Tree Photos – Page 15

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

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Home

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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

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.

Mariachi band topiary - San Diego Botanic Garden

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Unique – the topiary at the San Diego Botanic Garden

I was going to hold off showing you the amazing topiary I discovered at the San Diego Botanic Garden, but when I saw that the WordPress weekly photo challenge is “unique”, I figured these photos would be perfect. I had never seen anything like it anywhere else, so to me, these are very unique indeed.

First let me say I’ve seen lots of topiary and I always admire the art of being able to create shapes out of trees. In a way, what the San Diego Botanic Garden has done is a little different, as you’ll see below. The most amazing thing about these plant “sculptures” is that you could literally walk right past them and not notice them – they blend in with their surroundings very well. In fact, I walked past the first one, saw the second, then walked back to the first one to take pictures from the beginning. Most people didn’t notice most of them either until they saw me taking pictures of them.

I took these first few photos in the Mexican Garden area of the San Diego Botanic Garden. The light was very bright and most of the garden was in the shade, so it was tricky to take photos, with such contrast on most pictures. And I didn’t use a flash either. I need to plan half a day to go up there by myself and spend the time to take the right pictures, the right way, at the right time.

I invite you to click on some of these photos to see all the details of each topiary in a larger format.

This is the first topiary you see as you enter the Mexican Garden, that is if you don’t walk right by it as I did.

Unique topiary at the San Diego Botanic Garden

The second topiary is just as pretty. You can see each plant is exactly where it’s supposed to be.

Mexican lady topiary at the San Diego Botanic Garden

The next two topiary items are opposite of each other. It’s a couple dancing to the music of a mariachi band.

Dancing couple topiary at the San Diego Botanic Garden

Check out the musicians’ mustaches!

I’m not sure what this topiary is supposed to be. A gardener? You tell me what you think it is.

Gardener topiary - San Diego Botanic Garden — Gardener topiary – San Diego Botanic Garden

The next topiary is a man sitting down and looking at something in his hand.

This is what he’s looking at: a butterfly (made with a plant, of course). Nice!

These last few photos are from topiary art I found in the children’s garden of the San Diego Botanic Garden.

This one is technically not a topiary but rather a sculpture made out of planting pots… Pretty neat, huh?

The next one is a poor rhinoceros topiary that has a shedding problem. It looks quite naked in some areas.

The last one is a reading rabbit, perfect addition to a children’s garden.

Reading rabbit topiary - San Diego Botanic Garden — Reading rabbit topiary – San Diego Botanic Garden

I hope you enjoyed these photos of unique topiary. Thanks for stopping by!

February 1, 2013February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: California Photos, Photography, Photos of San Diego, Plant Photos, Tree PhotosTags: California pictures, photography, photos, potting plant sculptures, San Diego, San Diego Botanic Garden, San Diego botanic garden topiary, topiary, topiary animals, topiary art, topiary people, topiary shapes 27 Comments

Raindrops hanging from a thuja tree branch

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Now!

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: Now!

My “now” moment is from last Friday, when we got to experience rain falling down the whole day and night, here in San Diego, California. I can’t complain about it much, we really need it. I actually don’t mind when it rains and doesn’t pour, which is mostly what happened. The only thing is, there are few opportunities to take pictures on rainy days. However, I experienced a “now” moment last Friday and managed to grab my camera and snap photos throughout the day to capture the effects of the rain.

I’ll be featuring all of the photos I took in two additional posts later this week, one on clouds and one of raindrops. Here’s a preview of these posts for you. Remember you can click on each image for a larger view.

Rainclouds hang quite low here, and with the high hills surrounding us, you can see the clouds creeping and crawling all over them. It was a challenge to capture them on camera because I believe a video would illustrate the effect better, but I still think the photos came out OK.

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Now - hills covered with clouds — Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Now – hills covered with clouds

The next photo features raindrops on the branch of a thuja. I love how the raindrops manage to hang on so well to the tree.

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Now - raindrops on a thuja tree branch — Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Now – raindrops on a thuja tree branch

As for the last photo, this is what every kid loves to do when it rains- jumping in the puddles! – especially if wearing rain boots. Kids really know how to enjoy the now!

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Now - splashing in the puddles — Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Now – splashing in the puddles

January 28, 2013February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: California Photos, Landscape Photos, Photography, Photos of San Diego, Tree Photos, Water photosTags: California pictures, clouds over hills, let's be wild weekly photo challenge, Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Now, photography, photos, photos of clouds, photos of raindrops, rain drops on trees, raindrop photos, raindrops on trees, San Diego, splashing in puddles, thuja, thuya 11 Comments

Travel theme: Blue sky in San Diego and rising moon

Sunday Post: Focused Attention

Today I’m participating in Jakesprinter’s Sunday Post photo challenge. This week’s theme is Focused Attention.

If there’s one thing you need to have when taking photos of nature, it is focused attention. Paying attention to your surroundings is crucial if you want to spot and capture something that looks good to the eye. Sometimes, timing is important if you’re trying to take photos of animals, or even skies, which can change any minute. Focus is mostly needed when you’re taking photos up close, in macro mode.

I just received my brand new Canon Powershot SX500 IS a couple of days ago (it felt like Christmas all over again!), so I played with it a bit yesterday, trying to focus on the raindrops that are everywhere because of the rain. It was fun comparing the photos I took of raindrops on the same tree with my other camera. I’ll be doing a full post on these raindrops later this week, but here’s a preview of it. Focused attention can get you a nice shot of raindrops on a thuja tree branch.

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

Sunday Post: Focused Attention - raindrop on a tree branch — Sunday Post: Focused Attention – raindrop on a tree branch

You also need focused attention when trying to capture a moving body of water on camera. I did that recently and I still have to go through my photos to pick a select few. Here’s one that came out alright, I think. The sun was already over the hill and the whole aread being shaded gave the water a blue tint. A pretty neat effect.

Sunday Post: Focused Attention - stream water — Sunday Post: Focused Attention – stream water

That same day, I could see the moon high up in the sky in the late afternoon. I wanted to take a picture of it, but I knew it wouldn’t be a great photo if I had nothing else in the photo but the moon in broad daylight. So I looked around and found a way to add to the picture and give the moon some perspective. I’m pretty happy with the way the photo turned out. What do you think?

Sunday Post: Focused Attention - moon in bright blue sky — Sunday Post: Focused Attention – moon in bright blue sky

That’s all I have for this theme of focused attention. I hope you enjoyed it!

January 27, 2013February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: California Photos, Landscape Photos, Photography, Photos of San Diego, Rock photos, Sky Photos, Tree Photos, Water photosTags: California pictures, moon in blue sky, moon in daylight, photographing moving water, photography, photos, rain drops on tree branch, raindrops on tree branch, running water, San Diego, stream water, Sunday Post, Sunday Post: Focused Attention 7 Comments

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Wood

This week’s Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge theme is wood. Last week’s Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge theme was water and I couldn’t stop thinking of the many photos I could sort through to select the final few.

This week’s wood theme was a little more challenging for me. I didn’t want to show you just trees, trees and more trees. Yes, I will display a few trees below, but I also wanted to show you objects made out of wood. I hope you enjoy my selection of wood photos.

This HUGE wood sculpture is to welcome you to the small mountain town of Idyllwild in Southern California, about two hours north of San Diego. The man who created this sculpture for the town (apparently he wasn’t done with it when I snapped the photo) sells many other wood sculptures, mostly of wildlife. They’re just beautiful.

Cece's Fun Foto Challenge - Wood - Wood sculpture in Idyllwild, California — Cece’s Fun Foto Challenge – Wood – Wood sculpture in Idyllwild, California

Here’s the same Idyllwild wood sculpture from a different angle.

Wildlife wood sculpture in Idyllwild California

Here are two Stellar Jay birds perched on opposite branches of a pine tree. This photo was taken in Idyllwild too, where Stellar Jays are easy to spot.

When we stayed in Idyllwild the first time, we rented a dome house made entirely out of wood inside and out. Here’s a part of the interior walls and ceiling to show you what a dome house looks like. Pretty neat, huh?

I took the next photo on the Star of India ship at the San Diego Maritime Museum with my kids (working hard!). That ship was used in the movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World with Russell Crowe and it’s still an active ship to this day.

Star of India - San Diego Maritime Museum — Star of India – San Diego Maritime Museum

As for these last photos, let me tell you a funny story. I took them at Dos Picos State Park northeast of San Diego a couple of years ago and never used them for anything. But I still saved them on my computer, because I knew I would use them one day for sure. And now the day has come. I present you a pile of wood!