My 2022 in Photos

From the top of a volcano to the mangroves at the ocean’s edge and even in the tiny garden behind my casita, I’ve daily photographed nature for 8 years here and called that photography “Nature as Art!” and shared it in this blog.  🙂 

I like this Collins Online Dictionary definition:

Nature is all the animals, plants, and other things in the world that are not made by people, and all the events and processes that are not caused by people. 

Thus in nature I worship God and find my peace & inspiration from Him, the creator of it all!

Each year I find it difficult to select only 12 photos from the year and I first tried to come up with 12 “categories” of nature to make sure I selected a variety, but that became as cumbersome as trying to have a “photo-a-month.” So I decided to just stick with “12 favorites,” even if more than 12 are favorites! 🙂

So, however labeled, here’s 12 photos I made in 2022!

Happy New Year and Pura vida! 🙂

This 1st of 12 is looking out at the Pacific Ocean from Playa Cativo Lodge, Golfo Dulce, Piedras Blancas NP and the 12th photo below is a shot  looking out over the Atlantic Ocean at sunrise from Hotel Banana Azul. Coast to coast nature photos!   🙂

To the nearly 500 email subscribers: I hope you read on for the other 11 favorite photos . . .

Continue reading “My 2022 in Photos”

Danta Waterfall

As a waterfall lover, I don’t miss any waterfall that a lodge or park has and this “main” falls at Arenal Observatory Lodge is one of the nicer ones, and it’s my third time to visit it! There are other “seasonal” waterfalls here for when the rain is heavy, but the longer trails to them are more dangerous when wet for this old man who falls easily, so I haven’t tried any of them.  🙂

The people who were at the falls the same time as me were all Europeans from England, Holland, Germany and maybe one more country. We also have other countries represented at the lodge this week including Canada, Japan and China and though I haven’t met anyone from the states yet, there are most likely some here. The ones playing in the waterfall plunge pool are Europeans – 4 shots including this first scenic one for the email notice . . .

Danta Waterfall, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica.

 

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What will I Have at the Art Show?

Wall Art

I’m bringing 21 photos printed on metal with a special mounting piece to give your wall art a contemporary 3-D look or a nice little shadow. In many sizes and subjects!

This Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth is just one choice! There’s birds, butterflies, monkeys, and flowers too!

Plus three other product categories . . .

Continue reading “What will I Have at the Art Show?”

Hilltop Clouds

Zooming in on just the tops of my nearby hills. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

And my Vistas GALLERY!

And don’t forget that I will be one of 21 artists at the BIG ART SHOW this coming weekend at Hotel Colinas del Sol on 8th Avenue – See you there! 🙂 Read more about it on the JIT Atenas FB Page!

And “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” as shown in this Tico Times online article about a neighborhood in San Jose. I’ll be showing my photos of Christmas decorations in Atenas after the Art Show is over!

Morning Vista . . .

. . . is one I never tire of and though the same, it is slightly different every morning with changing light, sky, clouds and foliage. I am so thankful to live retired in a tranquil little farming town in what might be the most nature-centered and ecology-minded little country in the world! We use 99% renewable electricity and are slowly but steadily moving towards electric cars and buses and have more than 25% of the country’s land set aside in reserves or national parks and we still plant trees! Pura vida!

View from my terrace every morning at breakfast + birds & butterflies! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

View GALLERY: From My Roca Verde Terrace

Hillside Vistas

It is looking like someone may soon buy this property and live in the big house on top of our hill as my new landlord, so I walked up to the now vacant big house the other day for some “Hillside Vistas” of what they can see from there that I can’t from lower down on our hill. Nothing spectacular and the mountains opposite us that I usually photograph were covered in clouds, so here’s some closer views that I can’t see from my house and I like what looks like hillside farm land near us that I hope will not be covered with houses anytime soon! 🙂 Que sera, sera . . .

Continue reading “Hillside Vistas”

When not raining . . .

. . . it is the greenest time of the year during our “Rainy Season,” May-November in the Central Valley of Costa Rica or most of the middle of the country with rain every afternoon for 2 to 4 hours. While the Rainforests along both coasts have rain year around and are always very green and likewise the Cloud Forests high in the mountains. By the middle of December the rain will taper off to nada where I live and we will see no more rain until next May (and I have to water the garden). Though I will travel some to places where it does rain! 🙂

The Green Hills of Atenas, Central Valley of Costa Rica, yesterday before the rain – seen from my terrace.

“Green is the fresh emblem of well founded hopes.

~Mary Webb

¡Pura Vida!

See more in my Costa Rica Vistas GALLERY.

Sneaked People Photos

Its legal here to photograph people in public, but for some reason I never want them to know I’m photographing them and actually seldom do – BUT on a public beach it is just too inviting. My “People Shots” are now a gallery within my developing trip gallery (above link) with 3 sub-galleries, each linked from the title of its sample photo below . . .

Sunrise People Shots Gallery

Young love at a beach sunrise — Sample shot from gallery.

Day Beach People Shots Gallery

Games on the beach — Sample shot from the gallery.

Beach Road People Shots Gallery

Family walk down Beach Road — Sample shot from gallery.

Maybe in a few more days I’ll have the whole trip gallery finished. A lot of photos made this time! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

“To escape and sit quietly on the beach – that’s my idea of paradise.”

 – Emilia Wickstead