Macro Monday: Bugs hiding in flowers

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Today I’m taking part in Macro Monday at Lisa’s Chaos. Remember you can click on each image to see it in a larger format.

While recently hiking at a local county park in San Diego, I found these tiny purple wildflowers bordering the trail on the hillside.

Macro Monday: Small purple wildflowers
Macro Monday: Small purple wildflowers

Each cluster of these purple flowers was no bigger than the size of my thumbprint.

Macro Monday: Tiny purple wildflowers
Macro Monday: Tiny purple wildflowers

After photographing the first two clusters, I thought I had enough, until I found the next set of wildflowers and saw several tiny bugs keeping busy inside the flowers. I felt I had been transported into Miniature Land for a minute.

Macro Monday: Tiny bugs in small purple wildflowers
Macro Monday: Tiny bugs in small purple wildflowers

Travel theme: Contrast

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Today I’m participating in Where’s My Backpack’s Travel Theme photo challenge. This week’s theme is contrast. Enjoy my photos and remember you can click on each photo for a larger view.

Sorry if you’ve seen this photo earlier this week, but I think it illustrates how you can compose a great photo by contrasting different colors.

Travel theme: Contrast - Orange protea pincushion and purple lavender
Travel theme: Contrast – Orange protea pincushion and purple lavender

Red and green contrast well to make this red hibiscus flower stand out.

Travel theme: Contrast - Red hibiscus flower
Travel theme: Contrast – Red hibiscus flower

The darkness of the water offers a nice contrast with the lit sea jellies.

Travel theme: Contrast - Sea jellies
Travel theme: Contrast – Sea jellies

Of course, there no bigger contrast than white on black. Here’s an almost white full moon on a dark blue sky. You can view a large full moon in a pitch black sky here.

Travel theme: Contrast - Moon rising beyond the trees
Travel theme: Contrast – Moon rising beyond the trees

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Up

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 WordPress weekly photo challenge and this week’s theme is up. You can notice quite a lot when you look up, and here are just a few things I captured on camera. Remember you can click on each photo for a larger view.

A dog in the sky

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Up – Clouds in the shape of a dog
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Up – Clouds in the shape of a dog

A red-tailed hawk in a sycamore tree

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Up – Red-tailed hawk in a tree
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Up – Red-tailed hawk in a tree

The moon rising in the broad daylight of the afternoon

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Up - Moon rising during the day
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Up – Moon rising during the day

The highest mountain peak around

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Up – the mountains of Idyllwild, California
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Up – the mountains of Idyllwild, California

The many branches of a tall pine tree

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Up - Looking up a pine tree
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Up – Looking up a pine tree

Or the sun shining through the poplar leaves in the fall

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Up - Yellow poplar leaves in the fall
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Up – Yellow poplar leaves in the fall

What’s up?

The colors of spring: orange protea pincushion and purple lavender

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.

In today’s post, I’m featuring one of my favorite flowers: the protea pincushion flower. Originally from South Africa, they seem to like San Diego’s weather and they’re easy to spot in people’s yards and public places. What do I like most about them? They have some of the most cool looking shapes of petals I’ve ever seen.

I wanted to capture this peculiar curved shape of the petals by taking a close-up of this orange protea pincushion. You can click on this photo for a larger view.

Orange protea pincushion flower
Orange protea pincushion flower

After taking this photo, I noticed the large lavender flowers and decided to use them as the background for my photo, along with the blue sky.

Orange protea pincushion and purple lavender
Orange protea pincushion and purple lavender

For this last picture, I decided to change the depth of field so I could focus on the lavender blooms instead. I also changed my angle to avoid them hiding behind the protea pincushion.

Purple lavender flowers
Purple lavender flowers

So here you go, same flowers, three different angles and perspectives. Some people go bungee jumping, I play with my camera settings.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Steps or stairs

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This week’s Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge theme is steps or stairs. I only have one photo to share for this theme, but when I saw these beautiful steps a couple of weeks ago, I knew they deserved their own photo post.

I found these amazing stone steps at Dos Picos County Park in Ramona, California, while hiking on a trail at the back of the park. In the spring, Dos Picos Park is simply beautiful. The grass that grows there is quite particular. It’s very fine, very tall, very soft, and very… green! Believe me, living in San Diego, you don’t get to see grass this green very often.

Between the many coast live oaks, the blooming lilacs (you can see photos of those lilacs here and here), and greener than green grass, sometimes I feel like I’ve stepped into some type of fairyland. And that’s why I think these stone steps fit perfectly with the fairyland theme. What do you think?

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge: Stone steps or stairs
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Stone steps or stairs