The past week in Eureka has been gorgeous! We got a short taste of some summer heat and sun for a few lovely days but now the fog is rolling back in & with a thickness! Of course, this gorgeous weather has had me out and about with my camera on the ready almost every day. In the interest of time (because there is not even close to enough hours in the day anymore) I am combining all my Eureka images from the past week into one blog post with subtitles. Hope you enjoy!!
ST. BERNARD CHURCH'S FLOWER GARDEN
All controversy aside (the priest is being investigated for molestation), the St. Bernard's church has a beautiful (yet small) flower garden around the backside of the building (7th & I). This is such a tiny garden that I normally walk right past it in search of bigger and better gardens but that day I looked over from across the st. and saw so many colors I had to take a peek....
I noticed as I was going back through alot of these images that I am 100% guilty of leaving the camera on auto the whole time... I was in a hurry b/c I had to get back to work, but NO EXCUSES- I need to stop doing the whole auto thing...
I saw this flower getting ready to open up and thought that the curled up red petals would look gorgeous against some green bokeh... I wanted to leave open space for the bokeh to balance out and make this image a little more simplistic than a closeup of such a intricate flower might create...
This flower is such a gorgeous pink- plus all the curled up petals forming the circle around the budding middle creates a nice concentric image...
I had a previous image of this plant but it didn't turn out the way I wanted. So I decided to give it another go- I was trying to focus on the texture of the leafs and trying to work in a shadow here or there....
Date/Time: Friday. 9/10/10 at lunch
Subject(s): Flowers
Notes: post processed in picasa
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SEQUOIA PARK ZOO
Odly enough I have not been to the zoo a single time in the 2 1/2 years I have been living here. Ya, we've been to the park right next to the zoo too many times to count, but the zoo itself- NEVER. Part of the reason we haven't been to the zoo is b/c I basically grew up at the Atlanta zoo- which is HUGE and takes all day to experience- so I thought that the local zoo would be nothing but a disappointment. We got invited to a friends kid birthday party last weekend at the zoo- kinda odd to show up at a 5 yr old's birthday party when we don't have any kids, but what the heck.... We really wanted to see the zoo! Overall, I was really impressed. It didn't take long to go through the zoo but it was really clean & well manicured, the few exhibits were very nice, there were no crowds, and you could get pretty close to the animals.
This is the barnyard animals exhibit at the zoo. The barn itself is very nice looking; so clean and shiny with the gorgeous blonde polished wood knotted siding. After playing around with this image I think the selective color tool was perfect as it helps bring out the warmth of the building as well as draws your eye through to the back of the barn to the window....
This little guy was all too cute! I stood in front of his window for quite a while trying to get him to look at me. Right when I was about to give up and leave he gave me what I wanted. I chose to crop this image square to help remove alot of the distracting background from the branches and other out of focus monkeys...
At the end of our zoo adventure we walked over to the bear cage- we were pretty disappointed as the only bear was sleeping but I did notice this cute fox sleeping in the redwood tree.... Again, I used a square crop to remove alot of the distracting leaves and branches from the frame.
Location:
Sequoia Park Zoo (3414 W St. Eureka, CA)
Date/Time: Sunday 9/5/10 at 11am
Subject(s): Animals, exhibits
Notes: polarizing filter used on all images, post processed in picasa
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SEQUOIA PARK FLOWER GARDEN
I have been wanting to visit the small flower garden next to the zoo ever since I first drove by it. Combine that with the fact that I keep seeing awesome images from the garden on flickr from a guy named
D. Swensen- he must live nearby & go early b/c he always has gorgeous dew shots and posts a new image almost daily. I finally got my man to take the pooch over to the garden and stand around bored while I take pictures (he's not really the flower garden type!)...
Date/Time: Sunday, 9/12/10 at 3pm
Subject(s): Flowers, Garden, Walkways
Notes: post processed in picasa
