The never ending variety of life forms that I share the earth with never ceases to fascinate me. The Monterey Aquarium stirs this fascination with vigor. The tentacles on this little creature were swaying rhythmically as I observed it. Click on the picture to see a larger image.

This is an image I captured a couple of years ago of my friend Kevin Milligan as he was painting a scene in downtown Mendocino. He has a gallery in Danville, California now but did a book of Mendocino scenes a few years ago. He also teaches
plein air painting workshops at the Mendocino Art Center.
His webpage is
http://kevinmilligangallery.com/

I love taking pictures of flowers and especially roses in all their great variety of color, mood and form. This one was in an arrangement in my bathroom with other plant leaves from my yard and the rose was hanging downward but the overall composition really attracted me.

Walking in my yard today I noticed a new colony of mushrooms making a home on a stump. This image features only about 1/4 of the colony. As I walk around the neighborhood here I see new mushrooms just about every day. Below is a fawn that was near the mushrooms. It and its mother have been sleeping in the yard for the last few days.
I used to try and chase deer away for they eat many things in the yard that I wish they wouldn't. An exercise in futility however. I'm trying to plant more things that they rarely eat, rosemary, lavendar, comphrey, some flowers ornamental grasses etc. Vegetables are behind a fence. It's more relaxing for me not to chase them and they are becoming fairly tame.
They amble away softly when I approach instead of racing madly through the brush and trees of the forest.

I had just gotten my first digital camera, a Nikon coolpix 990 that I still use for taking pictures of my Mixed Metal Jewelry. This was taken on the 2nd day I had it, a cricket had somehow gotten into my living room. He was on this styrofoam cup on my floor. I didn't even know how to turn off the flash at the time so it went off which was good because it created interesting metallic like reflections on his body covering. I discovered later as I was putting him outside that he had only one rear leg, the reason he didn't jump away as I took pictures of him.

Taken while we were doing an art show in La Quinta, California near Palm Springs. On the grounds were several ponds. This duck visitor had an amazingly iridescent head. I was so focused on the duck that I didn't actually see the large goldfish swimming underneath until I looked at the image later. I had taken other pictures of the fish but just didn't see them this time, tunnel vision. Their swirling colors add magic to the image. Accidents are often great gifts.

Ruffled Jay

A number of creatures have our house on their route and check to see if we've left the cat food out. When I came to the sliding glass door leading to the deck outside the kitchen, this jay was nibbling on the food but when he saw me he flew a few feet away into this branch. He's still a little ruffled from the fright and the flight. Luckily he sat there long enough for me to take his picture.

One year after Labor Day weekend we were driving back down skyline drive towards Highway 92, on our way to San Mateo and suddenly this vista of fog and sun opened up to the west looking out towards Half Moon Bay. I got out of the car and took about 80 pictures that I still enjoy looking at. I have a big one of this image on the wall of my house. I've been collecting images of sunsets here on the Mendocino coast where I live since I got my new camera but few compare to this one.

Swan Heart

A picture taken at Shollenberger Park in Petaluma, a place that I like to walk with my grandkids who live in nearby Cotati. The pond/lake and wetlands there hosts a sometimes staggering diversity of birds and other creatures.

On the deck outside my kitchen door each year a crab spider makes a home and a trap for honeybees on these flowers I have growing in half a wine barrel. They sit there still & patiently wait for days sometimes until a bee lands, then they pounce and catch the bee and feed on it for quite some time.

 I find the creatures that live around me, my neighbors, fascinating and spend a lot of time taking portraits of them. In warm weather, when the bees are working hard, they usually ignore my presence while focused on the flowers where they harvest pollen and nectar. I'll sometimes stand in the sun and take a hundred pictures. Here's one. 

Starting a new blog on which to share pictures that I'm capturing in large numbers with my new Canon miniature camera that is always with me. I'm in Davis California today, selling my mixed metal jewels at the Art Center Holiday Fair. In the open  park space nearby a number of squirrels were playing and chasing each other and being very photogenic.