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

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.

What comes with rain? Raindrops!

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 is another follow-up post to a photo I featured earlier this week. I’m not crazy about rain. I get wet if I go outside, I don’t like driving in it, and my kids go nuts staying inside all day. But one thing I absolutely love about rain is the leftovers, specifically raindrops. I’ve featured raindrops several times on this photo blog, including raindrops on spider webs.

I think raindrops can look very pretty, especially when they hang from something in a special way. I’ve noticed that raindrops hang on very well to thuja tree branches, and so after this most recent rainstorm, which lasted almost three long days and nights, I managed to take a few photos of them, including some with my brand new Canon Powershot SX500 IS digital camera. By the way, I’ve decided to return this camera. After giving it a long try, I just can’t stand the chromatic abberations on many photos. Most images are pretty grainy too, which I find unacceptable. So I’m back to shopping around for another camera to replace by beloved old Canon Powershot, which doesn’t always want to turn on. I’d love to go for another Canon because I can navigate through the menus pretty fast, but I really don’t know at this point. Sigh.

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

Raindrops hanging from a thuja tree branch
Raindrops hanging from a thuja tree branch
Rain drops on a tree branch after a rainstorm
Rain drops on a tree branch after a rainstorm
Raindrops on branches
Raindrops on branches

I took these photos below with my new camera.

Raindrop on a thuja branch
Raindrop on a thuja branch
Photographing rain drops
Photographing rain drops
Raindrop photos
Raindrop photos

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Now!

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’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

Sunday Post: Focused Attention

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 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!