Orange rose at Balboa Park in San Diego
WordPress weekly photo challenge: an unusual POV – Orange rose at Balboa Park in San Diego

Living in San Diego, I get to see a lot of wildflowers in the spring, especially poppies. For this shot, I used the wooden fence as my main object, with the wildflowers bordering it.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: an unusual POV - Spring wildflowers in San Diego
WordPress weekly photo challenge: an unusual POV – Spring wildflowers in San Diego

When you live in San Diego, you get to enjoy quite a few things, like a very blue sky on lucky days, and a very blue Pacific ocean. In this last shot below, I used the grasses growing on the sand dunes at Coronado Beach as a foreground, with the Pacific ocean in the background.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: an unusual POV - Pacific ocean in the background at Coronado beach
WordPress weekly photo challenge: an unusual POV – Pacific ocean in the background at Coronado beach

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Sea

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 the WordPress weekly photo challenge and this week’s theme is “sea”. You can click on the photos below for a larger view. If you like what you see, feel free to subscribe and receive nature photography updates a few times a week.

I love the refreshing effect of the sea and its powerful waves full of ions.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Sea - the waves at Coronado Beach
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Sea – the waves at Coronado Beach

The sea is a large feeding ground for humans, as well as animals, including this seagull looking for a small fish or a tasty clam.

 WordPress weekly photo challenge: Sea - seagull looking for food
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Sea – seagull looking for food

Sea stars are quite interesting sea creatures. They hang on to a rock for the majority of their lives and seem perfectly content just doing that.

 WordPress weekly photo challenge: Sea - colorful sea star
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Sea – colorful sea star

The sea has a lot to offer from above, but there’s so much to see underneath, like these cute seahorses.

 WordPress weekly photo challenge: Sea - seahorses hiding in seaweed
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Sea – seahorses hiding in seaweed

Sea jellies are quite amazing too. No brain, no heart, and yet they float around the sea as they find food to eat. I just don’t like them to be in the water when I’m swimming.

 WordPress weekly photo challenge: Sea - sea jellies
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Sea – sea jellies