Camera Critters - The Big Cat

I posted these so long ago I'm sure no one has seen them. It was back when if I got one comment it was a good day. :-) These were taken at the Los Angeles Zoo. It was a good day because normally they're laying around sleeping with their backs to the camera. They're my favorite tiger shots. To me the tiger is the most beautiful of the big cats.




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Scenic Sunday - Santa Monica Beach

I thought these would be a great entry for Scenic Sunday. I took these last summer at the Santa Monica Pier here in Southern California. To me there is nothing more peaceful that standing on the beach listening to the waves and feeling the sea breeze in your face. I couldn't post just one photo. Thought I'd give you different scenic views from the pier.





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My World Tuesday - Graffiti Beach

Actually, this is Venice Beach, a really popular place to visit in L.A. County because you can see a little bit of everything - shop, eat, people watch, get a henna tat or chill on the actual beach and enjoy the ocean view. I just called it Graffiti Beach for this post and this section of Venice Beach that is alive with graffiti.


If you click on the photo below you can see that nothing in this area escaped the graffiti. Check out the tree trunks and the trash cans.




Sometimes I think that only in L.A. can a old boat wash ashore, someone paint it with graffiti and it become a work of art left as a part of the surroundings.


Even some of the rocks couldn't escape the artist's work.

Pavillion of Wings

This is the first time I haven't had a lot of time to visit participants of my own meme. I'm about to get to it so I have a lot of catching up to do. But before I did, I had to post at least one photo from my little adventure yesterday. The Natural History Museum in Los Angeles has a Butterfly Pavillion from April 15 - September 7th this year. I just learned about it and apparently this is their 9th year. I got some really great shots and messed up some really great shots. Just had to share one of them before I start visiting my folks from Watery Wednesday.

MONARCH BUTTERFLY


This is one of the shots I messed up. In the view finder it looked perfect. It's not as sharp as I thought it was but I still love it. I'll share more of these beautiful butterflies and try to figure out their names after I'm done catching up with WW.

Billy The Elephant

This is Billy the elephant at the Los Angeles zoo. There was a big stink not too long ago (last month), that ended up in the City Council's lap about whether or not to release Billy. A group was protesting about how bad the conditions were for Billy and that he should be set free.


If you look at these photos you can see how confined Billy is. I couldn't even get a good shot of him. But the L.A. Zoo is already in the middle of construction of a Pachyderm Forest that will be just over 6 acres, a MUCH bigger exhibit then this one shown which doesn't even give the elephant much room to walk around in.


The L.A. City Council voted to let the elephant stay and though I know there are good reasons to let Billy go, I think it only fair to let the zoo continue with this multi-million dollar exhibit which is a huge improvement over the current conditions. They are investing the money to improve the conditions and I know Billy will be happier in the larger, more natural environment, large enough to get him a friend.


If the conditions were to remain the same I would have agreed that Billy should be released. But personally, I would like the zoo to see if this new, larger environment will be better for Billy. I know it bummed me out to see him in the current little exhibit. I would like to see him in the bigger one and can't wait until it is completed. I can't wait to see Billy roaming around, actually roaming and not just standing there rocking back and forth.

Huntington Library, Art Gallery & Botanical Gardens

I've shown you the garden part of the Huntington Library & Botanical Gardens. Here are few pics of some of the items inside what was once the home of Mr. & Mrs. Huntington. The flowers in the post below were taken just outside this building in one of the gardens.








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My World Tuesday #6

One of the things I miss about not working in downtown L.A. any more is the flower mart. Whenever it was someone's birthday at work I used to go down to the flower mart before work and for $20 or less I could buy enough flowers to fill two vases and have a couple on my own desk. I went this morning. :-)


If you notice in the picture below the green signs hanging from the ceiling. Each sign is a different flower vendor and they go back as far as you can see in the picture and beyond.


These are just a few of the close-up shots I took:



It was so difficult trying to figure out which flowers I wanted to buy but I finally decided on these (the ones below), plus and bunch of purple carnations. I filled two vases at home and all for the decent price of $14.00.


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My World Tuesday #5

Thanks to my sister I discovered the Petersen Automotive Museum located in the Wilshire District of Los Angeles. It's in the building that used to be home to an old favorite department store of mine, Orbach's. They have a wonderful collection of cars. I took these earlier this year and I think it's time for me to go back because they periodically have new exhibits.




One of the exhibits was a Hot Wheels exhibit. They had a huge collection of Hot Wheels and then the life sized one in the photo below.



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No one should ever say there is nothing to do around Los Angeles. I'll be gladly showing more next week.

SANTA MONICA PIER & VENICE BEACH

I decided to head out to the pier yesterday. I heard it was going to be a little cloudy and the waves were supposed to be 7-10 feet. I thought, great! That should make for some interesting photos. Well, it wasn't cloudy and the waves weren't that tall but I still got some great pics. You can see some of them at my other blog Down Around L.A..