protea pincushion flower

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: moon at the horizon

WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background

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Today I’m participating in the WordPress weekly photo challenge and this week’s theme is “in the background”. You can click on any photo below to see it in a larger format.

Since a lot of my photos happen to be macros, or at least tend to focus on a single subject, I was tempted to skip this week’s WordPress photo challenge. But after going through my portfolio, I found a few photos that would be a great fit for this theme.

Like these photos of the moon in the background of the branches of a Sycamore tree.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background - Moon rising behind tree branches — WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background – Moon rising behind tree branches

WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background - Moon rising during the day — WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background – Moon rising during the day

Or this beautiful moon rising behind the mountain’s pine trees.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background - Moon rising over pine trees — WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background – Moon rising over pine trees

Or this beautiful purple lavender you can see in the background, behind this orange pin cushion protea flower.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background - lavender behind orange pin cushion protea flower — WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background – lavender behind orange pin cushion protea flower

Or the Pacific ocean you can notice in the background, behind the grassy sand dunes at Coronado Beach in San Diego, California.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background - Pacific ocean at Coronado beach — WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background – Pacific ocean at Coronado beach

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Focus - Orange protea pincushion flower

The colors of spring: orange protea pincushion and purple lavender

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.

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

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.

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

April 18, 2013February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: Bloom Photos, California Photos, Flower Photos, PhotographyTags: lavender blooms, lavender flowers, nature photography, orange protea pincushion, photography, photos, photos of blooms, photos of flowers, protea pincushion flower, purple lavender 2 Comments

My 2013 calendar pick for July: a protea pin cushion flower

View all of the pictures I selected for my 2013 photo calendar.

My 2013 12-month photo calendar is now available for sale on my Zazzle online store. Thank you for your support!

San Diego County spreads over 4500 square miles from the ocean to the desert, while going through several mountains, and is home to a tremendous amount of plant and animal species. Some species are native and others have been brought over the past few centuries because they fare well in the local weather.

I’m not very educated when it comes to flower names in the area, unless they come with a name tag. The flower below didn’t but it still gave me the opportunity to take this beautiful picture. I love how the orange petals curl in on this very large flower. I did take this photo in July and I thought it’d make a very colorful choice for my 2013 photo calendar. Thanks to a friend of mine commenting on Facebook, I found out this is called a protea pin cushion flower, and the plant is native to South Africa. Beautiful.