My first trip to the Oceano Dunes

Taken last Sunday on my first photo exploration of the Oceano Dunes. I joined 3 of my friends for an afternoon outing to this magical place. It had rained the day before and the sand was easy to walk on, but there were many footprints so we had to walk out quite a ways to get pristine sand. But it was well worth the effort. I will defintely be returning to this beautiful place. 

My Christmas wish for you.

DEEP PEACE

               Deep Peace of the running wave to you

Deep Peace of the flowing air to you

Deep Peace of the quiet earth to you

Deep Peace of the shining stars to you

Deep Peace of the gentle night to you,

moon and stars

pour their healing light on you

Deep Peace to you

— a Gaelic Blessing

My image "The WAY WEST" was chosen 'Image of the Year' by the San Luis Obispo Camera Club.

Last night was our final Camera Club Competition of the year. There were some amazing photos shown and I feel very honored to have one of my photos chosen as the "Photo of the Year". Woo hoo! This is the same image that made it into the top 100 images in the upcoming 2011 NANPA EXPRESSIONS book. It is currently on exhibit at The PHOTO SHOP at 1027 Marsh St. in San Luis Obispo as a part of a special show of photos taken in Montana de Oro. The display runs through January 15th and the reception will be held on Friday January 7th from 6pm to 8pm.

We now have at least 12 Monarch caterpillars of all differnet sizes on our Milkweed. They are a challenge to photograph. Most of the time they are 'hiding' beneath the leaves and the slightest breeze makes the image blurry. I hope they make it though the storms headed our way.

I have a December Gift.

I love Monarch butterflies and when we decided to plant some Milkweed - the Monarch host plant - in our backyard, I didn't have much confidence that we would have Monarchs coming to our yard. But I was surprised and thrilled when I saw Monarchs fluttering around our Milkweed during the last warm spell. And I am overjoyed to share with you a first photo of one of the 'baby' Monarchs we have on our milkweed. I encourage each of you to think about planting some Milkweed. Monarch habitat is being destroyed by development and you can help save our beautiful Monarchs by planting Milkweed in your yard too.  The variety of Milkweed we planted is - Asclepias Curassivica. It is a Costa Rican variety. Don did some research ahead of time and found that this variety would do well in our Central Coast area.

Please spread the word. The more people planting Milkweed for the Monarchs the better.