Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: the color blue

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 Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge and her theme is “the color blue”. I encourage you to click on each photo to see a larger view.

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Blue is by far my favorite color, from very light to very dark, just as it is or with a bit of green or a bit of red in it. I love blue skies, blue waters (where blue skies reflect in), blue jeans – anything nature-made or man-made that looks blue. Here are a few pictures I took this summer that feature the color blue.

The first thing that comes to mind is how blue the sky can look here in San Diego. Well, maybe not downtown San Diego, which tends to be overcast many days out of the year. Inland, where it’s warmer and hotter, the sky can be the brightest blue on good days. This is a mountain peak I photographed while hiking in Idyllwild this summer, a couple of hours northeast of San Diego.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: the color blue - blue sky in Idyllwild, California
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: the color blue – blue sky in Idyllwild, California

I took this next picture with my cell phone camera. That’s all I had available at the time and I thought the very rare clouds and their reflection in the water presented an opportunity I didn’t want to miss.

Blue sky and white clouds reflecting in water - water reflections
Blue sky and white clouds reflecting in water – water reflections

Spend a few hours in an aquarium and you’ll see a lot of blue. I love taking pictures of sea jellies (aka jelly fish), especially when the tank light keeps changing colors. Here’s a blue jelly fish for you!

Blue sea jelly - blue jelly fish
Blue sea jelly – blue jelly fish

Blue and yellow are complementary colors, so what’s not to like about yellow seahorses in an aquarium with a bright blue background?

Yellow seahorses in blue background aquarium
Yellow seahorses in blue background aquarium

Finally, this is one of my favorite photos of a duck I took this summer. This female mallard duck was swimming in very still water, mostly in the shade. The water almost looks like a sheet of bluish metal.

Mallard female duck swimming in still, blue water
Mallard female duck swimming in still, blue water
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WordPress weekly photo challenge: Saturated

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 “from lines to patterns”. You can click on the photos below for a larger view.

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I love the saturated colors that nature displays all around. Close-up shots help focusing on that saturation. Enjoy the show!

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Saturated - Bottle brush tree flowers
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Saturated – Bottle brush tree flowers
Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Saturated - Red hibiscus flower
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Saturated – Red hibiscus flower
Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Saturated - pistils inside a yellow rose
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Saturated – pistils inside a yellow rose
Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Saturated - iceplant blooms
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Saturated – iceplant blooms
Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Saturated - Orange Picotee tuberous begonia - begonia tuberhybrida
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Saturated – Orange Picotee tuberous begonia – begonia tuberhybrida
Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Saturated - green junebug beetle
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Saturated – green junebug beetle
Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Saturated - yellow lemon against blue sky
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Saturated – yellow lemon against blue sky
Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Saturated - purple and white wildflowers with morning dew
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Saturated – purple and white wildflowers with morning dew

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

Travel theme: Simplicity of Lake Hemet

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 “simplicity”. 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.

I try to keep my photos as simple as possible and that’s why I like doing macros a lot, focusing on one subject and keeping the background a blur. But I also like the simplicity of some landscapes, especially when they involve water. For this theme, I decided to feature the beautiful Lake Hemet in Southern California. Considering the small lakes and ponds we have in the San Diego area, Lake Hemet is a lot larger. There’s something very peaceful about standing in front of a large body of water. Here’s just one little part of it.

Travel theme: Simplicity of Lake Hemet, Southern California
Travel theme: Simplicity of Lake Hemet, Southern California

I like the simple landscape around the lake: the shore, some grass and then trees and a mix of shrubs and brush.

Travel theme: Simplicity of Lake Hemet
Travel theme: Simplicity of Lake Hemet

Even in hot weather, you can enjoy a little breeze right by the lake, which causes a few simple ripples by the shore.

Travel theme: Simplicity of lake water ripples
Travel theme: Simplicity of lake water ripples

The trees around the lake provide a welcome amount of shade. In the morning, before the sun rays heat up the atmosphere, you can witness a beautiful blue sky – a sign of the purity of the air at 4000 feet away from most civilization. Simple and beautiful.

Simplicity of blue sky above the pine trees
Simplicity of blue sky above the pine trees

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?