January 18th - Fuschia Gooseberry

This is a native plant called a Fuschia Gooseberry. It's got some serious thorns, but hummingbirds love it! It flowers in winter through to spring, and then gets berries. However, this one, which is in my front yard, has yet to get any berries. My hubby planted this underneath my daughters window. I suppose it's in preparation for her teen years (yet to come!). ;)

January 17th - Twinsies

I call this one, "Twinsies," because it looks like a very unusual mirror image. :)
I think the blimp is around because the AT&T National Pro-Am is starting soon.



This one is a bonus, because I had a really hard time choosing today. :) The boats in the background are a fishing boat and a Coast Guard Fire Rescue boat, I believe.

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 15th - Big Sur Coastline

A shot of the Big Sur coastline, here for you, today. Enjoy.

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 13th - Jogger

Cool! I caught him with both feet off the ground. :)

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 10th - Convent

This is a convent off of Hwy 1, just past Rio Rd. in Carmel, Ca. Isn't it pretty? They've got a fantastic ocean view. Where I was standing was on the side of the freeway, and directly behind me is a beach.
That leads me to today's bonus picture. A Wave!! Wow! ;)

January 9th - Happy boat

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

January 8th - Asilomar Beach Sunset Panography

I found myself back in the general area of Ocean View Blvd. today, as the sun was setting. I got a great shot of the (very unattractive) foghorn, but when I saw how little of the sunset my camera was getting, I decided to do a panography instead. This is at the beach at Asilomar, in Pacific Grove. It's a huge tourist spot. There's a great wooden walkway for people, so they stay out of the marine sanctuary habitat and don't disturb the plants and animals there.
I know I've shown a lot of beach photos so far, and I will try harder to get other things in, but this was just too pretty. :) This is 13 different images! I love pano's! :)

I also drove down Cannery Row today, and it's changed a lot over the past couple of years. I thought it would make a good alternate photo, so here it is:

There are three overhead walkways here, two are fairly new. At the very end of the block is the Monterey Bay Aquarium. In between the two adult pedestrians, you can see the Portola sign. It's the old canning logo from Cannery Row's heyday.

January 7th - Ocean View Blvd.

Here is a view from, you guessed it, Ocean View Blvd. The waves were ginormous today! I went there with every intention of taking a photo of a golf course or the lighthouse, but this one just screamed at me, "Post me! Post me!" :D
Enjoy.

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

January 4th - Scuba Diver

This is at the Coast Guard Pier, in Monterey. He was just coming out of the water. Looks like all kinds of fun, doesn't it? :D

January 3rd - Elkhorn Slough

Elkhorn Slough, in the morning. As taken from a car. I went to Santa Cruz today, and since that is in another county, I took a few shots on the way there and the way back, while still in my own county. :)
This is facing east, and you can see all of yesterday's rain starting to evaporate into the air in the background. The ground was positively steaming this morning! :)

And, since I had a hard time choosing today, here is an alternate photo. It's a somewhat zoomed in shot of the skyline of the city of Monterey and part of Pacific Grove, from Seaside across the bay. This was handheld, obviously. ;) I just really liked the shape the lights took.

January 2nd - Rainy beach

Bad weather today, rainy and cold. Still, I went to the beach. There's something wrong with me, I fear. LOL :)

January 1st - Surfing into the new year!

Surfing into the new year sounds like a great idea! Here's hoping it's a great year! :D

Happy new year, everyone!

October 30th -

Jay in a mossy Redwood tree, in N. Ca, August 2007. I know it's a bit blurry, but I still really like it. I do wish it had come out better, though.

October 27th - Not Wheat

Taken with my Holga, at Elkhorn Slough, Ca.

October 21st - Paradise?

This was taken at Carmel beach, near the Carmel river. I just loved how rapt her attention was when the flock of pelicans flew overhead.

October 13th - Jelly in Blue

Here's a different jellyfish. I sure do love those, and am quite sad that the Monterey Bay Aquarium has decided to close down the jelly exhibit! :(

October 5th - Holga images

Here are some pictures I've taken recently with my Holga plastic toy camera:

For these, I used color 120 or 35mm film, and had it processed at a lab:















The next two I took, developed, and printed myself:




The rest I shot, developed myself, scanned the negative into the computer, then colored parts of them in Photoshop:

September 26 - Jellyfish

Yet another photo that won me second place. I sure wish I'd get to first place already! Geesh! :D

I kid. I'm happy I won second place trophy and beat out over 100 other photos!!

September 24 - Funky Flower

I did not take this photo, my daughter did. She painted the flower, loved it and wanted me to take a picture. I handed her my toy Holga camera and said she should. She forgot to wind the film, and got a double exposure. I cleaned it up a tad in Photoshop (she's only 6), and this is the result. Is this not the BEST?!?!























Here is another
great image she
took, at the Bixby
bridge in Big Sur, Ca.

September 21 - Coalette

This is my puppy (she's 7, now!), Coalette. Her brother's name is Nitro. "coal" and "night" Get it? Their black. Yeah, we're really clever, aren't we? :D

Actually, I'm kind of disappointed I didn't think to name her "Glycerine."

September 18 - Tag

I won second place in a photo contest on worth1000.com with this photo!

September 9 - Magnolia

I am quite proud of this photo. I came in second in a contest with this one!
Enjoy!

August 25th - Amaryllis in bloom

They bloomed! I've got five! Isn't it pretty?!?!

They actually bloomed days ago, but I'm just getting them posted, now.