Yesterday I was able to meet another Southern California Lensbaby photographer, Rita. She lives about an hour north of LA, and I am the same distance south of it. We decided to meet half way in between, at the LA County Arboretum.

I was very excited about driving there because of the overcast. It is so much easier to take nice floral photographs on cloudy days. Unfortunately, as soon as we entered the arboretum, the sky cleared up. Although it wasn’t what I wished for, we had a beautiful, sunny day to walk around for a few hours.

There weren’t a lot of plants blooming, but the place was still very beautiful.

Close the entrance there were a few Pink Floss-Silk trees in full bloom, and we saw a few more throughout the park. The flowers of this tree are huge and beautiful, even when they drop to the ground. There they create a pink carpet. Here are two close ups; the first one is a Burnside image, the second one is a Sol 45 one:

At a certain point of our walk we found a spot that had double interest to us. The first one was a red leaf bush that had back-lit glowing leaves. The other spot right next to it had ferns in the shade.

The rest of the images were taken at various spots. The blue flower came from the last blooming oriental onion plant, and the lonely yellow leaf from an oak tree.

We had a great time enjoying the nice weather, our surroundings, and each others’ company.