Crystal Cove

We went over to Crystal Cove to have a nice lunch at the Beachcomber the other day.  As you can see in the above photo it was a classic, beautiful sunny California day.  Lunch was good too.

Ice Cream Cone Flower

Went to Sherman Gardens yesterday and saw this unusual looking  flower.  I didn't catch the name of it, but I think it's from Indonesia.  I thought I would have some fun with this photo and mix a little color and B&W.  I think it makes it look like a strawberry ice cream cone. 

Lily

The lilies in our backyard were blooming a few weeks back, so it gave me a chance to practice some close up photography.  This photo looked OK to me in the color version but when I converted it to black & white using Silver Efex Pro it seemed to show off the flower's detail, simplicity and beauty that much better.

Memorial Day

I thank God that I live in the USA!  I thank God for our Veterans and Active Duty Military that have and continue to protect our freedom.  On this Memorial Day try to thank at least one veteran.

Bodie #2

Here's another one from Bodie.  It's amazing how well the wood on the buildings has held up over the years with no paint on them.  Maybe it's the type of wood or the cold temperatures, but I didn't see any rotted wood.  The polarizer on my lens really brings out the color in the wood and sky. 

Bodie

It had been at least 10 years since I last visited Bodie.  As you might of guessed, it hadn't changed much (lol), being a ghost town and all.  However, this trip was memorable for one reason alone, getting into town.  To get there you usually just have to drive in about 8 miles, 5 of which are on a paved road.  The remaining 3 or so miles is on a pretty well maintained dirt road.  To our surprise, after about a half mile on the dirt road we came to a gate.  A sign told us we would have to hike in the rest of the way.  No reason was given as to why we couldn't drive in.  I was with my wife's cousin, John and troopers like we are we decided to make the walk in which turned out to be more like a 2 to 2 1/2 mile trek each way.  It was worth it.  This old town has some very interesting buildings and equipment in various stages of decay.

Panum Crater View

 

Here's another photo from Panum Crater.  This is looking southwest towards the Sierra's about an hour before sunset.  The pickings were slim as far as finding an interesting foreground subject.  About the best I could find was this scrawny looking shrub.  At least the sky was nice.  Another interesting thing about this ancient crater was that there was a lot of obsidean scattered all around.