September 29th - Portrait of a "Gurl"

Here's a female seagull. I seem to always shoot photos of the boys, because they're so pretty. She let me get really close before she started to look a bit nervous, too. :)

Here's a shot of Dennis the Menace park, at Lake El Estero, in Monterey, as seen from the other side of the lake.

And because I seem to like to do this, lately, here's a "watercolor" of a rose.

January 30th - On Top of the World

I had a doctor appointment today (I'm getting better, no worries!), and this is part of the view from the parking lot. Nothing like living on top of the world, eh? :)

January 16th - Red Wing Blackbird

I saw this guy at Lake El Estero, today, in Monterey. I like their call. He's a cute little fella, ain't he? :)

January 14th - Colton Hall

This is Colton Hall, on Pacific St. in Monterey. According to the sign out front, "California's Constitutional Convention was held in this newly completed building between September 1st, and October 13th, 1849, leading to California becoming the 31st state."

January 12th - Canadian Goose

Here is a Canadian Goose that was at Lake El Estero, today. I think they're very pretty birds. Notice how you can see clear through it's nostrils!

I especially like this image, because I didn't have to crop it or anything. I only adjusted the levels a bit in Photoshop, and boosted the saturation a tad. I usually crop my images, so getting a good composition that doesn't need cropping is a real bonus, for me! ;)

January 11th - Monarch

I went to the Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, Ca., today. "Butterfly Town, USA." The monarchs come here, one of 300 micro climates in the state, to overwinter. They've endeared themselves to the townspeople in a remarkable way. Just about everywhere you go in P.G. you can see a monarch butterfly in some form or another. They're so pretty. It's been difficult for me to get a good shot of one, because they mostly like to stay up high, in the trees. They form these amazing clusters that look like they are just dripping from the branches. From a distance, they make it look as though the branch of the tree is dead because they're brown on the outside; but when it warms up, they start to flutter around and then you can really tell what they are. It's pretty cool.

January 9th - Happy boat

Happy boat! How can you not take a picture of a boat that is grinning at you so wonderfully?!

January 6th - Season's End....

For the last few years, there has been an ice skating rink in Monterey at the Custom House Plaza. Well, the season for it is over, so they were taking it down today. In the top left you can see some of the ice they've already removed from the rink. Top right is a guy scraping the melted portions off of the frozen portion. And the bottom (my favorite) is a shovel sitting on the ice.

You can also see the layers in the ice where they froze it then added water, and refroze it, etc. I love the layers. I tried to get a shot of the sun shining through the ice, showing how blue it was (it was so cool!), but they didn't turn out right, unfortunately. :(

I hope you all enjoy today's tryptich. :D



Because there was interest, here is a picture of the Custom House Plaza. This is the back end, the ice skating rink is to my right, and you can see the ice melting into the grate around the fountain. Underneath the rink is more of this brick, it's a very large courtyard. They hold lots of functions here. Directly ahead is the Monterey Harbor, where (mostly private) boats are kept, and to the left of that is the commercial wharf. Lots of great restaurants and tourist trap stores. To the right a ways is the other wharf, wharf #2. It's where the fishing boats go. There's a beach there, which is my day 2 photo. In that shot, I'm standing on wharf #2.
To my right rear is a museum, and beyond that is the Portola Hotel and Spa. It's at the end of Alvarado St. If you have interest, look up historical photos of Alvarado St. You can compare them to the photo I will take and post at some point this month, hopefully. What a change! :)
I almost forgot! To the left, beyond the wharf is the rec trail. What a gorgeous walk! It leads to Cannery Row and the Aquarium. A friend of mine and I went to a little beach just after the wharf, on the rec trail, today and cleaned up some empty beer bottles, soda bottles, and a 4 foot section of garden hose (?!). People are such jerks sometimes. :P

January 5th - Seagull on fountain postcard

Admittedly not the best postcard I've created, but it's what I felt like doing today. The sky was overcast (it sprinkled most of the day), so I couldn't get a great picture today. I had a busy day, so I couldn't spend too much time on shooting. I hope you enjoy this anyway. :D