Rainy day blog

I'm working on an assignment from Carol Leigh's Photo Montage class --- flip & blend.  You take one photograph, duplicate and flip it anyway you wish.  After that the results are run through Photoshop blend modes.   It's a very fun way to spend part of a rainy day!   The two you see below are being submitted to the class.   It's very addicting!

 Both photos were taken in Cuba, the top one was looking down a hallway in a yacht club I visited, the floors were so highly polished I almost didn't want to walk on them.  Because I know it's there I can see the door at the end of the hallway -- can anyone else?

The one on the right was a photo taken of a building with a covered walkway, with lots of arches.  It too, was flipped, then run through the Photoshop  blending modes.

Safari Park

 My favorite stop at the Safari Park is the gorilla compound -- especially around 10:30 AM when the keepers feed them.  I was a bit late this morning, but they were still out and baby Monroe was playing.

Flowers are starting to bloom and I was happy with this succulent bloom, and so was the bee.

iPhone photos ... again

This was a photo taken a month ago at Kramer's Junction (Hwys 395 & 58) in the town of Boron.   Always a photo opportunity someplace there.


That day it was the unicycle on top of their roof.  Luckily  was a clear blue sky that day, so I was able to get a good straight photo of it.   Then recently I played around with several apps on the iPhone.  My favorite was the 4 in one below.

Play date with paige

 

Every Wednesday I get to hang out with my 4 year old granddaughter Paige.   She likes to paint, so this morning we got out the watercolors and plenty of paper.  She worked on this portrait -- "Paige and her best friend Tessa".  The girls love to play dress up and put flowers in their hair when they get together and Paige drew that.  We walked over to Tessa's house to deliver the drawing and came home to pack lunches for our outing.

Today we went to a favorite park, Spanish Landing,  where they are building the replica of a sailing vessel the San Salvadore.  We have checked in on their progress over the past few weeks and it's becoming a fun thing to do. It'll take about 2 more years to complete, so plenty of time for outings here.   She recognizes a couple of the ship builders now and is feeling comfortable there.  We then went to the play structure on the beach nearby and today, because of the cold, windy, rainy weather, we had it all to ourselves.  We had about an hour before we both got cold and went home.   She loves the slide tunnel, and I love taking photos of her in it.  

Happy Valentine's Day

I was so busy doing my "homework" that I almost forgot it was Valentine's Day.  Here's a heart for you --  I hope you all will all enjoy Valentine's Day!   xoxo

More photos from the outing on the Californian

My current assignment from Carol Leigh's Photo Montage class was to take a photograph and convert it to look like an old postcard.   Even with these photos of the old sailing ships, it was a bit difficult to get the correct filters for this look.

The first photo was taken of the s/v Americana as she was approaching Pt. Loma.  You can see the light house on the point.   I had to clone out modern sailboats and a few towers on land to get the old postcard feel, then played a bit with filters for this look.

The second photo was taken while the crew were climbing up to furl the topsails.  Pretty exciting to watch them easily scramble up the rope ladder.  I used filters to create the sepia look.

Fun assignment, especially because of my sail Sunday on the Californian.  



For more information on all the ships operated by the Maritime Museum , just follow the link.  

The Californian

We (David, Barb, Cole, Shane and Paige) all spent a wonderful afternoon on the s/v The Californian. I used to volunteer on this magnificent vessel many years ago in Santa Cruz, and David had been part of the crew for a summer before heading off to college.

The day was beautiful with great winds for sailing. The three grandkids all got to steer and were excited. At the end of the sail the canons were fired, which was a very exciting way to end the sail.

If you would like more info on the Californian, check out www.sdmaritime.org

Unconditional Surrender

I met my friend Terry in San Diego to explore the Midway area, and see the statue "Unconditional Surrender."   I had heard about the statue, with rumors it might be moved soon.  It was a beautiful day as you can see.  My favorite photo included the couple who were doing a re-enactment.

Fortunately  the statue was near The Fish Market restaurant where we had a great lunch!

For more information about the statue, follow the link  Unconditional Surrender  

Test blog

I want to be able to post to my blog from my iPad or iPhone, and wasn't able to do this until I discovered that there is an app for this! Should have known, there's an app for everything!

So I'm using it to post photos from
The Safari Park, the lion, gorilla and night heron. If you are reading this, you'll know it worked.

Chula Vista Nature Center

Last week Paige & I visited the Chula Vista Nature Center.  I had read about their "Washed Ashore" art exhibit and was curious about it.   This is an art exhibit featuring huge sculptural pieces made from debris collected from beaches.  An Oregon-based artist, Angela Haseltine Pozzi, is the woman behind these amazing pieces.

Everything you see in this turtle (including the flip-flop tongue) was picked up off the beaches.  Pozzi created jelly fish, whale bone skeleton and a huge fish.   The photo on the right is a close up of some of the materials found on the beaches & used in another of the her work.

If you follow the link you'll see photos of these pieces and others in the exhibit.  And, if you are in San Diego area, I hope you'll take time to visit the nature center and see it in person.  It'll be here through 9/3/2012

Dolphins

I went out on a whale watching boat Friday.  In spite of a high surf advisory the night before, we had a beautiful day on the water.  And it was flat!  We only saw one whale heading south, and that was at the last 20 minutes of the trip, but we did see a huge pod of common dolphins.  The skipper estimated about 100 dolphins.  The panorama shows just about 1/4 of the long line they formed.

The next shots were taken as the dolphins danced for us, following the boat, swimming right under the bow of the boat at times, then falling off to the side and allowing another group to swim with us.

There was a very excited 7-year-old boy onboard and he told his Mom that "dolphins make people happy."   So true ... we were a happy group on the boat that day.

Bee on poppy ...

I saw this bed of poppies and a busy bee -- figured if I stayed long enough, I might get a photo.   So it was  taken with my iPhone ... gotta love that camera!   Processing with Snapseed (cropping, sharpening).


Pretty much what I saw and waited for.

More from the Photo Montage class I'm taking

Still working with the assignments from Carol Leigh's class.    Here's two I submitted for critique.  

Zoo and Safari park photos

I made a quick trip to the Safari Park one morning to take my walk.  There's a great uphill work out -- up to the Baja gardens area.  Then I had to swing by the gorillas and I'm so glad I did -- it was snack time and they were just given tomatoes and assorted vegetables.  I was able to get this shot of baby Monroe his treat.

This second shot was taken at the San Diego Zoo flamingo area.  I don't know what kind of bird he is -- maybe someone can help identify it?   What I liked is that he was blissfully pecking away at the feed on the ground, seemingly ignoring the big flamingos.