This little maple is struggling at the edge of the sidewalk. It reminds me of the little places of wildness described in novels by Charles de Lint. He writes about urban settings but there is magical happenings at the small wild areas located throughout the city. Moonheart is my favorite novel by Charles de Lint.

From my recent visit to the Conservatory of Flowers. I am undecided but think it is good enough to post.

This is a tree fern forest close to the Conservatory of Flowers. I took the shot handheld with my new Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens. I had read that prime lenses provide better image quality but I was blown away by the detail and clarity of the image right of the camera.

This shot reminds me of an exotic bird coming down to land on a perch. I missed the focus on what would be the head of the bird. So for the web, I fudged a little. I added a little grain and selectively sharpened that area to make it look more sharp.

Tonite, my hard drive was to full. I have all my images backed up to an external drive so had to do housekeeping on my internal drive. I found this during my cleaning and decided that it is a keeper.

For some reason, this reminds me strongly of my goldfish begging for dinner. I think that the center of the blossoms remind of the goldfish mouths open ready for food.

Another from the Conservatory of Flowers. I cannot remember if this is the same purple waterlily from the previous shot but slight changes in position could make radical differences in the color of the water.

The last image from our recent visit to Coyote Hills. Just beyond the hill is the parking lot.

This image was actually taken about 15 minutes before the previous entry. The exposure was multiple seconds so there is a lot of movement in the reeds and bushes along the hillside. The color is accurate. Over the summer, this entire marsh dried out and all the reeds died back. They are just starting to green up with the winter rains. The ripples in the water were actually caused by coots and Canada geese that were patrolling. They disappeared but their wake remains.

Tonite, Chip and I took the dogs to Coyote Hills for a short walk. I was hoping to take a reeds shot but of course, I saw something better. The light was beautiful so I took this sky shot as a high-dynamic range image. While I was shooting, a lady stopped and asked what I was shooting. I replied “The colors in the sky.” She said “Oh” in a disappointed voice.