Category Archives: Nature

365/Day 86

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Good-Bye, Old California InclineDSC_0535_edited-1This is a view of the California Incline, the landmark slanted road that connects the top of Santa Monica’s Palisades bluffs with the Pacific Coast Highway down below. It’s very familiar to those of us who visit Palisades Park regularly, and to motorists who use it daily to access the PCH from the city and vice-versa. You may have seen it in one of the movies shot in Santa Monica, or in postcards of the city. I have photographed it dozens of times and it never gets old!

That is, until now… In April, the incline bridge, built in the 1890s as a pedestrian route to the beach, will be demolished and replaced by a new structure, as part of a seismic retrofit 85 years in the making. The last renovation happened in 1930 to help make way for cars.

While the new structure will be safer, with a wider sidewalk and bicycle lanes, this will be a long project (some 12-18 months of construction). Traffic will be a nightmare in other areas of the city, and parts of the relatively quiet and pleasant Palisades Park will be disturbed by the noise of construction works.

But what intrigues me the most in all this is the fact that, having been in the LA area for only three-and-a-half years, I am already witnessing changes in its landmarks. I can almost hear myself saying, years from now: “before they demolished the old incline bridge…”

Yes, time really flies, and things just keep on changing…

365/Day 80

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L.A.’s Official Flower ~~

The other day I posted about the Coral Tree, the official tree of Los Angeles.Today I am posting about L.A.’s official flower, the Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia Reginae). Like the Coral Tree, the Bird of Paradise is a South African native. It grows 3 to 5 feet in height and blooms intermittently through the year, creating a colorful focal point in the city’s gardens.

 

365/Day 71

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One Spot, Three Perspectives — My photography class assignment was to shoot three photos from the same spot using different focal lengths. We had to choose one lens, and shoot with: (1) the widest focal length possible; (2) a mid-range focal length (50mm to 70mm); and (3) the highest focal length possible. I chose my Nikkor 18mm-140mm lens. Here is one of the sets I shot.

18.0 mm
50.0 mm
140.0 mm

365 – Day 70

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Spring is Here! And with spring come warmer days, bees, birds, and, of course, lots of flowers! Not that L.A. is flowerless during the winter. In fact, L.A. is never flowerless. We have flowers all year long –including some pretty awesome desert stuff– but there’s never as much variety as in the spring. So, if we keep getting some rain (fingers crossed), soon they’ll all be blooming with full force! Here are a few flowers blooming in our garden right now.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Orange

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This week, Michele, of the Daily Post, invites us to “share a group of photos where orange is either the dominant color, or provides a bold highlight.” Easy!

Cutest cactus ever.
Orange sunset at the Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA.
Orange wine glasses. Venice, Italy.
Several shades of orange, Beverly Hills, CA.
Just a lot of orange! Venice Beach, CA.
These men dressed in orange are everywhere in Rome, Italy.
Orange daisies. My garden, Los Angeles, CA.

365/Day 63

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Los Angeles’ Official Trees Are Blooming! 

No, not the Palm Trees! Believe it or not, the Palm Tree is not LA’s official tree, although its image is closely associated with the City of Angels. LA’s official tree is the “Coral Tree” (or Erythrina Caffra), a tree that can grow up to sixty feet in height, with impressive twisting limbs and spreading canopies. Coral trees start blooming late in the winter and their brilliant orange-scarlet blooms grow through much of the spring. A mature coral tree in full flower is quite a spectacular sight. So imagine what it’s like to drive the five-mile stretch of San Vicente Boulevard, on the West side of LA, when the 120 coral trees planted along its wide median are in full bloom! Too bad it’s quite a busy road so you can’t drive too leisurely, as other drivers may kill you! Well, not really… 🙂 San Vicente Boulevard happens to run just a block South of my house in Brentwood, so as I walked around looking for things to photograph for my daily post, I came upon these magnificent trees and decided they would be the subject of today’s post.