Today’s weekly photo post shows off the brilliant color of the birds of paradise just beyond our pool. This photo was taken around 5pm and our property is tucked down over the hill from where the sun sets, so the lighting is all indirect and muted.
Even in the low light, these flowers shine with an inner glow.
Settings: Sony SLT-A33 • 1/160 • ƒ/4 • ISO 400 • 100 mm
Today’s weekly photo post is of one of our two almond trees which has begun to blossom. The crows tend to get all the nuts before we even have an inkling that they might be ready. Apparently, almond trees are a lot of work to harvest and require quite a bit of pampering so that the crows don’t steal all your hard work anyway. Oh well.
I love how the blossoms cluster like that.
Settings: Sony SLT-A33 • 1/500 • ƒ/5.6 • ISO 800 • 300 mm
Spring has sprung here in sunny SoCal. Today’s post for my weekly photo is just one of the many flowers that has decided that the combination of scattered showers and warm weather we’ve been having mean it’s time to poke their heads up and get their bloom on!
I was good this week and didn’t just go out with the automatic settings, but played around with several different shots on manual. Some I was happy with, others not so much. I need to plan a field trip with my camera. I have a couple places in mind, but my days have been full lately.
Settings: Sony SLT-A33 • 1/500 • ƒ/5.6 • ISO 320 • 300 mm
My pick for the weekly photo this week is one of our very silly golden retriever puppy, Olivia. She’s almost a year old and she loves exploring things, like the crevices in the couch where the kids drop all sorts of tasty treasures. She’ll get her whole head down in the cushions and our son referred to it as “scuba dogging” and the term has stuck.
The other day she discovered the fireplace in the living room. She’s tried to explore it before, but I convinced her that she’d rather do other things. Well, this time, she slipped in between the chain curtains and was nosing around the ceramic logs for a bit before I caught her in the act. Damp paper towels were not enough, but a dunk in the shower and some baby shampoo got her back to normal. Our son said, “You know, I just can’t take the dog seriously when her face is like this.”
Who knows… maybe tattoos like this will become all the rage for dogs!
Settings: iPhone 4S • 1/15 • ƒ/2.4 • ISO 400 • 4.3 mm
Today’s weekly photo is of one of two Silk Floss Trees (Chorisia speciosa) on our property. This tree is holding on to its blooms as long as it possibly can, despite the lows in the 20s and frost several mornings in a row last week.
I haven’t been able to get an interesting picture of the impressive thorns on these trees. The rejects from this weekly photo batch included some clouds, the moon out in the afternoon sky, some rather impressionistic ones of the back yard where I had the camera set completely wrong. But you know, in some ways I find those worth investigating because the effects are cool and if they could be applied in the right situations on purpose, who needs Photoshop filters!
Settings: SONY SLT-A33 • 1/500 • ƒ/5.6 • ISO 250 • 300 mm
Today’s entry for my weekly photo challenge is one of the confused Gazanias in the back yard. The temperatures this week have been unusually cooler for SoCal. The highs have been in the mid-50s and the lows have been in the upper 20s. Yes, the natives think it’s parka weather. I’m happy in shirt sleeves. Anyway, after the temperatures in the mid 70s last week, the plants are confused. They thought spring was here.
I’m probably only going to post one photo each week, but I’m hoping to take more so I have a few to choose from. If I can’t pick just one or have several I like, I’ll add them to my flickr stream. I ended up taking two batches of photos this week because I didn’t really like any of the ones from the first day.
And, yes, I promise I won’t always do flowers.