Kraken at the California Botanic Garden

 Had a chance to pick up some slides from the photo lab I use in Irvine, CA. They have delays in processing slides because they are having equipment issues. Today, I was told, they wait until they accumulate enough slide film to run a batch, because that insures the freshness of the chemicals at the right temperature, rather than processing smaller batches. It took a month to get these back. Still, the lab does a good job, and they have the best prices, and they are closest, and did I mention that the Darkroom (another company in Orange County) has gotten damn expensive? So, I return to this lab, and I dropped off another batch of slide film, as well as some color rolls. Black and white I will develop at home, but the others that require temperature-regulated chemicals, no, I'll let the lab handle those. (I still do not know what blix smells like.)

This first frame is actually not from the California Botanical Garden, it is from the San Diego Botanic Garden. I was aware of the focusing problem with my Kraken by then, so I would normally just focus closer than the actual distance of the objects. I worked here. I think. My composition leaves ("leaves", get it?) much to be desired. 

This and the rest of the images are from the California Botanic Garden in Claremont. This, of course, is another one of those "happy accidents" that Bob Ross used to talk about, but it was not that happy for me. I wish I had gotten both of these images by themselves. The marigold field near the entrance and the cottage (gift center) at the garden.

I like this shot! The artwork at this Botanic Garden. I think my strategy of focussing closer than the actual distance of the object is working out.

Wandering the paths at the garden. Leaves have started to turn, and this was about one month ago. I wonder what they are like now. Maybe bare branches, after the Santa Ana Winds left so many trees looking like skeletal remains with nothing to cloth them. It denuded them.

The Joshua Tree display at one of the gardens. I remember framing this photo. It looks exotic, and no, I have never been to Joshua Tree National Monument, and with temperatures in the upper 90s projected for the next few days, I will not be going soon.