Happy Saturday everyone! If you're anything like me then you spent your day lying around... going to for coffee and taking it easy for the most part. I am however looking outside the window right now and can't help but notice that it isn't raining anymore and the clouds are quite cool so I may just have to get my butt in gear and head out to try and capture some award winning images...or at least a few that make it past the trash bin 
I am going to be posting a lot of photos in todays blog as I want to wrap up my vacation in one final blog entry which I will try to post tomorrow.
I think that I must be desperately in need of sunshine after coming back from my vacation as when I heard that it was supposed to be raining all weekend I went as far as to check the forecast for everywhere up to and including Calgary too see if it would be any better if I went on a road trip but alas...same crap everywhere 
Okay...enough rambling...here come the photos...
My BFF Carey with her hubby Steve and daughter Annabella. I try to get down to see them in San Diego at least once a year. I'm super happy that Carey found someone who actually gets my sense of humor although now that I think about it Steve does get a bit of "that look" every once in a while as he nods his head while walking away from me lol...
f6.3, 1/640th sec. ISO - 100 Focal Length - 13mm
The above 4 photos were taken at Mono Lake, California. The formations are created out of limestone and they are called "tufas". Very strange the way that the formations come out of the lake.
Shot taken along the way via the Tioga Pass trying (unsuccessfully) to get to Yosemite.
Yes... I know this may look a bit freakish as this poor ladies face is kind of missing due to my lack of wanting to have her come after me...wouldn't happen but still! Anyway... I couldn't stop laughing for about ten minutes after spotting this lady in a small town on the way back from Mammoth Lakes. They were celebrating their annual Mule Days and I just loved the hat!
A shot taken in Bodie, California. I only had a few minutes in this ghost town as we were on our way home and I think that everyone was just wanting to get back at this point. This entire town is completely rundown... my travelling companions just wanted to get the heck out of dodge but for me it was a photographers dream. Next time I go down for a visit I am definitely going to go back here and make a day of it.
1/125th sec, f6.3. ISO - 100 Focal Length - 28mm
Another shot along the way.
Okay... now we are going to move on to my day spent at Joshua Tree National Park. Very interesting...and very hot place to spend some time. I had hoped to arrive there in time to make sunrise but obviously misjudged it by a bit as I left the house at about 4:45 AM and didn't arrive at the park until about 7:30 AM which made me miss sunrise by about half an hour or so
I did however see some fascinating mist/mountain shots along the way at sunrise but unlike Saskatchewan you can't quite just pull over onto the side of the road and get out to take photos. Well, actually, you probably could but would literally be risking your life as it is 5 lanes of traffic going about 90 MPH! I did however consider it
I still managed to do a bit of hiking, rock climbing and snap a few photos.
The above two photos are typical photos taken in California's high desert.
Could I possibly look any more cheesy??? See... I do post photos of myself where I am not looking so swell. More out of guilt I believe so then when I post more of Rob in the future that he doesn't necessarily approve of I don't feel quite so bad
Here's me catching some shade... I did actually manage to climb this all the way to the top. No problems getting up but getting down was another story entirely as I had not one but two cameras dangling from my neck to the point that I had to take one off and set it on the rocks as I was attempting to get down... then of course the camera started to slide down the rock face.... now... did I do the smart thing and just let it go realizing that they do in fact make more cameras where that one came from?? Why of course not!! I had to lunge for it thus losing my footing and causing me to fall/slide about 10-15 feet down the rock...yep...ouch. Good news is that I along with my camera gear survived
Cool rocks ...
The above 2 photos comprise a rather interesting story of my wasp attack. I pulled into this area to take some photos... got about 15 feet away from my car and had a wasp buzzing around me... no big deal as I'm not actually scared of wasps but then a second later I had another and then before you know it I have about 10 of the suckers buzzing around me. What did I do...run! I stopped about 50 feet or so away from the car as I had lost them by then. Looked back at the car and they had started to swarm around the exhaust pipe of all things... the top shot is the only one that I got which is still pre-swarm as right after I shot it they started to chase me again and then when the real swarm hit I was too far away from the car to get a shot. Needless to say in the top photo you can still see over 20 of the wonderful little beasts and in the end they just made a black buzzing mass. Crappy thing about it was that I was stuck in the middle of the desert... my water was in the car and my cell phone had no signal. What did I do?? Waited about 20 minutes until another vehicle pulled up and watched the mass move as I ran like Hell to the car...not fun!!
Well everyone... that's it for now. I will have one final vacation blog posting which I hope to have done by tomorrow. It is all from La Jolla, California. The place that I consider to be the closest thing to Heaven on earth.
I'm off to take some pics... cheers,
Devona
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