I have become the focuser of energies. 😉
See it here: http://flic.kr/p/Vmqp6i
If you are ever in San Diego, and want a tour, give me a call.
See it here: http://flic.kr/p/S7tHMF
This is just one picture taken on the patio just a few minutes ago
Tiny little Moss Heads
by Jack Foster Mancilla
The small LensLord
The Full LensLord
I received a very fine complement on one of my flower macros. Actually, the complement used one macro image to refer to the quality of almost all my flower images. Thank you Vern. … Vern’s Link.
Back to today. 😉
After thinking about my response to his complement where I said something like, “Flowers are all over the place. You do not have to drive anywhere, and waste gas, nor are there other hidden costs for keeping your photo practice up-to-date.” … Or something like that.
I thought I might illustrate that statement. So I did. … That little image, of the tiny moss heads, was shot a couple hours ago. … The moss is from a potted plant in the back yard. The little instructional image following, also includes some extra information. … 🙂 Ok, not much extra information, but it does show how I got the background.
We all know that we are pretty good at whatever we do as a chosen craft, work, something we enjoy doing. And, we have come to expect the occasional rose from friends. The old Atta-boy, pat-on-the-back, kinds of roses that make us feel good. Then there are the special roses that come from nowhere you thought of.
Several times a day, almost every day, I go out front with my nextdoor neighbor. We are out there in the morning, drinking coffee, shooting the shit, letting Gypsy run around. Other neighbors walk by, two mothers pushing the quad-kid stroller on their power walks; people out getting their exercise; the Asian couple that keeps the old custom of her walking behind him. … I don’t get that one, but they are happy. … And, many people from the greater neighborhood walking their dogs.
I always ask whether Gypsy and their dogs can say, “Hi.” … Dogs like to say hello to their friends too.
One of the walkers of dogs, a man who stops and lets the dogs play, and spends time chatting with us, was driving by yesterday.
Yesterday, as he was driving by, he stopped, and made a point out of telling me, out of the blue, that he had accidentally found my blog, this blog, online. And he was totally surprised at the works contained here. And, that he was now a fan! …
Now that was an unexpected rose.
Small White, in a field of Purple and Deep Red
[by Jack Foster Mancilla
a photo by LensLord on Flickr.
An early morning walk through the neighborhood, brought this blooming to my eyes.
Later, in the life cycle of this flower, it would be very different, the reds would be gone, replaced by something more muted. The purples would have lost the richness, and become very blue. And the single white, would be joined by a whole flock of white siblings.
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| From a walk on Fiesta Island. |
This is what the plant looks when it is a little older. You will need to click on the image to see a larger version. 🙂
Sometimes things are hidden.
San Diego has many beautiful areas in which one can play with a camera. Some of the places are hidden, like under the trees in Tecolote Canyon. Some of them are out in the open, for all to see, like Fiesta Island.
Fiesta Island is in the middle of Mission Bay. People play Over-The-Line there. They go water-skiing, kayaking, watch the Thunder Boats, walk their dogs. People do all kinds of things there.
Mostly people do those things on the edges of Fiesta Island, next to the water. After all, is that not why you go to an island in Mission Bay, to play on a beach, and in the water?
But on the interior of the island, things are quite different. Here is a link to a bunch of images on Fiesta Island. Most of these images have nothing to do with the water.
And then, we have the image of the Jimson Weed. It was hidden under the yellow flowers, on the little-traveled interior of Fiesta Island.
Some of the first, easily noticed, spring flowers are the Silver Lupins that pop up. … They are mostly noticeable because they are purple/blue, and stand out from the normally dusty colors of Southern California.
This plant jumped up on a firebreak along Tecolote Canyon after our most recent rain.
Lupinus albifrons, Silver lupine, white-leaf bush lupine, or evergreen lupine, is a species of lupine (lupin). It is native to California and Oregon, where it grows along the coast and in dry and open meadows, prairies, and forest clearings. It is a member of several plant communities, including coastal sage scrub, chaparral, northern coastal scrub, foothill woodland, and yellow pine forest.
Whenever I look at a flower, I try to see its entire life. Really, I also try to see the life cycle of the plant in my head. It helps me look at what is in front of my eyes. And it makes me happy.
For example, this image is of what? What will it become, and how long does the plant live? Is it an annual? A perennial?
This small flower, not much larger than your thumbnail is part a perennial. The plant lives through many seasons. As a fact of note, the first season you plant this, it is not much useful for bearing fruit. But, after that first year, it is a wonderful addition to your garden.
Just picture yourself, walking out to your garden with half a bowl of vanilla ice cream, and then reaching down and picking yourself a dozen fine strawberries to toss into that bowl. … Ah, those summer days are on the way.
O.K. It is not really a thousand flowers. … But, as soon as I saw this cactus, and got close enough to see that it was flowers all across the crown, I thought, “Holy smokes! That’s a thousand flowers.” … 😉 No, really, I thought that.
But it is beautiful. …
One thing about Macros that bugs many people is the narrow depth of field when you are so close to the subject. … One way to fix that is to shoot many images and pick the focused part of each image and then blend them together. … This image is not really a single image. This image is made from thirty images of differing focus points. …
Pretty cool!
This little flower lives by a surface street on the way towards Tecolote Canyon, a location where I walk my dog quite often.
Someone said that this flower is called a monkey’s paw. I do not know. …. What I do know is the location. … And that location is here. -> On Google Maps.
If you go there, give me a call and I will show you some other arts of Tecolote Canyon. It is a nice walk.
Happy Thanksgiving. I am happy for many fine friends and fine things.
This is a morning Hibiscus flower in the back yard.
I wanted to shoot something for the 10-10-10 day. I got busy doing some other things and did not get to go out into the world and shoot something that illustrated the day.
But, I did have this flower laying around on the tenth day of the tenth month in the 2010th year of the modern calendar. …
So here is my visual ode to that specific day.
I love these shiny balls. Everyone of them is a locus of intellectuality. … In this image, the reflective ball captures, not only the world in a sphere, but the entire universe. In that miniature captured Universe, everything can be held in your hand. If you can hold it in your hand, you can perceive the reality of it.
A few of my friends, and our dog partners, visited Fiesta Island. 😉 All of us had a very nice time in a beautiful section of San Diego.
My dog, Gypsy, and I go there quite often. We have a wonderful time there.
This is a link to a few more Gypsy images
I wanted to invite all of my friends that could make it, down to fiesta island with their dogs so we could do a giant dog shoot. (I will set a date for that soon)
But, June 26, I will be shooting pets for Citibank customers at …
Citibank
2240 Otay Lakes Road
Chula Vista, CA 91915-1003
Phone: 619-216-1251
You might want to check out those kinds of images as well. …
Furry Un-Dogs
Dogs … Really, dogs. 😉
Scales, Feathers, Amphibians, Other Pets
Pets and People, together 🙂
Come on down! 😉
I have a fun time with my niece when she chooses to go with me to the canyon to walk with my dog, Gypsy. We have a wonderful time down there. Gypsy chases lizards, never catches them, but she has fun. Lena runs ahead, then lags behind, continually looking, laughing, chattering away, having a great time. …
Me, I have a great time always. … But, I get to capture some images of the really good times.
As I was driving down the east grade of Palomar Mountain with a couple friends and we saw this pink and yellow tinge way across the lake. Where is this? This sentence is linked to a map of the location.
I was so excited to see this place that I neglected to secure the car keys. … We looked around all over this set of hills, every location that I had laid down in the grass to shoot something. We looked for over and hour. I was about to call San Diego and have someone drive up the second set of keys. … Luckily, Jeffrey found the keys on the ground, right next to the driver’s door.
So, you should also take an eagle-eyed-friend along.
I have been watching the Garlic bloom outside the kitchen window. It has been blooming for a while, and I have been watching it, …
And, today was the day I wanted to capture. I do not know what to say about this image, really. To me, this is Garlic, Sweet Garlic. And I think it is beautiful.
The other day, we had some food. … That is all it was, food, nothing special.
But, this little purple flower looks so good that I want to spin the stamens on a fork with the purple sauce dripping. … All the while eating the little yellow meatballs.
Oh heck! I think I forgot to eat lunch as I was editing images this afternoon.
Craig’s Poem
by Deborah Taylor
I don’t know what to tell you
“The rest is silence,” like the poet said
Tell me how to love the theatre again
Tell me how to love stage again
When his hand led me to the wings
When his voice led me to the lights
When his heart led me to that Poet.
You know the one-
The one who wrote, “Now cracks a noble heart”
“Good night sweet prince”-
Our prince is gone
Our king
Our teacher
Tell me how to break the silence
roaring in my head.
I love Bananas. … And these small flowers are where some bananas will come from. The flower heart is edible, and is eaten like an artichoke.
As the fruiting body (inflorescence) grows larger and longer, the rows of red sheathing that are the flower heart, open one at a time, and expose the flowers in sets of flowers.
In this image the flowers are juicy, and beautiful. The color of the heart is rich and powerful.
San Diego is a beautiful city as most people see it. But, it has many nooks and crannies of beauty seen by very few.
Fiesta island, is one of those beautiful places that are hidden from a casual view. The island is ringed by a road that is frequented by cyclists in their drive for healthful exercise. Between the road and the interior of most of the island, stand berms, artificial ridges of heaped earth that hides the islands center from the casual view of those just driving around the island. You have to stop your car, get out, and walk past the berms to the magic of a Southern California spring.
I walk there with my dog quite often. It is a very dog friendly place for off leash walking. In this image, my dog Gypsy is having a very good day.
You have to hurry down there to see it, because it is our spring, and it does not last long.
I thought this little flower might be a nice thing to look at this morning. This is a single flower, and the very edge of a second flower, on the crown of a Barrel Cactus.
Cactus has always intrigued me because a flower is the sexual heart of the plant, and yet, on a cactus, it is surrounded by spiky, dangerous, barriers to the sweetness therein. If you try to break down the barrier to get to the sweetness, you are harmed, and you harm the plant. But, if you are the target of the plants affection, the spikes are no barrier, they are only facilitators, helping you along your mutual path of desire.
In the end, the bee gets the nectar, and the cactus, … ? … Well the cactus gets little cacti.
Spring in the desert of Southern California is full of beautiful things.
This particular Friday evening, was no exception when I went for a ride with a friend to the desert. Warm winds moved the branches, and hair, but did not chill the body. It was evening, and the sun was very low, creating long shadows, and a little later, as the sun dropped behind the mountains, no shadows at all.
I have several favorite images of the evening, but I always come back to this image of Jenivive looking at this large, and beautiful Ocotillo.
It was a fine Sunday. And it was close to egg collecting time.
Here sit the collectors of eggs, prior to the collection.
Cute are they not?
