Welcome to Friday Night Photos everyone. Your once a week break from the daily madness of the crazy world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music, or whatever else you find of interest that helps you escape the madness.

I picked up a new lens for wildlife photography last week and took it for a test drive Monday at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and Tuesday at the San Diego Zoo. Photography wise it was a great day for the big cats at both the zoo and safari park. For all the other critters, large or small, not so much. To paraphrase Forrest Gump, "The zoo and safari park are like a box of Chocolates. You never know what you'll get".
I'm headed to the SF Bay Area for a family get together next week and won't be able to host FNP next Friday night. For any of you that have always dreamed of hosting FNP, now's your chance.

Sumatran Tiger

Welcome to Friday Night Photos everyone. Your once a week break from the daily madness of the crazy world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music, or whatever else you find of interest that helps you escape the madness.

Last Saturday morning I took a drive north up the coast to Encinitas for the 44th annual Wavecrest Woodie meet. Weather wise it was a nice morning. Temps in the upper 60s and overcast skies providing nice diffused lighting. Not as many cars this year as there was last year, but still a nice selection of Woodies, some that I had seen before and some that were new.

Welcome to Friday Night Photos everyone. Your once a week break from the daily madness of the crazy world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music, or whatever else you find of interest that helps you escape the madness.

In 1975 the city of San Diego built a velodrome (a track for cycling) in the northeast corner of Balboa Park. I figured since I've lived in San Diego or surrounding cities since 1977 it was about time to go check it out. Races are held Tuesday and Friday nights. Already having a regular Friday night online gig, I went last Tuesday night.
The track is a 333m banked oval. For those that don't do metric (raising my hand), 333m converts to 1092 ft or 1/5 of a mile. The bikes are single speed constant drive, which means the size of the front and rear sprockets determine top speed and unlike the bike you ride around the block on, there is no coasting/neutral. If the rear wheel is spinning, the pedals are turning.

Welcome to Friday Night Photos everyone. Your once a week break from the daily madness of the crazy world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music, or whatever else you find of interest that helps you escape the madness.

Well, after a week of triple digit temps things finally cooled off on Wednesday. The last two days have been in the low to mid 80s with a mild breeze, dropping to the upper 50s at night. The 7 day forecast calls for more of the same. Infinitely better.

On Tuesday the camera club had its monthly outing in Coronado, a spit of land in the San Diego bay with a land bridge (the Silver Strand) running south to Imperial Beach at the south end of the bay, and a man made bridge (Coronado bridge) going east to San Diego. Coronado is an odd mix of a famous hotel (Hotel del Coronado where the movie Some Like It Hot was filmed), multi million dollar beach and bay front homes, a lot of trendy shops, and 2 navy bases (one of which I worked at for 20 years).

$600-1500 for a one night stay at the Hotel del Coronado

Welcome to Friday Night Photos everyone. Your once a week break from the daily madness of the crazy world we live in. Post any photos , memes, music, or whatever else you find of interest that helps you escape the madness.

Got a little bit of a heat wave going on right now. It was 107° on my patio yesterday. It's supposed to be even hotter today, tomorrow and Sunday with the possibility of thunderstorms on the weekend. Oh joy. Thankfully we haven't had very many hot days this summer and hopefully this will be the last of them.

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park has a small Japanese garden. These are some of the Bonsai trees in the garden.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonsai

Juniperus Chinensis 'Shimpaku'

Welcome to Friday Night Photos everyone. Your once a week break from the daily madness of the crazy world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music, or whatever else you find of interest that helps you escape the madness.

Hard to believe it's the start of my fourth year behind the wheel of FNP. Harder yet to believe I haven't driven it into a ditch. A very heartfelt thanks to everyone that has contributed photos, memes, music, links and conversation that have helped keep the wheels on the road.

Honey Bee

Happy Friday everyone. I hope everybody is doing well. Post any photos, memes, or music you like.

This month's camera club outing was at the Self-realization Fellowship Meditation Garden in Encinitas. Located on a bluff overlooking the Pacific ocean, the garden has a wide variety of trees and plants, Koi ponds and plenty of benches where you can sit and relax (or meditate if that's your thing) and enjoy the garden and the view of the ocean.

https://www.travelandleisure.com/most-peaceful-place-in-california-self-...

Happy Friday everyone. I hope everybody is doing well. Post any photos, memes, or music you like.

San Diego has a horse racing track at the fairgrounds in Del Mar but I'm not a gambler so the ponies don't hold much interest for me. In the 47 years I've lived in San Diego I've been to the track a grand total of one time and that was 30 some odd years ago. Last Sunday I made my second visit there when I went with some friends to celebrate a birthday. One of those friends has a connection at the track and was able to get us into the paddock and along the rail for one of the races. It was a fun day and everybody had a great time and even though I didn't bet any money I felt like a winner just for the opportunity to photograph something new and different.

Groom leading horse into the paddock

Happy Friday everyone. I hope everybody is doing well. Post any photos, memes, or music you like.

No, I didn't go on an African safari (I wish), but I did go to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park for a few hours on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning this week.

Malayan Tiger