Dance of the Orbs

The tree was photographed in Balboa Park, San Diego and a bokeh texture from Shadowhouse Creations was added. I liked the effect, which reminded me of 'ghostly' photos I've seen taken in graveyards or other spooky places.

Sable Antelope

I photographed these antelope, including the male with his impressive horns, at the San Diego Safari Park near Escondido, California.
Texture by Lenabem-Anna.

Palm Leaves and Lattice

I've added a gold adjustment layer and vignette to a photo of some palm leaves that I took in the gardens of Balboa Park in San Diego.

Star of India

I captured this image a few years back during a visit to San Diego. I wanted to experiment with a new process, trying for an aged look.
Texture by Shadowhouse Creations.

Lions at Leisure

This image began with a photo of two lionesses sunning themselves at the San Diego Safari Park.
Textures by boccacino and Paree Erica have been added.

Succulents

A bowl of succulents that I photographed in Balboa Park, San Diego. Of course, succulents such as these are common throughout the Southwest and are very adaptable to our climate. I love their hardiness. Here, I've added textures from Lenabem-Anna and Joe's Sistah. (Note: this is a redo because I wasn't completely happy with the previous version.)

Casa del Prado

Located in Balboa Park, San Diego, the ornate Casa is a recreation of a historic building from the 1915 Pan American Exposition. It hosts a variety of events for clubs and organizations. I've added textures from distressed jewel and Shadowhouse Creations.

Sad Eyes

This Wolf's Monkey was photographed by me a couple of years ago at the San Diego Zoo. I love his pose, but the background of leaves and branches was much too distracting, even after I tried blurring it. Textures from Shadowhouse Creations and pareeerica helped me achieve the subdued look I wanted.

Tree in Balboa Park

I found this old, majestic tree in Balboa Park. After using adjustment layers to bring out the various shades of the bark, I added textures by les brumes and tanya felsheim from the free texture group on Flickr.

Seaside Village

I loved the weathered look of this building, one of several at Seaside Village in San Diego. I've added a texture from les brumes.

Moon over Balboa Park

The California Building with its bell tower is typical of the Spanish Colonial Revival architectural style that can be found in Balboa Park, San Diego. I decided to turn this photo into a night scene by adding a big full moon.

Textures:  Square 165 from Shadowhouse Creations,and GR06 from boccacino.

Pink Blossoms

I took this photo in the Botanical Building at Balboa Park in San Diego. When you live in Phoenix, San Diego is a wonderful place for a summer escape and we've been known to fly there and back for a quick day trip. You can take public transportation to a variety of places right from the airport if you don't want to bother renting a car.

I don't recall what these flowers are, but I loved the way they cascaded gracefully over the leaves. I've added a couple of textures which darkened up the background for emphasis.

San Diego Zoo

If I were an animal living in a zoo, I'm sure I could do a lot worse than living in San Diego with its mild climate. Granted, this chimpanzee looks sort of bored, but the meerkat seems to be enjoying himself watching all the people watching him.

As usual, I used some textures to enhance the original photos. Click here for the texture I used on the photo of the chimp and here for the one I added to the meerkat photo before squaring it to fit the cropped photo. Both textures are from Shadowhouse Creations.