red ladybug

White great egret with interesting water reflections

Cee’s fun foto challenge: One item or the number one

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Today I’m participating in Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge to show photos featuring featuring one item or the number one. You can click on the photos below for a larger view.

If you like what you see, feel free to subscribe and receive nature photography updates a few times a week.

I thought I’d stick to animals for this photo challenge. Here are a few examples of animals standing on their own among nature. Enjoy!

One proud white great egret.

Cee’s fun foto challenge: One white great egret

One red-tailed hawk thinking about his next meal.

Cee’s fun foto challenge: One red-tailed hawk

One fat squirrel, who could be the red-tailed hawk’s next meal…

Cee’s fun foto challenge: One fat squirrel

One stunning blue Stellar jay bird.

Cee’s fun foto challenge: One Stellar jay bird

One monarch caterpillar munching on milkweed.

Cee’s fun foto challenge: One monarch caterpillar

One little crab camouflaged in the sand on the beach.

Cee’s fun foto challenge: One crab camouflaged in the sand

One red ladybug who’s not so grouchy.

Cee’s fun foto challenge: One red ladybug

One lonely seagull hoping to snatch a good lunch.

Cee’s fun foto challenge: One lonely seagull

Help me pick photos for my 2014 calendar on bees and bugs

Today, I’m asking your feedback on photos I’d like to include in my 2014 calendar on bees and bugs. Just tell me which ones you’d really want to see, and which ones I should definitely keep or get rid of. I appreciate your honest feedback.

Remember that everyone who comments on one of my 2014 photo calendar related posts will be entered in a drawing to win one of my calendars (you can pick your favorite theme). The only requirement I have for the winner is to be located within the U.S., mostly because the calendar will contain U.S. holidays and it will be more helpful to that person. For every calendar post that you comment on, you will earn one drawing entry (one entry per blog post, not per comment). I’m planning to give away one calendar to a lucky winner, and possibly another one to the person who comes in second, depending on the number of participants.

You can click on any photo below to open the slideshow and view everything in a larger format. Please include your comments into the post comment section directly, not on individual photos, to make it easier for everyone to see your feedback. Thank you!

Capture The Colour 2013 photo contest – red bottle brush flower with bee

Macro Monday: bee on pink flower

Travel theme: see through wings of a dragonfly

Travel theme: Wild – orange dragonfly

Fuzzy caterpillar

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Saturated – green junebug beetle

Macro Monday: orange dragonfly taking off

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Inside – bee collecting nectar inside bags

Giant owl butterfly

Lines and patterns of the paper kite butterfly (Idea Leuconoe)

Bee on the pear blossoms at San Diego Balboa Park

Travel theme: see through wings of a bee

Bee on yellow cactus blooms

Bee on a wild rose

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Lines on a tiger swallowtail butterfly

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October 16, 2013February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: Animal PhotosTags: 2014 calendar, 2014 nature photography calendar, 2014 photo calendar, bee on flower, bee photos, butterflies, butterfly, fuzzy caterpillar, nature photography, photography, photos, photos of bees, red ladybug 19 Comments

Macro Monday: a red ladybug, an unexpected guest

Today I’m taking part in the Macro Monday photo challenge. You can click on each photo for a larger view.

If you like what you see, I encourage you to subscribe so you can enjoy the new photos I post a few times a week.

Last weekend I took my kids to the small mountain town of Julian, California, about an hour east of San Diego. One of our activities there was to pick apples right off the tree. When I put the apples we brought back in the kitchen sink to wash them, I realized we had an unexpected guest. A cute red ladybug! So I took it outside and put it on my rose bush. I bet it wondered how it got there!

October 14, 2013February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: Animal PhotosTags: Julian California, ladybug close-up, ladybug macro, Macro Monday, nature photography, photography, red ladybug, red ladybug on a rose bush 9 Comments

Travel theme: Hidden

Today I’m participating in Where’s My Backpack’s Travel Theme photo challenge. This week’s theme is “hidden”. Remember you can click on each photo for a larger view. If you like what you see, feel free to subscribe and receive nature photography updates a few times a week.

Sometimes when I photograph a specific subject in nature, I find something hidden inside or around it. For example, I found this lovely green junebug beetle when I was photographing rose blooms.

Travel theme: Hidden green junebug beetle

I also found this little ladybug crawling on the bottom part of a leaf when I was looking for monarch caterpillars in a large milkweed plant.

I did find the monarch caterpillars eventually, after looking at the milkweed tree for about 10 minutes. They blend in pretty well in the green and yellow leaves.

Travel theme: Hidden monarch caterpillar

I found this cute little crab hiding in the sand at low tide. I bet he couldn’t wait for the tide to come back up.

On my last picture for this theme, my subject is quite hidden. Do you see the leafy sea dragon made out of tree branches and leaves in the tree? It looked like it was trying very hard to take off in the sky.

Travel theme: Hidden leafy sea dragon in a tree

September 10, 2013February 7, 2020 by Milka Pejovic Categories: Animal Photos, Flower Photos, Ocean photos, Photography, Plant Photos, Tree PhotosTags: crab in sand, crab on beach, green junebug beetle, large green beetle, leafy sea dragon, monarch caterpillar, nature photography, photography, photos, red ladybug, Travel theme: Hidden, where's my backpack photo challenge 2 Comments

Macro Monday: my first ladybugs

Today I’m taking part in the Macro Monday photo challenge. Remember you can click on each photo for a larger view. If you like what you see, I encourage you to subscribe so you can enjoy the new photos I post a few times a week.

Taking photos of ladybugs in San Diego is a challenge. There aren’t that many of them because of the dry and hot climate and they’re not around for a long time. Even when I find some, they’re so busy looking for food that they don’t stop moving long enough for me to take a picture. Oh, and of course, they’re very small so I need a powerful macro to get a decent photo. That’s a lot of things getting in the way.

So I consider myself lucky for having been able to snap a few pictures of ladybugs a couple of weeks ago. My first ladybug was a little shy and moved too much so this is the best I could do. This ladybug was crawling on milkweed flowers.