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

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

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Thankful

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.

As a photographer, I am thankful for my two digital cameras, both Canon Powershot models. If I had plenty of money at my disposal, I’m sure I’d have a few more cameras, along with tons of accessories. But for now, I’m thankful for what I have because these two cameras allow me to capture a few glimpses of the nature around me, such as the images below. Make sure you click on each image to see a larger photo.

I’m thankful I can take dozens of photos of sea jellies and actually get a few decent pictures. If you’ve ever tried taking photos of jelly fish, you know what I’m talking about!

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Thankful - photographing sea jellies
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Thankful – photographing sea jellies

I’m thankful I could take a photo of this beautiful blue dragonfly. Do you know that dragonflies can fly for hours without resting?

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Thankful - photographing a blue dragonfly
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Thankful – photographing a blue dragonfly

I’m thankful I was able to take a photo of this very cute pigmy goose at the San Diego Safari Park last week. Look at its beautiful colors!

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Thankful - photographing a pigmy goose
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Thankful – photographing a pigmy goose

Finally, I’m thankful to once in a while be able to spot nature’s life cycle, in this case a mourning dove sitting on its nest and not moving a feather.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Thankful - photographing a mourning dove
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Thankful – photographing a mourning dove

Finally, I’d like to add that I’m thankful for WordPress allowing me to display my photos to the whole wide world for free, with just a few clicks of the mouse. That’s pretty awsome. Thank you, WordPress!

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Green

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.

For a nature photographer like me, green is a beautiful color, indicating vibrant life around me. Unfortunately living in Southern California means green is actually not a common sight. Any plant or grass growing in the winter starts green, only to turn yellow or brown by the time the summer sun starts its baking process. I’m lucky enough to live right by the San Diego River, which is heavily surrounded by poplars and their pretty green leaves. They’re turning yellow right now, and they’re just as pretty.

Remember you can click on most of the photos below to see a larger view of this WordPress weekly photo challenge: Green.

Here are a few examples of green I’ve encountered in Southern California. I’ll start with my very favorite, which I captured at Dos Picos State Park last spring. This green hue was so surreal, I felt I had just walked into a secret fairyland. I can’t wait to go back there next spring and hope to see similar sights. If you’re wondering what the purple blooms are in the back, it’s Ramona lilac. They make beautiful clusters of flowers, but alas no scent.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Green grass at Dos Picos State Park
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Green grass at Dos Picos State Park

I love the green lush surrounding this Stellar Jay bird, making its blue feathers stand out even more.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Green makes the blue of this Stellar Jay bird stand out
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Green makes the blue of this Stellar Jay bird stand out

Finally, you can find a lot of green in Southern California if you look by a source of water. Here are a few green plants, including ferns, that love water and shade. I took this photo in the small mountain town of Idyllwild, California, by Strawberry Creek, this past summer.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Green lush by Strawberry Creek in Idyllwild, California
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Green lush by Strawberry Creek in Idyllwild, California

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Renewal

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.

Remember you can click on each photo below to see a larger view of it.

I find it interesting, not to say awkward, to choose “renewal” as a theme in November, when everything in nature is dying or falling asleep. So most of the photos I’m displaying here were taken at another time of the year.

Well, expect for this first one, which I took last fall after a rainstorm. The clouds were still quite grey but the sun rays did their best to light up the golden leaves of the poplars that live by the San Diego River. I love to watch the rain do its magic as it revives and replenishes the trees that have been thirsty for so long, giving them one last burst of energy before they go to sleep for the winter.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Renewal - after the rain
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Renewal – after the rain

The WordPress person who wrote the post on this weekly photo challenge suggested us to stay away from the stereotypical renewal of sunrises. Well, I love sunrises and they are inherently a sign of daily renewal. But I like moon rises  just as much, especially when they happen in the daylight. They remind us that day and night work together to bring constant renewal to the earth.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Renewal - moon rising over trees
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Renewal – moon rising over trees

I used the photo below for another photo challenge theme but I think it fits this one perfectly. This is a small pine tree growing out of the root of a seemingly dead tree. Nature knows best how to renew.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Renewal - new tree grows out of a dead tree
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Renewal – new tree grows out of a dead tree

Finally, nothing screams renewal more than brand new flowers in the spring. In this case, these are California wildflowers, which are also featured in my 2013 photo calendar.

Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Renewal - California wildflowers
WordPress weekly photo challenge: Renewal – California wildflowers

What is your idea of renewal?