WordPress weekly photo challenge: Kiss

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 just used the photo below on my other blog to illustrate this week’s WordPress photo challenge theme, Kiss. Since I share photos of nature and animals on this site, I thought I’d share this photo here too.

If you’ve never seen killer whales kissing, this is what it looks like. Yes, these orcas are French kissing! And they did this for about 10 minutes the day I took this photo. Thank you, SeaWorld San Diego, for showing me that tongue kissing is so popular among marine mammals. I had no idea.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Kiss - killer whales French kissing
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Kiss – killer whales French kissing

Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Green

Let's be Wild Audience Award 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.

February 14, 2013 update: I just found out I won the Let’s be Wild Audience Award for this photo challenge on Green! I want to thank everyone for their kind comments on my photos. This is the first time I’ve been recognized for my photo work, so this is a big deal for me. 🙂

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: Green.

You can click on the photos below for a larger view.

Green isn’t something you see a lot of in San Diego. The outdoor scenery is gray, brown and yellow most of the year. Still, you can be lucky and capture some green on camera, like that spring day when I stumbled upon this patch of surreal green at Dos Picos County Park. You can view more photos of Dos Picos County Park here, and here.

Let's Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green grass
Let’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green grass

Green is the color of grass, even when it’s covered with dew and spiderwebs from grass spiders. You can view more photos of these spiderwebs with dew in this post.

Let's Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green grass covered with spider webs
Let’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green grass covered with spider webs

I love the bold green on the plants below, even when covered with winter frost. You can view more photos of plants covered in frost here, here and here.

Let's Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green plants covered with frost
Let’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green plants covered with frost

Even the rain can’t wash out the green of this tree branch. You can view more photos of raindrops on these tree branches here and here.

Let's Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green branches and raindrops
Let’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green branches and raindrops

There’s plenty of green at the San Diego Botanic Garden, including on this beautiful topiary of a dancing couple. You can see more amazing topiary in this post.

Let's Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green topiary at the San Diego Botanic Garden
Let’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Green topiary at the San Diego Botanic Garden

How green is it where you live right now?

Macro Monday: The pink and fuzzy flowers of the New Zealand Christmas Tree

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.

Femacro_mondaybruary 18, 2013: I discovered the flowers below don’t belong to the New Zealand Christmas tree but instead to the Powder Puff Tree. View more photos of powder puff trees, including white and pink flowers.

Today I’m taking part in Macro Monday at Lisa’s Chaos. This is my first time and I hope to participate every week if I have the photos to contribute.

For this macro theme, I’m featuring a couple of photos I took this weekend at the San Diego Zoo. The weather was mostly cloudy but it still made for some decent lighting to capture these close-up shots.

As always, you can click on each image to view it in a larger format. Enjoy!

Macro Monday: pink fuzzy flowers and dark red berries of the Calliandra Haematocephala
Macro Monday: pink fuzzy flowers and dark red berries of the Calliandra Haematocephala
Macro Monday: pink fuzzy flowers and dark red berries of the Calliandra Haematocephala
Macro Monday: pink fuzzy flowers and dark red berries of the Calliandra Haematocephala

Sunday Post: Ongoing

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 Ongoing.

It took me a little time to figure out what type of photos I could take to best represent this theme. At first, I thought photographing a sunrise or a sunset in progression would be perfect. Unfortunately we haven’t had the best weather recently, so this opportunity has not presented itself in time.

So I’m offering you my second pick for this ongoing theme: bees, hard at work on a variety of flowers. What I find most amazing about bees is how relentless they are at doing their job, even when you stand right next to them for a photo opportunity. Their work is ongoing and uninterrupted and I love watching them and capturing them on camera.

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

I took this photo at Balboa Park in San Diego earlier this week. These are pear blossoms from ornamental pear trees. The bees were super busy collecting nectar from the thousands of flowers available to them.

Sunday Post: Ongoing - bees on the pear blossoms at San Diego Balboa Park
Sunday Post: Ongoing – bees on the pear blossoms at San Diego Balboa Park

This next photo is also from Balboa Park. Apparently the bees weren’t just busy with the pear blossoms. They were also hard at work on these beautiful aloe flowers. You could see the ongoing flow of bees all over these flowers.

Sunday Post: Ongoing - bees on aloe flowers at Balboa Park in San Diego
Sunday Post: Ongoing – bees on aloe flowers at Balboa Park in San Diego

I took the next photo at the San Diego Botanic Garden a few weeks ago. Bees seemed to love this cactus flower. You can see more photos of these bees and cactus here.

Sunday Post: Ongoing - bees on cactus flowers at the San Diego Botanic Garden
Sunday Post: Ongoing – bees on cactus flowers at the San Diego Botanic Garden

This next photo is from Idyllwild, California. This bee’s ongoing nectar collection on this wild rose made for a great photo opportunity.

Sunday Post: Ongoing - bee on a wild rose in Idyllwild
Sunday Post: Ongoing – bee on a wild rose in Idyllwild

My last photo is not of a bee but a tiger swallowtail butterfly. Just like bees, butterflies go from one flower to the next to collect nectar. This is an ongoing job and gives me an opportunity to chase them around to try to get a good shot. This one ended up on my 2013 photo calendar.

Sunday Post: Ongoing - tiger swallowtail butterfly
Sunday Post: Ongoing – tiger swallowtail butterfly

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Earth

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 week’s Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge theme is earth. At first, I thought I’d skip this photo challenge theme because I couldn’t think of any photos to use. Then I read Cee’s description of earth and I figured, hey I could do that! Earth: Clay, Rock, Dust, Sand, Mud, Crystal, Powder, Shadow, Space, Darkness, Gravity, Bone, Silicon.

Below is my personal take of this theme. Remember you can click on any photo to view a larger image.

Southern California is covered with dirt and rocks, not much green overall. Cactus, succulents and short bushes like California Sage Brush are what grow best here.

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge: Earth - succulents growing in dirt and rocks
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Earth – succulents growing in dirt and rocks

I enjoy painted rocks and these rocks from the San Diego Botanic Garden are a cute and subtle way to ask people to stay away.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Earth - painted rocks
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Earth – painted rocks

Of course San Diego is not all dirt and rocks. It also features beautiful beaches, my favorite being Coronado Beach. It is always listed as one of the Top 10 beaches in the U.S. and it deserves it.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Earth - San Diego sandy beach
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Earth – San Diego sandy beach

My last photo is from Idyllwild, California. I call it the face in the rock, and it’s pretty obvious why. This is as if Earth was watching us as we walk by.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Earth - the face in the rock
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Earth – the face in the rock