Orange: Sky, Flames, Balloon…

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Kelson

Maxfield Parrish-style clouds

Big Orange Balloon (in Orange County)

Bird of paradise

Gateway to Adventure(land)

Waves at sunset

Portal cosplay at Comic-Con

Manhattan Beach Pier

The first thing I noticed when going through my photos for the orange challenge is that I take a lot of sunset pictures! I made a point to mix it up and narrowed it down to twelve shots, then checked out how they looked together and settled on six. Then I realized I’d forgotten to upload one, and couldn’t bear to leave it out, bringing the gallery up to seven.

Ragged clouds in a blue sky, lit up yellow-orange just like a Maxfield Parrish painting…a bird of paradise flower…a cosplayer at Comic-Con dressed in a jumpsuit, wielding a Portal gun…ocean waves reflecting another sunset, made even deeper orange than usual by smoke from a wildfire….visiting the big orange balloon at Orange County’s Great Park…torches lighting the gateway to Adventureland at night…and finally a sunset shot, silhouetting the Manhattan Beach Pier…

Carpet of Yellow Flowers

Image posted on December 19, 2014March 10, 2017 by Kelson

There are a lot of jacaranda trees near where I work, lining the walkways through the business and hotel parks and lining the sidewalks along the street. There are also a lot of these trees, which look so similar that I assumed they were more jacarandas until the first spring I was here, when they bloomed bright yellow instead of light purple. From what I can tell, they’re Tipuana trees, also known as Pride of Bolivia trees, and despite the similarities, they aren’t closely related.

The flowers act the same, though, dropping in thick blankets as spring turns to summer.

This particular tree, sadly, is no longer there. It was ripped out this fall, as part of a massive landscaping project to convert one of the office buildings into a hotel.

Red Flower

Image posted on April 22, 2013March 10, 2017 by Kelson

Yellow Flower

Image posted on February 18, 2013March 10, 2017 by Kelson

Moth and Flowers

Posted on November 21, 2012March 10, 2017 by Kelson

Believe it or not, this was taken with my phone. Looking back at the timestamp it would have been with my G2.

Lupins

Posted on August 9, 2010May 28, 2013 by Kelson

A patch of lupins in an empty lot near where I work. It’s dry most of the year, but turns into a meadow with the winter rains. This shot was taken last March, after an unusually rainy February briefly turned the area into a marsh.

Flower Stalk

Posted on July 15, 2010May 28, 2013 by Kelson

Flower Stalk, originally uploaded by Kelson.

An unintended, but interesting effect. It was late afternoon, probably close to sunset but hard to tell since it was overcast, and had just started to rain. I saw this spindly tree with a tuft of flowers at the top and tried to take a picture, but it was too dim. So I stepped back, turned on the flash, and zoomed in. It made the flowers a lot brighter, and the sky a lot darker, than they looked in person.

You can actually see some of the raindrops caught in the flash.