California pictures

Photo of colorful California wildflowers

Bright and colorful wildflowers to warm you up on this cold December day

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If you haven’t participated in my contest to win a free copy of my 2013 photo calendar yet, today is the last day, so hurry and let your friends know about it too!

I don’t know how cold it is where you live, but here in inland San Diego County, it’s freezing! And no, I’m not exaggerating, it actually froze last night when the outside temperature got below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Let’s just hope the cold weather doesn’t stay for too long, since it can do a lot of damage to the local avocado and citrus crops.

If it’s cold where you are, I have a few photos that will hopefully warm you up bit. I took them last spring, when the warm sun laid its gentle rays on thousands of bright and colorful California wildflowers at a local park. Remember you can click on each photo for a larger view.

I used the first photo of wildflowers in my 2013 photo calendar, as it represents Southern California in the early spring perfectly.

California wildflowers - poppies — California wildflowers – poppies

Here’s a similar style of photo, but showing a different type of flowers.

Here’s another photo of the light pink wildflowers. I believe they are called Hungarian breadseed poppies. They’re very pretty with their delicate shades of pink!

Hungarian breadseed poppies - light pink poppies — Hungarian breadseed poppies – light pink poppies

Finally, here’s an assortment of colors for you: light pink, purple, orange and red. Somebody had fun throwing these seeds all over.

I hope you feel warmer inside, if not on the outside!

Pink, purple and red California wildflowers

A Word A Week Challenge – Orange flower with fuzzy petals

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Delicate

Remember you have only two days left to enter my contest to win a free copy of my 2013 photo calendar!

There’s nothing more delicate than life. Life of a person, life of an animal, life of a plant. Life comes and goes, sometimes unexpectedly. It’s been a tragic week for America, especially so close to Christmas. Children are the most delicate kind of human beings, and yet they can be so resilient.

I’ll stick to photos of nature today to illustrate the WordPress weekly photo challenge theme, delicate. Make sure you click on each image if you’d like to see a larger version of it.

I recently took photos of raindrops on spider webs on two separate occasions. One-finger touch and both the spider web and the raindrops can be gone. You can view more of these spider webs here.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Delicate raindrops on spider webs

And you can view more of the spider webs below here and here.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Delicate raindrops on spider webs over river rocks

And here are a few photos of flowers, which are a very delicate part of nature. I have no idea what this flower is called but I love the fuzziness all over its petals.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Delicate, fuzzy petals of a tropical flower

The flower below might be a hibiscus but I’m not sure (I’m terrible at flower names). I just love the pollen on top of the stigma, and the delicate petals and their delicate color.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Delicate petals of a hibiscus

December 16, 2012February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: Bloom Photos, California Photos, Flower Photos, Photography, Photos of San Diego, Rock photosTags: California pictures, fuzzy petals, hibiscus photo, photography, photos, photos of blooms, photos of flowers, rain drops on spider webs, raindrops on spider webs, Wordpress weekly photo challenge, WordPress weekly photo challenge: Delicate 13 Comments

The challenges of photographing a great sunset

I love watching sunrises and sunsets – the moments when the sun greets us and waves us goodbye every day. I think most sunrises and sunsets look prettier when you add a few clouds to the sky. The clouds make the light reflect its many shades of color rather than come out as a mostly monochrome event.

Here’s my challenge when it comes to photographing a beautiful sunrise or sunset: my camera. My Canon Powershot SX130 does a wonderful job in broad daylight situations, but as soon as I try taking photos in low light, it seems to give up on me. The camera sensor’s quality is not good enough to handle the job in many situations. And forget about using a flash when you try to take a photo of the whole sky.

This is the photo of a gorgeous sunset I captured last November, a little over a year ago. I love the many colors of the sky, the shapes of the clouds as if they were writing secret messages in the sky, but the slight pixelation in the dark areas drives me nuts. It’s good enough to look at on a computer screen, but not good enough for print.

I hope to have solved this problem with my new Canon Powershot G1X, which is supposed to have a much more sensitive camera sensor to handle low light situations better. Now, I just have to wait for a beautiful sunset opportunity to occur to try it out and compare.

Do you have a hard time taking nice pictures of sunsets and low light situations, or does your camera do a great job?

December 12, 2012February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: California Photos, Photography, Photos of San Diego, Sunrise Photos, Sunset photosTags: California pictures, Canon Powershot G1X, Canon Powershot SX130, low light situations, photography, photos, photos in low light, photos of skies, sunrise photos, sunset photos, taking photos of sunsets 9 Comments

Win a free copy of my 2013 photo calendar!

Yes, you read right. You can win a free copy of my 2013 photo calendar (view all the photos) by helping me spread the word about my Facebook page.

Here’s how you enter my contest:

1) Like my nature photography Facebook page if you haven’t done so yet.

2) Share my Facebook page with your friends and ask them to like it.

3) The person who provides the most Like referrals wins the calendar (one free copy).

4) If I don’t know of any referrals, I will pick one lucky winner out of my Facebook page fans, so you could still win just by liking my page.

5) You can keep this calendar for yourself or give it to someone else for the new year. Heck, you could give it to a friend you referred!

This contest starts today and ends on December 19, 2012.

Important Notes:

– Facebook doesn’t tell me who you referred to like my page so you will need to send me a message through Facebook and give me the names of these people so I can double check.

– This free calendar was designed and printed in the USA so it includes all US holidays. It will probably make more sense for someone in the US to win this calendar, but anyone is welcome to enter the contest.

Good luck and thank you for participating!

December 5, 2012February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: California Photos, PhotographyTags: 2013 calendar contest, 2013 photo calendar, California pictures, free 2013 calendar, free 2013 photo calendar, nature photography, photography, photos 8 Comments

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Texture

I want to start this post by reminding you that you only have a day and a half left to use this great Zazzle coupon code 65CANVASCALS at checkout to get 65% off my 2013 photo calendar or any of my canvas prints. Hurry, it doesn’t get any better than this. Expires on December 5, 2012.

I’m participating in the online adventure travel magazine LetsBeWild.com’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge for bloggers. This week’s Challenge is: Texture in Nature! Remember to click on any image below to view it in a larger format.

I see texture in flowers and their interesting blooms, in this case a large California-native bush called Baccharis Sarothroides. No, I’m not a plant expert of any kind. A friend of mine helped me hunt the name down, I had no idea what it was when I took the pictures. I’ll do a future post with more photos of this Baccharis bush. I love the fluffy texture of the blooms. And it blooms in the late fall, who knew?

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Texture - Baccharis Sarothroides blooms — Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Texture – Baccharis Sarothroides blooms

I see texture in fruit, in this case a beautiful yellow lemon on the tree, ready to be picked.

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Texture of a yellow lemon on the tree

I see texture in this funny looking moss on a pine tree branch. I love it!

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Texture of green moss on a pine tree branch

Finally I see texture creating an image on this tree trunk – a scarfed lady with a walking stick. Do you see her? Nature winks at you from the side every day. You just have to notice it.