Canoga Park Day of the Dead Festival

Here's another one of the fun and free things you can do in Southern California. I recently attended the 13th annual Canoga Park Day of the Dead festival. Here's an idea of what it looked like.

This blog really is a bit of a tourism blog as well as a photography blog, isn't it?

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A display in the gallery.




Some dolls in the sales stalls.




Skulls on display for sale.




A fun and retro display in the car show.




The car show had a lot of elegant and beautiful hood ornaments.




A retro hood ornament against the California sky.




I generally don't post personal pictures, but we saw an old friend and I captured a nice shot of Monica and Richard hugging.




Lastly, an artist hard at work in the chalk art area.

Puerto Rico! (pt. 2)

This post will focus on the flora and fauna I came across while on vacation in Puerto Rico. I do so love taking animal photos, and flowers are always beautiful.

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A wild iguana on the walls of El Morro.




One of the prettier fish at the aquarium at the Arecibo lighthouse.




A fish with a "sunken ship" at the Arecibo lighthouse aquarium.




A closeup of the same fish. He liked to pose!




A plumeria variant in front of the ocean in San Juan.




Plumeria in the rain in San Juan.




A surgeonfish and some probably blue tangs, in the water of Steps Beach, Rincon.

Puerto Rico! (pt. 1)

Yes, I know, the name of the photo blog is A Lens on So Cal. This is, first and foremost, a photography blog, though, and I couldn't keep from sharing my vacation photos as well. I don't go on vacation much, and I took thousands of photos while in Puerto Rico. (No, I'm not posting that many!) I'll be breaking this into 2 sets, this first set being photos of the scenery of Puerto Rico.

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A girl flying a kite on the green grounds of El Morro



El Morro, overlooking the ocean.




The lighthouse of El Morro.




An old cannon in El Morro.



(I could show you pictures of the garitas of El Morro, but haven't you seen those in enough photos already?)


The gazebo at the Arecibo lighthouse.




A windsurfer in front of the San Juan sunset.




The beautiful Arecibo coastline.




The lighthouse of Cabo Rojo from Playa Sucia.




The water of Steps Beach in Rincon.




The bay opening of Playa Sucia.




Clouds in San Juan at the Museo de las Americas.

Arcadia Arboretum

Technically these were taken at the Los Angeles Arboretum, but it's really in Arcadia. It's amazing how many good shots you can get if you've got a small area filled with really good subjects.

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For those who haven't been there, Arcadia, mainly the Arboretum, is overrun by peafowl. The area is so well known for them (they were imported by the area's founder, Lucky Baldwin) that a peacock is on the city's crest.







There's a small railroad museum inside an old depot on the property.




They have a lot of exotic and less exotic plants on the property. I was able to get a huge amount of nice shots of the flora there. This is my favorite, though.




There's a large pond/small lake on the property which is home to several families of geese.




Several of the geese had children recently, so there were a lot of fluffy goslings about.




Frequently a shot is made entirely by lighting.




Nighttime for peafowl...

Monterey

We went up to Monterey recently and I was taking photos the entire time. I'm really breaking in my poor new DSLR. And yes, this blog is going to have a lot of ocean photos, partially because I love them and partially because that's one of the most beautiful things about California.

And yes, this is technically Central California. The vast majority of this blog will be photos of Southern California, because it's where I live and what I photograph most, but when I'm blessed by the opportunity to go other beautiful places, I still want to share the beauty with you!

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This is just a bit south of Big Sur.




I love this sort of shot. There will probably be several similar ones from my upcoming trip to Puerto Rico.




Sunset in Monterey Harbor.




Seabirds on the wharf.




The trees on a Carmel beach.




This picture is personal favorite. It's a statue in Mission San Carlos Borromeo in Carmel in tribute to Fray Junipero Serra (he's buried at this mission). This is the California state bear mourning him at his feet.

San Juan Capistrano

I'm a little behind in my photo processing. I've recently added lightroom to the process so now I need to find ways to speed things up a bit. In any case, here are a few of my favorite shots from when I was in San Juan Capistrano a few months back.

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The destroyed part of the mission chapel.




Reaching towards the swallows nests.




Candles outside the chapel.




Salad at the Ramos House Cafe.




Tea in a rustic jar.

Lake Balboa in Bloom

Well, here is my first blog post. I know there are a lot of photo blogs in the world. I'm making this mainly because I take so many photos of Los Angeles, I practically work for the Tourism Board. I thought it might be nice to share these, so people can realize how beautiful it all is.

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I recently went to Lake Balboa and everything was blooming. This is Los Angeles in Spring...








Reaching towards heaven...





Wisteria draping elegantly over a seating area...




For those more interested in fauna than flora, here's a coot...



...and a very handsome mallard.