Spring at the pond

As we've all noticed, our extended winter has led to a later spring this year. April has been a truly beautiful month, particularly this last half. I previously posted photos of the spring blooms on my street, but hadn't yet had a chance to capture the new growth around the pond. On a walk with my family on Easter Sunday I got the first of my spring pond photos to share with you here.

Plum and pear blossoms

My street is filled with the loveliest plum trees; almost every single house has one in front. That means for about 10 days in April, the street not only looks beautiful, but it smells amazing as well! Unfortunately, my schedule combined with the elements such that most of the plum blossoms had blown away before I could get out and photograph them. On the plus side, the pear blossoms are now popping out, so just as one fades the other begins. I start here with the plum blossom remainders in my front yard.

Beach portraits

When we traveled to the Outer Banks for a long weekend back in March, the weather was so lovely that we were able to spend well over an hour on the beach. The best part for me was being able to capture these photos of my beautiful children.

 

The little mermaid

I spotted this mermaid statue at my parents' house; with the lovely afternoon light streaming in through her windows, I had to photograph her!

Embracing simplicity

There's a big advantage to going to the beach in March: very few people meant I was able to capture photos unsullied by the presence of people. The stark beauty of the beach is enough in and of itself.

North Carolina Aquarium

Last month we went to the NC Aquarium in Manteo, NC. We've been there previously, but I didn't have a camera at the time that could capture good interior photos in this environment. Now that I do, capturing these animals was a lot of fun!

Wintery beach sunsets

About three weeks ago we visited the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Despite the freezing cold winds, the cloudless sky was too great of an invitation for sunset photography for me to pass up. These first two photos were taken at the Albemarle Sound on the first night of our trip.

The Weekly Photo Project: March 2014

As I mentioned in my last Weekly Photo Project post, I started off March with choosing the first topic. Having just finished going through my photos from a visit to The Louvre last year, I chose this as our first topic, and submitted a photo of my favorite statue from the museum (Cupid and Psyche)

March 3-9: Objet d'Art

San Diego Zoo

In November 2013 I went to San Diego for a conference. I took one additional day there, after the conference was over, to spend at the San Diego Zoo, as I had repeatedly heard it is one of the top zoos in the world. My friends were not wrong: it was amazing, and I would go back again in a heartbeat. I took well over 200 photos there, so it was hard to select just a few favorites to post here, but I did my best!

Many of the photos I took were of the beautiful flamingos. They, along with many of the other animals I saw, were practically posing for me! 

 

San Francisco

At the end of October I had the opportunity to travel for the first time to the San Francisco bay area with a colleague. I didn't have time to take too many photos, as we had at least 4-5 client visits scheduled every day of the trip. Since we started with visits early on Monday, we arrived on Sunday, which allowed us to get some sight-seeing done in the city prior to heading north to Sacramento.

We walked around a good part of the city, near a section of the Golden Gate Park. We passed beautiful row homes, interesting trees, had some dim sum (delicious!), and walked a few miles around.

I snagged these photos of my colleague without him realizing - I love the mood in them!