It's a rock...It's an elephant....

It’s the stone forest in China!!! Taken on my trip there in 1991 this is a natural formation. My parents visited few months later and took the same shot…copycats!

Happy Mistake #1

Ya know, sometimes the mistakes are the most interesting! This orchid was at the San Francisco Conservatory just like yesterday's flower. However, when taking the flash picture I accidentally moved (not easy at a 60th of a second!) and got this fuzzy goodness. A luck happenstance...I mean....I meant it...honestly :)

Flowers as Dinner Plates

Another pretty flower :) This one was taken at the San Francisco Conservatory January 1st, 2008. I had some time to kill before heading back to the airport after Christmas vacation and it turns out that it has been years since I was as the Conservatory--and not since they last restored it. Always a sucker for an opportunity for flower picts we headed over. Mostly orchids and pitcher plants in bloom at the time, but I found this beauty near one of the doors. What you can't tell from the picture is that the bloom itself is probably 12-16 inches across!! This was one darned big flower and I had to use a wider angle lens from above to get the shot. I love the fading of color from deep read at the center on out to white.

Lions....Tigers...Christians?!?!

Roman Colosseum. At night. Most Cool.

A Rose By Any Other Name...

My new camera is here!!!!! I loved my Canon Digital Rebel that I have been using for the past several year, but it definitely had some problems. It was a first generation and you could tell. The flash was essentially unusable and the sensor had become dirty--as of late I have has to photoshop dirt spots out of many of my pictures :( The EOS Rebel XSi, however, solves many of those problems!!! The flash can be metered, the fist shot can be taken w/in about 1 second of turning it on (it was 3-4 seconds before--may not sound like a lot, but I missed a couple great shots waiting for the camera to turn on), it is now 12.3 mega pixel, and best of all possible, the sensor cleans itself every time you turn off the camera or change lenses. So, new camera, needed to go out and take pictures. And given that it is me we are talking about, I went in search of flowers :) And right in my front yard...Roses! I planted these Jackson and Perkins roses last year in the new bed I put in my front yard. They really didn't do too much last year--I am spoiled by California rose growing conditions! But this year they are purty! I have one pink and one salmon. Still not as big as in CA, but smelling pretty and looking great too. A great way to break in the new camera!!!!

10 Little Peppers, All in a Row

Time to look around Barcelona! All of it :) Started out heading north from the youth hostel a couple of block to the Mercat San Josep. This is a huge fruit, vegetable, meat and fish market and one of the best I have even been in around the world. It was beautiful and the stand owners took so much obvious pride in their wares that they were presented beautifully. I mean, even the green beans and cherries were all lined up! So, I spend about an hour wandering around and taking pictures. A couple people looked at me a bit odd as it really is a working market, but many of the merchants seemed happy to have me photograph their stalls. They had obviously spent a lot of time setting them up and were proud of them. I love the order to this picture, and the contrast of colors--always been one of my favorites.

Did you say Haarlem or Harlem?!?!

In honor of the tulips being in bloom in the Netherlands right about now, here is a picture I took while traveling there in 2005. I was pretty sure that I was past the time, but I headed down to Haarlem (ever wonder where that NY neighborhood got its name?!?! :-) ) to see the bulb fields. And I saw a lot of fields, but no blooms. Darn it. I think that I missed it by about 3-4 weeks. Ah well, a reason to come back someday. Which I will, I really like it here. I did find 3 or 4 very small plots in bloom and of course took pictures :) Iris and Alliums.

The Light of Faith

Quick post today before heading off to give my final exam. This photo comes from Croatia in 2005. I joined several of the Pepperdine students on a mission trip there over spring break and caught this picture in the main cathedral in Zagreb. It was interesting to visit as I had been to Yugoslavia as a kid and this was the first time I have revisited a piece of land which was now a new country!