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In the photos I offer on Pixels and Fine Art America, I often upload more than one choice per image. This is because people unfamiliar with ordering photos online have asked me why I don't crop them closer. It's because the original photo is often framed with the entire frame in mind. As a result, I sometimes upload one or two crops, so that visitors can visualize what a crop will look like.

Most of my rose photos were taken at the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden in the heart of Silicon Valley in San Jose. While the world-famous, award-winning garden is unbelievably breathtaking in its current state (having survived a years'-long drought), it was once in a less-beautiful state. It's thanks to dedicated volunteers who have transformed this garden into a precious jewel of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Please note the photo used in this blog post has been reduced in quality for this blog, to discourage pilfering. Please visit my rose gallery for original photos. Thank you for visiting.

"Rosa Francis Meilland" is also known as "Prince Jardinier" and "Schloss Ippenburg."

In the USA, it's known as the Francis Meilland Rose. I've added numerous photos where I've "softened" the image's texture digitally.

Developed by Alain Meilland, of Meilland International, in France in 2006, it has won awards in the United States and Europe.

It was named in honor of the Peace Rose creator, Francis Meilland.

It is a prolific rose, with up to 65 petals. Its foliage is dark green and at full height, it can reach about six feet.

Star Roses, a company I photographed for while in Cupertino, says Frances Meilland's fragrance is "strong, fruity and citrusy."

This photo was taken at the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden in California. The award-winning garden is a wonderful place to visit, so if you visit Silicon Valley, put this garden on your to-do list.

(Please note the photo used for display in this post has been considerably reduced in quality to prevent theft.)

"Rosa Francis Meilland" is also known as "Prince Jardinier" and "Schloss Ippenburg."

Developed by Alain Meilland, of Meilland International, in France in 2006, it has won awards in the United States and Europe.

It was named in honor of the Peace Rose creator, Francis Meilland.

It is a prolific rose, with up to 65 petals. Its foliage is dark green and at full height, it can reach about six feet.

Star Roses, a company I photographed for while in Cupertino, says Frances Meilland's fragrance is "strong, fruity and citrusy."

(Please note the photo used for display in this post has been considerably reduced in quality to prevent theft.)

"McWay Falls is an 80-foot waterfall located in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park that flows year-round," according to Wikipedia.

"This waterfall is one of only two in the region that are close enough to the ocean to be referred to as 'tidefalls', the other being Alamere Falls.

"The source of the waterfall is McWay Creek and is one of the few waterfalls that empty directly into the ocean.

Originally, the waterfall cascaded directly into the ocean but after a 1983 fire and 1985 landslides, the topography of McWay Cove was altered, forming an inaccessible beach. The waterfall now meets the ocean when the tide is in.

"On the edge of McWay Creek is a small building which houses a Pelton wheel, with signs that provide historical facts.

"Christopher McWay homesteaded the canyon in the late 1870s and eventually McWay's Saddle Rock Ranch was sold in the 1920s to Lathrop Brown and his wife, Helen Hooper Brown, who built two houses at Waterfall Overlook.

"In 1961 the approximately 1,800 acre property was donated by Helen Hooper Brown to the state for a park, to be named for Julia Pfeiffer Burns.

"The Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park is located 37 miles south of Carmel.

"Near its parking lot begins the half-mile Waterfall Trail, a dirt path heading westward toward the ocean, to a short tunnel under Highway 1, a right turn to a trail in the cliffside overlooking a small cove, to the sign 'overlook'.

"Although it can be viewed via a trail from above, the beach and scenic cove below are difficult to access by land; however, they can be easily reached by boat. Even with this possibility, it is not recommended that people visit the beach as a safety precaution due to crumbling cliffs and to preserve the environment."

High and flood tides can also make the beach extremely hazardous. On one of the days I photographed, two men were on the beach and within five minutes after they left, the entire beach was covered in an angry tidal flow ~ complete with waves. They would have easily been swept out to sea.

"Just upstream is 30-foot McWay Creek Falls, and on a smaller tributary is Canyon Trail Falls," Wikipedia notes.

"Although a detailed history of the falls has yet to be completed, walking the creek from the highway culvert to the falls indicates that the last portion of the channel to the lip of the falls is artificial.

"It appears that the natural creek channel was along the lower declivity to the north (left) of the falls, which would have made a lower and less vertical cascade to the water in the cove.

"It appears that the re-routing of the creek to the present fall site was among the landscape changes made by the Browns in the building of the Waterfall House and grounds."

(The photo in this blog has been reduced in quality to prevent the original being stolen.)

I was testing a new Nikon several years ago. My wife Kathleen and I were driving around San Jose, and I found Communications Hill. Part of the area, which is really several hills, was heavily developed, with a communications area and a police substation located in the hilly terrain. However, the part of Communications Hill shown in these photos could have easily been saved and turned into a beautiful park.

From the hill, you can see all of Silicon Valley in a 360 view. Now, there are homes all over it and streets. San Jose lost out on having a five-star tourist attraction.

It was true serendipity that a balloon was being blown over Communications Hill when my wife and I were there to photograph it.

From photos I've seen of this area of Big Basin, these trees sustained significant damage from the 2020 fire that burned through Big Basin Redwoods State Park.

It truly is a tragedy, even though fire is a natural part of a redwood ecosystem. It wasn't just a low-grade fire sticking mostly to the forest floor, which can be beneficial; it was a hot fire that even torched the tops of some trees.

So, I suppose this photo may be an icon, showing something that will not exist again for numerous future generations.

The road through this grove is actually a state highway that narrows to one lane just east of park headquarters.

Big Basin Redwoods State Park was the first state park in California. While not as beautiful as the redwood parks in Humboldt and Del Norte counties to the north, it may be the most well-known because of its proximity to millions of people (and successive generations) in the San Francisco Bay Area.

(While this photo of a Big Basin redwood grove is the same as the photo I offer for sale on Pixels/Fine Art America, the photo on this blog has been reduced in size to prevent pilfering of my original photo.)

Some days in the early morning, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco is nearly silent, despite busy thoroughfares nearby.

Oftentimes, I would arrive when it was drizzling or actually raining. I would wait patiently in my car until the drizzle or rain would lift.

Then, when most photographers would say it was too dark to photograph The Dahlia Garden in Golden Gate Park, I would start taking photos. Occasionally, I would use flash, as I did on this beautifully vivid dahlia.

(Note: The photo displayed is not the photo on Pixels or Fine Art America. It is a reduced image for this blog post.)