In this image, we are way east in California, a long way from the mountains. The sun has set in the valley where we are shooting from. The dark line, towards the horizon, is the place where the air below is in shadow, and the air above is still in sunlight. If you look at the larger image, you can see streaks of the mountains shadows in the air.
Definitely a nice place to watch the sun go down. … And looook at all the cotton.
This is an interesting image to me. … It evokes loneliness, and yet it is a colony of birds as well.
They are protected here in their lonely home on the lake. Land based predators cannot reach them through the shallows.
For me, sitting on the shore, they are unreachable, except by my long lens.
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.
The Salton Sea is a wonderful place to visit.
It has so many good memories for me and there are new memories. This image is just after sunset.
While capturing the image, the sea was very quiet, no wind, and still warm from the heat of the day. I could hear birds singing their evening songs as they were going to roost.
It is a good day.
At the time, in any location on our planet, when the sun is sinking in transit from day to night, all the species of plants and animals prepares for their nocturnal or diurnal missions. Diurnal, to sleep, and dream of love, life, and events untold coming from the events of the past day. Nocturnal, to rouse, take stock, touch, feel, taste the blood coursing through the veins, to live again.
Here we stand, at a point of decision. We can look at a moment and decide. Shall we live, or shall we sleep?
These are my goals, “Reaching the moon,” “Helping lead mankind to the stars,” “Infinity, and …”
This is what I do, “Show what I see,” “Always moving towards better vision.”
This is my hope, “That mankind will evolve, and benignly spread from this planet to near space, and beyond.”
This image is that continued grasping.
Tomorrow I will be … In a few years the earth will … “In the year 2525, if man is still alive” …
This image illustrates all transition for me, because it is so easy to see and understand because it happens in such a short time, we can see it progress. It is an image of a frog, or a tadpole? It is really a froglet. Froglets are usually seen with much shorter tails.
Everything has a lifetime to live, and we change throughout that life, we only call it living in mankind, not metamorphosis as we do in frogs, because we do not lose a tail, or grow legs. … Or do we? Our most visual metamorphosis takes place unseen, in the wombs of our mothers, where we lose our tails, and gain four limbs.
Most humans try to separate themselves from animals, I don’t. I revel in the flow of time, and I look forward to the continued evolution of myself, all life known and unknown, and the universe.
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.
The last desert trip was full of cool sights. … Some of them are semi-frozen in time.
I caught this image as the earth was turning, bringing the sun lower to the horizon, watching the shadows growing longer. This little moment is frozen.
But, the horses are rusting. The color of rust makes them beautiful, specially beautiful in the ruddy light of a low sun, but it is rust, and being rust it is an indicator of decay.
All things have a lifetime. These horses are just past the prime of their lives. As long as they are able, they are committed to being in this fight for a very long time.
Trees are beautiful. I think that I would like to have been a tree. They stand with the sun on their faces, soaking energy from its light. The breeze moves through their leaves, gently caressing the total body. When the rains come softly, they catch the tiny drops from the air and moisten their own roots. When the wind and the rains blast against the tree, it bends and twists, but comes back. The life energy is strong in a tree.
Some people personify trees even more than I do. Here is such a tree, a happy tree in a beautiful section of town.
I like to walk my dog in different places. Part of the reason my dog goes along with me on these walks, is to give me the excuse to go somewhere she has not been.
This day, I took her down to Tecolote Canyon, not far from our normal route, but off the normal path. I was following the sound of laughing, and voices in good humor. The sound was coming from a hidden area. When we moved between trees, and next to the creek, we found six young men drinking beer, and having a good time.
These three were up in the tree, drinking. I thought the light looked very cool, and I asked them whether, or not, I could shoot this image. They said yes.
So here we have three young men, standing in a tree, drinking beer.
This is Kat, on a cannon in central area of Old Town San Diego.
This is one of several shoots of beautiful women, who could not enjoy a day like this day was. A warm, beautiful day, walking around in the park with two great women, Kat and Connie, laughing and having a good time.
This was a test of a new lens. I was testing my 85mm f1.2 lens. It turned out be be an excellent lens!
I would do it again. 😉
Sometimes transition is a hard thing, like this flower, past beauty, now gravid with tomorrows life.
Sunrise, and sunset.
We are the children of those that came before us. With eyes closed we can see backwards, in time, to the very beginning of those lives. We can see their existence as part of our own lives, and now they are gone. Part of our life has ceased being, except as memories already fading. We can no longer smell the flower that was there, or hear the laugh of a father friend.
Look to your children, your friends, and rejoice in the present. Hold them, and love them, for tomorrow they will feel as you do now.
Heading West is not just a direction on the planet, it is a direction for the future. …
Horace Greeley did say this, “Go West young man, go West!” But, he lifted the intent from John B. L. Soule, an Indiana journalist, phrase, “Go West, young man, and grow up with the country”
To me, Heading West is heading to the future. In this image it is a railroad track leading to clear blue skys, out from under a dark cloud. … But, the track is set, you cannot vary from a track. With luck, our track will lead mankind to the stars.
Spring is here. Go outside and stand, very quietly, for ten minutes, listening. I just heard, what must be hundreds of, birds singing in every direction my attention was focused. What a wonderful sound.
This image is from the Huntington Botanical Gardens in Pasadena. In the image is a little red headed House Finch for you to compare colors. The flowers are that color green, and beautiful.
This is in the cactus gardens, and they have separated planted areas of these kinds of flowering plants. Each of the areas has flowers of one color. Blues, greens, yellows. … Of them all, the blues and the greens caught my eyes most.
One day a friend, Margaret, called. She wanted to take her dogs for a walk on Coronado Islands Dog beach.
This is an image from that day. … Two happy dogs walking, and playing on the beach.
You can see; it was a beautiful day.
This is a dead flower. 🙂 … Pretty, isn’t it?
Mesembryanthemum crystallinum – Crystalline Ice Plant – (Aizoaceae) – common ice plant – Native of South Africa, but, living on Fiesta Island in San Diego. It has been used as a landscape ornamental and is named for the small glistening vesicles that cover its leaves and stems.
This was shot in the very late afternoon, almost sunset, and the sun was very low, streaming through the crystalline vesicles that caught my attention while I was walking around with my macro lens on my camera. I have some other images of the plant with its beautiful small white flowers. … Oh, and by the way, you can eat this plant, leaves and all.
I love colors. We see with colors. The world is colorful.
This little canyon along interstate “8,” just a small distance outside San Diego, caught my attention one day as I was driving towards the mountains. It is the life experienced in transit that matters, not the target of the transit that matters most. “Journey verses Destination”
By being open along the journey, I found this wonderful little place that captured my eyes for a short time. If I had been focused on the mountains, I would not have seen the trees.
I love life, and the travels.
Enjoy what I have captured in transit.
This lone Saguaro looks across the land of the petroglyphs of the Painted Rocks Petroglyph Site east of Gila Bend, Arizona USA.
Because Sentinel has one branch and is as tall as it is, the age of this cactus is estimated to be between 40, and 70 years old. This cactus could be my age, having seen what I have seen, and knowing what I know of life. But, this cactus is far smarter than I will ever be. He stands in the sun, year after year, watching the world, smelling the seasons as they move through time. This lone sentinel watches the stars at night, as they mark astronomical time.
This sentinel marks the shadow of the sun across the desert floor, while I run around scraping together things needed for my life to continue. He feels the water course down his flesh, pool at his base, and swells when it is ingested, expanding his structure so that he can pass the dry times. … I cannot go more than a few hours without water.
But, Sentinel cannot drive my Toyota.
I am getting ready to head out to the desert this week and shoot whatever the spring has brought to the Southern California deserts, usually aiming at the new growth.
Ahhh But! I am also a very opportunistic photographer. This image was from a previous spring jaunt into the barren land with a friend who also possesses the eyes of an eagle. He spotted this group of Big Horn Sheep from quite a distance, pointed them out to me, like a hunter siccing a dog onto a prey.
So I started walking towards these sheep, at an angle, moving closer towards them every step, but not directly towards them. That angled approach kept them from being spooked, and hightailing it for higher ground. In the end, this is the best I could do.
Notice the flowers, and the green all around the sheep. The flowers were the target of the day, the sheep was the true bonus, and best images of the day.
The very smallest crescent moon just moments after sunset, called the Cheshire Moon after the infamous cat in Alice’s Wonderland.
My friend, April, mentioned the Cheshire Moon in one of her Facebook status updates. I had forgotten the special name of this moon with the upturned smile. I renamed the image after April’s posting.
Lena, my niece’s daughter, was with me when I shot this in Pacific Beach. She kept saying, “Let’s go home!” and “I have to go to the bathroom.”
I kept saying, “Just a moment.” And, “We will be leaving soon.” Half an hour later, I had this image, and she had relief.
Santa Catalina Island, as seen from the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
The reason Los Angeles was clear, and as beautiful as it was on this day, is that a gentle off shore breeze had pushed all that normally obscures the city out into the sea. There it sits, as a golden haze, obscuring the plane where land and water meets.
Still, it is a pretty picture of a wave wrapping itself around a small point of land.
Today is very peaceful, as the air wafts softly through the leaves of the trees. It is warm, and comfortable when one sits in the shade. I can feel the hairs on my arms as they are gently moved by the low breeze. Soft chirps of spring birds can be heard across the valley.
This flower is part of a plant that sits in two worlds. The body and its roots lie submerged in the small pond, while the leaves and flowers dance in the sun. Leaves sucking the energy out of the sunlight to process the nutrients out of the pond. There would be no flower without both.
There is a balance in nature that we must have for ourselves. … I live, yet I am looking still.
A young woman, standing alone on the beach, has written, “I Love You.”
Like honest love, spoken from a full heart of one person directly into the mind and heart of another person, the young woman knelt down, took her finger, and scribed each letter in the sand, one letter at a time. As each stroke of each letter grew with the movement of her hand, the full mantra of her thought repeated in her head, “I Love You. … I Love You. … I Love You.” …
As I look at this image, I see her hope, and feel her fear. Her words are written by her finger in sand that the tide will wash clean in a few hours. Her love, the sand, the sunset, the ocean, everything, is ephemeral, yet. … A clean sandy sunrise will still hold her words.
Once, I had a love. … “I Love You.”
