Funes Art Competition Entries

These are my three entries for the Funes Competition:

Artist Review - Adam Schallau

While looking for more photographic artists, I came across this photographer: Adam Schallau. His landscape photography is extremely beautiful in my opinion! Many of this photos feature the warm, colorful landscape of the southwestern United States, mainly in the Four-Corners region. I really enjoy his barren landscape pictures of desert scenes. The saturation of the photos make them feel extremely warm and inviting, and inspire me to take a road trip this summer to visit the Four-Corners region. This image especially, "Bisti Badlands," makes me want to visit Sedona in northern Arizona.


Other images by Schallau, like this "Aspen Melt" photo, have a great uniqueness about them. What I love about "Aspen Melt" is how the trees in the background look warm and bright, while their shadows fall on the cold, slowly melting snow in the foreground. All together an extremely appealing picture, in my opinion.


Another image I really like by Schallau is one titled "American Basin Wildflowers." I absolutely love the contrasting scenes of the lush, green foreground, and the stark, rocky peak in the background.



Schallau's work has definitely inspired me to want to travel more around the U.S. and take more landscape photographs.

Artist Review - Daniella Theoret

While surfing the Internet, I discovered one photographer that has some really amazing work! Daniella Theoret, who is originally from Quebec, Canada, has some beautiful landscape and wildlife pictures. What I like the most about her landscape pictures is how she captures clouds. With the use of an infrared lens, Theoret seems to be able to capture amazing details in clouds, as well as create beautifully vivid photographs. My favorite photograph of hers is titled “Bad Water – Death Valley, CA.” In the image, you can see the extensive detail of the lakebed, as well as the wonderful fluffiness of the clouds in the sky. I love how the colors in the picture are all cool colors too, creating a calming feel in the photo.

Another great photo is her “Orange flower with bee” photograph. I like how close and detailed this image gets. Also, I love how you see a different, messier side of bee pollination. It is just an incredibly simple and beautiful picture!

Overall, Theoret’s work had definitely sparked some inspiration in me. I am going to try and look into getting myself an infrared lens now.

April 26, 2009 - Quail Botanical Gardens

Today I had the opportunity of visiting Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas. It was my first time visiting the gardens, but I was absolutely surprised by how much I enjoyed it! I arrived at the gardens around noon and luckily it was neither hot, nor crowded! The woman at the pay booth was really nice and gave me advice on where to start, and what to check out in the gardens.


I started in the Bamboo garden and worked my way around the area. The bamboo was definitely impressive! I have never seen that much bamboo, or that tall of bamboo, ever in my life! I tried to take some pictures of the bambo that would emphasize their heighth, but because of the noon sun ended up with some bad pictures. However, one photo did come out kind of cool looking with the sun glare on it:


Moving through the gardens, I could not help but be impressed by both the immensity and information found throughout the gardens. Not only were there a large variety of plants and flowers, but practically every plant and flower had a plaque with its name and information. Also, being able to see a variety of environments, from the Mexican Garden to the Tropical Rain Forest, and even the California Gardenscapes, was incredible!







My favorite garden was definitely the Tropical Rain Forest. I loved the waterfall there! It was very peaceful sounding. I got extremely lucky while I was photographing the waterfall though, when a butterfly landed on a fern right next to me. I was able to get a great shot of it before it flew off.


Overall, I had a lot of fun at the Quail Botanical Gardens, and it is definitely a place I want to visit again.

April 12, 2009 - Live Oak Park

On Easter morning, I had no plans. I woke up around 8 am and decided to go on a field trip. At first, I was not sure where to go, and honestly I did not feel like driving very far. Then I remembered Live Oak Park.

Live Oak Park is a local park that contains some of the oldest Oaks in the Fallbrook area. It also harbors an old grinding rock used by the Luiseno Indians centuries ago.


Arriving at the park, I was surprised to see how crowded it was. A lot of families had planned family picnics for Easter Sunday. I was a bit discouraged to find it so crowded, because I was really looking forward to having the park all to myself (it being a holiday where many families are in church early in the morning). I decided to stay though and take at least one walk around the park since I had to pay the $2 parking fee.



After parking, I started at the north eastern side of the park, and wound my way west along the path through the park. It was really hard to take pictures with so many people, mainly because I did not want to look like a weirdo photographing strangers, so I tried my best to find shots that were void of park-goers.

Even surrounded by people, the park was just as wonderful as I remembered it to be. The oaks are so beautiful and tall there that it feels like you are protected under a canopy of their branches. Each oak has it's own battle scars left from woodpeckers, some more than others. The small creek that runs through the park holds the most memories for me. I remember when I was younger I would come to the park with my grandparents and search for crawdads. We would climb into the water below and wade through it in shorts, looking for the bright red crustaceans with lopsided claws. Once we found at least 5 of them, all different sizes, and we brought a few home to take care of in an aquarium. We would only keep them for a week before bringing them back down to the park to set free.


I continued to walk around the park, trying to take in the changes that have happened over the years. The old playground equipment that used to be made of rusting metal has since been replaced by a large plastic playground of slides and monkey bars. One thing that had not changed was the old grinding stone. It still sits under the same oak tree that it has sat under for centuries.




Coming back around towards the parking lot from the southern side of the park, I did notice a neat little addition though. A new native plant garden! It is a small garden, but it was definitely fun to walk through. I wish I had taken a little bit more time examining all the plants in the garden, but at that point an Easter egg hunt was ready to start nearby and I assumed it best to get out of the kids' way.


Overall, I did enjoy my walk through the park, but I will definitely have to go back there again sans the crowd of people.

March 28, 2009 - Los Jilgueros Preserve

On Saturday March 28, 2009, I used my first day of spring break to go out and take some pictures at a local preserve in my hometown of Fallbrook. The day started out sunny, so right there it was a promising opportunity for taking photographs!

I arrived around 9:30am and met up with my friend and coworker, Rayney. She had recently bought herself a new camera and wanted to do an outing to learn how to use all of it's different settings and functions. I am by no means a professional, but I figured I could help her out a little bit.

We hiked about a half a mile to the back of the reserve and started by the lake. Here I found an old bench with peeling paint that caught my interest, so I decided to photograph it. I really love the angle I used to take this pictures though:

In Photoshop, I decided to bring out some of the colors of the bench, and dulled the background to give it a really washed-out look. Overall, I was extremely happy with how it came out!

We continued on our hike and I found another interesting shot with a broken fence. It took me a few tries to get the focus correct, but ended up with a shot I was proud of.

One of my favorite areas of the preserve is the "Firescape" area, which is made up of fire-resistant plants (something very useful in the fire-prone area of Southern California!). Apparently, this firescape garden was the second ever garden of its kind to be created in California (the first being in Santa Barbara). Here are some of my photos from the Firescape:

After finishing up in the firescape area, our stomachs were rumbling, so we decided it was time for breakfast at the Garden Center Cafe (a wonderful little cafe in Fallbrook that has the greatest brunch menu ever!). On our way out I found a few more opportunities for photos:

The most wonderful end to the hike was this post though, which features the words "May peace prevail on Earth," in four different languages: english, spanish, french, and chinese. Of all my field trips, this is my favorite preserve, and I plan on visiting it as often as possible!

February 22, 2009- Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve

This field trip is getting blogged about a bit late, unfortunately (hence the February date with a April posting, haha). I originally was not sure I liked the pictures from this trip enough to post them, but the more I look at them, the more I like them.

This trip started out as a "getting-to-know-my-new-camera" trip. I had just bought my new Canon Rebel XSi and had no idea on how to start using it! Luckily, my friend Chris is experienced with using DSLR cameras, and offered to give me a lesson. I suggested we go to Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve, which is a wonderful reserve near Murrieta, California.

Waking up that morning, I was both happy and disappointed to see a cloudy gray sky. Happy because a long hike under an overcast sky is always fun, but disappointed because taking pictures with an overcast sky is NEVER fun. I guess there are some advantages, but personally, I like working with a lot of light.

We arrived at the reserver ready for our hike. At first I was hesitant to stop and start taking pictures, mainly because with an overcast sky, I wanted to wait until the Sun was a bit higher in the sky. After about an hour, I decided it was time to pull out my camera. At this point we had hiked long enough to be on the top of a hill in the middle of the reserve, surrounded by open, rolling, hills, green from the previous weeks' rain.

I love photographing trees and paths, for some reason. So I took advantage of some of the beautiful trees and trails that surrounded us.

We continued on our hike, this time with my camera out and ready to go. After about another 45 minutes of hiking, we arrived at an open area of rolling hills towards the eastern side of the reserve. Here, I found some extremely interesting decaying tree trunks. The one that stood out the most to me reminded me of a person holding his hands out in praise. I took a few different images of this tree trunk, at different angles and perspectives, but out of all the pictures I took, I liked this one the best:

Continuing on our hike, we finally reached our main destination: the old adobe structures used as bunkhouses for cowboys during the late 1800s. These structures are also shaded by a 400 year old live oak tree. Walking around the house, it was obvious how popular the area was for woodpeckers. I do not think there was a minute there where I did not hear the pecking of these birds!

After spending half an hour around the structures, we decided it was time to get going. I had to get home to work on homework, and Chris had to get to work.

On our way back, we took a different route, so I was able to get some more landscape photos. I definitely want to go back again and get more pictures though. Hopefully, it will be a lot sunnier next time.

Indian Rock Native Garden - March 23, 2009

On Monday, March 23, 2009, our class had the opportunity to visit the Indian Rock Native Garden in Vista, California. Driving the the garden was a bit unusual though. Our professor had mentioned that it is in the middle of a residential area, but until you are there, you do not fully comprehend how residential it is. Pulling up to the garden, which is surrounded by a simple, chain link fence, I saw that opposite the garden, the street was lined with homes. I was a bit worried about parking in front of a stranger's house, but I did my best to park out of the way.

After parking, I met up with a few of my classmates and walked through the open gate and up a dirt path. Immediately, I noticed the large, tagged rock on top of the hill. Being the only large rock in the area, I knew that was the Indian Rock the garden's title promised. The dirt trail wound around the hill, curving to the left. As I followed it, I found more of my classmates, and our professor. At the moment, not all of our classmates had arrived for our prearranged tour with Alan, a native Luiseno of Vista, and Greg, our native plant guide. Alan indicated that we could go ahead and walk up the small trail to take a look at the rock while we waited for everyone to arrive. Walking up the hill, it was hard not to notice all the beautiful yellow flowers that were starting to bloom (which I learned were Yellow Mallows from our tour with Greg).

Arriving at the top of the hill, there was a large open area, leveled and paved with stones and concrete. To my right I noticed the leftover foundation of a previous structure, and straight ahead of me was the Indian Rock. From this angle, the rock was clean, and untagged by local gangs. To my left, trees and vegetation grew. Some laurel sumac, a non-native citrus tree, and a smaller rock completely covered by wild cucumber.


Personally, I found the rock covered by wild cucumber to be extremely beautiful. The little white blooms and green, prickly fruit covered the rock, giving it an ancient look. I wandered closer to the larger rock in front of me, and made my way around to get a closer look at the front side I had seen first walking into the garden area. It's face seemed almost scarred by the blue and white paint left by a local Vista gang, better known as the Vista Home Boys. Looking at the graffiti, I felt sorry for the rock, alone on a hill, unable to protect itself in the middle of suburbia.



After exploring the landscape around the rock for about 15 minutes, the rest of our group had arrived, along with other local natives, as well as some Vista city council members. Alan introduced himself to us and his involvement with the Indian Rock Native Garden, as well as gave us the background on the garden. He told us about how the rock was important in coming-of-age ceremonies for young women of the Luiseno people. He further told us about their efforts in restoring the native plants of the garden. At this point, Alan let Greg take over the tour. I was extremely impressed by the vast knowledge Greg had about native plants!!!


One of the most interesting things he told us was how drought and fire resistant the native plants can be, which really surprised me. After listening to this and seeing how beautiful the native plants are, I am really surprised people in southern California are not more interested in using native plants for landscaping. Greg took us from the bottom of the hill, all the way back up to the Indian Rock at the top, stopping along the way to give us information on each plant we saw. At the top, Alan took over again, and got even more in depth in the importance of the rock and native garden in preserving the local history of the area. He even mentioned the pictographs on the front of the rock, which I had not even seen earlier because of all the graffiti. Alan told us that the paint from the pictographs will long out live the everyday spray paint, which helped ease some of my concern. Truthfully, I think it is such a shame that these gang members are so ignorant they do not realize or even care how their territorial tagging is vandalizing an important piece of history.

After our wonderful and insightful tour, Alan and a group from the local Luisenos were kind enough to provide some sandwiches, chips, salads, and drinks for us. I was really moved by how welcoming and generous they were. It is definitely an experience I will not forget any time soon!

Overall, the Indian Rock Native Garden was one of my favorite field trips. After listening to Greg and how passionate he was about all of the native plants, I am definitely considering landscaping my front yard at home with native plants and plenty of mulch!

Here are some more pictures from our trip:

Some coastal oak: