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

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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

Feeling grateful on Valentine’s Day

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.

Whether you have someone special to celebrate Valentine’s Day or not, there’s always an opportunity to feel grateful for the people dear to you.

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy. They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” ~ Marcel Proust

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

Valentine's Day - Marcel Proust quote on being grateful
Valentine’s Day – Marcel Proust quote on being grateful

You can view more photos of amazing and unique topiary from the San Diego Botanic Garden here.

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?

Sunday Post: Ongoing

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 Ongoing.

It took me a little time to figure out what type of photos I could take to best represent this theme. At first, I thought photographing a sunrise or a sunset in progression would be perfect. Unfortunately we haven’t had the best weather recently, so this opportunity has not presented itself in time.

So I’m offering you my second pick for this ongoing theme: bees, hard at work on a variety of flowers. What I find most amazing about bees is how relentless they are at doing their job, even when you stand right next to them for a photo opportunity. Their work is ongoing and uninterrupted and I love watching them and capturing them on camera.

Remember you can click on each photo so you can see it in a larger size.

I took this photo at Balboa Park in San Diego earlier this week. These are pear blossoms from ornamental pear trees. The bees were super busy collecting nectar from the thousands of flowers available to them.

Sunday Post: Ongoing - bees on the pear blossoms at San Diego Balboa Park
Sunday Post: Ongoing – bees on the pear blossoms at San Diego Balboa Park

This next photo is also from Balboa Park. Apparently the bees weren’t just busy with the pear blossoms. They were also hard at work on these beautiful aloe flowers. You could see the ongoing flow of bees all over these flowers.

Sunday Post: Ongoing - bees on aloe flowers at Balboa Park in San Diego
Sunday Post: Ongoing – bees on aloe flowers at Balboa Park in San Diego

I took the next photo at the San Diego Botanic Garden a few weeks ago. Bees seemed to love this cactus flower. You can see more photos of these bees and cactus here.

Sunday Post: Ongoing - bees on cactus flowers at the San Diego Botanic Garden
Sunday Post: Ongoing – bees on cactus flowers at the San Diego Botanic Garden

This next photo is from Idyllwild, California. This bee’s ongoing nectar collection on this wild rose made for a great photo opportunity.

Sunday Post: Ongoing - bee on a wild rose in Idyllwild
Sunday Post: Ongoing – bee on a wild rose in Idyllwild

My last photo is not of a bee but a tiger swallowtail butterfly. Just like bees, butterflies go from one flower to the next to collect nectar. This is an ongoing job and gives me an opportunity to chase them around to try to get a good shot. This one ended up on my 2013 photo calendar.

Sunday Post: Ongoing - tiger swallowtail butterfly
Sunday Post: Ongoing – tiger swallowtail butterfly

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.