surprises in my photos...

Remember the other day when I was thrilling some of you with my stories of taking photographs while driving? (yes, I was chastised by a couple of you who were concerned for my safety--or that of others!-- though I swear to you, I was paying attention to the road! really!!)

Well, the downside of taking one-handed, not-looking, snap-a-picture-out-the-right-side-passenger-window photos is that you just don't know what you're going to end up with. But, that is also part of the adventure of it!

I had a few surprisingly good photos out of those taken in the above-described manner. I also had a couple of good surprises!

Many times I have wanted to take a picture of something we have here in Southern California that I find rather delightful. I, however, have not been able to do so since I only see them when I'm driving. I was quite pleased when I was looking through my photos, and lo and behold! there they were!! Right there in my picture without me trying to capture them and actually without me even knowing they were there!!....

See those funny looking palm trees??

Let's take a closer look...

In case you can't quite tell, they're not actually trees; they're cell site posts! I love it! They look just like palm trees--brown trunks and green palm fronds--but with cell site thingys in the palm fronds! There are also pine tree versions in our area (in appropriate places for pine trees, of course). It is my opinion that ALL cell site antennas should have to be made to look like trees! I mean, why not?! They look far cooler than just antenna posts, don't you think?

And, though I'm not into 'paving paradise and putting up parking lots,' I do think it's a wonderful idea to have them look as natural as possible... far lovelier than metal! (oh, and I have absolutely NO IDEA what that toothbrushy-looking white thing is next to the "trees"!!)

My other wonderful surprise is in the photos below. I was just trying to get a nice picture of the mountains and trees and misty foggy stuff because the colors were great--deep green, a beautiful blue, and a bit of snow sprinkled on the mountains. And, when I was looking throught my photos later, do you see what I found in the shot?...just there, on the right...

Neatly tucked away in the corner of such desert loveliness, in stark white contrast...

I love it.

Delightful surprises.

clouds out the window...

I have discovered that there is one distinct disadvantage of taking a roadtrip by oneself when one is constantly seeing things outside the car that simply shout to be photographed... well, one cannot take the photographs! or, can one??

Please, please do not tell the California Highway Patrol, but I could not resist!! After driving nearly three hours in driving rain (ha!), I drove out of the rain...and into such a beautiful blue sky filled with the most lovely clouds that I could not contain myself!


And so, I learned to take one-handed-out-the-right-hand-passenger-window-over-the-shoulder photos...
...here are a few of the cloud shots I was able to capture, shall we say "sight unseen?"

It was actually a great adventure in photography, as I had no real idea what I may or may not be capturing. I had fun later that night looking to see what, if anything, I had actually photographed. I got several good shots and even a couple of surprises... but those are for another day! : )

Edited 2/21 - please note, as I have received comments of folks concerned for my safety (and probably the safety of others) my eyes were on the road in front of me--only my right hand was playing while i was driving! That was why I had no real idea WHAT I was photographing! : ) (as could be verified by the majority of photos being of the door of my car or of completely uninteresting sky!) These were just some which actually turned out ot be cool! Fear not! I was being safe ... probably FAR more than most folks talking on the phone while driving!!