The San Francisco Bay Area thankfully has a natural air conditioner called “fog”.  It rolls in most nights into San Francisco off the Pacific Coast, crawls across the bay and even makes its way inland blanketing the area in a natural coolness most nights.  People who haven’t seen this phenomenon might wake up their first morning here and think, “oh, it’s going to rain”!   No rain in the forecast here…..just clear blue skies after the fog parts.

This morning I managed to catch the sun making its way through the fog over the golden hills.  Rule of thumb:  coat on when there is fog, coat off and short sleeves after it parts!  No umbrella necessary.  🙂

Fog over the golden hills of the San Francisco Bay Area

A solitary oak tree stands strong amid the grapevines…

Rows of wine grapes curve up and over the hill in a vineyard in the Edna Valley region of San Luis Obispo County, California. A part of the San Luis Obispo Coastal Wine Trail, a drive through this area entails whizzing past multiple wineries, all open to a public eager to sample the bounty of this incredibly fertile valley. While I’m personally not a wine drinker (oddly enough it makes me sneeze), I still love this area for its incredible beauty. I find it mesmerizing to stare out the window of a moving car, watching row after row of bright green grapevines fade out into the distance.

Click below to purchase a print of Oak Tree Amid The Grapevines:

A honeybee flies toward a luscious tropical waterlily, anticipating its rich and exotic pollen…

It’s always exciting when two of my favorite photography subjects come together, and this was one instance where I ran into such luck. A bee and a waterlily in the same photograph is quite exciting to an avid bee stalker like myself, as I’ve also been known to spend hours sticking my macro lens into the various tropical waterlilies which grow in my small garden ponds. Some days the bees go nuts for the waterlily pollen, and then there are long periods of time where they show no interest at all. Given that my garden is primarily planted for pollinators, they do have a lot of options in the flower department…but it always makes me happy to see them on my favorite flower – the tropical waterlily.

Click below to purchase a print of The…

The Spring always brings a huge variety of spring flowers adding joy to our walks around the neighbourhood.  With my recent purchase of an old film camera, I was anxious to shoot some flowers around the neighbourhood to see how they would come out. Here’s a photo, shot on Pentax Spotmatic SPII with 55mm 1.4:

I love the look of film and how it forces you to slow down and be deliberate about your shooting, so I will definitely shoot more of it. I found this quote and it sums up how shooting film makes you feel:

“It means you appreciate the details, the nuances, and subtleties of your craft. It says that in a manic world that designs everything to be faster, you’re not afraid to slow down, to focus, to plan, and to trust yourself when you press the shutter.”

An added bonus is with an adapter like