San Diego

Downtown San Diego, California.

Here is another photo from my aerial shoot.  The Aircraft Carrier in the foreground in the U.S.S. Midway.  The U.S.S. Midway is no longer active, it is actually a museum parked near downtown.

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This is looking down on the roller coaster in Mission Beach, in the mid ground is Mission Bay, and further out is downtown San Diego, California.

Last week I got a phone call from fellow photographer Phil Colla offering to split the cost of a helicopter charter flight over San Diego.  I jumped at the opportunity!  I love flying and photographing from a helicopter; you can pretty much go anywhere you want, and most importantly, you can do so with the doors removed.  This is really important, as you often need to use a polarizer to cut the haze, and polarizers add funky rainbows for some reason when you use them through Plexiglas.  Not to mention, shooting through Plexiglas is a great way to end up with soft photos, so doors removed is the only way to go.

Well thanks to the Santa Ana off-shore winds, we had wonderful clear conditions – I ended up with a lot of images of the area to add to our existing coverage of San Diego photos.

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Down power lines in Julian, California.

I’m not a lineman or electrician, heck, I can struggle with on / off switches –  but I don’t think this meets code. 

There are few places in the U.S. that have avoided winter storms this past week, but I don’t know if anyplace looked more unique then the upper Mojave desert.  I was there this weekend and there is still a good two feet of snow on the ground!  One person told me they received more snow last week, then they have in the last 18 years combined.

That much snow on the jumbo rocks and Joshua Trees was absolutely beautiful.  I snuck away from family activities Saturday evening for some sunset photography.  I had hoped to come away with a photo for today, but ended up getting my 4 wheel drive truck so buried in the snow that it took me a hour and a half just to dig it out!  By the time I was out, it was dark, and I was just happy to be driving. 

In the future when I drive down that narrow dusty dirt road in the heat of the desert, it will be hard to imagine anyone could ever get stuck in snow!

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Julian California

We made it up to Julian, California yesterday.  It sure looked great with all the fresh snow.  There was a good foot or more of fresh, wet snow still on the ground.

Julian is a cool little historic gold mining town that has a lot of character and charm.  It seems to be a popular choice for magazines doing stories like “Best Places to Live in the U.S.” or “Best Small Towns in America”  Stories like that are a great way to ruin a good thing, but besides too much traffic, it is still a neat little place.  O yeah, it is also famous for it’s apple pies – and they are good! [click to continue…]

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San Diego wildflowers.

This is another colorful burn area in San Diego County.  The purple flowers you can see along with the California Poppies is Parry phacelia.  Parry phacelia if a fire follower.  

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California Poppies.

O my gosh, these hills are amazing!  These incredible hills are a result of the San Diego wildfires this past fall.  The burnt hills around San Diego are very colorful right now, and will probably get better in the days and weeks to come.  I was fortunate enough to visit the Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve in 2003 which was a peak year – frankly, these are better, partly because of the shear numbers of poppies, but in addition, these hills are much more photogenic full of rocks and other cool subject matter.

I have two people who I owe a big thanks. [click to continue…]

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The Borrego photo I posted a couple of days ago was the second best sunrise from our recent trip- this morning in San Diego was definitely the best! [click to continue…]

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This dark, gloomy photo of the Imperial Beach Pier kind of summed up my mood when I realized I some how lost the extended keywords to about 400 images!  Key-wording is about the only aspect of being a photographer that I don’t really like.  I now discovered something worse; re-key-wording the same images!  LOL.  O well. 

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Giant Panda at the San Diego Zoo. [click to continue…]

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This is a Peacock at the San Diego Zoo.  And I thought the Wood Duck were colorful!  [click to continue…]

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A visitor and gorilla share a brief glance at the San Diego Zoo.

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The Pier at Imperial Beach, California.  I had all but given up on sunset when this bit of color appeared just before dark and saved the evening. 

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This is the San Diego Skyline captured a little before sunrise this morning, just a few hours ago.  We have made two other very short trips to San Diego in recent years, and are hoping to add to our coverage of San Diego Photos on this trip.

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Enjoying the sunset in Chula Vista, California. [click to continue…]

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Having spent most my life in Alaska, a place without Raccoons, I must admit I had never seen this common mammal. [click to continue…]

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Yep, while camping at Santee Lakes, we even took the time to rent a paddle boat.  Yeah, we’re dorks, but they were fun.  As you can see we kept the life vests in a very safe place – couldn’t have them getting wet!

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I did find time to photograph other birds at Santee Lakes beside the Wood Ducks, including this Great Egret. [click to continue…]

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I have been trying to capture photos of these colorful guys in colorful reflections – I love bright colors, but this might be color overload! 

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Getting a photo of a Wood Duck was high on my wish list for this trip.  Today I captured many! [click to continue…]

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