Oct. 22, 2020: Tour of the Ganna Walska Lotusland in Montecito, California. The non-profit botanic garden near Santa Barbara is the former estate of opera singer Madame Ganna Walska.

The former Polish singer purchased the estate in 1941. Up until she died in 1984, Walska improved the 37-acre property. In 1993 the botanic garden opened to the public.

The County of Santa Barbara restricts visitation to Lotusland. The botanic garden is open to the public, but timed entrance reservations are required.  The tickets are $50. Due to limited parking, visitors are limited to just a couple of hours visit. There is no off-site parking.

The site is closed from mid-November to mid-February.

I put 40 images into this Flickr Lotusland album.

October 22, 2020: Several homeowners on Blackwood Street in Newbury Park have gone all out with Halloween decorations. Two weeks ago, I found two heavily decorated homes. Now there are six. The houses are east of Greendale Avenue. I posted additional images in this Flickr photo album: 2020 Halloween.

October 15, 2020: Tour of the 2020 Cambria Scarecrow Festival. Because of Covid-19, most scarecrows for 2020 are concentrated at six Cambria and San Simeon locations. At each site, wear a mask and follow the one-way arrows. For more information, check out the website: https://cambriascarecrows.com But there are several additional scarecrows around town, especially the neighborhood near the exhibit at 4005 Burton Drive.
For 60 more images, check out my 2020 Cambria Scarecrow Festival photo album on Flickr. 

October 13, 2020: Treehouse at the Kids' Adventure Garden, located in Thousand Oaks' Conejo Valley Botanic Garden. The KAG is currently closed, but the rest of the Botanic Garden is open. I'm taking a stab at infrared photography on an iPhone. For this image, I used an IR 720mm filter with the Camera +2 photo app. On the Camera +2 app, I used a six-second exposure at ISO 20, with a white balance of 1400 kelvin. Finally, in Snapseed, I used glamour glow 40 percent and minus 30 warmth. In Formulas, added a pewter border 15 width.

Oct. 2, 2020: Attended the Nights of the Jack Drive-Thru at the King Gillette Ranch in Calabasas. While the Halloween Display is excellent, the driving part makes photography challenging. The first two images, of the pumpkin carving station and blue pumpkin, are from the actual drive-thru. The others are from the hour wait in the parking lot to enter the display. Bottom line: the Nights of the Jack Drive-Thru is great for families, but not for photographers. Next year I want a walkthrough.

April 24, 2015: The" iwitness: Armenian Genocide 1915" public art at the Music Center and Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles. The installation by artists Ara Oshagan and Levon Parian and architect Vahagn Thomasian featured portraits of the Armenian Genocide survivors of 1915. The exhibit appeared from April 25, 2015, to May 31, 2015.

April 10, 2015:  A reading chair sits under a skylight at the Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fresno. Baldassare Forestiere built the 65-room, 10-acre estate between 1906 to 1946. Members of the Forestiere family still run the location. The historic site is open for tours, but reservations are required.

April 9, 2015: Douglas B-18 Bolo medium bomber on display at the Castle Air Museum in Atwater, California. In December 1941, the Japanese destroyed many obsolete B-18 Bolos at Pearl Harbor and in the Philippines. The Army Air Force quickly reassigned the remaining B-18s to anti-submarine duty. On October 2, 1942, a B-18A Bolo depth charged and sank the German submarine U-512 in waters off French Guiana

September 13, 2020: Train mural on an exterior wall of 1899 building in Mojave, California. In 1876, Mojave began as a construction camp on the Southern Pacific Railroad. During the early 20th Century, Mojave served as the headquarters for the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

September 10, 2020. Tomorrow the nation commemorates the 2,977 lives lost 19 years ago in the terror attacks. Despite closures caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Pepperdine University has set up the Waves of Flags exhibit. The display of 2,977 flags is closed to the public, but Pepperdine University encourages viewing from Pacific Coast Highway. My images taken this morning have an orange cast, thanks to brush fire smoke. Waves of Flags will remain on display through September 21, 2020.