Walking in Long Beach - 8/8

Unusual (Passion Flower?) Fruit

The North Side of the Road?

Morning walk along Hawthorne Blvd near Hesse Park.

In the Weeds

A non-native wild fennel with friends.

This patch of wilderness is where the west end of Rancho PV meets PV Estates.

Los Angeles Skyline from Altadena & ...

I drove up as high as I could into the hills of Altadena and saw this view, looking at LA and beyond to Palos Verdes. And then as I stepped back, the real visual treat came into view, right above me.

A Prickly Situation?

At the Huntington Cactus Gardens, San Marino, CA, from last Thursday's outing.

I bet the wonderful photographer & dear blogger friend from Birmingham, Alabama DP has a matching photo.

Stepping Off the Curb with a View

Today, after a good rain yesterday that left some snow on the local mountains, it is again clear and sunny; and looks like this photo that I took a couple weeks back from Covecrest Dr, just above our neighborhood. The view is of the Santa Monica (or South) Bay, toward Santa Monica.
I'll be adding a smaller photo of the fall color - Southern California style - with flowers and turning leaves both. The same Sweetgum tree as I posted last week, provided this color.

From the Sleepy Hollow - So Cal Style

More Local Flora

Not a cactus tree, but an euphorbia, reaching impressive heights by the Red Onion restaurant.

Born to be Wild - Purpe Raphanus sativus

Wild radish plant is one of the native flowering plants. According to The Handbook of Wildflowers, Weeds, Wildlife, and Weather of the South Bay and PV Peninsula by Donald Moore Gales, "wild radish is of the mustrad family, with colors varying from all-purple to lavender to white. Some are shaded from white on the inner petal to purple outer petal. Young pods are tender and taste like a garden radish, but the root is tough and fiberous." Since I read about the plant after I found it, I did not taste the pods. Next time for sure.

Green

No green baloons, but still a bit of green to support the protesters in Iran. CityDailyPhoto blog community held a special 'blog day' today in order to help spread the images and stories coming out of Iran, and raise awareness of the issues that the people are protesting currently. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Sunday in the Park with George ... Lepp

The flowers are a composite of three handheld shots merged together.

George Lepp, the nature photographer extrordinaire, is demonstrating his panoramic technique.

At the South Coast Botanical Gardens

I'm taking a weekend workshop with the photographer George D. Lepp at the gardens. Today is the "shoot" day. Yesterday, Mr. Lepp shared his techniques on panoramas, composite panaramas (using GigaPan), HDR, and many other tips for getting an image that the eye sees. He makes amazing (in focus) composites of fields of flowers (sunflowers in Kansas, tulips in Amsterdam) by refocusing each image and overlapping 20 to 50%, or for close-ups, keeping the camera in the same place and changing the focus only for 6 to 10 images and making a composite with Helicon Focus Lite software.
I tied to do a HDR with the photo above (bracketed 1 stop each way) but it proved unnecessary (especially since I broke the 1st rule and did not use a tripod so the photos did not align just right). Mr. Lepp uses HDR for landscapes to obtain an image the eye sees with the correct exposure from the foreground to the sky. For panoramas and managing photos, he prefers Adobe Lightroom software (recommends getting it for a 30-day free download). He backs up his work on 2 external hard drives & he gets rid of the bad shots or those that he'll never use. (My husband would be very happy with that recommendation.)
To all the dads today, Happy Father's Day.

'V' is for Vineyard with Villa or vice-versa(abc Wednesday)

This really is in Palos Verdes. The mansion is located on Palos Verdes Drive West and has a superb view onto the ocean and Catalina Island. The vineyard is on the street side.

Crazing the Full Moon

February full moon through the trees at the Wayfarers Chapel.

Crazing - The cracking of a glaze on a fired ceramic pot. It is the result of the glaze shrinking more than the clay body in cooling process.

Pretty in Pink ...

... and hot pink, at that! I think the flower is Lesotho Pink ice plant.
This back "yard" was the most colorful one on the bank going up from W. 25th Street in San Pedro. A few miles down, 25th St. becomes PV Drive South and follows a very scenic section of the coast. The hillside looks so much better than the picture shown on Google maps. Cudos to the owners.

Thanks to PJ at Pensacola Daily Photo, I've been made aware of Purple Day.Please visit the brave Michele, over at The Rocky Mountain Retreat, and learn why today is a great day to wear purple in support of Epilepsy Awareness Day.

Celebrate the Vernal Equinox...

...occurring at exactly 4:44 am local time. Today, we are also celebrating our wedding anniversary.
Photo looking at the shore of the Pacific Ocean from the cliffs of Palos Verdes, by the footpath near the Whale Watching Station.

Spring in an Old Grove - Napa Valley, CA

I've been on a short business trip to Northern California and had a chance to do a bit of sightseeing. Even with overcast skies, the view was very sunny with what I think is wild mustard growing between the vines.

'F' is for Fern with a New Frond (abc Wednesday)

From Wikipedia: the "great fern radiation" occurred in the late-Cretaceous, when many modern families of ferns first appeared. This specimen is part of landscaping along Highridge Road.

Join Mrs. Nesbitt's ABC Wednesday Round 4!

'D' is for Distance in the Desert

Pearblossom Highway on the desert side of the San Gabriel Mountains, near Llano, CA

Joint / Venture (2 Things Challenge)

Join the 2 Things Challenge hosted by D.C. Confidential.