Pond Life at San Diego Botanic Garden

I guess I’ve saved my favorite for last – the pond blooms and wildlife.  I admit it – I’m a sucker for waterlilies, so they are taking a bit of front and center in this post.  But, there are other things to see as well!

Floating Beauties

There were several small ponds around the botanic garden, and each had some lovely waterlilies blooming.  These three are set off by the pads they are seemingly resting on.  I also love the detail of the moss covered rocks under the water.  Did you notice that?

Freestyle Swim

I did notice a couple of turtles swimming in what I think of as the main pond.  This little guy is enjoying an afternoon swim.  I really got a bit of a chuckle at the position of his back feet – so straight out, perhaps making the most of his glide!

Watercolor Waterlilies

I did love these waterlilies and I decided to sort of convert them to a bit of a watercolor effect.  However, I elected to not make them soft, or a bit blurry.  Instead, I went for a bit of sharper definition on the edges to make them pop.  And, they do!

Pretty in Peach

This waterlily was peach colored, a bit different from the mostly pink blossoms I had been seeing.  I worked to enhance the detail in this image, so you can almost feel the wetness of the stem of this bloom as it rises out of the water.  And the pads almost seem like they are 3D, don’t they?

Peaceful Waterfall

The main pond had a beautiful cascading waterfall.  I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to capture its beauty due to the high contrast conditions.  However, thru the magic of computer software, I was able to combine 3 different images together to create an image that looks like it did to me as I stood there.  Makes me truly appreciate how our brains work to sort of balance things out without our even being aware of it!

Taking a Breather

As we walked around the pond, I noticed another little turtle taking a bit of a breather, and just relaxing on a rock on the pond’s shore.  The sunlight was softer here, with the trees branches and leaves dappling the light.  The result is a nice, quiet restful image of nature.

Enjoy!



Foto Art Friday – Past Lifetime

When I took the image of the deserted cabin, I was struck by how lifetimes change – what life was like when this cabin was called home to a family is vastly different from what I now know as life.  I’ve heard the phrase, “that was a lifetime ago”, and the image that serves as the foundation for this piece brings that to mind.  The handwriting in the background is an old ledger page.  I imagine that those types of ledger records were the norm back in the day this cabin was home.  A subtle background of wood texture also adds to this piece – again, so much was based in wood, back in this lifetime – home, furniture, toys.  People often say times in the past were a “simpler” time.  When I think of the hardships faced on a daily basis by whoever used to call this home, I don’t think they would have used the term “simple” to describe their lives.

Past Lifetime

Enjoy!



Backyard Treasurers

Earlier this month, I sat out on our back patio and just enjoyed the views from there looking out on what one could call our backyard.  It was nice to relax and enjoy these simple pleasures after a few months of traveling.

Storm over South Mountain

As we looked out on what seemed to be a very nice, sunny skies, with just a few white puffy clouds floating around, I noticed a storm over the mountain just north of our home.  One of the things that I love about living here is that we can be enjoying wonderful weather, and get to watch rain falling from the clouds about 20 miles away.

Tiny Daisies

Much closer to home, and beneath my feet, some tiny, tiny daisies were growing.  Daisies always seem like such happy flowers to me.  I decided to convert this image of them into a painting type effect, just because it seemed to accentuate the happiness.

Yellow Petals

In another area of the area out back of our patio were these yellow daisy like flowers.  They, too, were very tiny, and seemed like little gems brightening up the grounds.

Petite Purple

The theme of my wandering today seemed to be small natural treasures.  These small purple blooms appeared in bunches.  Interestingly, as the blooms fade, they become more blue than purple. 

Double Bloom

Closer to home, and sitting on the patio, are these wave petunias as they sort of flow over the ceramic pots sitting along the edge of the patio.  Their color is incredibly rich, too, and sets off nicely against the turquoise of the pot.

First Rose

When we lived in the Midwest, I just could not get roses to grow.  I’m not certain why – I followed all the instructions I had been given!  However, these roses are incredibly happy growing here, just off the edge of our patio!

Prickly Pear Bloom

There are a couple of patches of prickly pear cactus growing in the area off our back patio.  They grow as sort of wildflowers, altho I have a hard time thinking of cactus as wildflowers!  Come mid-spring, the cactus do sprout these lovely blooms, always yellow.

Garden Beauties

I really love this view – yellow columbine, purple salvia and South Mountain in the background.  This is one of my favorite view perspectives when sitting on our patio.

Storm Passing

I thought I would end this post as I started it, with a view of that storm cloud.  This time, tho, I stepped out from under the patio, so that I could capture more of the cloud in the image.  Impressive, isn’t it?  And, no, this rain never did reach us.  We just got to watch it from afar.

Enjoy!



Foto Art Friday - Formation Flight

For this week’s piece, I looked to last weekend for inspiration.  I was visiting friends in the San Diego area, and on one day, we went to walk along the beach.  Unlike what most folks think of as typical southern California weather, the area was experiencing typical “June gloom” weather.  The skies were overcast, which created some moody images.  This piece incorporates 3 images.  A background image is one I took quite some time ago of some wonderful cloud formations we have here at home in New Mexico.  I merged it with an image of a gloomy beach scene of the rough surf, and another of 3 seagulls flying in a natural formation.  Underneath it all was a Citra Solv background and the icing on the cake (so to speak) were various specialty brushes.  Coffee ring brushes were complements of On Thin Air.

Formation Flight

Enjoy!



Foto Art Friday - The Photographer

 

Welcome to this week’s “Foto Art Friday”.  This weekend, I am lucky enough to be visiting some good friends in San Diego.  I know I will have some great photo opportunities waiting for me, and that made me think about an image that I captured a couple of years ago.  I was at White Sands National Monument, here in New Mexico, and I saw another photographer positioning himself to capture one of the beautiful sunsets that happen there.  I decided to capture him in the creative moment.  As a sort of tribute to the wonderful photo op this weekend will give me, I decided to make that image the focus of this week’s art piece.  I used some vintage handwriting and music text as a background, and then some brushes found in PhotoShop Elements to add some texture and color.  A simple piece filled with the promise of what more there can be.

 

Enjoy!



Foto Art Friday - Primrose Portrait

Every spring, these beautiful flowers make their appearance in one flower bed in our front yard.  I kept thinking that perhaps we planted them, and therefore, I should know their name!  But, Jeff reminded me that we didn’t plan them – they just appeared one year, and took up residence.  They are so charming, I look forward to them each year.  I created this piece to honor their appearance again this year.  The background is a blend of vintage music, special paint brushes, and a CitraSolve paper.  I added the images and a few extra paint brushes completed the piece.  By the way, the flower is called a Mexican Evening Primrose.

 

Enjoy!



Foto Art Friday - May 27 - Always Flowers

Always Flowers

For this week’s Foto Art Friday piece, I used an image of a columbine flower from our garden as inspiration.  The flower is just so soft, delicate, and, in its own way, fancy.  Because of that, I chose very fancy handwriting as a part of the background, along with some CitaSolv background paper, merged together.  I then blended in the columbine image, added some special paint brushes by soulpoison, and then an appropriate quote from Henri Matisse.

 

Enjoy!