Underwater?

I love these frothy plants, when they sway in the breeze, they look like beautiful underwater flowers. I shot these in the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden last weekend. It was so hot, I wanted to give up and go home, but I found a cool, shady patch of ground, and these under/over/water plants were all sitting here, waiting for me.

Poppies

California's full of poppies. This was something I didn't fully realize until I moved here and started going to big gardens. These aren't the papery red poppies you see in the Wizard of Oz, but velvety, lush, orange poppies. Their colors range from a bright lemon yellow to the deepest vibrant orange, and the color seems too saturated to be real. I captured a few recently in Berkeley and Santa Cruz, but because they're so saturated with color, my camera has a hard time distinguishing between the shades of orange. I hope you can appreciate the depth of color captured by my little camera.

Springtime!

It's been cold here in the Bay Area the past few days, but it's finally supposed to warm up this weekend! I'm hoping to take a trip up to the Berkeley Botanical Garden and take some more springtime pics. Until then, this Santa Cruz spring flower spray will have to do.

Succulent Trap

I saw this thicket of angry-looking succulent leaves at the UCSC Arboretum, and I had to try to capture some of them. They remind me of modified Venus Fly Trap leaves, but much bulkier and angrier!

Holy Red!

I took some pictures of these crazy curlicue plants at the UCSC Arboretum. They came in all shades of pale green to blazing red. These are some of the more vividly colored ones. If anyone knows what they're called, please let me know. I'm still investigating their name and native habitat, but I think they might be native to Australia or NZ. This pic has been cropped and slightly modified, to highlight the color and contrast a little better.

I also took some pictures of the same type of plant, but against the very bright blue sky as background. I'll be posting some cropped images of those soon, when I figure out how best to compose the images.

Mushroom from Santa Cruz

I took this picture on our weekend trip to Santa Cruz a few weekends ago, right before I got engaged! I guess you can call it the "pre-engagement mushroom." I bent down to take this picture, and when I stood up, the bf was kneeling behind me, about to propose. It was awesome, but I wish I had taken a more meaningful picture before it happened!

The image is unretouched, uncropped, un-anything. Let me know what you think, even if it's just to tell me it's a terrible, boring picture!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog!

I'm an amateur photographer (also a graduate student - unrelated to photography), and I'm hoping to share my work with like-minded people. I love nature, and especially close-up, macro-type shots of interesting patterns and colors. My goal is to take images that reflect the most beautiful aspects of a plant, rock, or animal.

This is where I'll be posting my digital photography, most of which is available for sale through my Etsy shop. I'll be giving details about each image, as well as the history behind the images.

I'll also post new images, or images that I'm not sure about listing on Etsy, and I hope you will provide feedback and constructive criticism. I'm always learning and growing as a photographer, so any comments you could give to help me improve would be much appreciated!