California Academy of Sciences, with the Fuji x100s

 

Nature is so amazing!
The CalAcademy must use use black lights on the sea anemones, they look so psychedelic.

A few years ago I was trying to find a camera a smaller than my D7000, but with great image quality, to bring with me on days where I may be doing alot of walking or traveling. After a ton of research I decided to take a risk and get a Fuji X100S. I had been using almost all Nikon cameras up to that point. So it was a big switch. It has been such a fantastic camera. I brought it with me to the California Academy of Sciences and it didn't disappoint. The Fuji x100s has a 2.0 f-stop but it can be soft for macro at that setting so it's is better at 4.0 for sharp edges, so I was surprised how well the pictures turned out since it was very low light and things were moving all over, either underwater or butterflies that don't stand still.

Mistletoe - Viscum album

and what an interesting plant it is up close..... :)

Sonoma Coast - waves and wildlife

 dynamic waves, an unusually high surf day

 beautiful raven scaring off a seagull ;)

Another gorgeous day at the beach. We aren't allowed to get too close to these cute seals so I had to zoom in and crop the photo just to see them. Meanwhile a sea lion was honking away across the bay as well and pelicans overhead.

Plum Tree Blossoms - signs of spring

Having grown up and lived most of my life in the pacific northwest, these lovey flowering plum trees still feel like the beginning of spring even while I am here in California and the temperatures can feel like summer on winter days...  I decided to have a closer look than usual and put my macro filters on my 35mm lens to really see the forms of the branches and buds, so fascinating!  

End of Summer

Still pretty warm here in Northern California, tank-top and sandal weather, but it is starting to look like autumn, with the colors shifting in the lower evening light. It's been a very long dry spell here and hoping that the rains will come and replenish this parched earth soon. I notice with just a slight feel to fall in the air I am shifting too, looking forward to diving into more hours of creative projects and more reading for sure.

Butterflies in the Garden - Monarchs and Yellow Swallowtails

some have been looking kind of tattered, on their migration

They are seriously so cute up close

It's been pretty magical having so many butterflies drifting and darting around the yard recently, sometimes they are in pairs or ones just drifting along at eye level doing their butterfly thing. There are two Buddleia bushes, one purple and one white which they love. It was a trick to keep the cat from jumping up at them when they were down lower, so far so good. Had to retrieve a couple out of spider webs also, since this time of year there are more webs from the garden spiders. Guess the monarchs will continue on their migration south and some all the way to Mexico. It's been a delight!

Spring Plum Blossoms

“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”  -- Rainer Maria Rilke