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A few days ago, I shared with you some photos of flowers I took recently. Today I’d like to share a few more photos I took that day, more specifically the ones with the busy bees on the yellow cactus flowers.
Remember you can click on each photo for a larger view. This is the photo I shared the other day.
Bee on yellow cactus flowers
I love how the sunlight reflects on the bee’s wings to show its intricate design on the photo below.
Bee collecting nectar on yellow cactus flowers
I wonder how much nectar the bees can collect from these tiny flowers, which are just the size of a bee. At least the bees were busy doing their job and I didn’t seem to disturb them with my camera.
Bee on cactus flowers
I got lucky for this last shot and managed to get two bees in the frame, a different angle for each. Busy bees!
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 was going to hold off showing you the amazing topiary I discovered at the San Diego Botanic Garden, but when I saw that the WordPress weekly photo challenge is “unique”, I figured these photos would be perfect. I had never seen anything like it anywhere else, so to me, these are very unique indeed.
First let me say I’ve seen lots of topiary and I always admire the art of being able to create shapes out of trees. In a way, what the San Diego Botanic Garden has done is a little different, as you’ll see below. The most amazing thing about these plant “sculptures” is that you could literally walk right past them and not notice them – they blend in with their surroundings very well. In fact, I walked past the first one, saw the second, then walked back to the first one to take pictures from the beginning. Most people didn’t notice most of them either until they saw me taking pictures of them.
I took these first few photos in the Mexican Garden area of the San Diego Botanic Garden. The light was very bright and most of the garden was in the shade, so it was tricky to take photos, with such contrast on most pictures. And I didn’t use a flash either. I need to plan half a day to go up there by myself and spend the time to take the right pictures, the right way, at the right time.
I invite you to click on some of these photos to see all the details of each topiary in a larger format.
This is the first topiary you see as you enter the Mexican Garden, that is if you don’t walk right by it as I did.
Unique topiary at the San Diego Botanic Garden
The second topiary is just as pretty. You can see each plant is exactly where it’s supposed to be.
Mexican lady topiary at the San Diego Botanic Garden
The next two topiary items are opposite of each other. It’s a couple dancing to the music of a mariachi band.
Dancing couple topiary at the San Diego Botanic Garden
Check out the musicians’ mustaches!
Mariachi band topiary – San Diego Botanic Garden
I’m not sure what this topiary is supposed to be. A gardener? You tell me what you think it is.
Gardener topiary – San Diego Botanic Garden
The next topiary is a man sitting down and looking at something in his hand.
Man admiring nature topiary
This is what he’s looking at: a butterfly (made with a plant, of course). Nice!
Topiary of a man looking at a butterfly
These last few photos are from topiary art I found in the children’s garden of the San Diego Botanic Garden.
This one is technically not a topiary but rather a sculpture made out of planting pots… Pretty neat, huh?
Sculpture out of planting pots
The next one is a poor rhinoceros topiary that has a shedding problem. It looks quite naked in some areas.
Rhinoceros topiary
The last one is a reading rabbit, perfect addition to a children’s garden.
Reading rabbit topiary – San Diego Botanic Garden
I hope you enjoyed these photos of unique topiary. Thanks for stopping by!
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.
Yeah! Flowers are one of my favorite subjects to photograph. I used quite a few photos of flowers in my 2013 12-month photo calendar, didn’t I?
Why do I love photographing flowers so much? First, they still mostly still, unlike my kids, so I can take my time and find the best angle to photograph them. Unless my kids are standing very impatiently by my side… Second, flowers come in tons of different colors. I love pink and purple (you’ll see one of my most favorite flowers below) but really, flowers look great in almost any color. Third, on top of their awesome colors, some flowers can even smell good. Ah, our world is such a wonderful place…
For this photo challenge on flowers, I’ll share a few photos I took during my most recent visit to the San Diego Botanic Garden. I have many more photos to share about this visit, including some of the most amazing topiary I’ve ever seen. So if you’d like to see them, make sure you subscribe to this blog (sign up in the left sidebar), or to my Facebook page.
It’s one thing to like flowers and take photos of them. It’s another to know the names of the flowers you photograph. Even when I visit the San Diego Botanic Garden, I manage to take photos of flowers that are not labeled, so several of the flowers below will remain nameless, unless you know their names and you’re kind enough to share in the Comments section.
Remember you can click on each photo for a larger view.
Here’s one of my most favorite flower in San Diego. It starts blooming in large patches in January, for about two months – a beautiful way to celebrate winter here. I believe this is called a Pink Aster. And it’s my favorite color too!
What goes well with flowers? Bees! Here’s a bee on cactus flowers. Very cute, small, yellow flowers as you can see, smaller than a bee. Unfortunately I don’t know what type of cactus this is.
Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Flowers – Bee on cactus flowers
Many types of cactus are blooming at this time of year, and aloe is no exception. The one in the front is called Red Aloe, the one in the back Gold Aloe. Don’t they look great?
Let’s Be Wild Weekly Photo Challenge – Flowers – Red Aloe and Gold Aloe
My last flower pick is some type of daisy. Unfortunately its petals are not in great shape but I really like the angle of this photo.
Stay tuned for a couple more posts on my visit to the San Diego Botanic Garden. I promise you won’t be disappointed, especially with the topiary I found throughout the garden.
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 branchRain drops on a tree branch after a rainstormRaindrops on branches
I took these photos below with my new camera.
Raindrop on a thuja branchPhotographing rain dropsRaindrop photos
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 gave you a glimpse of what the crawling clouds of a San Diego rainstorm can look like in my previous photo post. If the cloud cover is high during a rainstorm, this meteorological event won’t happen, but if the clouds hang pretty low, it can be an interesting sight.
The San Diego area is very hilly and the clouds most often travel east, coming from over the Pacific Ocean. As the low clouds go over the various hills, they look like they’re crawling over them, sometimes slowly, sometimes pretty fast. After taking a few dozens of photographs, I realize it’s hard to capture the effect of these crawling clouds well on still photographs and a video would be a nice addition to this post. Something to keep in mind for the next rainy day!
In the meantime, here are a few photos of these crawling clouds over the San Diego hills.
Crawling clouds during a San Diego rainstormCrawling clouds over the hillsLow hanging clouds on San Diego hills
I took this last photo after I put my camera down and realized that the scene closest to me actually looked very interesting. I’ll need to come back when the weather is nicer to see if the area would look different in sunny light. I love how the yellow grass contrasts with the dark brown low bushes and the skinny, naked trees sticking straight up out of them. There’s something quite eerie about this whole scene, don’t you agree?
Mission Trails Regional Park in San Diego, California
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.
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