BLOOMS, BUDS, BUGS, & VEGAN TAQUITOS

Hiking in the Encino Hills, lately I've noticed a burst in growth of the wildflowers.



And on Saturday I noticed in my own front and backyard, the lemon and strange tangerine hybrid tree are full of buds just waiting to become fruit. It's so nice to see splashes of color everywhere after winter.
While I was shooting the buds, I noticed a strange bug on the deck. I have no idea what it is, but it looked pretty cool shot with my Nikon 105 f2.8 micro lens.

Lucy followed me out so of course I had to take some shots of her. I love capturing the variety of expressions on a dog's face!







Later in the day, I stopped by the Julia Dean Gallery in Venice to check out the new show 4 Frames - 11 Southern California Photographers (including my mentor/teacher/friend Aline Smithson's work). My favorite work in the show was by Cindy Schafer - if I had the cash I would have bought her two flower shots (a dark reddish fern and a white group of flowers set against a blue sky).

Before I left Venice, I walked out to the beach to check out the Sunset. Because there was a little bit of a threat of rainshowers later in the evening, there were more clouds than usual.
Then I went to the latest Slideluckpotshow event at 5th and Sunset Studios. Slideluckpotshow is a great free event - part potluck, park slideshow. I sampled the food and actually was surprised by the good taste of some homemade vegan taquitos. The actual slideshow was an open air event on the roof. They had tons of folding chairs, lots of heat lamps, a VERY BIG screen, and an excellent sound system (all the slideshows are set to music). The clouds overhead were very dark and threatening rain, but aside from some light drizzle, the outdoor slideshow escaped the a downpour. Even if you missed the show, you can check out many of the slideshows on their site. I definitely encourage any photographers and photo enthusiasts to check out the next slideluckpot show event.

So all in all, between taking some cool backyards shots, getting to see a sunset over the Pacific Ocean, and going to the slideluckpotshow event, I had a pretty great Saturday!