Yosemite Waterfalls

Rainbow at Bridalveil Falls, Yosemite National Park CA

This was supposed to be my post before we leave for the trip on June 28th, however, I did not get a chance to post this at all. Anyway, since we were heading at that time to another waterfall country, I thought of leaving you then with our waterfall memories from  Yosemite National Park, CA.

Half Dome, Liberty Cap and Nevada Falls

Rainbow Below Vernal Falls

Rainbow and Vernal Falls from the Top

Yosemite Falls

A Photoshoot Dream

I Heard Your Loud Chime that Soared and Floated Into The Air

As I Gazed Up, I Asked, "Was it really you calling me?"

Then I Saw You looked down with your Piercing Stare

I just had to ask again, "were you calling me?"

Was I Dreaming When You Quickly Jumped Down from the tree?

Was I walking with you, 

Or Were you walking With Me?

When you finally stopped I did not know what to do

Finally, I woke up from my dream......and left you be

As I marched away, I heard your chiming voice again,

I looked back to see you spread your beautiful wings 

Was I dreaming when I heard you say,

"come......take a picture of me....

with my wings open wide and my hundred eyes"

You then swayed your wide open wings beautifully

My eyes locked in your regal beauty....

I followed you in your every turn....

In your every walk....

Were you really modeling for me?

Or Was I in a Photoshoot Dream?

all photos taken at:

San Diego Zoo

May 21, 2011

Followed By Hummingbird

Baby Hummingbird on its Nest

I have never seen a hummingbird on its nest, until today! First, we saw this hummingbird kissing the blossom of a naked coral tree. 

Hummingbird Kissing the Naked Coral Tree Blossom

It is not a surprise for me to see hummingbirds kissing red flowers. First, I have seen it and captured in picture many times. Second, it is not a myth that hummingbirds love red flowers.Third, the hummingbirds are really known to be flower kissers. Like the butterflies, they are responsible for pollinating the flowers around. However, unlike fellow bloggers Diane of Desert Colors and Karen of Avcr8teur's Photoblog, we have not been lucky enough to have guest hummingbirds nest in our backyard despite I see a lot of them fluttering their mighty little wings in the air as they move from flower to flower. But today is one of those days with pleasant surprises, we saw a baby hummingbird who kept flying back and forth to its nest. 

The mom hummingbird was not around, maybe she already decided her baby is strong enough to be on its own. The baby hummingbird would fly away from its nest, maybe to look for food or maybe to test the strength of its wings, but after a while, it would go back and sit on its nest to rest. It was a joy! Notice that all the pictures above were not taken by me, because I was not carrying a zoom lens but a macro lens. I cannot shoot close to the bird or else the bird will fly away. So, I was simply a happy spectator watching my husband happily shoot away with his zoom lens. When I finally walked away from both to do some macro flowers photography, suddenly, another hummingbird appeared right in front of me showing me how it can flap its wings up to 90 times in one second producing a humming sound.

Hummingbird Appeared So Close To Me 

What a joy it was! All the while I thought I will not be able to shoot a hummingbird yesterday because I only had macro lens and I cannot come close enough to the birds without scaring them away. But what a very pleasant surprise, one humingbird followed me ( let me dream away) and came so close to me, and for a long while, our stares locked as he kept dancing in front of me. I say "he" since from what I learned, female hummingbirds don't have blue or red colors on their neck.

Truly, a day spent out of the doors, without cell phone and without internet connections are some of life's most pleasant moments.

Have a happy weekend everyone.

Getting Out is Getting In

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walgreens for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Do my arms look shiny here from using sunscreen lotion? I am glad for Walgreens Brand Sunscreen Lotion. I can wear it for extreme sun protection yet without  feeling the grease!

Most of life's beautiful experiences for me are not spent watching TV, nor checking YIM, email and FB updates in cell phone, nor in front of computer shouting in Facebook and Twitter. It is spent out of the doors when there is no world wide web distractions and my mind is not distracted at all to see clearly the boundless opportunities and simple joys in simple life. For us, weekends always mean going out of the doors, whether it be enjoying the hiking trails, or enjoying the ocean, or enjoying our cultural and nature parks. Weekend is our time to de-stress and also get a lot longer physical activity to continue to strengthen our physical body,  to rejuvenate our mind and to inspire our hearts.

some of our weekend simple but very pleasant surprises, shot by ktl

Because our weekends mean always to spend time outdoors, from morning until late afternoon, or sometimes, from sunrise to sunset, we needed some sun protection. Sun protection that will protect us from the harsh rays of the sun while we are exploring our wonderful world and strengthening our physique and mind. About a month ago, I receive Walgreens giveaways which is Walgreens Brand Sunscreen Lotion.

What I like about Walgreens Brand Sunscreen Lotion is that it is not greasy at all. There are times I hesitate to put some sunscreen lotion because I do not want to have that greasy feeling. Also, I do not want the grease to go to my camera and lens. When I put the lotion, after a while I could not feel the presence of lotion yet the protection it gives me last a long time because it is water resistant. Our physical activity often makes us sweat a lot, and the sweat can wash off any sunscreen protection that is not water resistant. Because sunscreen lotion is my best friend, the give away bottle is almost gone now, and I am on my way to using the new bottles I bought which really is very affordable. With the way we are using sunscreen lotion, and with the cheaper price of Walgreens Brand Sunscreen Lotion compared to other leading brands, the savings we get goes a long way because we finish a bottle of lotion quick! Multiplying our savings in every bottle to the number of bottles we consume a year gives me a happy smile, for indeed, beautiful packages do not come always with a big price tag!
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From Gray To Blue

From gray,

Pelicans in Flight, Morning ( 5/14/11)

to blue, 

Pelicans in Flight, Afternoon ( 5/14/11)

this was how our day progressed last Saturday. May and June are the two grayest months in San Diego. These two months are known as 'May gray" and "June gloom". Low lying marine clouds would usually appear late in the afternoon as it cools down and thickens through the night. By early morning the low lying clouds become thick fog which usually clears slowly. The thick fogs usually persists until late morning, or early afternoon, or may last all day. Thankfully, last Saturday the thick fogs in the morning gave way to blue skies mid-afternoon. Let me take you to our 15 mile hike last Saturday that started with gray and ended with blue.

Fogs on Cliffs 

 It was a very beautiful walk. Because the morning was windy, temperature was in the chilly 50s (10s Celsius), we had miles of coastline all to ourselves.

Looks Like A Deserted Island? The Civilization is Hidden By These Sharp Cliffs

Okay, I am wrong, there were several beachcombers, you can see them in the pictures below.

Egrets Enjoying the Beach All To Themselves

Sandpipers Simply Enjoying The Beach( the small ones are still juvenile sandpipers)

Egret Up Close

 Between our walk from Carmel Valley to La Jolla shores, we had to cross this tidepool below.

Tidepool Close to La Jolla shores

The slippery rocks at the tidepool slowed us down, but it was a good slowing down since I was able to enjoy the tidepool wildlife such as crabs, shells, anemone, and small fishes. 

Seaweeds and Shells on Top of Another Shell, @ the tidepool

After the tidepool area, the sharp cliffs slowly disappears to give way to civilization

Scripps Pier ( sign of civilization )

 and a tad crowded beach at La Jolla Shores. 

@ La Jolla Shores ( does this look like a scene from Baywatch?)

When we turned around to go back North to Carmel Valley Road, the world was already starting to turn blue,

La Jolla Shores, with Gray Sky Slowly Disappearing

(what you see in the background of the above picture is the La Jolla Caves, and on top of those cliffs are the pelicans and cormorants, you can revisit my pelicans post here). 

 and bluer.

Me, @ Torrey Pines Gliderport

When we reached the top of the cliffs at Torrey Pines Gliderport, it was a beautiful world of blue.

Paraglider and Torrey Pines Cliffs

Though I must say that the place above is as beautiful when it is gray as when it is blue. For more details about this hike, you can check my Torrey Pines to La Jolla shores post at The Salitype Society.  

Today is another from gray

Hummingbird and Cacti Bloom ( taken today, 5/21/11)

 to blue day just like last Saturday, but more of that later.

Hope everyone is having a happy weekend!!

Macro Blooms From Home

Our Pink Rose

These macro bloom shots I took today are the result of the inspiration I got from Cher's Sweet Memoirs blog. I was awed by her macro shots in her Oriental Lily post. Her macro shots awakened the desire in me to use my macro lens again. Somehow, I very seldom use macro lens because I mostly hike, where if I have to limit my lenses to only one, I would choose the standard that would allow me to take both landscape and wildlife from afar. I usually do not carry extra lenses with me when I hike because of the weight and  dust conditions. I avoid changing lens outdoors to minimize chances of getting dust get in the lens. When hiking locally, I choose my lightest camera and lightest lens. I prefer my Tamron 18-250 mm because it is light and it is versatile. I can shoot landscape and I can also shoot wild animals from afar. 

California Brown Pelican in Flight, taken today during our walk with my lightest camera and lens

I almost had forgotten again to use my macro lens today, since after breakfast, I and my hubby took a 15 mile nature walk round trip from Torrey Pines to La Jolla Shores which I shared in my group's blog, The Salitype Society. Because of the foggy and chilly weather, we hardly saw anyone except of course the flying pelicans, sea gulls, egrets, sandpipers, and more. Meanwhile, let me go back to the inspiration that was stirred by Cher's Oriental Lily post to use my macro lens.

When we got home, I picked the inspiration to shoot macro. I took out my macro lens and focused on the blooms we currently have in our little yard. Though most of our lilies already have disappeared, but thankfully, the roses, the oleander, the aloes and succulents continue to be showy with their blooms. Here are the pictures I took today of the blooms from home:

Red Rose Bulb ( I call our red roses forever blooming since they seem to bloom year round)

sorry, I do not know this one, it looks like an onion and blooms only in spring

Ground succulent bloom ( I do not know the specific name)- and this blooms only in spring

Aloes- another spring only bloom

Oleander, learned the name from Tes of Craftista ( like the roses, they seem to bloom year round)

Fuschia, also seems to bloom year round

Jasmine - every spring, it smells like heaven because of these blooms

Thanks again Cher, for inspiring me to take out my macro lens again today.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend, and whatever blogger problems we may had the past few days had not stopped us from exploring the wonderful joys around.