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Limestone Canyon Photography Truck Tour

Published: Sat, Jun 15, 2019
Written by GizellaN
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Categories: Blog, Flower Photography, Irvine Ranch Conservancy, Landscape, Photography, USA
Tags: California, Irvine, Irvine Ranch Conservancy, Limestone Canyon, truck tour

A couple of months ago I signed up for a 6 hour long truck tour in the mountains right behind us. It’s an area that is not open to the public, but the Irvine Ranch Conservancy organizes programs there that you can attend. I was very excited about this truck tour, but unfortunately it had to be cancelled due to rainy weather. Luckily, I was able to sign up for a different day for a 4-hour long tour on June 8th.

The group met Donna, our driver, and the other 4 volunteers at the Augustine Staging area, where we started our trip on this truck:

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A Few Birds of Round Canyon, Irvine

Published: Fri, Jun 14, 2019
Written by GizellaN
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Categories: Blog, Photography, USA
Tags: Bird Photography, Irvine Ranch Conservancy, Orange County, Round Canyon

In the past week I attended 5 programs organized on Irvine Ranch Natural Landmarks. I will post about the first four in a day or two; today I am only writing about today’s program. I joined a lovely group of volunteers and visitors in the morning  to look for birds that live in the canyon. This was my first birding experience, and although we didn’t see a lot of birds during the short hike, it was a very pleasant experience.

I do not own any lenses that are ideal for bird photography, but I still wanted to take a few images. I’ll share them with you despite of not being great pictures. But they are wonderful memories of today’s hike. Here they go:

2 Ravens perching on a dead branch

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Crab Galore at Heisler Park, Laguna Beach

Published: Fri, Jun 07, 2019
Written by GizellaN
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Categories: Blog, Photography, Photowalk, USA
Tags: Crabs, June Gloom, Low-tide, low-tide animals, Southern California

Southern California is experiencing the annual June Gloom. It’s a cloudy, overcast condition which is supposed to keep the temperatures down. But the temperatures this year have been down already; we are experiencing a very cool (but not cold!) spring. And the June Gloom is UGLY! 🙂 I remember moving to SoCal seven years ago on June 2nd, and for the first few weeks all I saw were the grey, sad looking mornings. I didn’t know about June Gloom back then, and I questioned if we really wanted to live in such a grey looking place. But I know now, that it passes.

Anyway, I still don’t like the look of it. So, when yesterday I drove down to the ocean for the second time this week, and I found the same grey conditions as before, I almost turned back home. I should not have expected anything better, but I did, and this made me cranky. I took my iPhone out and snapped a few pictures.

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A Visit to Shaw’s Cove Beach – with a Surprise Find

Published: Fri, May 24, 2019
Written by GizellaN
2 Comments
Categories: Blog, Landscape, Photography, USA
Tags: Laguna Beach, landscape, low-tide animals, Sea Star, Shaw's Cove

I had it in my calendar weeks ago: low-tide coinciding with sunrise on Tuesday, May 21. I picked a location and arrived to Shaw’s Cove just before 5:30am. I felt very lucky, because there were a few clouds in the sky, and the barely waning Moon was also setting. (I had chosen this location because of the Moon; I used an app called TPE that helped me pinpoint a good spot.)

My goal was to take landscape pictures as well as hopefully find some neat low-tide animals. Here are some of the earlier landscapes:

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Wildflowers of Southern California

Published: Tue, May 14, 2019
Written by GizellaN
4 Comments
Categories: Blog, Flower Photography, Photography, USA
Tags: Bommer Canyon, Buck Gully, Hick Haul Road, LetsGoOutside, Limestone Canyon, Orange County, Orchard Hills, Tucker Canyon, Upper Bay, Walker Canyon, Weir Canyon, Wildflowers

Since early spring I have been posting lots of wildflower images in my blog. After my last hike, where I learned the names of many of the flowers I decided, that I would make one more post showcasing the beautiful wildflowers we are lucky to experience this spring. I really hope that our winters will be as wet in the future as the last one was, and we’ll enjoy the flowers again in coming years.

Some of the photos I’ve already posted, others are new. I will label all of them this time. Please be warned: there are a lot of flower pictures in this post. 🙂

Let’s start with the California Poppy. This was one of the first flowers to bloom, and I still saw a few today.

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