After photographing the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, from various locations, we ventured to Baker Beach on a foggy evening.
Baker Beach, located in San Francisco’s Presidio, is a scenic, mile-long beach famous for its stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge. While it’s a popular spot for photography, the foggy weather makes it challenging.
Foggy Day at Baker Beach
Switching our posts for the next two weeks from color to monochrome.
Monochrome photography is an artistic type of photography that uses tones of a single color to colorize a photograph. Instead of having colors from all over the spectrum, a monochrome photo has just one color scale. All black and white images are monochrome images, but not all monochrome images are black and white.
Here is an image captured from Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park in California, that is converted from color to monochrome making it balanced and visually appealing.
Cloud Formations over Yosemite in Monochrome
Cloud Formations from Glacier Point Yosemite
Not a true silhouette, but this image shot against a sunset in Santa Monica, California creates silhouettes of a bird, tree and a fence.
An elaborate wooden structure frames the water at the ocean-front at Santa Monica, California
A traditional Spanish type building houses Embassy Hotel in Santa Monica, California.
Tall palms lean right toward the ocean in Santa Monica, California. Why do palm trees lean towards the sea? Palm trees lean to get more light called “phototropism.” The ocean acts as a mirror for light, so there is much more light coming from the sea than from a single building.
A large conically-shaped planter for flowers in Santa Monica, California
The Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco, California, is a popular feature of Golden Gate Park. Originally created as a “Japanese Village” exhibit for the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition, the site originally spanned about one acre and showcased a Japanese style garden. When the fair closed, Japanese landscape architect Makoto Hagiwara and superintendent John McLaren reached a gentleman’s agreement, allowing Mr. Hagiwara to create and maintain a permanent Japanese style garden as a gift for posterity.
Alcatraz Island is a small island in San Francisco Bay, 1.25 miles offshore from San Francisco, California. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military prison. Here are views of Alcatraz from Pacific Heights.
A plumeria’s deep-green, long, leathery leaves grow in dense clumps at the tips of its branches. From early summer through fall, clusters of five-petaled flowers bloom amid the leaves. Large and aromatic, flowers can be white, cream, yellow, pink, lilac, or red. In Asia, plumeria flowers adorn Buddhist and Hindu temples. Captured these in Cerritos, California.
Wax begonia is a compact, mounded, succulent, and fibrous-rooted plant with fleshy stems and green to bronze leaves. Loose clusters of cymes in leaf axils, single or double and in various colors. Found these in Santa Monica, California.
Fairy Snow White Balloon Flower is an interesting clump forming perennial so named because the buds puff up like balloons before they open. This compact Platycodon produces white bell-shaped blossoms with delicately contrasting blue veins in mid through late summer. Captured in Santa Monica, California.
Seaside Pussypaws found in Santa Monica, California. Very limited information on this variety of flowers.
Found these flower buds in Santa Monica, California, but can’t identify them. If you are aware of this type of flower, please share your knowledge in the comments section.
The Regal Pelargonium has unmissable flowers that bloom in a trumpet shape. The flowers have six petals in bright purple, bright pink, pale pink, dark red, pillar box red or white. And the extravagance of the flowers is matched by the softness of the velvety leaves which also have a lovely scent. Captured in Santa Monica, California.
Also known as marsh rosemary and lavender thrift, sea lavender is a perennial coastal plant that can often be found growing in both salt marshes and along coastal sand dunes. Despite its name, it is not actually related to the lavender plant. The plant creates leathery, spoon-shaped leaves, red-tinted stems, and delicate purple blooms that appear in summer. Found these flowers in Santa Monica, California.
Leucospermum ‘Scarlet Ribbon’ (Nodding Pincushion) – A dense compact shrub produces an abundance of 4 inch wide pincushion flowers. The multi-colored flower heads start a salmon pink color and then open to expose the orange-yellow perianth styles and shiny red tepals that look like ribbons. Captured in Santa Monica, California.
Lily of the Nile, with Latin name Agapanthus (African Lily), is a marvelous perennial that blooms from spring to summer, producing magnificent floral-scapes. The flowers are funnel-shaped and typically blue, purple, or white in color; the clusters are borne on long stalks. Found these in Santa Monica, California.
Tree mallow (Lavatera maritima) is a perennial semi-evergreen shrub that produces pale lavender flowers throughout the spring, summer and fall. It prefers a dry Mediterranean climate. Captured this flower in Santa Monica, California.
Grevillea, commonly known as spider flowers, is a genus of about 360 species of evergreen flowering plants in the family Proteaceae. Grevillea is very fast growing and can live 50 to 65 years. This evergreen has a rugged look. It can grow to be over 100 feet tall, but most mature trees are around 50 to 80 feet. Captured these flowers in Santa Monica, California.
