WordPress weekly photo challenge: Changing Seasons

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, the WordPress weekly photo challenge is all about Changing Seasons, something we view a little differently here in San Diego, California. We do get some frost inland, but no snow unless you start driving up the mountains (less than an hour drive).

The fall foliage is also sporadic but you can find some nice fall colors if you look around, like this American sweetgum. Remember you can click on each photo for a larger view.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Changing Seasons - American sweetgum
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Changing Seasons – American sweetgum

There’s a type of tree around here that displays beautiful yellow leaves in the fall. I don’t know what tree it is, but the dense yellow canopies are easy to spot. This tree is just starting to turn yellow.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Changing Seasons - yellow fall foliage in San Diego
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Changing Seasons – yellow fall foliage in San Diego

Here is a recent photo of a sumac tree, which features yellow, orange and red leaves in the fall, as well as red seeds.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Changing Seasons - Sumac tree in the fall
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Changing Seasons – Sumac tree in the fall

There are a lot of Sycamore trees in the San Diego area and their large leaves turn mostly brown in the fall, especially when the drought has lasted as long as it has.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Changing Seasons - Sycamore tree leaf
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Changing Seasons – Sycamore tree leaf

Finally, in a few weeks many trees will be bare, and if the fog continues to show up every morning as it these past couple of weeks, the view outside of my window in the morning will look like this photo below, the most wintry scene you can spot in San Diego!

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Changing Seasons - foggy morning in San Diego
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Changing Seasons – foggy morning in San Diego

Sunday Post: Peaceful

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.

Visit my online store on Zazzle to buy nature photography products
Visit my online store on Zazzle to buy nature photography products

I’d like to start this post by letting everyone know of a GREAT Zazzle coupon available until December 5, 2012. Use coupon code 65CANVASCALS at checkout to get 65% off  my 2013 photo calendar or any of my canvas prints. Is it a deal or what?

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Today I’m participating in Jakesprinter’s Sunday Post photo challenge. This week’s theme is Peaceful. As always, you can click on each image below for a larger view.

I find many aspects of nature very peaceful: the landscapes, the components (water always has a calming effect on me), the smells, the colors and the living creatures (except the predator type!).

For this particular post, I have chosen to feature animals that tend to display a peaceful behavior. Mourning doves are my first pick. I see many of them every day and I hear them cooing to each other, especially during the mating season. There’s something very peaceful about the sounds of doves cooing, don’t you think?

Sunday Post: Peaceful mourning doves
Sunday Post: Peaceful mourning doves

I took my next photo at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. These beautiful gerenuk antelopes were laying down in the tall grass. Their long necks and heads make them look like telescopes, don’t they? I love how they’re enjoying a peaceful sunbathing moment at the park.

Sunday Post: Peaceful generuk antelopes at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park
Sunday Post: Peaceful generuk antelopes at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park

I took the last photo featured below during the same trip, just down the path from the gerenuk antelopes. That’s where I spotted a couple of West African cranes. They too had decided to give a rest to their long legs and lay down on the ground for a little nap. West African cranes have the best hairdo, don’t they?

Sunday Post: Peaceful West African cranes at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park
Sunday Post: Peaceful West African cranes at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park

I hope these photos brought you a little peace today. What do you find most peaceful in your life?

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Reflections

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.

When you’re taking pictures, reflections can be a good thing or a bad thing. Sometimes you don’t realize you caught a bad reflection (often yourself) until you open the photo file on your computer. Other times you’re lucky and you end up with great pictures.

Here are a few of my photos to illustrate the WordPress weekly photo challenge theme of “reflections”. Remember you can click on each image for a larger view.

These are lilypads I photographed at Balboa Park in San Diego this past summer. You can see gorgeous close-ups of these water lilies in this post. Still water is a great medium for reflections and you can’t go wrong.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Reflections- Water lilies at Balboa Park in San Diego
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Reflections – Water lilies at Balboa Park in San Diego

Here is a soap bubble on artificial grass. I took this picture because although it’s not the most beautiful photo out there,I think the many reflections on the bubble (the sky, the house, the grass, and me somewhere in there) and its transparent nature give it a mesmerizing effect. What do you think?

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Reflections in a soap bubble
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Reflections in a soap bubble

Here’s a photo of a little rain left over on a begonia leaf. If you look closely (you can click on the photo to see a larger image), you can see the bars of a metal fence are reflected in the water. Because of the shape of the leaf, the bars are not straight but curved, as if they were embracing the flower inside the leaf. They almost look like a flower stem too. Pretty neat!

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Reflections in rain water on a begonia leaf
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Reflections in rain water on a begonia leaf

I kept my favorite photo of reflections for last – rain drops sitting on a spiderweb over river rocks. You can view the rest of these rain drops here and here. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Reflections in raindrops on a spider web over river rocks
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Reflections in raindrops on a spider web over river rocks

I love foggy mornings

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 love foggy mornings and they happen quite often in San Diego between November and March. Sometimes the fog is so thick, you can barely the lights of the cars in front of you on the freeway. Other times the fog lifts up here and there and you can see the top of the hills wrapped up in it while you’re standing in full sun.

Yesterday morning was foggy and I decided to take a few photos to capture the moment, especially since the sun was trying so hard to pierce through it.

It started with a low and heavy fog by the San Diego River:

Photo of a foggy morning in San Diego
Photo of a foggy morning in San Diego

Then the fog started lifting up, being burned by a few rays of sunlight:

Fogs lifts up by the San Diego River
Fogs lifts up by the San Diego River

Finally the fog was on his way out, allowing the sun to spread a layer of gold on the yellow leaves of the many poplars by the San Diego River.

The yellow leaves of the poplars by the San Diego River
The yellow leaves of the poplars by the San Diego River

I love the beautiful shades of Fall, especially when the fog softly wraps them up in the early morning.

Do you like fog or would you rather do without it?

Zazzle 50% off coupon – today only

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 only, until 4pm PST, you can use this coupon code 2012LASTFFHS at checkout to receive 50% off on many products in my nature photography store, including my 2013 photo calendar, posters, canvas prints and ornaments. Some of these items would make great Christmas gifts.

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